I suddenly realized that I didn't put any of THESE when I uploaded Step II.
Oh well. Can't win 'em all. Too lazy to go back.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sora Takenouchi? COUNTESS Sora Takenouchi?
I watched her with barely concealed surprise as she sauntered further down the path in direction to the marketplace we had just passed. She was my age now, I recalled, and my future wife.
Gah!
I blanched at that thought. I was not going to be married. Why do people get married, anyway? For true love? Only in fairytales. I had set up a valiant front at home when it was announced that I was betrothed to the peculiar daughter of an equally queer mountain noble. Of course, my father eventually tired of my squalling and hauled me off to the mountains, along with my mother and my brother.
My parents were married, yes, but they only married for political reasons. Luckily, though, they managed to tolerate each other's shortcomings, but they weren't very close, as my father was often away on business ventures. And since they haven't the chance to learn EVERYTHING about each other, they haven't gotten around to having each other executed.
Yet.
Marriage would undoubtedly hammer down the rest of my life. Obligation came with marriage, and I was no fonder of obligation than I was of blisters. Marriage was a word that caused me to cringe and start looking around for a place to hide. If I were wedded, I would be confined to one place, going to other places for uninteresting business, the tedious life of a nobleman.
But I didn't want that. I wanted to travel, to see the world. I've already put aside my childhood dreams of finding adventure and glory; those were fairy tales; but I still wanted to be able to experience new places and try new things. I wanted to be able to crest a hill to simply see what was beyond that with no care in the world, no boring businesses to attend to.
Of course, the idea of swindling an entire market and getting away scotch- free and a lot richer appealed to me greatly, too. I enjoyed the world of commerce, although my life had very little to do with it. I learned everything I could about the trade industries at a young age.
And now, there came marriage with its ugly consequences. I enjoyed the bachelor life. I took another look at my fiancée and cocked my head.
Sora Takenouchi. Now that was another puzzle to be figured out. Six years ago, you could have compared her to a broomstick and saw no difference. Three years ago, she had improved, but she was as plain as a wall. And now, her beauty rivaled that of the most gorgeous women in the kingdom.
Red hair is rather attractive, or so I always thought. Sure, with it comes a nasty temper, but it's actually rather charming.
I admit, it was a great blunder what I did back then at the ball. I honestly regretted my mislabeling her for an extremely uglier orange-haired wench of little substance. Sora was and is an incredibly clever young lady and I knew that she could get her revenge served well-chilled. She was different from the other women of the court because she was bold enough to speak her mind. She's been telling me for so long and so often exactly how she thought of me. She also has a sense of humor, a refreshing novelty. Humor has very little to do in the life of an aristocrat.
That alone was intriguing enough for me to agree to come without a fight. Or two. Well, let's just say that I consented to come along without much of a fight.
I remembered the way we argued since we were seven and decided that the simpering ladies at home weren't intelligent enough for a truly invigorating fight, and since I'm an adventurer by nature, I decided to come all across the country just to have a little squabble with the Countess. Those were always entertaining. Trying to stir up an argument with the ladies of the court at home is like trying to convince a wall to waltz around a room (spreading mortar all over the place, no doubt). Right then and there, when I'm informing my parents of this little idea, they tell me that I'm betrothed to her and suddenly, the idea seems a lot less exciting and the ladies of the court a lot more interesting to talk to (as statue-like as they are. Their brains rival that of a statue, and the statue seems to have the upper hand when one thinks about it).
Isn't life peculiar?
So peculiar that I found myself watching the redheaded countess march off with her head held high. I smiled and turned around, walking back to the carriage where my family waited for me to return from looking into the river. I peered into the window at them.
"May I look around the countryside, father?" I asked politely. "I'd like to see what it has to offer for us."
The Duke of Ishida looked at him for a few moments and finally nodded sternly. "All right. But don't run off on your adventures. I'd like it very much if you would avoid any dice games you might come across. I doubt if anyone would be pleased if some merchant came up to the Takenouchi Manor with you in chains again."
I grinned at him. "Sure thing."
I suppose he remembered the times I ran off for weeks too well. It only happened once, though. And I wasn't in chains, but my hands were bound with a simple rope which I could easily escape from if need be. My friend, Baron Taichi, and I often went off on ventures and usually came back a lot richer.
