Eliot let out a low laugh at her frustration. He understood but man, was wanting to punch the man a reasonable reaction? He couldn’t help but feel rather flattered by it, however. He could feel a little flutter in his chest at her words. He tried to suppress the smile on his face but he was never very good at it. He eyed her, the smirk peeking out in dimples. He wanted to pick at her, to make a sarcastic comment but he kept it to himself. Especially as she turned to him and apologized. He waved a hand. “Don’t apologize. I think it’s flattering you’re so up in arms about it.” As she demanded to joust the next lord to approach them, he let out a loud laugh. “Alright! Alright. It’s yours. The next lord to approach me if yours.” He watched her huff and strode off with a smirk before he shook his head and followed along behind her, hustling a little to catch up.

As they continued onward, Eliot was quickly finding his hands full all over again even though he had given Adelia a large chunk of the items. As an older woman came up to him to give him a hair pin but he had no way of holding it, he gave her a soft, sad smile before saying, “Sorry.” The woman frowned before walking away and Eliot turned towards his knight in shining armor. Wait? What? No Adelia. He turned to Adelia. That was weird. When had his thought of her shifted so dramatically? He stared at the woman for a moment, trying to think of when that shift occurred. Eventually he gave up and just shook his head lightly. 

“I think maybe it’s time for us to go back before they decide to give me a wheelbarrow or something to carry everything.” He said with a laugh as he turned back towards the castle. He tried to situate the items in his arms but he had too much stuff, so he gave up half way through. “Yeah, definitely time to go back.” 

He never knew that royalty was essentially used as walking billboards for merchants and sellers. No wonder they were always shown walking with a large entourage at all times. He just figured it was for their safety but thinking about lugging all these items back to the castle, he wished he would have brought more than Adelia with them. He looked at the long path back and gave a deep sigh. Might as well just start. The sooner they start, the sooner it’s over.