oh, and dani wants fluff, so...
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Sandry caught up to her uncle just as he reached his office, away from the noise of the banquet below. "Uncle, you don't understand!"
Turning on his heel, Vedris coldly regarded his niece. "You are a young lady now, and cannot keep these childish games! You are of noble blood, and will marry suitably. But not if you ruin your reputation first!"
"What?" she shrieked. "But I love him!" she spat, blue eyes sparking angrily.
The duke laughed bitterly. "Love? Is that really true? What does love do for someone, anyway? It gives, and takes away just as quickly." He glanced at the painted portrait on his wall, partly with anger and partly with wistfulness.
"Yazmin?" Sandry gasped, staring at the painting, saying the name she had kept silent for two years, because of the pain it brought her uncle. "You blame her for dying!" she accused, all aware that her uncle's sudden change in character was because of love lost. "And when she died," she sighed, "because of that stupid, gods cursed quake..."
For one moment, the Duke's face softened into an image of his old personality, before his losses. "Yes, Sandry dear." His face contorted. "And she left me. Both my wives left me alone."
Sandry tugged at his sleeve sadly. "But she loved you! She didn't mean to go..." Her uncle buried his face in his hand, breathing hard from strong emotions and exertion. "And your health...you have to be careful, Uncle. Please sit down."
Abruptly, he jerked away. "No! I will not be coddled." His eyes hardened at this thought, and he turned back to Sandry. "And I shall not coddle you, either. You shall marry Pedrin. Now leave me!"
"No!" Sandry screamed. "Would Yazmin want you to be this horrible? Is this the man she fell in love with?" He turned his face away, and began writing a letter. Feeling terribly hurt, the girl tore out of her uncle's office and back to Briar.
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An hour later, Sandry was still crying and Briar was still trying to comfort her. "Why didn-nt he tell-lll meee?" she wailed. "Yaz-min wouldn't want him lik-ke this!"
"Shh," he half-sang, desperate to help. "Please, Sandry."
The girl buried her face in his shirt. "Briar!" she sobbed. "I don't know what to do! He wants to send me away, with Pedrin." She kicked the sofa in her anger, knocking over a small brass plate on the nearby table before she sat down next to Briar. Even if she was mad, Briar thought, she was still calmer.
"Don't worry, Sandry, we can work this out. We have to!"
Wiping her eyes, she smiled. "Yes." Snuggling closer, she hugged him around the waist. "I wouldn't give you up for the world. No matter what."
"Promise?" the boy asked, oh-so-pleased that Sandry was suddenly over her hysterical sobbing. He tipped her backwards playfully, grinning as she shrieked, her braid just touching the carpeted floor.
She pulled herself up, fluttering her eyelashes in mock distress. "Promise." Then she leaned forward, wrapping her arms around his neck. Burying her fingers in his tangled curls, the girl's lips caressed his own. The sudden change in emotions entirely shocked Briar, or so he claimed, for he tumbled off the low couch and landed on the floor with a bump and banged his cheek on the table.
"Ow."
"Aw," she teased. "Do you want Mother to kiss it and make it all better?"
He grinned evilly. "Not Mother, but if Sandry would oblige...?"
She swatted his arm. "Naughty little boy!" But she did anyway, her lips softly encouraging his responses, which he eagerly returned. His fingers held onto her waist for balance, but the sofa was behind him, sliding with their every movement.
Finally, the flimsy seat shifted with their weight, and both toppled onto the deep rug. Sandry continued to caress his face and neck, looking up at him with her flaxen hair spread about on the carpet like a halo.
At the moment, he couldn't quite grasp what was happening. Maybe the firelight flickered in a certain way, or the curls of her hair draped over his hand just right, but something strange awakened in him. It was like...fire, kindling from everywhere they touched, from her hands on his cheeks to where he lay draped haphazardly on top of her. He didn't know what it was, but as his emerald eyes met her blue ones, her gaze agreed wholeheartedly.
He stared down at her for one long, loving moment before he continued his pursuit.
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that enough fluff (that rhymes!) for y'all?