"ARE YOU SURE THIS IS THE BEST IDEA?" ELEANOR ASKED KATHERINE. They were riding in a carriage down the road toward the house of some guy that she had spoken to on their journey. "I mean, this is just some random boy that you conversed with on the side of the road for a mere moment."

"Nora, please calm down. You saw him. He was a very attractive young man," the Pierce woman corrected with a smirk, as if his level of attractiveness made everything so much better. Just because he was good-looking did not make this a good choice.

Eleanor bit her lip, looking out the window. She had been waiting for Emily or Adelaide to speak up, but neither of them did. So, she just sighed, reminding her, "You seem to forget frequently that attractive young men are of no interest to me."

"Oh, but they are of interest to me," Katherine pointed out, and Eleanor did not know what she expected. Her best friend did not care how her actions affected anyone else, as long as they amused her. She seemed to think that she was indestructible when really, there were people hunting them all of the time. The Chetwood girl knew that. She knew how hunters thought and their strategies. They were always there.

Eleanor just shared a look with Adelaide, her maid and female partner, and they were clearly both nervous about this detour. Were these people planning to kill them? Or worse, were they nice people that Katherine was planning to tear apart?

They arrived at a beautiful estate, and they climbed out of the carriage. A man helped Katherine, Emily, and Adelaide out, but Eleanor ignored his hand and climbed out herself. The boy that Katherine had met was standing in front of the house to greet them, his eyes immediately falling on Katherine. The men were always entranced with her and hardly paid any mind to Eleanor, but both women liked it that way. "You must be Miss Pierce."

"Please, call me Katherine," she told him, flashing him her charming smile before stepping out of the way to gesture to her friend. "This is Eleanor Chetwood."

"It's a pleasure, Miss Chetwood," he told her, and after kissing Katherine's hand, he moved to hers. She just nodded with a slight smile, not fully trusting him. Stefan would tell her later that she terrified him when he first met her. She had been incredibly intimidating.

They were shown to their rooms, and the house was very nice. Eleanor was shocked they had so much space. Even Emily and Adelaide got a room to share, which was unexpected. It did not take them long to get settled in because they always traveled light and then just bought dresses at their location.

Katherine made friends with the brothers that lived in the house quickly, for they were both obviously enchanted by her. Eleanor watched from her window as her best friend ran around with the boys, making them fall more and more in love with her by the second. Adelaide was on a chair in her room, reading a book. She looked up when the vampire muttered, "I worry about this, Addie."

"Miss Katherine can take care of herself. I doubt they are of any threat," the maid replied, but that was not what Eleanor had been talking about.

"It's not them that I am worried about," she responded, keeping her eyes trained on the woman outside. Both brothers were clearly under her spell, and it would definitely lead to some sort of conflict if they chose to stay. "This will not be the first time that she has torn apart a family."

Adelaide placed her book on the dresser and stood up, making her way over to the woman standing in the window. She wrapped her arms around her waist lightly, and Eleanor slid the curtains slightly more closed so that she could still see out but no one could see in. The human woman reminded her, "Well, my offer still stands."

"She's my best friend," the Chetwood girl pointed out, shaking her head. She could never abandon Katherine, no matter how awfully she was treated by her. She had not known a world without the woman for centuries.

The blonde woman sighed. She had heard that too many times to count. It physically pained her to see Eleanor follow Katherine around like a puppy that knew nothing but her. "She doesn't care for you like you do for her."

"Enough about Katherine," Eleanor demanded, changing the subject. She closed the curtains and turned around as a smirk spread across her face. "How quickly can you get this corset off?"

《❂》

THE WOMEN HAD BEEN IN MYSTIC FALLS FOR LONGER THAN EXPECTED. Eleanor had thought they would be there a week at most, but Katherine had decided that they were going to reside there until they were pretty much forced to leave. When told about this, Adelaide had shot Eleanor a look, wondering if she was just going to let the Pierce woman make that decision for them.

The Founder's Ball was upon them, and it was the first one ever in the history of Mystic Falls. Eleanor was kind of honored to be a part of history, but she wished that they would leave. They had planned to go to France, where she had been born, but that trip was delayed because of Katherine's fascination with the Salvatore brothers, who were both in love with her. Whether they were under her compulsion or genuinely in love with her, Eleanor was not sure, but she did not exactly care.

As the music echoed throughout the room of the original Lockwood mansion, Eleanor was in the arms of a man about twice as old as her human age. His hand kept attempting to slip lower until she shot him a death stare, and it moved back up. How she despised men.

She looked over the man's shoulder and spotted Katherine twirling around the room with Stefan, the younger brother, and she seemed to be having the time of her life. She had expressed that she liked him more, but Damon definitely seemed more infatuated with her. That was going to play out well. All Eleanor could hope was that they were out of there before anything awful happened and destroyed their family.

The sight of Katherine dancing with him and looking so happy made Eleanor angry, for some reason. Stefan did not really know the woman. He just knew what she wanted him to. How could she adore someone that knew nothing about her? Eleanor then met eyes with Adelaide, who was standing in the corner with a frown.

"You could not stop staring at her and Mr. Salvatore!" she shouted once they got back to the Chetwood girl's room that night.

Eleanor scoffed, shaking her head disbelieving while trying to quiet her maid down. They were still guests, and Katherine had super hearing. They could not speak too loud. The brunette argued, "I was merely keeping an eye out to make sure that she was safe and not doing anything to out us!"

"Do not lie to me!" Addie countered, shaking her head in betrayal. She had noticed that Eleanor was just as infatuated with Katherine as everyone else was. Tears began to form in the blonde girl's eyes. She accused, "You are in love with her! You always have been."

"She is my best friend. I love you!" Eleanor insisted. She loved Katherine and was worried about her in a completely different way. She loved her as a friend, as a sister. She was worried about her because they had been by each other's sides forever.

Adelaide responded with a sad expression. "You have never looked at me the way that you look at her."

"Addie, please. I promise, I love you," the Chetwood girl pleaded. It took forever for her to find someone like Addie, someone that loved her and accepted her for everything that she was, for the monster inside of her. "More than Katherine, more than anything. Please, stay."

"Run away with me," the maid suggested, and Eleanor's eyebrows shot up in surprise. She had not been expecting that. She continued, "We've been talking about it for months. If you truly love me, run away with me. We can start over, you can turn me, and we can be happy. Together."

Eleanor contemplated it for a moment. She did not want to lose Katherine, but she couldn't lose Adelaide. She finally answered, "All right, but after we're done here. If I tell Katherine that I am leaving her here, she may kill those brothers and everyone else in a mile's radius. We can depart once we're far away from these innocent people."