Tifa lowered her voice for the latter half of that sentence—"anything at all"—so only the two of them could hear it. Clearly, having left Tobesk and gone far from her mistress, the maid had little thoughts of her own as well.
Shade nodded lightly and put on a show of looking around.
"As long as you're used to this place. If you need anything, just let me know anytime. You know, for me, this city is only a carriage ride away from Saint Derain Square. Ahem."
He quietly took the Black-haired Maid's hand. Her face flushed slightly as she lowered her head, then lifted her eyes to look at him with a seductive gleam.
"In any case, things here may continue for quite some time. Tifa, you should prepare to stay here long-term."
"Yes. I'll communicate with Matilda often. She's a maid too, so we'll have plenty in common to talk about."
They continued exchanging one boring sentence after another, while their hands, hidden in the shadows, secretly squeezed and pinched each other. Shade knew that all the young ladies had remarkably capable hands, yet simply holding Tifa's hand made his palm continually sweat. It was quite a novel sensation for him.
An affair was different from properly dating a young lady, after all.
"She" chuckled teasingly, but Shade ignored her.
And besides, hadn't someone seemed to say this morning that he would abstain from women?
Shade still ignored her. They were only holding hands. That hardly counted as anything.
Since he still planned to visit Mr. Bernhardt that afternoon, Shade did not linger too long over the maid's equally sweaty hand.
Of course, before leaving the manor, he did not forget to bid farewell to Miss Belinder, who had not yet gone out. He also paid Emilia another visit,