Usually. There was this one time when we were swindled out of a nice bargain. Not happening again, I assure you. The next time someone comes at me with a knife, though, I'll just take the swindled loot and run.
"Hey, Yamato." My younger brother, Takeru, peered out at me. "You tell me what's out there, all right? I want to have something to tell Hikari when I get home. I have a feeling that she won't be very interested in weddings."
Mother let out a laugh. "Takeru, Hikari loves weddings. Didn't you know that? Little girls the world over dream of their weddings." She gave him a sneaky smile. "I have an idea who her ideal groom would be." She gave him a direct look.
Takeru blushed and turned back to me. "You WILL tell me about the countryside, will you?"
I nodded. "I'll take a horse, if that's all right." I then left the window and spoke with the carriage driver. I managed to convince him to let me have the best horse, a magnificent brown stallion I've come to know during the duration of the trip. Would you believe that my father assigned me to groom the horses? It wasn't a difficult task; it was actually rather soothing, but terribly degrading.
I mean, could you imagine an eminent noble's son doing a stable boy's job?
So I mounted the stallion, promised my parents that I would be at the manor soon and rode off, following the trail the countess disappeared into. She hadn't gone far, so I was able to catch up to her almost as soon as I was off the bridge. She was strolling along an apparently well-traveled dirt path, probably still feeling euphoric after my seeming defeat.
'Well, get ready to have things rubbed into your lovely face, Sora.'
What was I doing? If you put it this way, I was merely doing the honorable thing. After all, I was the one who knocked her basket into the river, so it only made sense that I help her replace it and pay for the goods. That's all.
Of course, I was also following her to annoy her, since no victory over me was ever won easily or forgotten. You could say that I was punishing her for winning against me in a word battle. Besides, if we were going to get married, I might as well have had to know her, at least a little. Therefore, I could assess whether I should start running then or wait until we were stuck to each other before I thought of taking off.
She didn't seem to hear me coming, maybe since the horse's hooves didn't sound too loud on packed dirt. Most likely, though, she was still caught up in jubilation over her little victory. Okay, so maybe I shouldn't have insulted her as much when we were seven. She wouldn't have considered this to be a great triumph if I had let her win a few duels back then and would have saved me the effort of catching her attention—
Wait. An idea began to fester in my mind. Perhaps it would be better if I didn't. After all, if I did catch her attention, then there would still be the problem of having to convince her to allow me to escort her to the marketplace. She would argue, on that I was sure, but at least, with my method, it would hurry things up. After all, I needed to be back at the Takenouchi estate.
Come to think of it, so did she.
Sora may not be happy with the way I would take her to the marketplace, but it would get her there and get us back in time for all the pomp and ceremony to rear their ugly heads. I had a feeling that she wouldn't enjoy it.
I grinned.
Guiding my horse, I reached her and picked her up, settling her on front of me. She whirled around, words spilling from her mouth that I sincerely hoped she didn't understand, and nearly lost her balance. I steadied her and laughed. "Careful, Countess. A saddle is no place for roughhousing."
"What are you doing?" she shrieked at me.
I replied smoothly, "I'm taking you to the market, your Excellency. I told you that I would accompany you back to the market and pay for what you had lost, didn't I? Well, that's what I'm doing now, dear Countess, unless I'm mistaken."
Sputtering with indignation, she turned her scarlet eyes on me, directing toward me the full force of her anger. She looked a little messed up, and if the mud on the hem of her skirt and all over her shoes were any indication of what happened to her, I'd guess that her triumph rather distracted her and caused all her surroundings to disappear, leaving ample time for clumsiness. I grinned at her and spurred the stallion on.
The countryside sped by without further conversation. I eased the horse into a gallop. In spite of everything, time doesn't stop for even the most momentous events, and my taking the cross countess to the market wasn't remotely momentous, except maybe for the fact that we hadn't killed each other yet.
Pretty soon, we rode up to the marketplace. I didn't let her dismount, though. I held her arm firmly and asked her where she wanted to go. After all, I had unofficially been placed in charge of her during our little market trip when I offered to pay for her expenses, and by the look on her face, she knew it and hated it.
