In The Blood of Roses
Kenlei
Summary: It was a time when the code of chivalry bound even the strongest knight, in a land where only the savage ruled..
Bethrothed to a man she barely knew, in love with a man who had pledged to see her untouched across his untamed land…Yolei Inoue was trapped within the fiery coil of passion, and an icy shield of honor…
AN: The men and women in this story must fight, defeat and persue love before love destoys their very souls…
Part 4 / Queen of Hearts /Subtitle: Joseph's Ugly Duckling.
Lord Josph grumbled. Hunching into his cloak as the rain beat down upon his back.
Muttering in self-rightous grief, he lamented the choice of days the lady had decided to arrive on.
Beautiful, bah!
The last he had seen of Lady Mimi, she had been an awkward goose of a girl! Tripping over her gowns and knocking over the scholars inks in her haste to read over his shoulder.
He sighed, casting eyes skyward.
She had sat in that puddle of ink, mouth pursed as she tried to examine the spot of black liquid staining her pert little nose, her bright eyes strangly crossed….Hair in ratty braids…
Beauty? More like duck. Just as he had always called her. Ducky.
"Lord Joseph?"
He raised a brow as a foot solider came into sight.
"Yes? Go on, man…"
The man went on to explain that they were in two hours journey of the inn. With a nod, he returned himself to his musings.
Ducky had been underfoot every time she was anywhere near the castle. She was the reason he had never been able to court the fair ladies of the kingdom!
The little brat had incessently followed him round like a love sick kitten. Leading all the girls to believe he was more the older brother figure, not the dashing hero of their dreams…
His brow darkened as he contemplated his now lonley state.
All he had were his books and romantic notions. What was he to do?
With a great heaved sigh, he contemplated the time when Ducky had been lost in the woods. The silly girl had followed his hunting party and had got her tiny mare stuck in a gully with her upon it.
He had been the one to find her…Bundling her stick thin frame in his cloak and holding her shivering, weeping form to his…
Ducky had been a nuisence, but he had missed her when she left all those years ago.
He wondered why she was unmarried. 18, after all she was of the age.
'Probably still the ugly duckling…No man would have the dear, clutzy thing…'
So here he was, traipsing towards an inn at the edge of midnight, at the request of the girl and father, all because he had had the misfortune of meeting her that long past winter…When she had accidently hurled a snow ball at his head.
With another dramatic sigh, he tugged the heavy black cape tighter round his tall, whip cord frame, feeling rivlets of rain trickel across his forhead.
The day she had left the castle was a confusing time for him. He had been relieved to see her go, but also…empty, for losing the companion.
She had sobbed, hugging his waist with her scrawny arms as he attempted to pry her from him. Joseph had looked down at her blotchy red countanence, wet and shiny from tears, and her matted hair, as he tugged a random twig from the pale brown tresses. Evidence from her earlier romp in the forest when she tried to hide from leaving.
"Come now Ducky. All will be well! Thy home shall be abound with friends for thee, all of which can play dolls with you, and dress up with you…"
She had sniffed, nodding her head bravely, and he tweaked her impish nose.
"Theres a peach! Now take this…" He knelt down to her meager height, taking from his pocket a small silver chain. Upon it dangled a simple silouhette of her namesake. A tiny duckling.
"Take this, and remember the good times thou had here…"
Awestruck, she had taken the necklace in her tiny hands, holding it to her breast as the twelve year old regarded him with shining honey eyes.
"Master Jospeh…My Joseph Blue…" That had been her private name for the tall and poetic man, but she had never voiced it till their parting. "I fea that I-" She broke off, swiping at a tear.
"I fear that thou shall…"
With a blur of motion, she reached up and pecked his lips, before pivoting and scampering off to the waiting carriage, chain dangling from her fingers…
"Ah Ducky…" He sighed now. "Hath six years past since our parting?"
He was now a man of a score and three (23) with a sound path in the art of scholaring, and a lonley heart.
A shout warned him of the sighting of the Peacock Inn, and he urged his steed forward.
