Disclaimer: A lovely little disclaimer poem, perfect for Valentine's Day:
Roses are red, Violets are blue I no own, so you no sue!
Yay!!! Isn't that the best?! By the way, the disclaimer includes the poem cause I found it on another fic and decided it would be perfect for a fic posted on Valentine's day.
Author's Notes: Boo hoo, boo hoo! The whole world hates me! I was supposed to post this on Valentine's day (thus the freaky poem. I get sentimental once in a blue moon. Unfortunately, if you looked at the sky the other night you may have noticed the strange color of the moon...), but the site was closed until Sunday! The world hates me!!! By the way, I never did get those ten reviews, but I'm posting anyways cause I'm addicted to posting and getting reviews. Oh yeah! I'm also posting the first chapter of another fic, Legacy, and The Last Letter, a one-shot fic. Read them! Please! Also, I recently calculated how many chapters I would have at the rate I was writing them (four chapters a day, and a three-week long stay at the palace), and I came out to around... 84 chapters. Of course, this would vary due to the fact that not all days would have four chapters, but I do plan to have an account of what goes on just about each day, and the main climax will probably end up to be unusually long. Thus, since this is far too many chapters, I'm changing it so that each day is a chapter (rather than four) This means that the chapters will be twice as long, but my output rate should be about the same since I write faster than I post (Yay!!). It also means that author notes will probably be twice as long (Boo...) Thanks!
~ ~ ~ ~
Upon entering her room, Audrie shoved the cloth into the drawers of a finely crafted mahogany desk. She would deal with it later, when she wouldn't be noticed. Tomorrow night, perhaps. Until then she could ignore Roger. She was prepared to promptly flop on her bed and do nothing for the rest of the day, something she normally did at home since she only worked in the evenings at the Dancing Dove, when a knock sounded at the door.
"Mi'lady,"
Audrie recognized it as Sarri's voice, and groaned at the prospect that she would never be left alone at this rate. "Yes, what do you want?"
Audrie folded her arms and put on a cross look as she walked over and opened the door. Hopefully Sarri would get implication and leave. Instead the girl just looked plain frightened, thinking that Audrie was going to hit her. Audrie scowled at Sarri's instant reaction of cowering, but instantly replaced it with a kinder look, merely to make the girl say what she wanted and then leaving, rather than just stand there and quiver with fear.
"I....I wanted to suggest that you go outside. It's not proper to just sit in your room all day. All the other ladies will have husbands by the end of this, and you'll be left with no one" A glare from Audrie quickly shut her up.
" I want no one. Or did George tell you otherwise?" Audrie's eyes seemed to turn to ice as she glowered over the young servant. "I didn't come here for a husband and it would do you well to not think that I did. I have no wish to become acquainted with any noble, thus have no reason to go outside."
"B-but people w-would think just that, and become suspicious. I-I only suggested that you go outside t-to prevent suspicion." Sarri stuttered under the cold gaze of Audrie. "Of course," Audrie commented sarcastically, " you only suggested that to make sure I wasn't acting suspiciously. That certainly explains the comment about my being left with no one." Instead of continuing to glower at Sarri, Audrie began to place false earbobs, clipped on rather than pinned, in front of one of the many vanity mirrors in the bathroom. Sarri took this sudden action as a dismissal.
'I hate to admit it, but that girl's right.' Audrie thought to herself, 'If I don't bother to act like I'm looking for a husband, people will suspect. I hate this; unless I act exactly like every other pathetic ditz looking for a man to fawn over, people will think that I'm strange. As if oggling over a handsome man isn't!'
Shaking her head lightly, Audrie finished her preparation for going outside by placing a warm maroon shawl, made out of the softest wool she could've imagined, around her shoulders. She placed her hand on the intricately made door handle, and began to have second thoughts.
'What if I mess up on all of this? Perhaps it'd be better if I just stayed inside all the time. Then I wouldn't have to bother with learning curtseys, and acting sweet to everyone.' Realizing what she was thinking, Audrie reprimanded herself. 'If I thought that way all the time, I'd have gotten no where in life.'
With that thought she nearly slammed the door open, as if declaring to the world that she wasn't afraid to go out. Only after she had done so did she notice a group of knights chatting amiably not far down the hall, standing outside the door of the healer's room. Unfortunately, they had noticed her loud declaration, and were staring at her.