Yes, power is an evil thing, but it's very fun to toss around.
She glared up at me and resumed her haughty look. "Your Grace," she huffed through gritted teeth, "I am…um…grateful for the ride, but I would be even more grateful if you leave me alone that I might actually be polite to you later for dinner instead of slowly flaying you inch by inch with a rusty knife and tossing your remains to the wolves after I finish quartering you. It's much fairer for the wolves to have equal pieces of you to devour."
I thought about it for a moment then let out a relieved sigh. "Not possible, wolves don't actually eat people unless they've got nothing else to eat. They pretty much stay away from people." I believed that Sora probably could do all that if she wanted to. "Why'd you want to do that?"
She gave me a frigid look. "Why wouldn't I? I don't like kidnappers."
"Kidnapper?" I exclaimed incredulously. "I had merely taken you to the marketplace! You were going here in the first place, so I just helped you along." I couldn't believe her. The girls back home would die of happiness to share my saddle. Not that I ever gave them the chance to, though. They were all too giggly. I just helped her out and I get threatened? I didn't even charge!
Hmm…that's an idea. Maybe in the future, when people needed to go somewhere in a carriage, maybe the carriage driver could charge them for it. People nowadays own their own coaches and coach attendants. (A/N: And the idea of taxis is born!)
"No," she said snippily. "You took me here against my will. That's the definition of kidnapping. Taking someone somewhere against his or her own will. You have no right to do that."
In the corner of my eye, I noticed that some of the vendors were watching. Well, I'm never one to disappoint the audience.
Putting on a pleasant smile, I leaned closer to her. "Countess, you know of my marriage, yes, but do you know to whom I am getting married?" I was rather certain that she did know and that this would cause another explosion.
"Of course!" she yelled angrily. "Do you take me for a fool? The only fool around here is you! What does that have to do with anything?"
My, she was a prickly girl. "Well," I replied. "It could have to do with the fact that I'M GOING TO BE YOUR HUSBAND??" I was certain that a gradual audience was forming. I grinned inwardly.
"And that gives you the right to force me to go somewhere?" she cried, still not noticing the increasing number of watching people. I knew for a fact that Sora was modest. Well, she was three years ago, but she seemed to have changed.
"You were going to come here in the first place," I reminded her smugly. "You could say that I just helped you along."
"Yes, well I'd like to help you along, too," she snapped. "I'd like to help you off a cliff and down to the jagged rocks below. Happy landing." Several people laughed at this.
Sora suddenly stopped and looked around, seeing the cheering crowd. She swallowed, cheeks slowly flushing. "Yamato," she growled through her teeth. "You are dead."
I shrugged. "So what goods do you require to replace?"
She sent me a look of pure venom. "Do you sincerely think that I would forget your carting me off?"
I flicked the reins of the horse. "Not really. But since it will be difficult to talk to you, much less hear you over the din of the mob, I think we'd better go somewhere else." I led the stallion into a different street, followed by the cheers of the crowd we left behind. "Now," I said in a business-like tone. "I recall seeing some bread in that basket before I knocked it off."
I gave her a direct look that I often used on Takeru when I bossed him around. I've practiced it in the mirror and it looks like it says, "I'll stand for nothing else, so do what I say NOW. Get up and kicking."
Of course, the look I gave her excluded that last sentence expression because I happen to know that Sora has a nasty kick from past experiences.
She scowled at me sulkily. "I have to buy a basket first. You ruined mine."
I laughed. "Of course. No need to remind me." I leaned over and opened one of the saddlebags, handing her several coins.
She stared down at them for a few seconds then turned to glower at me. "Do you take the House of Takenouchi to be one of beggars and paupers? I have my own money and I do not need to take yours."
I rolled my eyes. "Don't you think I know that? Why else would my parents force me to wed you?" I was cut off from giving her another marvelous putdown (What other kinds of putdowns can I give?) when I saw her eyes widen with surprise.
I suddenly felt that I shouldn't have said that and mentally kicked myself. Girls tend to blow up at the littlest things. (A/N: So much HE knows.)'If she starts crying…'
But no tears sprung to her suddenly smug eyes. Her eyes lit up more and she smiled as she watched my expectant face and she took the money I was still holding out. "Well then." She slid off the horse and went to the stall to buy a basket.
