Jules Eberhardt - Tumblr Posts
“No, first you will sit and eat. You look horrible, Ewan, and that’s saying something.” Jules Eberhardt settled Ewan on her couch and rang for tea.
Ewan sat quietly, staring at his hands while waiting, Jules shooing her pair of pet shadow fiends out of the room so they wouldn’t suck the heat from it. Then she sat down beside him just as the maid brought the caddy with the sandwiches and desserts. A pair of glasses of sparkling wine followed, but Jules didn’t touch hers for once. She placed her hands on Ewan’s arm.
“Eat something,” she encouraged softly.
Ewan took a cucumber sandwich and chewed it mechanically, his gaze still very far away. Then, to her surprise, he downed a whole glass of wine. Jules didn’t pour more. Drunken Ewan was the last thing she needed.
“Alright, now start from the beginning. I got your letters. It sounds like your apprenticeship with Lord Raul was going splendidly.”
“It was,” Ewan said dully. “Then we got home and Isidora was gone. No one knows where.” He looked up at her, panic in his face. “You haven’t seen her, have you?”
The fact that she’d only seen the girl from afar hadn’t occurred to him and Jules wasn’t about to make him more frantic. “No,” she shook her head. “I haven’t. I would have told you if I had. Ewan, is this a kidnapping? Has there been a ransom?”
He shook his head. “No word from her or any captor. But she...she hasn’t spent money from her accounts. Her father checked. Nothing since she left. He’s got people scouring the whole of the ‘Reach and...” A horrified look came upon him. “You don’t think she’s left the city, do you?”
It was, in fact, exactly what Jules had been thinking. If she wanted to get away from her father so completely, that was the easiest way. “Perhaps she went to Lion’s Arch,” Jules suggested gently. “I know a few ladies there--”
“You know ladies everywhere,” Ewan wrinkled his nose.
Jules slapped him. Hard.
“If you’re going to imply I’m a whore for sleeping with people I find enjoyable, I will ask you to leave my house and know that you will receive no more help from me, Ewan Carmine!” The color had risen in her cheeks. She hated when men were jealous that she slept with more women than they did. But she hadn’t expected it from her oldest friend.
Ewan stared at her, mouth agape and glasses askew. Then he shook his head, tilting the frames back properly on his face. “No, no, I’m sorry Jules. I’m just tired. And upset. I didn’t mean it like that.”
Jules narrowed her eyes at him. “Then keep your mouth shut and your opinions to yourself,” she snapped. “I’ll ask around for her. And Ewan? If you’re so jealous of my love life, maybe you should consider why your own is so barren.”
Jules stood and walked from the room, leaving Ewan to find his own way out.