"D'you have a problem with people slamming doors?" Audrie glared at the young lady who was talking with the men. The girl's vibrant emerald eyes flashed at her, and silently dared her to walk over and begin a conversation by tossing her brunette hair and smirking at her. Audrie took the dare, practically stomping over to the men.
"Well, do you?" She cast an icy glance at each of the men, saving her coldest look for the woman.
"I don't recall that being a polite greeting," The emerald- eyed girl commented.
The men stared at the brunette with what Audrie called 'those awful doe eyes people get when they're overly obsessed with the opposite gender'. It gave her the urge to act overtly sweet and innocent to the only one who didn't seem to be under the other lady's spell, but only to spite the brunette. Only after glaring at the brunette did Audrie proceed curtsey, and refused to move her eyes away from the girl as she dipped to the ground. From the strange looks that she got from the knights, she knew this was disapproved of. "I don't believe I've had the honor of meeting any of you. I am Audrelinia of Seren. And you are?"
"Prince Jonathan of Conte. It's delightful to meet you." Audrie smiled but shuddered inwardly at the Prince's striking resemblance to his cousin, Duke Roger.
His hair was more of a charcoal black than the Duke's black- brown, but had the same distinct stiffness and slight disarray to it. They're eyes were the same blue, though Duke Roger's paled in comparison to the vibrant and shocking blue of the Prince's, but the Duke had an icy quality to his that Jonathan replaced with sincerity. Or what looked like sincerity, though Audrie thought it more likely to be false, only shown in order to make his subjects feel more at home with them, though all the while planning to steal, trick and betray them. Audrie regarded all nobles this way.
Unfortunately, while Audrie thought about this to herself, she had missed the names of several of the men who had been introducing themselves. She only came to when she saw violet eyes peering into her own, and a hand gently shaking her shoulder.
"I'm terribly sorry, I must have not been paying attention. I'm afraid my mind wanders quite easily." Audrie winced inwardly upon hearing her stiff form of speech; she would never have spoken this way normally. Why did she have to do this? Blinking back to reality, she saw that the men had not continued in the introductions, but were instead staring at her. As she focused on the knights, they began telling their names once more.
"I'm Sir Gareth, and these other's are Sirs Raoul and Alex, and Squire Alan." The second tallest indicated to each as he announced they're names. "And this is Lady Delia, though you may already know her."
"We have not met. It is a pleasure to meet you all." Again a curtsey was required, and this time Audrie managed with only a few wobbles.
Delia managed a quick glare at Audrie before she began cooing to Jonathan. "I've heard of your talents in fencing, my lord. You are far too modest about them, truly." Delia inched up to Jonathan, ignoring the jealousy that seemed to ooze out of the other men's pores, including, it seemed, Squire Alan.
Upon seeing this blatant attempt on Delia's part, Audrie inched over to Squire Alan, of whom she recognized as the one George had been speaking of when he said he knew a squire at the palace. "I've heard that you managed to defeat those terrible beings at the Black City all on your own!" She latched onto the young squire, knowing that it was a lie that would get Jonathan back to the real world. "How did you manage?"
Jon looked as though he could have killed Alanna at that moment, and quickly detached Delia from himself in order to lecture Audrie on his part of the adventure. He had taken only one stride when Audrie let go of Alanna.
"Ah, going to join the conversation, my lord? Wonderful, we were just discussing the concept of whether dueling can be used to decide disputes." Audrie grinned brilliantly at the others, who seemed rather dumbstruck at the sudden change of subject. "I say that the gods have no time in which they can decide which person is in the right, and certainly can't decide whether he wins or loses, thus the dueling is useless and incorrect, but what do you think?"
Apparently there was some manners code that Audrie didn't know about that said it was rude to bring up a previous subject, for no one mentioned the fact that Audrie had switched from an utter lie to an entirely different subject , but instead the knights, one squire and Audrie struck up a heated debate about duels, leaving Delia somewhat left out of the conversation.
It was only when Delia suddenly interrupted with a comment about Audrie's immense interest in this subject did Audrie suddenly remember she was with a group of nobles and not friends. 'Of course,' she thought to herself bitterly, 'A lady's not supposed to be interested in these things. She's supposed to consider them barbaric and such.'
"Perhaps you would rather continue this discussion on a more ladylike subject, Lady Delia?" Audrie continued on through gritted teeth, "Sewing, perhaps? Or is the thought that a needle could draw a drop of blood just too horrendous for your frail heart to consider?" With that Audrie turned on her high heel, nearly slamming into a page as she stomped off, leaving the bewildered group behind her.