Something flickered in his chest. Eagerness to see the clumsy, tiny girl with the enormous golden eyes.
"Duck, Duck, Duck…"
He chuckled as he reigned his horse, and slid from the saddle.
Lady Mimi turned quickly when a gust of wind tore through the warm tavern, the heavy oak panel rebounding off the wall.
"God must loath Haldane to cast his men out on so unworthy a night!"
The petulent grumbling which echoed though the silent enclosure drew up her golden gaze as the new guests shivered in.
A tall, lean, black clad figure stamped his feet and fumbled with his cloak in eager haste to find warmth.
"Aye! Tis a night for the Devils own!"
His gentle, youngish voice stirred a thousand memories within her suddenly racing heart, and she raised a gleeful hand to her cheek.
The man finaly unlatched his cape, tugging the sodden garment from his body in a rain of dampness.
It was he!
Lord Joseph had really come! She would recognize his form before blackest night or brightest sun…
He ran an impatient hand through his indigo hair, messing up the usually immaculate strands and blinking his dark eyes like an owl adjusting to the light.
Two serving maids hurried forward, taking his wet clothing along with that of his entourage.
Joseph shook his head, scattering droplets of black rain, before cracking his tired neck after the hunched journey.
Mimi stood, her pulse jumping, and opened her mouth to speak.
Instead, she felt a joyful tear come to her eye.
"Lord Joseph!" She squeaked, scurrying her tiny frame towards him.
The man stopped, turning as he heard his name shouted.
His handsome face almost comical.
His black eyes widened, his firm mouth dropped, and his hands suddenly couldn't figure out what to do with themselves.
"D-D-D-DUCKY??!!"
She giggled, and embraced him happily, ignoring the fact that he was freezing cold and wet.
"Joseph Blue! Thou hast really come!"
He stumbled over his speech, totally aghast at the unexpected turn of events.
This was…What had happened to…Why had this….
He heaved a huge inner sigh.
God enjoyed playing jokes on him upon a daily basis…Why would this be any different?
The lady Mimi was utterly, magically beautiful. With shining, glistening, moonlight curls the same hue as an almond cream.
Her eyes, always beautiful, were now bewitching as she stared up happily from the thick fringe of lashes sheilding the amber depths.
"I cannot believe that thou hast come!"
Joseph's dark eyes were focused on her full, pouting lips as the softly soprano words flitted from her mouth.
He nodded jerkily, unable to even speak, and thouroughly wishing that he could disengage himself from her delectable grip.
"Joseph Kido! My good man! Thou hath came with Hell upon thy heels!"
The bellowing laugh that accompanied the heavy, chortling baritone, galvanized him and he jumped away from Mimi.
"A-aye, Lord Tachikawa! Thy looks well for thou long journeys…"
With a huge slap upon his back, which almost dropped the gangly scholar to his knees, the old lord guffawed.
"Methinks, this daughter mine takes umbrage at my intrusion!"
Indeed, the girl stood, arms akimbo, hands on hips and nose in the air…Steadily tapping her foot.
"Come now Mimi, my girl! I shall leave you now and have my talk with your young lord 'pon my return!"
Still chuckling, the blustery man tottered back to his table.
"Um…."
The blue haired man did not know how to progress.
His breathe fogged the forest air before him, and he darted behind another tree, slinging the quiver of arrows more snuggly against his shoulders.
'Damnation!'
He grumbled as he heard a scuffing behind him, and without even the wind noticing, he darted up the nearest tree.
He hissed beneath his breath as two shadowy forms clumsily continued there pathes, their hoarse whispers scratching against the night.
"Ay! 'Orace! I ain't ever seen or 'eard a bloody begger move so friggin fast!"
A gutteral growl was his greeting, and the 2nd shadow muttered a reply.
"Pipe down thou bleedin' fool! Blimey Hyde! Would thou 'ave the 'hole forest 'pon our backs?!"
The lithe archer unslung and knocked an arrow, taking careful aim at the shadows.
