Caraval

Scarlett and Julian make sure Scarlett’s father is nowhere in sight before they return to the town where they begin looking for their next clue. Scarlett insists on finding the haberdashery to make sense of all the buttons in the game, but Julian really doesn’t want to enter. Aiko appears and advises them to steer clear of the haberdashery. Julian and Aiko exchange words about Aiko costing Scarlett days of her life and Julian leaving Scarlett waiting in the tavern alone.

Aiko again suggests that Scarlett shouldn’t go in that shop, but Scarlett is determined. She enters the shop with Julian and recognizes the man behind the counter as the darkly handsome man with the crimson cravat from when she drank the cider. Scarlett gives the man the buttons and asks if he can help them. The man takes her hand, and Julian reminds him, “You might want to actually look at the buttons, mate” (268). The man isn’t interested in the buttons but is clearly interested in Scarlett. Julian insists they leave and wraps his arm protectively around Scarlett, but Scarlett thinks she’s just being too afraid again. Julian tells the man that he wants him to stop looking at his fiancée like that, to which the man replies, “All this time, I thought she was my fiancée” (269).