Disclaimer: Ah, silence. Hark, what sound breaks this golden peace? Uh...
try me ranting about my distinct lack of ownership of ANYTHING. Hint: I own
nothing in this fic beyond maybe Audrie and her hangover cure. Wait no,
that's not mine either. Never mind.
Author's Notes: It's been a while since I last updated... huh. Guess I've been a bit out of it lately. But now it's spring break for me so I can get back in gear and actually start writing again. Right. (Note: Thank you for so many reviews! It was great to find that so many liked my chapter!) Minor note: due to the fact I'm extremely lazy, I'm postponing the contest's winner until the 150th reviewer. This is also partly due to the fact I haven't introduced all pairings fully (In the end there are three possible pairings). Don't be angry, I have no choice!
~ ~ ~ ~
Audrie groaned and flopped over onto her stomach. A strange dead weight on top of her made it extremely difficult to turn over on the soft, luxurious bed she was laying on. Then it occurred to her that there were several things wrong with this picture. Her eyes blinked open slowly as Audrie suddenly realized she had no memory of actually falling asleep, and a sinking feeling hit her as she wondered what on her the strange dead weight on her back was.
Audrie tossed over once more, this time fully awake, and found herself staring at someone's feet. "What the hell?!" Audrie shoved the feet off of her stomach, apparently waking the owner.
"What was that for?" Jered groaned from the opposite side of the bed. He sat up to find himself staring at Audrie, who was red in the face from both anger and embarrassment.
"Just what do you think? Just what am I doing in the same bed as you?!"
"You mean you don't remember?" Jered blushed slightly at some memory that apparently evaded Audrie entirely.
"Re-remember what?" Audrie, unlike Jered, didn't blush slightly, but rather turned a red that any crayon company would have been proud to rip off. "What happened last night?"
"You started singing very off-tune, so loudly that everyone else insisted you shut up. They ended up tossing you in here with you still singing. You won't be able to walk around in public now, you know."
"Singing?!! That's it?!" Audrie's eyes attained the look of a wild boar. "And you nearly gave me a heart attack for that?!"
"Well, yeah. What were you thinking?" Jered winked at Audrie with a cunning look in his eyes.
Audrie's fist met Jered's chin, and not in a way Gandhi would approve of. "What about after that, huh?" The evil glint in Audrie's eye, and perhaps also the fact she had one of her arms wrapped tightly around his neck, turning him slightly blue, and the other holding a knife firmly pressed against his throat, convinced Jered that it would be best to talk.
"After that, I ended up slightly drunk, and since this is my room, I forgot that you drifted off in here and went to sleep. I didn't notice you at the time."
Audrie's hands moved to begin massaging her temples. "Goddess protect me, you are an idiot, Jered."
"It's not my fault you were drunk and got yourself shoved in here!"
"So? Still, people will talk."
"About you? Never. You're much too respected around here to have people talk about you." Jered robustly defended his friend. "Besides, they don't have the nerve to anger you after what you did to Raoul yesterday."
"Great, what a comfort."
Audrie hopped off the bed and stood in the mirror to inspect herself. Upon finding no faults beyond an extremely messy bedhead, Audrie started raking her hair with a brush she had found on the desk. Upon closer inspection of the brush, Audrie turned to glare at Jered. "What are you doing with a court lady's brush?"
"Nothing."
"No lady of the rogue would own such a brush. Where- and for that matter, why--- did you get this brush?"
"No particular place, as no particular reason."
"I'll believe that as soon as I see men crossdress as women." Audrie snorted as she finished brushing her hair and deftly left the room.
Upon entering the din Audrie felt a shooting pain in her temples. "Oh, just great." She muttered as she headed over to the bar. "Do you have any hangover cures?" She looked hopefully to the bartender, who barely restrained a grin.
"Hangover, Spades? I'm not surprised, after last night."
"Yeah, well... yeah." Audrie could have slammed her head on the table for her lack of decent vocabulary for describing her headache, and if the slamming helped her ignore the pain, all the better.
" I do believe I have just the thing." A small twinkle in the bartender's eyes gave Audrie small hope as he winked and then creaked open a door behind the counter. Apparently it led to his stash of alcohol, since he came back with a glass dark with a mysterious liquid.
