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Prompt: Right Before Your Eyes
Duke Mequen Balitang pressed his fingers to throbbing temples; already he was weary of the haughty glamor of Court. He hadn't wanted to attend this ball in the first place, weighed down by grief, but had obeyed Aunt Nuritan because he knew it was his duty. It had been ages since Sarugani had gone to the Black God's realm and yet he still recalled her lilting laughter so clearly. How could he enjoy the careless flirtation he had once indulged in when he remembered so vividly her scorn for such "degrading" pastimes? Yet he knew in his heart that it was his duty to marry again.
But Mequen's gaze harden as his eyes swept over the simpering girls in low-cut gowns. They were all so superficial and petty! How he be expected to...
"Your Grace," a soft, melodious voice brought him from his reverie. Mequen looked down into the beautiful hazel eyes of Lady Winnamine Fonfala. He remembered her as a young girl who had befriended his often lonely wife with fondness, but that spirited girl had blossomed into a lovely young woman. She was tall and slim, her glossy brown hair stylishly done up in a tumble of curls, her smooth white skin accented by the dark blue silk of her gown. She curtsied.
Mequen bowed and kissed her fingertips. "Lady Winnamine. A pleasure."
Winnamine smiled. "Thank you, Your Grace," she murmured. "I have not seen you at Court?"
Mequen stiffened. "I have not experienced that pleasure for a long time," he replied brusquely. Sarugani had not curbed his temper nor his pride, the armor he wore to protect himself had doubled since her death, and any mention of Sarugani made his heart ache and his temper flare. "Ever since my lady Sarugani..." He stopped talking abruptly and made to leave, rudeness be hanged.
But the young lady touched his sleeve gently. "Forgive me. I am sorry of your loss," she whispered. Mequen saw sincere remorse in her large eyes and remembered guiltily that she had been Sarugani's greatest friend. "I cared deeply for Lady Sarugani. She was very kind to me."
"Forgive my rudeness," Mequen replied awkwardly. "I did not choose to be here..."
"So I heard," Winnamine replied humorously. "Few have not heard of your aunt's outburst, Your Grace, and those who have lost their hearing to her rants would rather not."
Mequen smiled despite himself. "My aunt has a talent for ruining the hearing of others," he agreed. Seeing a particularly ambitious lady make her way toward him, he winced. "May I offer you my company on a stroll in the gardens?"
Winnamine smiled knowingly. "Should I feel honored that you singled me out, Your Grace, or just that you favored me over Lady Adonia?"
"I fear that was not honorably done, my lady, and I beg your forgiveness," Mequen replied, feeling his spirits lift as it had not done in a long time. Winnamine was pert and lively as Sarugani, but gentler and sweeter, and being with her made him feel relaxed, eased the pain from his heart. "But would you like to go on a walk?"
"If it a sincere offer, then yes," Winnamine answered softly as she forced herself not to blush.
"It is, my lady," Meqeun replied honestly and offered his arm. Winnamine placed her slender hand lightly on his, and together the two made their way through the crowded room outside into the beautifully arranged gardens.
"Are the gardens not beauitful?" Winnamine exclaimed with pleasure.
"I have never thought them so," Mequen replied in some surprise. "Only as a haven to which I can escape from captators." And it was true. Mequen had admired the beauty of young maidens with his friend Rubinyan before he met Sarugani, and took pleasure in viewing exquisite jewelry or the loveliness of the written word, but a garden?
She smiled at him. "But look at this moonflower! Its color is blue and one could not say where the color changes, but it melts from light to dark, blending so wonderfully! And it is a most fragrant flower! I think that there is so much beauty in nature that we sometimes forget, caught up with court intrigues and politics, so I try to distance myself from all that and enjoy what has been granted to us so graciously!"
Mequen smiled back, appreciating the beauty of the flower, but more won over by Winnamine's sweet declaration. She was so without guile or pretense - so honest and true. Mequen joined Winnamine on a stroll, and together they chatted easily of happy things, her kindness setting him at ease. He realized with surprise that he was enjoying himself, and that his heart beat faster whenever she smiled at him.
Love is a strange thing; it can be fleeting and sudden or gradual and lasting. Love can be bestowed where it will; it can take its time to make itself known to a man and to make the target of that love known. It can remain hidden in pain and grief and not be recognized for a long time. Even if the lady that you love is right before your eyes.