Not my best idea so far, but I hope you like it. I'll continue tomorrow evening.
Kel gawped in complete disbelief.
"No! Ma! You can't think I have to go through this?!" Kel appealed to her mother, desperate.
"I always taught you to be obedient to your seniors, Keladry." Ilane merely replied, her fan fluttering delicately.
Kel muttered, "Traitor," and harrumphed. "Why can't I just teach accept the post of Training Master now, instead of going through this torture and misery?"
"With no-one to look after you? Heavens! It's unfeasible, really." Buri said, peering at her nails.
"I hate you all."
"That's fine with us. You're the one being taught the lesson." Daine said, back to back with Buri. She was plaiting her curly hair loosely, looking rather smug.
"But, Daine, I'm older than you!" Kel protested.
"Actually, Miss Smarty-Pants, I'M older than you!"
Kel groaned. Protector of the Small and second Lady Knight of the Realm, was going to have a lesson, in love. Of all things. She had no idea why, but there it was. She had been offered publicly the post of Training Master, but Daine, Buri, Ilane and Alanna had whisked her away before she could respond.
They had plonked her in a plush armchair and told her that she couldn't take it, "Just yet!" Alanna had winked. Alanna never winked.
She was doomed.
They told her that she would be the focal point of a group called KNAM. It stood for…Kel Needs A Man. She would be manipulated into trying dresses, reading tales of female warriors taking up lovers, and all manner of things she knew she would despise.
Oh, goody. Kel thought sarcastically. I love Tortall.