~ ~ ~ ~
Audrie sighed as she wandered through the royal garden, bitterly admiring the beauty of the roses and other beautiful flowers. In one patch she saw a wide variety, with everything from a prideful red rose bush to a strong oak tree to bright violets and bleeding hearts tinged a deep crimson. She counted as many as six or seven different kinds of plants, each one lovely in its own way. She sighed as she wistfully picked one of each, thinking of how amazing it was that all of these different plants could live in one place. She continued on to see other patches, all with different kinds of flowers. Everything was so lovely, yet in one neglected corner was barren, the only plant growing there being horseweed, known for being poisonous but also barbs. Nothing would be eating that weed, that was for certain.
Audrie sighed and looked back at all the other plants. Turning back to neglected corner, Audrie decided that someone should care for that weed. The world, she smiled, needed more of them.
'Funny,' she thought, 'How I managed to go from cursing evil nobles to worrying about weeds in the garden. Being in this palace gives me too much free time. It allows me to be around myself too much.' After watering the horseweed, Audrie turned back to continue walking in the garden. She was about to head back inside when a rustle came from behind her. Turning around swiftly she came face to face with Gary.
"What are you doing here?" Audrie snapped, thinking that he had come to bother her further. "I would think you'd be better entertained staying inside with Delia."
Gary chose to ignore the latter comment. "Lovely sunset, don't you think? But perhaps you'd prefer to come inside once it's dark, considering it gets quite cold out here." He offered an arm to her, implying that he would escort her inside. "Don't think that a little cold would keep me from going outside if I wanted to." Audrie snapped, but proceeded to briskly walk past Gary, ignoring his offer of escorting her, and went inside. ~ ~ ~ ~
'As if the day hasn't been long enough,' Audrie muttered as powder was puffed onto her face in order to prepare for dinner. 'Now I have to endure old men rambling about taxes, laws and who knows what else that will make me fall asleep in my soup.'
Looking in the mirror, Audrie sighed at the reflected image of the perfect lady: Her hair was in rich sandy curls piled at the top of her head, and her eyes blinked with an innocence that drove her nuts. The rustling of her crimson silk skirts was merely aggravating, and she grimaced at the pain of shoving her toes into tiny shoes. But at least she fit the part; no one would suspect the wide-eyed girl of stealing from every noble in the country.
~ ~ ~ ~
Gliding out of her room and into the dining room, Audrie was seated next to another girl from the convent, several knights, and, most importantly, the crown prince. Audrie could have sworn that someone had rigged the seating arrangements just to torture her. Seating herself primly, she absentmindedly listened to the dull roar of conversation as she ordered, received, and ate her divinely cooked roast beef in tiny, prude bites. She had been staring blankly at the knight who had been talking last time she checked when she realized that someone was speaking her name.
"Lady Audrelinia? Lady Audrelinia?" It turned out that the only other lady at the table was whispering fervently in her ear, trying to call to her attention that the prince was looking in her direction.
"Yes, my Lord?" Audrie smiled and spoke through a tightly clenched jaw, wishing that the meal was over.
"I was asking you about your homeland, the fief of Seren. We haven't heard any reports from it recently, and, quite frankly, had thought it had been burned down in an attack from bandits."
"Well," Audrie had never even been there, how was she to know anything? "To be entirely honest, it has been several years since I myself have been there, though I have heard nothing of its being attacked by bandits. And what of your fief, um..." Audrie groped for the name of the other young girl at the table, and realized there had been introductions but she had missed them. "Selia," The girl prompted, "Selia of Eagle's Peak." A nod from Audrie encouraged the girl to continue, but now that the prince had focused on her, she began to stutter. "My fief... N-not really much g-going on there. The c-crops were frozen th-though, and... and..." Selia drifted off, causing Audrie to go back to staring at her now-empty plate.
Audrie had continued staring at her plate for twenty minutes when a chill ran down her spine. Looking around quickly, she came to realize that a pair of eyes bored into her backside. The pair of eyes were Duke Roger's, and quickly Audrie began to become uncomfortable under his strong gaze. How long had he been staring at her? It made her shiver just to think that he had taken an interest in her, and it was not before long that she was a millimeter away from ignoring manners entirely and going over to him and slapping him. At the instant she was prepared to do so, against good judgement entirely, dinner ended.
