If Gwen could actually hate her sister, there was a good chance it would be at this very moment when she walked into her suite of rooms to find Aurelia in her dressing room wearing one of her new gowns and holding up different pieces of her jewelry to see what would look better.
"You aren't wearing my gown and put those away, nicely like they were," Gwen growled. She had never invited Aurelia into her rooms and she hadn't even been there and the door had been locked. So how the woman had gotten in, she didn't know. She only knew this was typical Aurelia behavior.
"But Gwenie, dear sister, don't you want me to be at my best when I meet Sir Faleron?" She purred. It sounded like something she would use on a lover to make him do exactly what she wanted, not how women talked to each other. So either she believed Gwen had no feminine qualities and could be manipulated so, or she had spent far too much time doing it to men and had forgotten it didn't work on people not interested in seeing what was under those clothes.
"You look your best in clothes made to fit you. Not clothes made to fit me," Gwen tried. "And Sir Faleron has seen all of those jewels. He helped me get them appraised. He won't be impressed if he knew you were borrowing from me." It wasn't exactly a lie but she knew the thought process of her sister and of other ladies like her. She wanted to be seen in something new so that Sir Faleron could be fully dazzled by her. He would hardly be dazzled if he had seen it before, especially if he knew it was borrowed from her masculine younger sister.
"I suppose you're right. You are smaller breasted." She tugged at the bodice trying to get it to reveal more cleavage. If she pulled down anymore her breasts were liable to pop out over the top and then it was likely that Faleron really would have something to look at. But she couldn't exactly tell her sister that. "And these shoulders don't sit right. Must be all of that unfeminine muscle you try to hide. I suppose you shall just have to buy me a new gown instead to make up for yours being unsuitable." Gwen knew a bully when she saw one and she had never allowed her sister to bully her one day in her life and it would not start today. On top of that, there was no time for Aurelia to get a new gown. Midwinter started the following day and all dress shops would be finishing up other orders and wouldn't have time until after the holiday had ended.
"There is no chance of that happening. You have enough gowns, I'm busy, and you are taking time away from the things I need to be doing. Please take off my gown, carefully, and leave."
"I will tell Mother and Father you weren't hospitable to me," she pouted. It was a good threat but Gwen knew if she explained how things had happened, it was more likely they would be upset with Aurelia than with her.
"You break into my rooms when I'm busy squiring to his Highness and take my things without asking. I'll be hospitable when you come invited into my rooms and even then it won't be to my dressing room." She walked over to her sister and began to unlace the bodice herself. It might have been mean but she wasn't exactly having the best day to start with before this point. Some of Roald's friends must have joked outside of their evening group that she had a crush on Faleron and someone must have overheard. She was in the middle of the gossip at the palace and being targeted by women just like her sister for vicious small attacks. And now her sister was being difficult and purposefully making the gown hard to take off. "Are these really the traits you want me to tell Sir Faleron about you? I could go back and tell him to disregard all of the nice things I've said and that you're really just a manipulating, scheming child." Gwen had hit the right set of words for Aurelia to start to remove the gown herself. She had said the right set of words to make Aurelia suddenly become a decent person. All she simple had had to do was remind her sister that she herself was the one who had been talking her up, if she could call it that.
Shortly after she had discovered her sister was coming, Faleron had shown her letters from his mother describing Gwen's fief and sister to a letter as far as physical description. It was one of those letters in which Faleron knew he was being set up by someone his mother deemed perfect. Whatever Aurelia had done to get the Countess' approval was beyond Gwen. But now that his mother was involved, Faleron had to give Aurelia more than a passing glance and a polite greeting. He had to escort her to a feast, maybe a party or two, and there would be private meetings where he could really get a moment or two of her personality. Once that was completed, he could tell her to go away.