"And this would be...?" Audrie raised an eyebrow at the brown syrup-like concoction. "Or dare I ask?"
"This would be the hangover cure." The look on Audrie's face was one of surprise and disgust, causing the bartender to laugh outright. "Merely a joke, lass, merely a joke. If you care to know, the best thing for a hangover is by far not so complicated a mixture as this." Instead, the bartender poured a translucent brownish-gold liquid from a pitcher into a glass. "Here, drink this."
"I assume this is somewhat...safer?"
"Of course, of course. I wouldn't give you this, child. This is a poison, requested by you last night."
"I requested a poison last night? Of what type and for what purposes?"
"You said, and I quote, 'the worst you have and plenty of it, so I can shove it up that duke's ass.' As a note of reference, poison doesn't work very well if you put it in a person 'that' way."
"Uh, right." Audrie turned slightly red once more. "Anyway, I guess I'll be going now." Audrie stood and was about to go when she remembered she needed her regular clothes, which happened to still be in George's room.
Rapping lightly on George's door, Audrie waited outside his door. She had just begun to tap her foot impatiently when the door opened. Entering gracefully, Audrie cast a glance to George before sweeping up her folded clothes from the day before.
"I assume you'll be heading back then?" George grinned slightly before winking at her.
"Yes, I will be."
"No goodbyes then?" Another wink.
"No, not really." Audrie glared at him warily as she changed her hair and began fixing it into something more appropriate for a lady.
"Too bad." George managed to wink once more before Audrie shot a nasty look at him.
"Is there something you're trying to tell me rather blatantly yet I still seem to be missing?" Audrie's dark look was one of foreboding. "For that matter, nearly everyone else I've seen today seems to have something in their eye as well. Perhaps there is dust settling."
"So, how was last night?" George questioned lightly, ignoring Audrie's interrogations and ill-boding glares.
"What do you mean by that?"
"You know..." Audrie's questioning look told him she didn't. "You. Jered. One room. More than enough beer."
"Excuse me?!! Nothing happened!!" If Audrie had any choice in the matter, George would have been a tiny pile of smoldering ash at the moment.
"Oh. Well, sorry. Never mind then."
Audrie shoved George out of the room while she was changing, only to stalk out with a final menacing look as she made her way to the door of the inn, only to stop once more and realize that she couldn't be leaving until Raoul and Alan bothered to show up.
"What time is it?" Audrie plopped down in a seat and glared at Jered in implication for the time.
"Can't be past noon, I'm sure."
"What precision." Audrie scoffed at him. "Bartender," She hailed to the old man sitting behind the counter once more, "I've a favor to ask of you. Could you fill up this flask with that hangover cure?"
Audrie tossed her empty flask to the old man, forgetting that he wouldn't be able to catch it. She was about to start apologizing profusely when, to everyone's amazement, the old man caught it with relative ease.
"And you all thought I was just an old geezer." The bartender cackled at everyone's surprise, and went ahead and filled Audrie's flask to the brim. Then he capped it with a cork and tossed it back with ease similar to such previously displayed.
This was a subject of discussion for the next twenty minutes, with several clapping the old man on the back and laughing. Audrie herself just allowed a broad grin and a sip of the mixture provided, sitting on in silence mostly, rather than joining in on the laughter.
Another twenty minutes after the joke of the old bartender died down before there was a loud creek of the door of the inn opening. It turned out to be Raoul with Alan standing not much behind him. Upon their arrival Audrie snapped up into a more 'lady-like' sitting position and crammed the cork back into the neck of the flask.
"You're here." Raoul sighed with relief. "And here I thought George would be telling me you keeled over from a heart attack after being to the inn."
"I'm not nearly so frail, Raoul. Don't insult me." But rather than glaring, Audrie smiled broadly in Raoul's direction. "Beyond a few nasty scares," Audrie glanced maliciously towards George and Jered, "nothing went wrong at all."
~ ~ ~ ~
The trip back to the palace was relatively silent, other than the light snippets of conversation along the lines of "So, did you have a nice time?" and "Everything was alright then?" and, like any normal person, "Did you eat your vegetables while I was gone?" Er, wait no, that's not right, never mind, no one asked that.
"I presume George made sure no one...?" Raoul looked nervously over to Audrie, who struggled to keep her face straight.