Walking back to her room, Audrie contemplated why on earth Duke Roger would bother to watch her like that. Perhaps he had already noticed his missing undergarments? That couldn't be good, she had plans for them. And she knew he wouldn't be happy when he discovered those plans. She had just placed her hand on the silver doorknob when a small tap on her shoulder caused her to jump.
"Lady Audrelinia?" The voice was Selia's. Apparently the young girl had followed Audrie. "I need some advice."
"Oh?" Audrie arched a brow. "Well then you should ask someone else. I'm not one to go asking about whether your ribbon matches your shoes. Now leave me be."
"You don't understand, it's about Prince Jonathan."
"And you probably know more about him than I do, so why bother me?"
"But you seemed so comfortable when you spoke to him. Not like me. I stutter and don't know what to say so that I don't sound like a fool. Please help me."
"Is that all?" Audrie groaned. She wasn't here to give advice! "Well, if you want to say something and not sound like a fool, don't say foolish things." Tears welled up in the other girl's eyes. "Listen, you asked me for help and this is what you get. The fact is, I doubt Prince Jonathan is very interested in fiefs whatsoever. You would do better to talk to him about something you both have an opinion about."
"Like table manners?" Selia suggested, and received the reaction of a sour face from Audrie.
"I doubt it. Try politics, like whether the latest law is reasonable. Or war tactics, or anything better than that." The look on Selia's face was one of pure horror.
"It would never do to speak of such things to a prince!" Selia gasped, "It would be...improper!"
"And why would that be? I assure you, he probably talks of such things to his friends, so why not with you? If you can prove that you have a brain in that hollow skull of yours, he may actually find you interesting." With that Audrie turned around and went into her room, leaving the bewildered and slightly insulted Selia behind. As she entered she saw a familiar figure sitting on her bed.
"I never knew you gave advice on ladylike subjects,"
~ ~ ~ ~
(More) Author's Notes: Did anybody catch the symbolism in this chapter? If you did, e-mail me what you think the symbolism is, and the first person to guess right gets a hint on several things, Audrie's past included. Yay!! (I love e-mails, so feel free to randomly e-mail me at any time.)
Roses are red, Violets are blue I no own, so you no sue!
Yay!!! Isn't that the best?! By the way, the disclaimer includes the poem cause I found it on another fic and decided it would be perfect for a fic posted on Valentine's day.
Author's Notes: Boo hoo, boo hoo! The whole world hates me! I was supposed to post this on Valentine's day (thus the freaky poem. I get sentimental once in a blue moon. Unfortunately, if you looked at the sky the other night you may have noticed the strange color of the moon...), but the site was closed until Sunday! The world hates me!!! By the way, I never did get those ten reviews, but I'm posting anyways cause I'm addicted to posting and getting reviews. Oh yeah! I'm also posting the first chapter of another fic, Legacy, and The Last Letter, a one-shot fic. Read them! Please! Also, I recently calculated how many chapters I would have at the rate I was writing them (four chapters a day, and a three-week long stay at the palace), and I came out to around... 84 chapters. Of course, this would vary due to the fact that not all days would have four chapters, but I do plan to have an account of what goes on just about each day, and the main climax will probably end up to be unusually long. Thus, since this is far too many chapters, I'm changing it so that each day is a chapter (rather than four) This means that the chapters will be twice as long, but my output rate should be about the same since I write faster than I post (Yay!!). It also means that author notes will probably be twice as long (Boo...) Thanks!
~ ~ ~ ~
Upon entering her room, Audrie shoved the cloth into the drawers of a finely crafted mahogany desk. She would deal with it later, when she wouldn't be noticed. Tomorrow night, perhaps. Until then she could ignore Roger. She was prepared to promptly flop on her bed and do nothing for the rest of the day, something she normally did at home since she only worked in the evenings at the Dancing Dove, when a knock sounded at the door.
"Mi'lady,"
Audrie recognized it as Sarri's voice, and groaned at the prospect that she would never be left alone at this rate. "Yes, what do you want?"
Audrie folded her arms and put on a cross look as she walked over and opened the door. Hopefully Sarri would get implication and leave. Instead the girl just looked plain frightened, thinking that Audrie was going to hit her. Audrie scowled at Sarri's instant reaction of cowering, but instantly replaced it with a kinder look, merely to make the girl say what she wanted and then leaving, rather than just stand there and quiver with fear.