I felt startled and realized that my eyes were unconsciously following her. What was that? A smile? A SMILE? That was the first time I recalled ever being given a genuinely sweet smile by the Countess Sora Takenouchi. But what surprised me most was that I had suddenly noticed how entrancing her eyes looked and that little observation set my blood afire with curiosity.
I groaned. This was not good. I somehow knew she would complicate everything. The deal was that I would go here, get married, go back home and forget she even existed. My father had done that with my mother, although lately they've been spending a lot more time around each other. Makes no sense to me.
She wasn't supposed to be pretty! But she was, and was a lot more pretty than that. I remember her as a gawky, gangly girl with stiff orange hair who spent all her time curled up with her odd books in the libraries. Not many people visited the libraries, but she went there everyday almost religiously. But I have to admit, it's admirable that she continued visiting the libraries even though people marked her as 'strange' for that.
Come to think of it, not many women of the court know how to read and write. Not many men, either. They just hire scribes to write things down or read for them. My brother and I, however, were given the finest education of literature possible. Not that I often use my skills. It's rather bad form to be seen reading a book when one is in public, and since I am often in largely populated areas, I don't get the chance to read much.
I watched as she haggled with the basket vendor, more for the fun of it, it seemed, than for any real need to save money. She bargained as well as any fisherman's wife. She emerged triumphant with a large basket on one arm. She was breathless from her wrangling and grinning from ear to ear.
She unceremoniously dumped her basket into my arms. I arched my eyebrow. "Now I'm a servant boy?"
"Not at all, your Grace," she replied whimsically. She appeared to be a lot happier. I suppose arguing does that to her, even though it's just haggling over the price of a wicker basket. "We just need to buy back what you caused me to drop over the river. You volunteered to pay for everything, didn't you? Well, then. You must make sure that I don't run off with my goods and your money, so you must take the basket. Besides, there's something I need to discuss with you."
She turned to look at me. The smoldering look in her eyes scared me for some reason. She was plotting something.
I suddenly felt like I wished I were far, far away.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The plotting begins!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sora Takenouchi? COUNTESS Sora Takenouchi?
I watched her with barely concealed surprise as she sauntered further down the path in direction to the marketplace we had just passed. She was my age now, I recalled, and my future wife.
Gah!
I blanched at that thought. I was not going to be married. Why do people get married, anyway? For true love? Only in fairytales. I had set up a valiant front at home when it was announced that I was betrothed to the peculiar daughter of an equally queer mountain noble. Of course, my father eventually tired of my squalling and hauled me off to the mountains, along with my mother and my brother.
My parents were married, yes, but they only married for political reasons. Luckily, though, they managed to tolerate each other's shortcomings, but they weren't very close, as my father was often away on business ventures. And since they haven't the chance to learn EVERYTHING about each other, they haven't gotten around to having each other executed.
Yet.
Marriage would undoubtedly hammer down the rest of my life. Obligation came with marriage, and I was no fonder of obligation than I was of blisters. Marriage was a word that caused me to cringe and start looking around for a place to hide. If I were wedded, I would be confined to one place, going to other places for uninteresting business, the tedious life of a nobleman.
But I didn't want that. I wanted to travel, to see the world. I've already put aside my childhood dreams of finding adventure and glory; those were fairy tales; but I still wanted to be able to experience new places and try new things. I wanted to be able to crest a hill to simply see what was beyond that with no care in the world, no boring businesses to attend to.
Of course, the idea of swindling an entire market and getting away scotch- free and a lot richer appealed to me greatly, too. I enjoyed the world of commerce, although my life had very little to do with it. I learned everything I could about the trade industries at a young age.
And now, there came marriage with its ugly consequences. I enjoyed the bachelor life. I took another look at my fiancée and cocked my head.
Sora Takenouchi. Now that was another puzzle to be figured out. Six years ago, you could have compared her to a broomstick and saw no difference. Three years ago, she had improved, but she was as plain as a wall. And now, her beauty rivaled that of the most gorgeous women in the kingdom.
