Berengar
"I see. And you too-"
I was about to finish my response, but then I saw her. Lady Findehoof, in a lovely dirndl-or, at least, something close enough to one.
We had met a few months earlier, the previous year, at a ball, and to say she knocked me off my feet was...an understatement of the highest degree. An active correspondence between ourselves had kept the spark alive for months, and now...
...I was having the weirdest cocktail of emotions in my life. Fear, anxiety, embarrassment, joy...maybe even love. Maybe. It was hard to tell how much was genuine love and how much was just an immature crush, a leftover of my schoolboy days...But regardless...
"Apologies-" I said, turning back to Sirin. "An old friend of mine just arrived."
With that, I mustered my courage and began approaching Ida and company. Once within range, I would bow and greet them with a bow of my head, as well as doffing my hat and holding it to my chest.
All while sweating profusely and hoping I didn't just make a faux-paus.
"Yeah, an'?" Erika replied. "Would be weird to be seen with a stepcousin, I'd say. And he's waiting on someone else who just arrived, I think or will arrive soon."