A swift 'shick' as the arrow slid through the air was the only sound that rent the night stillness, and the beefy form of Horace melted forward in a pool of black.
"'Orace? 'Orace! Wher'd thou go?!"
Another arrow was knocked, and Hyde joined his fellow raider.
Tai, high up in the branches, cast a wary brown eye to the skies.
'I hope thou hath made it friends…'
The little mage huffed and puffed, stretching his short legs in joyful haste while he led the brigands through the forest…And away from the other men.
"Catch me you flea dung curs! Find thy faces scorched and flared by my retreat!"
He threw back his head, laughing, and narrowly ducking a tree.
He pumped his legs faster, gaining surprising speed for a man his height, thus putting distance between the group and himself.
"Thy time has come…" He muttered, suddenly dark, and he began to chant low under his breathe.
Izzy Izumi could feel the powerful magic spiriling up from the depth of Hell to beckon at his command.
The familiar, almost electric coil made it semed to crackle the tips of his spiky red hair, and he felt the answering tug of his fingers.
With a sudden pivot and a shouted curse, the grim reapers fire erupted forth in a blast of blinding hot light.
The terrified screams of agony made him flinch, but he dared not look back to see the damage his art had wrought.
'Tell me I do this as a just cause, My lord…'
He whispered to the stars, and he continued to wend his path through the trees.
"Tk?"
The tiny girl shook her sleping lover awake, and he yawned in the rays of early dawn.
"Tk! I heard a noise I fear bodes ill for us!"
Suddenly alert, the priest gathered the girl into his arms and slipped into the cover of underbrush.
"Fear no more, Kari…But be silent and still for both our goods, till danger passes."
As soon as he finished speaking, a scrawny lad of indetermined age snuck into the clearing.
He was young. No more then ten and five, but his keen green eyes, matcing the forest around him, attested to a wisdom far beyond his years.
The boy glanced warily around him, searching the trees before settling himself down upon a flat, smooth stone.
He seemed at ease,, for he casually withdrew a slim dagger from the confines of his leather jerkin, easily finding a reed to whittle.
The boy's mousy brown hair matched the bark behind him in the trees, and he seemed like some small, wayward puck…Sheltered by the forest he knew well.
"Come out now, thee may…Hurtin' thee be not me intent…."
Hie husky voice scared the two still hidden in the brush, and a wary blonde cleric cautiously stood, gesturing for Kari to stay behind.
"Boy…Be thou a member of the knaves who attacked us?"
The husky voiced appeared amused by this, as he didn't bother to look up, merely lifted the stick and studied it before continuing his work.
"Why ain't thee bringin' out that there liedy? Aye…A pretty thing she be."
Tk stiffined, and his eyes turned cold.
The wood sprite laughed.
"Down lad! I wish no harm 'pon thou or thy liedy! I merely be curious ter see what be bringin' thou to my forest!"
Tk frowned, and Kari lifted herself up and joined the blonde, huddling close to him.
"Your woods?" She questioned gently.
The boy nodded, his knife quickly working at the wooden sliver.
"Aye. Me woods these be. Lived here fer all me ten and five years. Where ye chased, per chance?"
Tk relaxed somewhat, and Kari slid to the ground for some rest.
"Attacked by a troop of looters in the dark of night. A cowardly lot they are, and we fear they were to hunt us down 'afore thou entered this glade…"
The boy with the startling green eyes smiled apologetically.
"I fear one cannot always be the brave and gallent.… Circumstance at times ferbids us that. But I'll not claim kinship to those bloodthirsty scavangers! Alone I be and I be alone."
Kari smiled at the youths pride.
"Have you a name, kind sir?"
The boy waved a hand.
"Bah! A sir I'll not be for at least a score! Call me Cody. That be the name 'twas dubbed by the birds ter me back!"
Tk chortled.
"Cody it is then….Tell us Cody…How might we find a way out of these thick woods?"
The lad huffed, adjusting himself on his stone cushion.
"Not the way thou and thee were going 'bout it! Could hear thee a mile ways away! Aye, that I could!"