Red hair is rather attractive, or so I always thought. Sure, with it comes a nasty temper, but it's actually rather charming.
I admit, it was a great blunder what I did back then at the ball. I honestly regretted my mislabeling her for an extremely uglier orange-haired wench of little substance. Sora was and is an incredibly clever young lady and I knew that she could get her revenge served well-chilled. She was different from the other women of the court because she was bold enough to speak her mind. She's been telling me for so long and so often exactly how she thought of me. She also has a sense of humor, a refreshing novelty. Humor has very little to do in the life of an aristocrat.
That alone was intriguing enough for me to agree to come without a fight. Or two. Well, let's just say that I consented to come along without much of a fight.
I remembered the way we argued since we were seven and decided that the simpering ladies at home weren't intelligent enough for a truly invigorating fight, and since I'm an adventurer by nature, I decided to come all across the country just to have a little squabble with the Countess. Those were always entertaining. Trying to stir up an argument with the ladies of the court at home is like trying to convince a wall to waltz around a room (spreading mortar all over the place, no doubt). Right then and there, when I'm informing my parents of this little idea, they tell me that I'm betrothed to her and suddenly, the idea seems a lot less exciting and the ladies of the court a lot more interesting to talk to (as statue-like as they are. Their brains rival that of a statue, and the statue seems to have the upper hand when one thinks about it).
Isn't life peculiar?
So peculiar that I found myself watching the redheaded countess march off with her head held high. I smiled and turned around, walking back to the carriage where my family waited for me to return from looking into the river. I peered into the window at them.
"May I look around the countryside, father?" I asked politely. "I'd like to see what it has to offer for us."
The Duke of Ishida looked at him for a few moments and finally nodded sternly. "All right. But don't run off on your adventures. I'd like it very much if you would avoid any dice games you might come across. I doubt if anyone would be pleased if some merchant came up to the Takenouchi Manor with you in chains again."
I grinned at him. "Sure thing."
I suppose he remembered the times I ran off for weeks too well. It only happened once, though. And I wasn't in chains, but my hands were bound with a simple rope which I could easily escape from if need be. My friend, Baron Taichi, and I often went off on ventures and usually came back a lot richer.
Usually. There was this one time when we were swindled out of a nice bargain. Not happening again, I assure you. The next time someone comes at me with a knife, though, I'll just take the swindled loot and run.
"Hey, Yamato." My younger brother, Takeru, peered out at me. "You tell me what's out there, all right? I want to have something to tell Hikari when I get home. I have a feeling that she won't be very interested in weddings."
Mother let out a laugh. "Takeru, Hikari loves weddings. Didn't you know that? Little girls the world over dream of their weddings." She gave him a sneaky smile. "I have an idea who her ideal groom would be." She gave him a direct look.
Takeru blushed and turned back to me. "You WILL tell me about the countryside, will you?"
I nodded. "I'll take a horse, if that's all right." I then left the window and spoke with the carriage driver. I managed to convince him to let me have the best horse, a magnificent brown stallion I've come to know during the duration of the trip. Would you believe that my father assigned me to groom the horses? It wasn't a difficult task; it was actually rather soothing, but terribly degrading.
I mean, could you imagine an eminent noble's son doing a stable boy's job?
So I mounted the stallion, promised my parents that I would be at the manor soon and rode off, following the trail the countess disappeared into. She hadn't gone far, so I was able to catch up to her almost as soon as I was off the bridge. She was strolling along an apparently well-traveled dirt path, probably still feeling euphoric after my seeming defeat.
'Well, get ready to have things rubbed into your lovely face, Sora.'
What was I doing? If you put it this way, I was merely doing the honorable thing. After all, I was the one who knocked her basket into the river, so it only made sense that I help her replace it and pay for the goods. That's all.
Of course, I was also following her to annoy her, since no victory over me was ever won easily or forgotten. You could say that I was punishing her for winning against me in a word battle. Besides, if we were going to get married, I might as well have had to know her, at least a little. Therefore, I could assess whether I should start running then or wait until we were stuck to each other before I thought of taking off.
