Royal Obligations
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Eyes that matched the intensity of Nicolette's also stared out of a window to look at the angry storm clouds, but they did not gaze out of a sparkling palace window. Instead, they gazed from the dusty window in the barn loft, but the vivid blue eyes were not the only eyes looking out of the window.
"I cannot believe it rained! It's been so gorgeous all week, and it decides to rain on the day we want to go riding?"
"Oh, well this isn't so bad. In fact, I may end up enjoying this more than riding anyway..." A male voice responded as a muscled arm snaked its way around the tiny waist of the rain-soaked brunette, turning her from the window to his own wet face.
A giggle erupted from the wet beauty as she kissed the man who held her. "Are you trying to seduce me, Raoul?"
"Oh, if I thought I had a chance at success I might consider it, Princess." The young lovers laughed at their banter and kissed again, oblivious to anything other than each other. They were a picture of innocent love, their simple joy of being together radiating off their faces. Any other obligations they had were forgotten as they lounged together in the loft.
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Nicolette continued to sit at her grand desk, waiting for Bayard to return. She chatted with her friends and council members, but her agitation at waiting was slowly becoming evident. Bayard finally came back into the study, his nervous face looking more frazzled than ever.
"Highness, forgive me--"
Nicolette raised her age-gnarled hand to stop Bayard from continuing. "Don't bother saying it, I'm old, but I'm not stupid. Summon the guards, this nonsense has to end."
Bayard nodded his head and rushed back out of the room to do his queen's bidding. Nicolette, who had closed her eyes in frustration and fatigue, did not notice the pretty blonde girl silently slip out of the room as well.
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The pair in the barn failed to hear the sound of the heavy wooden door as it slowly creaked open over the noise of the rain and their quite murmurings, they did hear when a female voice called out though and they both fell silent.
"Christine! Christine!" The blonde who had slipped out of the study yelled out, looking around the barn, her hands pushing the rain-soaked blonde hair out of her face. When she received no reply she shook the ladder leading to the loft, "Oh, come on! I know you're up there! Don't make me climb up there in a soaking dress. The queen sent the guard out, you two better part ways before you get caught!"
Christine quickly untangled her arms from Raoul's and bolted up, her pretty face flustered. She waited until she heard the other girl leave the barn before she spoke, her voice a hurried whisper. "We have to go! Oh, if her guards caught me here, with you, again!" Christine was trying to brush the hay off of her still-wet dress and collect her thoughts, unaware of the amused look on Raoul's handsome young face.
"Princess, calm down. And we do not have to go. I'm the stable boy, I should be in the barn. You should get back to the castle." Raoul languidly stretched out his body and watched as Christine whirled around, her cheeks turning red with her hurry.
The obvious amusement at the potentially bad situation sparked Christine's temper and added to the red on her cheeks. "This isn't funny! Don't you know what could happen? Don't you care?"
Raoul sat up and pulled the upset girl back into his chest and placed a kiss on the top of her wet curls. "Darling, of course I care. We aren't going to get caught, at least not today. Just tell your mother you were off enjoying the grounds, you got caught in the rain. Mention nothing about the stables." His emerald green eyes closed as he felt Christine's arms tighten around him. "No one knows you were supposed to be with me other than Meg, and we both know she won't say a word, she never has."
"I hate that we have to do this." Christine whispered into Raoul's work-hardened chest.
"I do too, now hurry up and get back to your mother..."
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Meg had changed her soiled dress and waited in the grand bedroom that was Christine's. As soon as the frantic princess rushed into the room she got to work removing her friend's wet clothing and helped her change into a new silken dress.
"My hair! There's hay all in it!" Christine wailed and tried to claw it out of her tousled curls.
"Christine, come sit. I'll fix it. Just breathe, your mother has no idea you were with him. The only way she is going to know is if you go into that room and give yourself away." Meg spoke calmly, like a mother trying to soothe an infant. "Oh and a letter came for you, it didn't look like Raoul's handwriting though."
Christine lowered herself down into her chair and allowed Meg to comb through the tangled mess of curls on her head. "I always forget you can't read, you should let me teach you one day. I taught Raoul in just a month."
Meg laughed and shook her head. "Christine, I have no need for that skill. I was never a fan of the stories out of books like you, and no one ever really writes to me anyway. What would I need to read for?"
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"Honestly! She is a sixteen year-old girl! How hard can it be to find her?" Nicolette ranted to the remaining guests in the study. It had been nearly an hour and still no one had brought her daughter to her.
"Mother? You were looking for me?" Christine breezed through the doorway, two guards following on her heels.
Nicolette stared at the girl before her in slight amazement. She couldn't recall how many suitors had come for her, some before she had even celebrated her thirteenth birthday. Not that Nicolette could blame them for wanting her, she was a vision of beauty. Nicolette had been considered beautiful too, with her thick, straight, ink black hair and her intense blue eyes and delicate features, and she had aged gracefully into a beautiful old woman, but her Christine's beauty outstretched hers by far. She had inherited her father's curls, but they were thick and long like her mother's hair had been, and she had nearly identical eyes to that of the queen's. Her features were her own though, everything on her face seemed like an artisan had lovingly crafted them for her, from her high cheekbones to her plump, rose-red lips. Nicolette had always let her daughter have a say in her suitors, and every one of them had been rejected. For a long time, Nicolette had no idea why Christine would turn down so many hopeful men so fast, for a marriage was never demanded, but instead just mentioned as a hopeful possibility. That was, until Nicolette had seen her beautiful daughter carousing with the stable boy.
"You were with him, weren't you?" It wasn't really a question, and Christine didn't offer a reply. Nicolette pursed her lips and waved a dismal to the people who still remained in the room. "How many times have I told you to forget that little fancy?"
"It's not a fancy!" Christine quipped back before she had the sense to stop herself.
"Oh, Christine! You are the Princess of Flerin, act like it! You cannot be seen gallivanting across the royal grounds with a stable boy!" Nicolette shouted back.
"You know he is a good man! But that means nothing because he wasn't born to inherit, because he lives an honest life that he works for!" Christine argued back, balling her little fists in frustration.
"This does not matter! I summoned you, not because you were doubtlessly playing your silly game with that boy, but because it's time for you to do something for your country and your people."
Christine fell silent from shock and stared at her mother in confusion, she had never just dropped an argument like that before. The princess shared more than just her eyes with her mother, they both were as hard-headed as a mull and insisted on the last word. "What are you talking about?"
Nicolette readied herself for the storm that was about to shake the castle all the way to its royal foundation. "Nothvale has offered us a treaty, but there were conditions." Nicolette nodded her head towards the document Bayard had shown her earlier, the one that would hopefully save her people from a long and hard war, but at what expense?
Christine eyed her mother carefully as she moved over to the desk and picked up the parchment, but before she could lift it from the desk to read it she felt her mother's cool hand rest on hers, "Christine, they left me no other choice. I had to think of our country."
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Wow you guys, thanks so much for the positive reviews!! I'm glad you like it so far, please keep me informed on what you're thinking. I'll take any ideas and all that stuff into consideration, after all, this is still a work in progress )