Kenlei
Summary: It was a time when the code of chivalry bound even the strongest knight, in a land where only the savage ruled..
Bethrothed to a man she barely knew, in love with a man who had pledged to see her untouched across his untamed land…Yolei Inoue was trapped within the fiery coil of passion, and an icy shield of honor…
AN: The men and women in this story must fight, defeat and persue love before love destoys their very souls…
Part 4 / Queen of Hearts /Subtitle: Joseph's Ugly Duckling.
Lord Josph grumbled. Hunching into his cloak as the rain beat down upon his back.
Muttering in self-rightous grief, he lamented the choice of days the lady had decided to arrive on.
Beautiful, bah!
The last he had seen of Lady Mimi, she had been an awkward goose of a girl! Tripping over her gowns and knocking over the scholars inks in her haste to read over his shoulder.
He sighed, casting eyes skyward.
She had sat in that puddle of ink, mouth pursed as she tried to examine the spot of black liquid staining her pert little nose, her bright eyes strangly crossed….Hair in ratty braids…
Beauty? More like duck. Just as he had always called her. Ducky.
"Lord Joseph?"
He raised a brow as a foot solider came into sight.
"Yes? Go on, man…"
The man went on to explain that they were in two hours journey of the inn. With a nod, he returned himself to his musings.
Ducky had been underfoot every time she was anywhere near the castle. She was the reason he had never been able to court the fair ladies of the kingdom!
The little brat had incessently followed him round like a love sick kitten. Leading all the girls to believe he was more the older brother figure, not the dashing hero of their dreams…
His brow darkened as he contemplated his now lonley state.
All he had were his books and romantic notions. What was he to do?
With a great heaved sigh, he contemplated the time when Ducky had been lost in the woods. The silly girl had followed his hunting party and had got her tiny mare stuck in a gully with her upon it.
He had been the one to find her…Bundling her stick thin frame in his cloak and holding her shivering, weeping form to his…
Ducky had been a nuisence, but he had missed her when she left all those years ago.
He wondered why she was unmarried. 18, after all she was of the age.
'Probably still the ugly duckling…No man would have the dear, clutzy thing…'
So here he was, traipsing towards an inn at the edge of midnight, at the request of the girl and father, all because he had had the misfortune of meeting her that long past winter…When she had accidently hurled a snow ball at his head.
With another dramatic sigh, he tugged the heavy black cape tighter round his tall, whip cord frame, feeling rivlets of rain trickel across his forhead.
The day she had left the castle was a confusing time for him. He had been relieved to see her go, but also…empty, for losing the companion.
She had sobbed, hugging his waist with her scrawny arms as he attempted to pry her from him. Joseph had looked down at her blotchy red countanence, wet and shiny from tears, and her matted hair, as he tugged a random twig from the pale brown tresses. Evidence from her earlier romp in the forest when she tried to hide from leaving.
"Come now Ducky. All will be well! Thy home shall be abound with friends for thee, all of which can play dolls with you, and dress up with you…"
She had sniffed, nodding her head bravely, and he tweaked her impish nose.
"Theres a peach! Now take this…" He knelt down to her meager height, taking from his pocket a small silver chain. Upon it dangled a simple silouhette of her namesake. A tiny duckling.
"Take this, and remember the good times thou had here…"
Awestruck, she had taken the necklace in her tiny hands, holding it to her breast as the twelve year old regarded him with shining honey eyes.
"Master Jospeh…My Joseph Blue…" That had been her private name for the tall and poetic man, but she had never voiced it till their parting. "I fea that I-" She broke off, swiping at a tear.
"I fear that thou shall…"
With a blur of motion, she reached up and pecked his lips, before pivoting and scampering off to the waiting carriage, chain dangling from her fingers…
"Ah Ducky…" He sighed now. "Hath six years past since our parting?"
He was now a man of a score and three (23) with a sound path in the art of scholaring, and a lonley heart.
A shout warned him of the sighting of the Peacock Inn, and he urged his steed forward.