She didn't seem to hear me coming, maybe since the horse's hooves didn't sound too loud on packed dirt. Most likely, though, she was still caught up in jubilation over her little victory. Okay, so maybe I shouldn't have insulted her as much when we were seven. She wouldn't have considered this to be a great triumph if I had let her win a few duels back then and would have saved me the effort of catching her attention—
Wait. An idea began to fester in my mind. Perhaps it would be better if I didn't. After all, if I did catch her attention, then there would still be the problem of having to convince her to allow me to escort her to the marketplace. She would argue, on that I was sure, but at least, with my method, it would hurry things up. After all, I needed to be back at the Takenouchi estate.
Come to think of it, so did she.
Sora may not be happy with the way I would take her to the marketplace, but it would get her there and get us back in time for all the pomp and ceremony to rear their ugly heads. I had a feeling that she wouldn't enjoy it.
I grinned.
Guiding my horse, I reached her and picked her up, settling her on front of me. She whirled around, words spilling from her mouth that I sincerely hoped she didn't understand, and nearly lost her balance. I steadied her and laughed. "Careful, Countess. A saddle is no place for roughhousing."
"What are you doing?" she shrieked at me.
I replied smoothly, "I'm taking you to the market, your Excellency. I told you that I would accompany you back to the market and pay for what you had lost, didn't I? Well, that's what I'm doing now, dear Countess, unless I'm mistaken."
Sputtering with indignation, she turned her scarlet eyes on me, directing toward me the full force of her anger. She looked a little messed up, and if the mud on the hem of her skirt and all over her shoes were any indication of what happened to her, I'd guess that her triumph rather distracted her and caused all her surroundings to disappear, leaving ample time for clumsiness. I grinned at her and spurred the stallion on.
The countryside sped by without further conversation. I eased the horse into a gallop. In spite of everything, time doesn't stop for even the most momentous events, and my taking the cross countess to the market wasn't remotely momentous, except maybe for the fact that we hadn't killed each other yet.
Pretty soon, we rode up to the marketplace. I didn't let her dismount, though. I held her arm firmly and asked her where she wanted to go. After all, I had unofficially been placed in charge of her during our little market trip when I offered to pay for her expenses, and by the look on her face, she knew it and hated it.
Yes, power is an evil thing, but it's very fun to toss around.
She glared up at me and resumed her haughty look. "Your Grace," she huffed through gritted teeth, "I am…um…grateful for the ride, but I would be even more grateful if you leave me alone that I might actually be polite to you later for dinner instead of slowly flaying you inch by inch with a rusty knife and tossing your remains to the wolves after I finish quartering you. It's much fairer for the wolves to have equal pieces of you to devour."
I thought about it for a moment then let out a relieved sigh. "Not possible, wolves don't actually eat people unless they've got nothing else to eat. They pretty much stay away from people." I believed that Sora probably could do all that if she wanted to. "Why'd you want to do that?"
She gave me a frigid look. "Why wouldn't I? I don't like kidnappers."
"Kidnapper?" I exclaimed incredulously. "I had merely taken you to the marketplace! You were going here in the first place, so I just helped you along." I couldn't believe her. The girls back home would die of happiness to share my saddle. Not that I ever gave them the chance to, though. They were all too giggly. I just helped her out and I get threatened? I didn't even charge!
Hmm…that's an idea. Maybe in the future, when people needed to go somewhere in a carriage, maybe the carriage driver could charge them for it. People nowadays own their own coaches and coach attendants. (A/N: And the idea of taxis is born!)
"No," she said snippily. "You took me here against my will. That's the definition of kidnapping. Taking someone somewhere against his or her own will. You have no right to do that."
In the corner of my eye, I noticed that some of the vendors were watching. Well, I'm never one to disappoint the audience.
Putting on a pleasant smile, I leaned closer to her. "Countess, you know of my marriage, yes, but do you know to whom I am getting married?" I was rather certain that she did know and that this would cause another explosion.
"Of course!" she yelled angrily. "Do you take me for a fool? The only fool around here is you! What does that have to do with anything?"
My, she was a prickly girl. "Well," I replied. "It could have to do with the fact that I'M GOING TO BE YOUR HUSBAND??" I was certain that a gradual audience was forming. I grinned inwardly.
"And that gives you the right to force me to go somewhere?" she cried, still not noticing the increasing number of watching people. I knew for a fact that Sora was modest. Well, she was three years ago, but she seemed to have changed.