The funny thing about the whole situation was Faleron had had no idea he was showing a letter about Aurelia. All he had known was the lady's age and had thought there was a chance Gwen might know who she was due to being at the Convent at the same time despite a two year age difference. When she had revealed who it was, Faleron had been horrified. He had described what he was obligated to do and the time he was required to spend by his mother with each of these kinds of women she sent his way and then he had apologized. Gwen understood. She knew his mother, there was only so much he could do to delay this and it was best to get it over with. Sadly it would be happening over Midwinter which would make it look like Faleron had made a choice. Aurelia had no idea Gwen was aware that Faleron's mother was talking her up too but she would know that Gwen could undo any descriptions of her being oh so good with just a few stories.
"Gwen?" She knew the voice of the man now calling her in sitting room. Her errand had taken too long and with the possible consideration that she might be a target to be eliminated after two failed assassination attempts, being gone longer than expected meant a fully trained knight could randomly be on his way to find her.
"You made me take too long," Gwen hissed at her sister as she pulled on her own gown. "That's Sir Faleron out there." She went to the bedroom door and leaned out. "I'm sorry something unexpected came up." Something really actually expected when she thought of the circumstances, just the timing was terrible.
"May I come back?" She knew he meant back to her room. He would want visual confirmation she wasn't being held hostage and speaking at weapon point.
"Behave, I'm working," she whispered to her sister before allowing Sir Faleron back into her room. By the time Faleron came through the door Aurelia was sitting on the chair in front of the vanity. "Sir Faleron of King's Reach, I'd like you to meet my sister Lady Aurelia of Merrywood," Gwen moved to stand behind her sister and rolled her eyes so that Faleron knew she was already exasperated with her sister and that was the hold up of her time.
"A pleasure to meet you," Faleron played his part well. He bowed over Aurelia's delicate white hand and brushed his lips over her fingers. "Gwen has told me much about you." He paused seeing something in Aurelia's look and amended himself before Gwen could give him a nonverbal warning. "I meant, she's told me some but I believe you could certainly tell me more."
"The pleasure is all mine," Aurelia was back to purring. "Perhaps I could tell you more another time, when you aren't looking for my errant sister. Please don't let me delay you from fetching her any longer." She stood and dipped a low, graceful curtsey to Faleron before dismissing herself altogether.
"Well she's… pleasant," Faleron informed Gwen with a small chuckle. "You haven't changed yet, I see." He nodded to her uniform which was still on her body.
"I would have changed earlier had my sister not broken into my room to permanently borrow a gown and jewels. Give me a moment." She disappeared into her dressing room. The whole reason she had come to her room was to change out of her uniform into something nicer for a preMidwinter gathering Roald had planned before insanity hit. Since Gwen would be serving at every other party over the holiday, she was asked, by Roald, to attend however she wanted. It wasn't a formal event but she could wear a less formal gown. But instead she opted to wear the same outfit she had planned to wear for dinner with Sir Nikolas almost a year before. The light pink blouse and gray, feminine breeches would be enough to still mark her as Roald's squire but not as someone in service at that time. When she stepped out she was trying to fasten the pink pearl earrings that matched the shirt into the holes in her ears.
"You look nice," Faleron complimented when she stepped out.
"I'll look nicer in a few moments." She sat down at her vanity and untwisted her hair from its knot to restyle it.
"You took a lot longer than just stopping your sister from taking a few things," Faleron sat down on the only other chair available in the room.
"I had to get her to take off the gown she was trying to steal. She made things difficult." Gwen was the last one to get ready for the party because she had been setting it up. And she may have lied to Aurelia by telling her that she was working. She was technically no longer working but she did tell Roald and Faleron, who had also been helping set everything up, that she would be back in less than a quarter of an hour.
"Oh," Faleron was watching her and she could see him in the mirror with a look that crossed between concern and discomfort. "And is anyone other than Aurelia giving you trouble?" He finally managed to ask. Of course he knew the gossip as well as she did. And he was probably guessing at or had heard some of the things that had been done to her. It was nothing that she couldn't deal with but it did take its toll.
"I think I'll do some face paint too. What did you think of Aurelia?" She knew she was avoiding the topic he wanted to discuss and she wasn't being crafty in the least about avoiding it.
