Adventures in the Palace
Legal: See previous chapters
The Glove: Part II
Note: This takes place in the middle part of the first book, so… Faithful and Moonlight are not here yet and no one knows that Alanna is a girl. Just remember to keep that in mind. I will be writing some stories with Faithful, Moonlight, and others in later books later on.
Alanna slowly climbed up the stairs to the rooms of the crown prince of Tortall who just happened to be one of her best friends. Reaching his door Alanna heard the voices of two of her other friends as well, Gary of Naxen and Alexander of Tirragen. Not even bothering to knock, Alanna opened the door and stepped in. "I've got a problem" she announced to her friends.
"What is that Alan, someone steal your homework?" Alex joked.
With a withering glance at Alex, she replied: "Not quite, it's a little more serious than that. See, I had a run in with some of the place ladies in the gardens and some how I got roped in to appearing as Lady Meridean of Wolfs Hallows escort."
All three pages had extremely shocked looks on their faces. Glancing at each other, each one wondering how Alan had managed this, Jon decided to speak up. "Ah, Alan, first off, I don't even what to know how you managed this, although, I'll say lucky you, knowing what Lady Meridean looks like, but also, there is a slight problem. Pages aren't allowed to go to the balls, except to serve, you know that."
"Yes I do, and I tried to tell her, but she said she was going to talk to your mother about getting out of my duties." Alanna dimly replied. Suddenly, her eyes lit up as she was struck with an idea. "Jon!! You talk to your mother; I'll know she'll listen to you. That's how I can get out of it! Please?!" Alanna asked with imploring eyes.
"Why would you want to get out of it Alan?" Gary finally piped in, "I mean, Wolfs Hallow is rich and the girl is beautiful. You should be happy she's taking in interest in you, I would be thrilled. In fact, I'd take her any day."
"Fine, then you take her, I want nothing to do with girls right now, and I'm too young" Alanna snapped back. "Jon, please go talk to your mother before it's too late."
"Alright Alan, settle down, I'll go talk to mother about it, although I have no idea as to way you don't want to go." With that, the Prince left his rooms and went to search for his mother, shaking his head at Alan's weird behavior.
Feeling slightly better about her prospects at getting out of the impending dance, Alana realized that another friend would be able to help her as well. Raoul. He hated social functions just as much as she did and he was sure to have some great ideas about getting out of this ball if the Queen actually did excuse 'Alan' from serving page duties.
"Hey Alex? Do you think you could run and find Raoul? I'm sure he would have some kind of idea of what we could do to get out of this." Alanna asked.
Sighing, Alex got up and headed out the door, "Sure thing Alan."
"So why do you really want to get out of this Alan?" Gary asked, puzzled by his young friend's behavior.
"I just don't want to go with a girl, not yet that is. I'm just not ready." Alanna replied evasively, not desiring to tell the real reason.
Gary decided not to press the issue further, sensing something else was behind Alan's hesitance of not going. Suddenly, Alex reappeared, with Raoul in tough.
"So I hear you have a small problem Alan" Raoul laughed "Alex has already filled me in. I suppose we should just wait till our prince gets back before we decide to do anything to drastic." The four friends sat and chatted for awhile about everything from getting a new horse for Alan to what the etiquette teacher was going to make them do next. Finally Jon reappeared looking slightly amused.
"Well…" the prince started, "it seems that Lady Meridean is quite the resourceful women. Mother agreed to her request, but I managed to slim it down to you spending only about a fourth of the ball with her, and the rest performing your usual duties. So, when it comes down to it, I'm afraid you're going to have to spend at least some time with her."
Looking incredibly dismayed that she was still going to have to go through this; Alanna glanced around looking for help. "Well, what am I to do??"
"I've got it!" Raoul yelled jumping up, "here is what we do…." Raoul explained as the other pages gathered around, laughing and talking as they heard is plan…
The next day, at the ball…
'Here goes nothing' Alanna thought to herself as she made her way to Lady Meridean side. Having completed most of the page duties, Alanna knew it was time to spend time with the Lady. Catching Gary's eye, she nodded to him to let him know to start the plan. "My Lady Meridean" Alanna said, bowing to the lady, "may I have the pleasure of this dance?"
"Ah, there you are Alan, I as wondering where you went. I would like a dance very much of course!" She replied suggestively, batting her eyelashes and flashing a smile.
Gulping down terror, Alanna reached for her hand and was about to take it, all the while wondering where in the world Gary was, and suddenly, like a gift from the Goddess, she heard his voice.
"STOP!" Gary's thunderous voice yelled. "What in Mithros's name do you think your doing Page Alan?" He asked, barreling down on the two.
Pretending to be annoyed and affronted, although secretly relieved, Alanna turned and addressed her friend. "Excuse me Garth of Naxen, what do you mean, 'what am I doing'? I am escorting this beautiful lady to the dace floor. Now if you will, please move out of our way?"
"I think not. You know very well that you took this Lady's glove from me secretly and pretended to find it yourself." Gary exclaimed.
Gasping in shock, the lady turned towards Alanna, "Is this true Alan, did you really do this?"
"Well…" Alanna started, pretending to look guilty and meek at the same time, "that's not quite far from the truth."
"That is not all," Gary started in again, beginning to enjoy the 'mock' fight, "not only did he take my rightful glove to return to you, but he entirely failed to inform you that he is already 'seeing' someone back at his fathers fief. Or did he tell you of that already?"
Whipping around and glaring at Alanna, Lady Meridean gasped in horror, "To think that I was interested in you, that I thought you were a handsome and kind man, how dare you make a mockery of me, page" She screeched, making sure to emphasize the 'page' part. "I want nothing more to do with you. To think, just to think that I thought to dance with you, well, how dare you." Getting ready to march off and inform her friends, Gary grabbed her arm and spun her around.
"My beautiful lady, since the young Alan is clearly not worthy of your attentions, perhaps you would be willing to allow me to have a dance with such a charming sunning beauty like yourself?" Gary asked flattering her with a sly words and a charm-filled smile.
With a wink at Alanna, Gary moved out on to the dance floor with the now glowing Lady of Wolfs Hallow and proceeded to dance the night away with her. As the night ended, both Gary and Alanna were more than pleased the way their nights ended up. Gary in the arms of a women, and Alanna being freed from the embarrassment of having to pretend to court another woman. Falling asleep that night, Alanna thanked Raoul for the brilliant plan and drifted off to sleep at ease.
As an interesting note, a few days after the "ball" incident, the Duke of Wolfs Hallow sent his daughter back to the convent in hopes of her learning not to 'throw' herself at men. Needless to say, what happened with Alanna that night was twisted in a strange way and the gossip at court was that Lady Meridean had been leading both 'Alan' and Gary along while having not one but two young men back at the fief. Lady Meridean spent another year or so at the convent where upon her leaving, her father promptly married her off to an older man from a neighboring fiefdom. Not much was heard of her after that.
Authors Notes: Well, I hope you enjoyed the second part of the story! I will apologize for not updating soon enough, although school is quite a burden. I will try and get another story up soon!
Thanks to all who reviewed, I hope you continue to enjoy these little stories! Suggestions are always welcome! Till the next adventure comes around…