"You were going to come here in the first place," I reminded her smugly. "You could say that I just helped you along."
"Yes, well I'd like to help you along, too," she snapped. "I'd like to help you off a cliff and down to the jagged rocks below. Happy landing." Several people laughed at this.
Sora suddenly stopped and looked around, seeing the cheering crowd. She swallowed, cheeks slowly flushing. "Yamato," she growled through her teeth. "You are dead."
I shrugged. "So what goods do you require to replace?"
She sent me a look of pure venom. "Do you sincerely think that I would forget your carting me off?"
I flicked the reins of the horse. "Not really. But since it will be difficult to talk to you, much less hear you over the din of the mob, I think we'd better go somewhere else." I led the stallion into a different street, followed by the cheers of the crowd we left behind. "Now," I said in a business-like tone. "I recall seeing some bread in that basket before I knocked it off."
I gave her a direct look that I often used on Takeru when I bossed him around. I've practiced it in the mirror and it looks like it says, "I'll stand for nothing else, so do what I say NOW. Get up and kicking."
Of course, the look I gave her excluded that last sentence expression because I happen to know that Sora has a nasty kick from past experiences.
She scowled at me sulkily. "I have to buy a basket first. You ruined mine."
I laughed. "Of course. No need to remind me." I leaned over and opened one of the saddlebags, handing her several coins.
She stared down at them for a few seconds then turned to glower at me. "Do you take the House of Takenouchi to be one of beggars and paupers? I have my own money and I do not need to take yours."
I rolled my eyes. "Don't you think I know that? Why else would my parents force me to wed you?" I was cut off from giving her another marvelous putdown (What other kinds of putdowns can I give?) when I saw her eyes widen with surprise.
I suddenly felt that I shouldn't have said that and mentally kicked myself. Girls tend to blow up at the littlest things. (A/N: So much HE knows.)'If she starts crying…'
But no tears sprung to her suddenly smug eyes. Her eyes lit up more and she smiled as she watched my expectant face and she took the money I was still holding out. "Well then." She slid off the horse and went to the stall to buy a basket.
I felt startled and realized that my eyes were unconsciously following her. What was that? A smile? A SMILE? That was the first time I recalled ever being given a genuinely sweet smile by the Countess Sora Takenouchi. But what surprised me most was that I had suddenly noticed how entrancing her eyes looked and that little observation set my blood afire with curiosity.
I groaned. This was not good. I somehow knew she would complicate everything. The deal was that I would go here, get married, go back home and forget she even existed. My father had done that with my mother, although lately they've been spending a lot more time around each other. Makes no sense to me.
She wasn't supposed to be pretty! But she was, and was a lot more pretty than that. I remember her as a gawky, gangly girl with stiff orange hair who spent all her time curled up with her odd books in the libraries. Not many people visited the libraries, but she went there everyday almost religiously. But I have to admit, it's admirable that she continued visiting the libraries even though people marked her as 'strange' for that.
Come to think of it, not many women of the court know how to read and write. Not many men, either. They just hire scribes to write things down or read for them. My brother and I, however, were given the finest education of literature possible. Not that I often use my skills. It's rather bad form to be seen reading a book when one is in public, and since I am often in largely populated areas, I don't get the chance to read much.
I watched as she haggled with the basket vendor, more for the fun of it, it seemed, than for any real need to save money. She bargained as well as any fisherman's wife. She emerged triumphant with a large basket on one arm. She was breathless from her wrangling and grinning from ear to ear.
She unceremoniously dumped her basket into my arms. I arched my eyebrow. "Now I'm a servant boy?"
"Not at all, your Grace," she replied whimsically. She appeared to be a lot happier. I suppose arguing does that to her, even though it's just haggling over the price of a wicker basket. "We just need to buy back what you caused me to drop over the river. You volunteered to pay for everything, didn't you? Well, then. You must make sure that I don't run off with my goods and your money, so you must take the basket. Besides, there's something I need to discuss with you."
She turned to look at me. The smoldering look in her eyes scared me for some reason. She was plotting something.
I suddenly felt like I wished I were far, far away.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The plotting begins!