"I....I wanted to suggest that you go outside. It's not proper to just sit in your room all day. All the other ladies will have husbands by the end of this, and you'll be left with no one" A glare from Audrie quickly shut her up.
" I want no one. Or did George tell you otherwise?" Audrie's eyes seemed to turn to ice as she glowered over the young servant. "I didn't come here for a husband and it would do you well to not think that I did. I have no wish to become acquainted with any noble, thus have no reason to go outside."
"B-but people w-would think just that, and become suspicious. I-I only suggested that you go outside t-to prevent suspicion." Sarri stuttered under the cold gaze of Audrie. "Of course," Audrie commented sarcastically, " you only suggested that to make sure I wasn't acting suspiciously. That certainly explains the comment about my being left with no one." Instead of continuing to glower at Sarri, Audrie began to place false earbobs, clipped on rather than pinned, in front of one of the many vanity mirrors in the bathroom. Sarri took this sudden action as a dismissal.
'I hate to admit it, but that girl's right.' Audrie thought to herself, 'If I don't bother to act like I'm looking for a husband, people will suspect. I hate this; unless I act exactly like every other pathetic ditz looking for a man to fawn over, people will think that I'm strange. As if oggling over a handsome man isn't!'
Shaking her head lightly, Audrie finished her preparation for going outside by placing a warm maroon shawl, made out of the softest wool she could've imagined, around her shoulders. She placed her hand on the intricately made door handle, and began to have second thoughts.
'What if I mess up on all of this? Perhaps it'd be better if I just stayed inside all the time. Then I wouldn't have to bother with learning curtseys, and acting sweet to everyone.' Realizing what she was thinking, Audrie reprimanded herself. 'If I thought that way all the time, I'd have gotten no where in life.'
With that thought she nearly slammed the door open, as if declaring to the world that she wasn't afraid to go out. Only after she had done so did she notice a group of knights chatting amiably not far down the hall, standing outside the door of the healer's room. Unfortunately, they had noticed her loud declaration, and were staring at her.
"D'you have a problem with people slamming doors?" Audrie glared at the young lady who was talking with the men. The girl's vibrant emerald eyes flashed at her, and silently dared her to walk over and begin a conversation by tossing her brunette hair and smirking at her. Audrie took the dare, practically stomping over to the men.
"Well, do you?" She cast an icy glance at each of the men, saving her coldest look for the woman.
"I don't recall that being a polite greeting," The emerald- eyed girl commented.
The men stared at the brunette with what Audrie called 'those awful doe eyes people get when they're overly obsessed with the opposite gender'. It gave her the urge to act overtly sweet and innocent to the only one who didn't seem to be under the other lady's spell, but only to spite the brunette. Only after glaring at the brunette did Audrie proceed curtsey, and refused to move her eyes away from the girl as she dipped to the ground. From the strange looks that she got from the knights, she knew this was disapproved of. "I don't believe I've had the honor of meeting any of you. I am Audrelinia of Seren. And you are?"
"Prince Jonathan of Conte. It's delightful to meet you." Audrie smiled but shuddered inwardly at the Prince's striking resemblance to his cousin, Duke Roger.
His hair was more of a charcoal black than the Duke's black- brown, but had the same distinct stiffness and slight disarray to it. They're eyes were the same blue, though Duke Roger's paled in comparison to the vibrant and shocking blue of the Prince's, but the Duke had an icy quality to his that Jonathan replaced with sincerity. Or what looked like sincerity, though Audrie thought it more likely to be false, only shown in order to make his subjects feel more at home with them, though all the while planning to steal, trick and betray them. Audrie regarded all nobles this way.
Unfortunately, while Audrie thought about this to herself, she had missed the names of several of the men who had been introducing themselves. She only came to when she saw violet eyes peering into her own, and a hand gently shaking her shoulder.
"I'm terribly sorry, I must have not been paying attention. I'm afraid my mind wanders quite easily." Audrie winced inwardly upon hearing her stiff form of speech; she would never have spoken this way normally. Why did she have to do this? Blinking back to reality, she saw that the men had not continued in the introductions, but were instead staring at her. As she focused on the knights, they began telling their names once more.
"I'm Sir Gareth, and these other's are Sirs Raoul and Alex, and Squire Alan." The second tallest indicated to each as he announced they're names. "And this is Lady Delia, though you may already know her."