Something flickered in his chest. Eagerness to see the clumsy, tiny girl with the enormous golden eyes.
"Duck, Duck, Duck…"
He chuckled as he reigned his horse, and slid from the saddle.
Lady Mimi turned quickly when a gust of wind tore through the warm tavern, the heavy oak panel rebounding off the wall.
"God must loath Haldane to cast his men out on so unworthy a night!"
The petulent grumbling which echoed though the silent enclosure drew up her golden gaze as the new guests shivered in.
A tall, lean, black clad figure stamped his feet and fumbled with his cloak in eager haste to find warmth.
"Aye! Tis a night for the Devils own!"
His gentle, youngish voice stirred a thousand memories within her suddenly racing heart, and she raised a gleeful hand to her cheek.
The man finaly unlatched his cape, tugging the sodden garment from his body in a rain of dampness.
It was he!
Lord Joseph had really come! She would recognize his form before blackest night or brightest sun…
He ran an impatient hand through his indigo hair, messing up the usually immaculate strands and blinking his dark eyes like an owl adjusting to the light.
Two serving maids hurried forward, taking his wet clothing along with that of his entourage.
Joseph shook his head, scattering droplets of black rain, before cracking his tired neck after the hunched journey.
Mimi stood, her pulse jumping, and opened her mouth to speak.
Instead, she felt a joyful tear come to her eye.
"Lord Joseph!" She squeaked, scurrying her tiny frame towards him.
The man stopped, turning as he heard his name shouted.
His handsome face almost comical.
His black eyes widened, his firm mouth dropped, and his hands suddenly couldn't figure out what to do with themselves.
"D-D-D-DUCKY??!!"
She giggled, and embraced him happily, ignoring the fact that he was freezing cold and wet.
"Joseph Blue! Thou hast really come!"
He stumbled over his speech, totally aghast at the unexpected turn of events.
This was…What had happened to…Why had this….
He heaved a huge inner sigh.
God enjoyed playing jokes on him upon a daily basis…Why would this be any different?
The lady Mimi was utterly, magically beautiful. With shining, glistening, moonlight curls the same hue as an almond cream.
Her eyes, always beautiful, were now bewitching as she stared up happily from the thick fringe of lashes sheilding the amber depths.
"I cannot believe that thou hast come!"
Joseph's dark eyes were focused on her full, pouting lips as the softly soprano words flitted from her mouth.
He nodded jerkily, unable to even speak, and thouroughly wishing that he could disengage himself from her delectable grip.
"Joseph Kido! My good man! Thou hath came with Hell upon thy heels!"
The bellowing laugh that accompanied the heavy, chortling baritone, galvanized him and he jumped away from Mimi.
"A-aye, Lord Tachikawa! Thy looks well for thou long journeys…"
With a huge slap upon his back, which almost dropped the gangly scholar to his knees, the old lord guffawed.
"Methinks, this daughter mine takes umbrage at my intrusion!"
Indeed, the girl stood, arms akimbo, hands on hips and nose in the air…Steadily tapping her foot.
"Come now Mimi, my girl! I shall leave you now and have my talk with your young lord 'pon my return!"
Still chuckling, the blustery man tottered back to his table.
"Um…."
The blue haired man did not know how to progress.
His breathe fogged the forest air before him, and he darted behind another tree, slinging the quiver of arrows more snuggly against his shoulders.
'Damnation!'
He grumbled as he heard a scuffing behind him, and without even the wind noticing, he darted up the nearest tree.
He hissed beneath his breath as two shadowy forms clumsily continued there pathes, their hoarse whispers scratching against the night.
"Ay! 'Orace! I ain't ever seen or 'eard a bloody begger move so friggin fast!"
A gutteral growl was his greeting, and the 2nd shadow muttered a reply.
"Pipe down thou bleedin' fool! Blimey Hyde! Would thou 'ave the 'hole forest 'pon our backs?!"
The lithe archer unslung and knocked an arrow, taking careful aim at the shadows.