"I'll have plenty of time to find out what I think about her. My mother sent me a letter finally disclosing her name and fief and told me I was to escort her to every feast, ball, and party and have social engagements with her for a week after that."
"You really will have time to get to know her," Gwen took a moment to line each eye with a quick precise stroke of a tiny paint brush and black eye paint. A little eyelash darkener and a tiny smidgen of pink lip paint and she was ready to go. When she stood to face Faleron she saw his eyes widen slightly as he took her look in.
"I dare say they teach ladies to do that so quickly at the Convent," he managed to tell her.
"They do and they don't. They teach the skills to apply face paint starting at the young ages. They do that so all of the ladies can apply their own paint with precision should their lady's maid be unavailable. I do it quickly because I've have years of practice and no lady's maid to slow me down. Shall we head to the party before Roald sends someone looking for you too?"
"The only thing he thinks I'll be attacked by is a mob of young ladies wanting my love, affection, and future." He shuddered. "I like the look by the way. It's very pretty." He waved at her clothes. "I wish more ladies would be sensible enough to wear something like that." Gwen couldn't help but start to laugh when she realized what Faleron had said. "What?" He stopped her at the door to the hallway to figure out why she was laughing.
"This is the outfit that caused me to be stood up, because I was wearing breeches," she squeezed out between laughs.
"I doubt he saw you properly then," Faleron informed her. "Now let's get on to this party." He opened the door to the hall and Gwen grabbed him by the arm and yanked him back just in time for him to avoid a cascade of slush from both sides of the door. Both ladies holding buckets looked in to make their warning because they believed they had only missed Gwen not, Sir Faleron. Before either of them could speak they caught sight of Faleron and both went pale.
"Well, Sir Faleron, I'm glad you could take a moment to meet my sister. I know she's been hoping I'd introduce you since I started as his Highness's squire," Gwen said rather loudly. "It might be a little slick on the way out, watch your step." Gwen knew it was a risk trying to come up with an excuse for Faleron to be in her room other than some sort of relationship. But if he was seen with her sister all throughout Midwinter there was a chance that the rumors of him and her being some sort of lovers would cease to exist. She also knew it was a risk to dismiss Faleron as if he had been the only one leaving her room. Both of the ladies were still poleaxed in place by shock and if Gwen was reading the signs right, Sir Faleron's infamous slow temper was starting to rise as he eyed the puddle outside of the door that appeared to be a mix of ice, snow, water, and a healthy dose of ash or mud. She guessed ash simply by the time of year as mud was hard to come by when it was so cold.
"Roald will be waiting for both of us," Faleron managed to say and wrapped a large hand around her shoulder to steer her from her suites. She stopped only long enough to lock the door securely before letting Faleron lead her passed the ladies and down two halls at a fast march before he stopped outside of the doors to the party. "If anyone pulls that crap again I'm going to trade rooms with you just to make sure they get what's properly coming to them."
"I wouldn't make that plan," Gwen started to say before she could catch herself. She had been about to add that he would have to follow through fairly quickly on moving but already she could see he had been at least a little serious. "I usually catch their tricks before they waste too much of my time," she switched tactics.
"I don't care if you're catching them before they hit you or anyone else with a prank. I care that they are targeting you for some stupid rumors. Do they do this to each other too?" Gwen knew it was a rhetorical question. She knew he didn't expect an answer but at the same time she could answer. No, they didn't do this to each other because they were all worthy real ladies and she was a whore of a squire who didn't deserve to sit in his shadow let alone have feelings for him. And worse would be if she was actually his sweetheart. She knew Faleron didn't need an answer because he knew all of this already. All of court knew this.
"Listen, we're late already," Gwen pushed open the door to the party. "Let's not keep his Highness waiting much longer, alright?" Faleron drew in a deep breath and she thought he was about to blow his top on her for not allowing him to lecture her on dealing with this crap alone or for dealing with it at all. Instead he let it out in a huff and then hugged her briefly around the shoulders.
"At least tell me if it gets really out of hand," he walked past her into the party.
"You live next door to me. I doubt I could hide it," she muttered but Sir Faleron was already out of hearing range.