"We have not met. It is a pleasure to meet you all." Again a curtsey was required, and this time Audrie managed with only a few wobbles.
Delia managed a quick glare at Audrie before she began cooing to Jonathan. "I've heard of your talents in fencing, my lord. You are far too modest about them, truly." Delia inched up to Jonathan, ignoring the jealousy that seemed to ooze out of the other men's pores, including, it seemed, Squire Alan.
Upon seeing this blatant attempt on Delia's part, Audrie inched over to Squire Alan, of whom she recognized as the one George had been speaking of when he said he knew a squire at the palace. "I've heard that you managed to defeat those terrible beings at the Black City all on your own!" She latched onto the young squire, knowing that it was a lie that would get Jonathan back to the real world. "How did you manage?"
Jon looked as though he could have killed Alanna at that moment, and quickly detached Delia from himself in order to lecture Audrie on his part of the adventure. He had taken only one stride when Audrie let go of Alanna.
"Ah, going to join the conversation, my lord? Wonderful, we were just discussing the concept of whether dueling can be used to decide disputes." Audrie grinned brilliantly at the others, who seemed rather dumbstruck at the sudden change of subject. "I say that the gods have no time in which they can decide which person is in the right, and certainly can't decide whether he wins or loses, thus the dueling is useless and incorrect, but what do you think?"
Apparently there was some manners code that Audrie didn't know about that said it was rude to bring up a previous subject, for no one mentioned the fact that Audrie had switched from an utter lie to an entirely different subject , but instead the knights, one squire and Audrie struck up a heated debate about duels, leaving Delia somewhat left out of the conversation.
It was only when Delia suddenly interrupted with a comment about Audrie's immense interest in this subject did Audrie suddenly remember she was with a group of nobles and not friends. 'Of course,' she thought to herself bitterly, 'A lady's not supposed to be interested in these things. She's supposed to consider them barbaric and such.'
"Perhaps you would rather continue this discussion on a more ladylike subject, Lady Delia?" Audrie continued on through gritted teeth, "Sewing, perhaps? Or is the thought that a needle could draw a drop of blood just too horrendous for your frail heart to consider?" With that Audrie turned on her high heel, nearly slamming into a page as she stomped off, leaving the bewildered group behind her.
~ ~ ~ ~
Audrie sighed as she wandered through the royal garden, bitterly admiring the beauty of the roses and other beautiful flowers. In one patch she saw a wide variety, with everything from a prideful red rose bush to a strong oak tree to bright violets and bleeding hearts tinged a deep crimson. She counted as many as six or seven different kinds of plants, each one lovely in its own way. She sighed as she wistfully picked one of each, thinking of how amazing it was that all of these different plants could live in one place. She continued on to see other patches, all with different kinds of flowers. Everything was so lovely, yet in one neglected corner was barren, the only plant growing there being horseweed, known for being poisonous but also barbs. Nothing would be eating that weed, that was for certain.
Audrie sighed and looked back at all the other plants. Turning back to neglected corner, Audrie decided that someone should care for that weed. The world, she smiled, needed more of them.
'Funny,' she thought, 'How I managed to go from cursing evil nobles to worrying about weeds in the garden. Being in this palace gives me too much free time. It allows me to be around myself too much.' After watering the horseweed, Audrie turned back to continue walking in the garden. She was about to head back inside when a rustle came from behind her. Turning around swiftly she came face to face with Gary.
"What are you doing here?" Audrie snapped, thinking that he had come to bother her further. "I would think you'd be better entertained staying inside with Delia."
Gary chose to ignore the latter comment. "Lovely sunset, don't you think? But perhaps you'd prefer to come inside once it's dark, considering it gets quite cold out here." He offered an arm to her, implying that he would escort her inside. "Don't think that a little cold would keep me from going outside if I wanted to." Audrie snapped, but proceeded to briskly walk past Gary, ignoring his offer of escorting her, and went inside. ~ ~ ~ ~
'As if the day hasn't been long enough,' Audrie muttered as powder was puffed onto her face in order to prepare for dinner. 'Now I have to endure old men rambling about taxes, laws and who knows what else that will make me fall asleep in my soup.'
