"It looks horrible!" Rosa wailed, delicately stomping a foot. "I can't be seen out in public like--like this!"
Nanle scowled at the offending blonde braids as though demanding that they stay still and behave as proper hair should. "Really, milady, it doesn't look that bad," she ventured, trying to pull one of the braids over to the side where it belonged.
"Yes, it does." She scowled over her shoulder at her maid, then returned to glaring at her reflection in the mirror. "Do something else with it. I won't be seen with my hair sticking up in three places like I just got out of bed and haven't brushed it yet."
"But we've only got a few minutes left until the party starts," Nanle objected, but retrieved the brush and began undoing the braids anyway.
"I'd rather be late and beautiful than early and ugly. Oh, I don't even know why I bother; it's not like anyone who I want to impress is going to be there anyway."
"What about Prince Rayden, milady?" Nanle asked, running the brush through her princess's hair.
"What about him? Honestly, Nanle, can he really be as handsome as everyone says he is? His father was the ugliest man I've ever seen, and his mother was even worse. No one with parents like that could be anything but hideous."
"Oh, he's every bit as handsome as everyone says," Nanle declared sincerely, pulling back half of Rosa's hair in the style commonly known as a pony's tail and securing it with a hair tie. "Just wait until you meet him. You'll see." The pony's tail was braided in a matter of minutes; Nanle looked it over thoroughly, then nodded her approval. "What do you think?"
Rosa pursed her lips, looking it over in the mirror. "Well...it'll do, at the very least. It's simple, but it still looks pretty."
"You'll have every man there half in love with you as soon as you enter, milady."
Rosa gazed at her reflection with a little smile, mentally agreeing with Nanle. Her dress had been made specifically for the occasion; it was deep navy blue velvet, a color that brought out matching highlights in her eyes, and while it was a bit simple to be quite in fashion, Rosa intended to start a new one. No doubt it would have mixed results; not every woman had her perfect figure and natural beauty. The hem was a little shorter than the current fashionably acceptable length, showing off beautiful ankles and navy velvet slippers that perfectly matched the shade of her dress. With her hair done in the simple but beautiful style Nanle had come up with...they would all be drooling over her, wouldn't they?
She just hoped Prince Rayden really was as handsome as Nanle seemed to think he was. Otherwise, it might all be for naught.
Rosa lay in bed, feeling quite satisfied, and decided that the night had definitely not all been for naught.
At her first sight of Prince Rayden, she'd received quite a shock. It wasn't that he was handsome--for he was, which was quite a shock in a family as notoriously ugly as his. He could have given Vekua Velar a run for his money, as a matter of fact. His hair was dark brown, with coppery highlights that shone when in the direct glare of candlelight; his eyes were a brilliant emerald green that sparkled with humor. He was tall, lean, and muscular, and his silk navy tunic and matching breeches (the exact same shade as her dress, she was pleased to note) did everything to offset the light coppery tone of his skin.
The shock that had held her speechless for several moments was the unmistakable surprise of finding someone else of the ancient blood.
She had no idea how she had known, but she knew, beyond the shadow of a doubt. Prince Rayden of Mossenden was a sorcerer of the ancient blood, just as she was. It was amazing the amount of insight that came with the shock--she knew, somehow, that it had come to him from his father (who was not really the King of Mossenden), and that he had absolutely no idea what he was (that he was a bastard or that he was a sorcerer).
She quite looked forward to informing him of that last.
It had been almost ridiculously easy to get him into bed with her. A seductive purr, an unmistakable silent invitation, and later that night he came to her in her rooms. Their lovemaking was quite an enjoyable experience; Rayden was about as much a virgin as she was, and quite adept at pleasing women. And so now she lay in bed next to him, exhausted but happy, and debated the best time to reveal to him that he was a sorcerer.
He would become her lover, of course. Her sorcerer lover.
She smiled at that. It had quite a nice ring to it.
Her sorcerer husband?
Now there was a thought. It would be easy to make him fall in love with her, and just as easy to convince him to take her to the altar; after all, the unofficial but well-known reason he'd come here for her birthday ball was to look over the two tirVardossa daughters as marriage prospects. Rosa knew she'd have to get married someday; why not to another sorcerer? And he was handsome, and he was good in bed; those three in conjunction were more than she had ever hoped for.
Smiling, she curled up against Rayden's slumbering form, and fell asleep.
It never even occurred to her that he might not want to marry her.
Prince Rayden became her first steady lover, just as she had predicted. She assumed he had every intention of marrying her; why shouldn't he? After all, half the other men around the castle were madly in love with her, and there was no reason he should be any different. The only possible reason she could think of was if he was already in love with someone else, as Vekua Velar had been, and she knew for a fact that he had no such previous attachments.
She never quite got around to revealing to him that he was a sorcerer. The time was never quite right; a couple times, she came close, only to be interrupted by someone or something else. At last she decided that it wasn't really all that important; truly, he could die without ever knowing, for all she cared.
Her first argument with a lover came the day she found out that Rayden was leaving, without a sign of having decided to marry her.
Rosa stood in the doorway, hands upon her hips, glaring at the scene within. "What," she demanded, "are you doing?"
"Packing," Rayden said, perching on the edge of the bed and pausing to look up at her. "What does it look like?"
"You aren't going to marry me?" she heard herself ask; it was the first thing that came to mind, and she mentally cursed herself for having said it.
He stared at her incredulously. "Why would I be?"
She swallowed, hard. "Everyone knows you came here to look me and Snow over as choices for a bride."
"I did, and I've decided I'm not going to marry either one of you. And don't get all teary-eyed and pretend your heart is broken, either." Pulling a bag into his lap, he resumed packing.
"Why not marry me? Don't tell me you're naive enough to be waiting to fall in love! And if you married me..." She trailed off, not able to finish the sentence: if he married her, any children they might have would be sorcerers, which was quite a desirable trait (at least in her opinion).
He looked up at her again, a corner of his mouth quirking upwards. "Sorry, but my father wants me to follow tradition and marry a virgin."
Desperate, she seized on the first tactic that came to mind. "I was a virgin the first time we made love!"
He actually laughed aloud. "You were as much a virgin then as you are now!"
"What if you got me pregnant? You'd have to marry me then." Not quite true; there weren't any laws stating that a man had to marry a woman if he got her pregnant, but she knew the way Rayden thought quite well by now. If he ever did some girl pregnant, he was too honorable not to marry her.
"And I suppose next you're going to claim that your courses are late and you've always been regular before, and I've obviously gotten you pregnant so I've got to marry you. Sorry, Rosa. Any tactic you can think of, I've seen before. And like I said, my father wants me to marry a virgin."
"A virgin like Snow?"
He was clearly surprised at that. "What, do you think I'm planning on marrying Snow White? I promise you, I wouldn't have her if she was the last woman on the planet."
"Oh, sure you wouldn't." Her brain instantly seized upon this new line of attack; perhaps it was her sorcery-enhanced instincts at work again, or perhaps it was just inspired by jealousy. "That's what they all say. You were sleeping with her, too, weren't you? All the time you were with me--"
He was frankly staring at her now. "With Snow White? Good gods, woman, are you crazy?" He laughed. "I don't think I have the stamina to be sleeping with both of you!"
She glared at him for a few moments, at a loss for what to say, then turned on her heel and stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind her. No matter what he said, she knew, the same way she'd known that he was a sorcerer. He'd been cheating on her--with her own sister, yet! And damn Snow for stealing her lover from her!
She would most definitely have to find an appropriate way of acquiring her revenge.