There were benefits to practicing at night. As it was in secret, Lady Rose always retained the sense of adventure, the rush of defying castle rules (Ladies must be inside the castle by midnight). Not to say that many ladies obeyed these rules, of course. They often snuck out to abandoned haylofts to meet the incredibly muscular stableboys, forbidden by their fathers but oh, so good with their lips.

Lady Rose was good with her lips. At least that was what Duke James Stone told her when they were lovers. It hurt to think about. The boy, hardly a man and eager for glory, quickly replaced his Rose-centered love poems with war-hero ballads, and ran off to war. Surprisingly he made it a month on the battlefield before reality hit, that and an enemy arrow to the heart.

The mourning period greatly dampened Rose's opinions concerning battles and warfare, yet somehow left her dreams of adventure untouched. Surely there could be all of the adventure and none of the devastation, surely. Or was she dreaming too hard again? She bought a sword in secret, in James' memory, she told herself, and began her training.

Many years ago she had walked in on Sir Bentley binding his breasts in secret, and in exchange for keeping the truth about "Shireen" quiet the Lady Knight offered her lessons in swordplay. The bond between the two girls grew almost unbreakable throughout their late nights in the meadow. But now Shireen was gone, called away to advise some foreign king on the ways of warfare.

While Rose missed hand-to-hand combat, she could still improve by herself. Shouldering her longsword, she snuck past the castle gates and into the forest.

She never made it to her meadow, however. As she neared her self-dubbed "secret spot" she heard a rustle and immediately drew her sword, frozen in place.

Whatever was making that rustle sure didn't seem to care who heard it, she thought through her paralysis. She braced herself for the worst as a tall, thin shape appeared before her, running as if it were the End of the World.

He was clad in the robes of an academic, but they appeared too large for his lanky body and his shoes poked out awkwardly from beneath them. Her eyes only spent moments on his shoes, however, as she was distracted by the frantic movements of his lips- no, Rose, just his mouth- that were trying to formulate words.

Finally, he spit them out while simultaneously grabbing her hand, a brief warning of "RUN" before dragged her along with him.

It only took a few moments to know what they were running from as he ducked behind a tree after running a few yards, and not a moment too soon. Rose barely managed to whip herself behind the tree along with him before a wild boar went charging down the path.

"Phew, that was a close one!" he exhaled, and as he did Lady Rose realized how close she was pressed up against him in her efforts to hide. She froze, transfixed and unable to find any words until she felt something hard press against her thigh.

"What the-" she gasped, startled out of her trance, and backed away quickly.

The stranger was quick to assuage her fears. "Don't worry, I'm not here to attack your maidenhood, though if you don't mind me saying you look almost like a man yourself in those pants…though then that would make me a gay man and we don't want the whole Keep thinking that…oh I'm rambling again, aren't I? So sorry. At any rate, it's a telescope, see?"

Rose blinked at him, slowly making sense of the situation, though his multi-tracked dialogue didn't help much. "So that's why you were in my meadow, then? To look at the stars?"

They began to walk back to the castle, all thoughts of stargazing and weapons practice gone after their encounter.

"Yes ma'am. I do love astrology. I'm a scholar, see the scarf?"

She did.

"I'm new to the Powell Keep but I'm hoping that in a few months' time they'll give me a title and promise to keep me around. That is, if the war doesn't hit first". He grimaced.

Rose looked up sharply at the news of war, as she always did. The man noticed.

"I reckon you're one of those children who can't wait to go off to war, aren't you?"

She indicated to the sword at her side. "Ah, yes. Of course. Do love a good war, myself. I only hope to finish mapping the constellations before I get to go fight".

This time it was Rose's turn to grimace. "You men are all the same" she sniffed. "There's nothing glorious about hacking people to pieces. Swords are for emergencies, not massacres".

The stranger looked at her, a new light in his eyes that she couldn't place. "Is someone threatening you then? Is that why you train in secret?"

"No", Rose responded, blushing. "I love the feel of swordplay. It's just…not proper". A thought suddenly occurred to her and she whirled to face him, brandishing her sword. "If you tell a soul…"

She expected shock, disgust, fear. Instead he chuckled. "Because that's just what I need, to tell the entire keep that I coincidentally ran into a woman in the night. Even if they believed me without spreading tales of promiscuity, who would hold the word of John Smith, scholar, to that of a great lady? Because that's what you are, isn't it?" his eyes trained themselves upon her and Rose quivered inside.

Scrambling to cover for her speechlessness- damn, this has happened way too many times tonight- Lady Rose looked ahead of her and started. "We've reached the castle already!"

"Indeed we have, good subject change". Not to be deterred, he made sure they were out of sight and dropped to one knee, baffling Rose.

"Wha-" she started to say, and froze as John took her hand in his.

"Milady, I solemnly swear on my relatively meaningless life that I will keep your promise to my death". Never breaking eye contact, John Smith raised her hand to his lips, kissed it softly, and got up to walk away.

Once again, Lady Rose found herself frozen, speechless, and internally kicking herself. Luckily, he turned just before he reached the castle doors.

"I forgot to ask, what is your name, my secretive lady?"

She smiled softly and replied "Lady Rose Tyler".

He grinned childishly, like she had just given him a sweet. "Nice to meet you, Lady Rose Tyler". He turned and strolled into the castle.

Rose leaned up against the wall for a few moments more before following John Smith's footsteps inside. Her brain was spinning, and only one coherent thought was produced.

How could a man, a scholar for God's sake, be that attractive without eyebrows?

AUTHOR's NOTE

I know what you're thinking, WHY IS THAT ELEVEN. It will all make sense later, my dears. I intended to get so much more done during this chapter, but you can all see how that turned out. REVIEW FOR COOKIES. Also, do you see where I capitalized the End of the World, cause it's the next episode in the series? DO YOU?