Forgetting the Past
Chapter 10
The next morning found Domitan of Masbolle, now known as Duinar, huddled over a sketch of several stick figures enduring various forms of torture.
"Not decapitation… too quick… waking up naked in the Royal Audience Chamber… too early… um…" he muttered as he worked.
"Lord Duinar?" a maid asked, hovering near the door and afraid she may have been assigned to an insane man, "There's a lady here to see you."
"If it's Lady Rhysa, tell her never to come near me again," Dom said, not looking up from his work.
"No, my Lord, it's Lady Jaine."
Dom looked up, slightly more interested now. "Lady Jaine?"
"Heiress to the estates of Isador, half the capital city!"
"Ah… is she pretty?"
"Men seem to think so, my Lord," the maid answered, timidly.
"Interesting. Send her in. This can wait." Dom shoved the paper away and turned his chair to face the door, looking smug.
Moments later the maid returned, followed by a lovely woman with black hair and azure eyes not so different from his own. She was tall and shapely, and Dom allowed himself a moment to gaze at her before smiling hospitably.
"May I help you, Lady Jaine?"
"Yes," she practically purred, "I was hoping you might be my escort for tonight. We would make such a lovely pair."
Dom gave her his laziest, sexiest (he hoped) smile. "I would be honored to escort you, Jaine." She giggled at his use of her first name, curtseyed beautifully, and sashayed from the room.
"I'll send one of my seamstresses to fit you, so that we will match this evening," she called over her shoulder as she left.
With a satisfied smile, Dom returned to the sheet of paper illustrating his plans of revenge against Kel and Neal.
"Can…" Neal panted, "Can we please stop. I'm way too out of practice for this pace."
Kel grinned at her best friend. "That's why I'm making you practice. You haven't done any drills since we left Tortall. You're in disgraceful condition."
Neal gave her his most imploring gaze.
"Oh, all right, we can stop for today. But we'll be back at it tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that, until you're back in shape."
With a dramatic sigh, Neal nodded his head.
They had been in the magnificent glass-walled room next to the balcony, and they now headed back into the main room. Both were surprised to see a beautiful lady, her inky black hair curling elegantly over a day gown of dark blue linen embroidered with black (who makes a day gown in such dark colors? Kel thought as the girl exited through the door) emerge from Dom's room. Once she had left, Kel and Neal looked at each other blankly.
Finally, Kel shrugged, and then a slow, wicked grin crept onto her face.
"Neal?"
"What?" he asked, looking at her suspiciously.
"I wonder if that's a friend Dom made last night."
They both roared with laughter.
"Duinarof Reshbiz, and Lady Jaine of Isador."
Kel looked up, and grimaced. It was Dom with the lady from earlier that day. Side by side, with Dom's disguise, they looked startlingly like brother and sister. A matched pair, she thought dryly. They were dressed in matching dark blue, framed dramatically by the white marble staircase down which they descended gracefully. She prodded Neal, rather harder than necessary.
He blinked up, not registering what he was seeing for a second.
"Oh." He wrinkled his nose. Lady Jaine was clearly besotted with the handsome 'Duinar' and somehow it seemed wrong for two people who looked so… so related… to be hanging all over each other. He turned away quickly.
Kel, however, continued to watch them thoughtfully. Not so long ago… just a few years, really, when she had been a squire, she would have loved to have taken Lady Jaine's place in Dom's arms. Now, she was certain she'd rather be in the arms of any other man. Dom had apparently turned into an absolute jerk.
Looking around the ballroom, she caught sight of two people who looked furious as they, too, watched the couple walking down the stairs. She suspected they were Lady Jaine's parents. Obviously, Neal and I are not the only ones unhappy with the arrangement…
She yawned. Staying up so late was wreaking havoc on her sleeping schedule. She'd have to plead out of the next one. She slipped out, vowing to lecture Dom in the morning.
"Dom," a very too-calm-to-really-be-calm Keladry-in-disguise stood in his doorway. Grateful that he was saved the explanation of Lady Jaine's presence because she had left a half-hour before, Dom opened one bleary eye to peer at Kel.
"Hm?"
"You know better than to get serious about the locals. Remember the girl you left in Galla, heartbroken? We can't stay here forever. We'll have to leave. You can't lead poor Jaine on like that. And what if you fall in love with her? I'll be stuck with moping, Yuki-withdraw-suffering Neal and Jaine-withdraw-suffering Dom. You are being reckless, irresponsible, not to mention foolish. And it's not like Lady Jaine's irresistible. She's fake from head to toe? How could you possibly want to be near her?"
"I didn't do anything, she asked me," Dom mumbled, a little sleepily, from his bed.
"Then why did you accept?"
"No better option," he grumbled. He had in fact intended to pull a prank, involving the unfortunate Lady Jaine, that would thoroughly embarrass Kel and Neal, but had found himself unable to pull away from the beautiful, and as he now knew incredibly possessive, Lady Jaine.
"There are a number of other-" she stopped, realizing that she was the only other option. Dom could hardly go to the date with Neal, and the rest of the people… she sighed.
"Fine. Just, go alone next time. It's not so bad, you know. More options."
Dom appeared to ponder that. "True," he finally agreed, before diving under his blanket and going back to sleep. She sighed heavily and walked tiredly from the room.
How she wished she were still in Tortall, happy with her normal, quiet life.
I can never decide if I like this part of the story or not. Alas. Another chapter rewritten! (And all in the same day. Woah. I suppose it's because they're pitiful and short.)