A swift 'shick' as the arrow slid through the air was the only sound that rent the night stillness, and the beefy form of Horace melted forward in a pool of black.
"'Orace? 'Orace! Wher'd thou go?!"
Another arrow was knocked, and Hyde joined his fellow raider.
Tai, high up in the branches, cast a wary brown eye to the skies.
'I hope thou hath made it friends…'
The little mage huffed and puffed, stretching his short legs in joyful haste while he led the brigands through the forest…And away from the other men.
"Catch me you flea dung curs! Find thy faces scorched and flared by my retreat!"
He threw back his head, laughing, and narrowly ducking a tree.
He pumped his legs faster, gaining surprising speed for a man his height, thus putting distance between the group and himself.
"Thy time has come…" He muttered, suddenly dark, and he began to chant low under his breathe.
Izzy Izumi could feel the powerful magic spiriling up from the depth of Hell to beckon at his command.
The familiar, almost electric coil made it semed to crackle the tips of his spiky red hair, and he felt the answering tug of his fingers.
With a sudden pivot and a shouted curse, the grim reapers fire erupted forth in a blast of blinding hot light.
The terrified screams of agony made him flinch, but he dared not look back to see the damage his art had wrought.
'Tell me I do this as a just cause, My lord…'
He whispered to the stars, and he continued to wend his path through the trees.
"Tk?"
The tiny girl shook her sleping lover awake, and he yawned in the rays of early dawn.
"Tk! I heard a noise I fear bodes ill for us!"
Suddenly alert, the priest gathered the girl into his arms and slipped into the cover of underbrush.
"Fear no more, Kari…But be silent and still for both our goods, till danger passes."
As soon as he finished speaking, a scrawny lad of indetermined age snuck into the clearing.
He was young. No more then ten and five, but his keen green eyes, matcing the forest around him, attested to a wisdom far beyond his years.
The boy glanced warily around him, searching the trees before settling himself down upon a flat, smooth stone.
He seemed at ease,, for he casually withdrew a slim dagger from the confines of his leather jerkin, easily finding a reed to whittle.
The boy's mousy brown hair matched the bark behind him in the trees, and he seemed like some small, wayward puck…Sheltered by the forest he knew well.
"Come out now, thee may…Hurtin' thee be not me intent…."
Hie husky voice scared the two still hidden in the brush, and a wary blonde cleric cautiously stood, gesturing for Kari to stay behind.
"Boy…Be thou a member of the knaves who attacked us?"
The husky voiced appeared amused by this, as he didn't bother to look up, merely lifted the stick and studied it before continuing his work.
"Why ain't thee bringin' out that there liedy? Aye…A pretty thing she be."
Tk stiffined, and his eyes turned cold.
The wood sprite laughed.
"Down lad! I wish no harm 'pon thou or thy liedy! I merely be curious ter see what be bringin' thou to my forest!"
Tk frowned, and Kari lifted herself up and joined the blonde, huddling close to him.
"Your woods?" She questioned gently.
The boy nodded, his knife quickly working at the wooden sliver.
"Aye. Me woods these be. Lived here fer all me ten and five years. Where ye chased, per chance?"
Tk relaxed somewhat, and Kari slid to the ground for some rest.
"Attacked by a troop of looters in the dark of night. A cowardly lot they are, and we fear they were to hunt us down 'afore thou entered this glade…"
The boy with the startling green eyes smiled apologetically.
"I fear one cannot always be the brave and gallent.… Circumstance at times ferbids us that. But I'll not claim kinship to those bloodthirsty scavangers! Alone I be and I be alone."
Kari smiled at the youths pride.
"Have you a name, kind sir?"
The boy waved a hand.
"Bah! A sir I'll not be for at least a score! Call me Cody. That be the name 'twas dubbed by the birds ter me back!"
Tk chortled.
"Cody it is then….Tell us Cody…How might we find a way out of these thick woods?"
The lad huffed, adjusting himself on his stone cushion.
"Not the way thou and thee were going 'bout it! Could hear thee a mile ways away! Aye, that I could!"