Looking in the mirror, Audrie sighed at the reflected image of the perfect lady: Her hair was in rich sandy curls piled at the top of her head, and her eyes blinked with an innocence that drove her nuts. The rustling of her crimson silk skirts was merely aggravating, and she grimaced at the pain of shoving her toes into tiny shoes. But at least she fit the part; no one would suspect the wide-eyed girl of stealing from every noble in the country.
~ ~ ~ ~
Gliding out of her room and into the dining room, Audrie was seated next to another girl from the convent, several knights, and, most importantly, the crown prince. Audrie could have sworn that someone had rigged the seating arrangements just to torture her. Seating herself primly, she absentmindedly listened to the dull roar of conversation as she ordered, received, and ate her divinely cooked roast beef in tiny, prude bites. She had been staring blankly at the knight who had been talking last time she checked when she realized that someone was speaking her name.
"Lady Audrelinia? Lady Audrelinia?" It turned out that the only other lady at the table was whispering fervently in her ear, trying to call to her attention that the prince was looking in her direction.
"Yes, my Lord?" Audrie smiled and spoke through a tightly clenched jaw, wishing that the meal was over.
"I was asking you about your homeland, the fief of Seren. We haven't heard any reports from it recently, and, quite frankly, had thought it had been burned down in an attack from bandits."
"Well," Audrie had never even been there, how was she to know anything? "To be entirely honest, it has been several years since I myself have been there, though I have heard nothing of its being attacked by bandits. And what of your fief, um..." Audrie groped for the name of the other young girl at the table, and realized there had been introductions but she had missed them. "Selia," The girl prompted, "Selia of Eagle's Peak." A nod from Audrie encouraged the girl to continue, but now that the prince had focused on her, she began to stutter. "My fief... N-not really much g-going on there. The c-crops were frozen th-though, and... and..." Selia drifted off, causing Audrie to go back to staring at her now-empty plate.
Audrie had continued staring at her plate for twenty minutes when a chill ran down her spine. Looking around quickly, she came to realize that a pair of eyes bored into her backside. The pair of eyes were Duke Roger's, and quickly Audrie began to become uncomfortable under his strong gaze. How long had he been staring at her? It made her shiver just to think that he had taken an interest in her, and it was not before long that she was a millimeter away from ignoring manners entirely and going over to him and slapping him. At the instant she was prepared to do so, against good judgement entirely, dinner ended.
Walking back to her room, Audrie contemplated why on earth Duke Roger would bother to watch her like that. Perhaps he had already noticed his missing undergarments? That couldn't be good, she had plans for them. And she knew he wouldn't be happy when he discovered those plans. She had just placed her hand on the silver doorknob when a small tap on her shoulder caused her to jump.
"Lady Audrelinia?" The voice was Selia's. Apparently the young girl had followed Audrie. "I need some advice."
"Oh?" Audrie arched a brow. "Well then you should ask someone else. I'm not one to go asking about whether your ribbon matches your shoes. Now leave me be."
"You don't understand, it's about Prince Jonathan."
"And you probably know more about him than I do, so why bother me?"
"But you seemed so comfortable when you spoke to him. Not like me. I stutter and don't know what to say so that I don't sound like a fool. Please help me."
"Is that all?" Audrie groaned. She wasn't here to give advice! "Well, if you want to say something and not sound like a fool, don't say foolish things." Tears welled up in the other girl's eyes. "Listen, you asked me for help and this is what you get. The fact is, I doubt Prince Jonathan is very interested in fiefs whatsoever. You would do better to talk to him about something you both have an opinion about."
"Like table manners?" Selia suggested, and received the reaction of a sour face from Audrie.
"I doubt it. Try politics, like whether the latest law is reasonable. Or war tactics, or anything better than that." The look on Selia's face was one of pure horror.
"It would never do to speak of such things to a prince!" Selia gasped, "It would be...improper!"
"And why would that be? I assure you, he probably talks of such things to his friends, so why not with you? If you can prove that you have a brain in that hollow skull of yours, he may actually find you interesting." With that Audrie turned around and went into her room, leaving the bewildered and slightly insulted Selia behind. As she entered she saw a familiar figure sitting on her bed.
"I never knew you gave advice on ladylike subjects,"
~ ~ ~ ~
(More) Author's Notes: Did anybody catch the symbolism in this chapter? If you did, e-mail me what you think the symbolism is, and the first person to guess right gets a hint on several things, Audrie's past included. Yay!! (I love e-mails, so feel free to randomly e-mail me at any time.)