"No one what?" Audrie decided to draw out Raoul's discomfort for all it was worth.
"No one, well..."
"What? Really, I'm curious." Actually, she wasn't. Audrie knew perfectly well what Raoul was asking.
"No one groped you." Alan finally answered for his companion. "When we finally arrived at the palace and brought him to the healer's, all he could think about was what would happen if someone tried to flirt with you, or something of the like. He made up his mind that if anything happened to you that was less appropriate than anything at the palace, Jon would sentence him to death by nagging."
"Oh, well, he needn't worry then. Nothing happened." Audrie would have tortured him more by mentioning how she awoke, but then realized that would embarrass her far more than him. Better for the others to be ignorant of her bad singing.
Relief registered on Raoul's face the instant Audrie reassured him, only to grow tense once more when he noticed a shadowy figure not far ahead. Gripping his sword, Raoul nodded to Alan, who seemed to have noticed the figure as well.
As the two silently agreed to rush ahead to protect Audrie, they didn't notice her making gagging faces and facial expressions not unlike mine when I have to watch my little sister for four hours. She had just been searching for a book in one of her bags to slam her head against when her male companions surged ahead to fight the mysterious man in their path.
Audrie noticed her lack of companions just as she found her book, and strived to keep from laughing as she saw them up ahead, barely stopping before they ran into the enemy. They had stopped so suddenly when they realized just who the man was.
As soon as Audrie regained her composure, she greeted the figure. "Roger, what a pleasant surprise." (Cough, cough), "For what reason have you come so far out of your way to escort us back home?"
"Only your safety, my lady. After a night in the city you must be rather... traumatized." The duke smiled brilliantly, making Audrie want to ride over and smack him.
"Traumatized? Poor soul, I do believe you've gotten me mixed up with Delia, now haven't you?" muttering to herself she added, "Mixed up and obviously dropped on his head as a child. Poor thing...not." But she smiled prettily to Roger as she added this, and he didn't seem to notice a thing.
"Perhaps, perhaps." Roger smirked. " Well then I've come for no reason, haven't I?"
"Apparently so." Audrie resisted the urge to trot her horse over and tie his loincloths in a knot.
"Well, I suppose we're still both heading in the same place, aren't we?" Roger smiled once more, this time keeping it plastered falsely on his face.
Audrie nodded curtly and nudged her horse ahead to join the others. But now that Roger had joined the group, the mood dampened significantly, and barely a word was spoken. Audrie kept her eyes coldly on the road ahead, refusing to bristle or even react at all at Roger's intent gaze that bored into her back.
Roger hadn't come just to make sure she was alright, that much Audrie knew. But she couldn't even fathom his actual reason. It continued to plague her as the group plodded on towards their destination.
Finally, Roger broke the silence. "Tell me, Audrie, is there anyone courting you?"
Audrie fought her regurgitation reflex upon hearing the duke interest in her personal life. "Why would that be of importance to one of your stature?" She avoided the question like the plague.
"Curiosity, you could say."
"Have you no curiosity for, say, Raoul's personal life? Certainly his is of more interest than mine."
"So you have none then?"
Finally, Audrie began to show signs of annoyance. Her eyelid began to tick slightly, and it was obvious she was straining to look emotionless. "Perhaps a different subject would be better."
"Oh no," Alan broke in, "I like this one very much, my lady." Audrie glared at Alan with such annoyance he was afraid what she would do to him later.
"Has no one any respect for privacy?" A plan struck in Audrie's mind. "Certainly the king wouldn't like to hear of such rudeness to a lady." Blackmail. Ah, the ultimate solution to everything.
"I was only curious whether you had any plans for, say, breakfast tomorrow morning." The duke's false smile turned to one which, to Audrie's dismay, was in fact rather sincere.
A pit formed in Audrie's stomach. "And what does that have to do with my having suitors?" Her tone remained one of ice.
"Having a suitor would take up much of your time, preventing you from having breakfast with me."
"I'm not sure of my plans for any breakfasts in the future. Perhaps when they are more... imminent, I will be more sure of them."
"If you have no particular commitments, then, perhaps tomorrow would be a suitable day? Is that soon enough for you?"
Audrie silently cursed herself for her choice of words. "Breakfast tomorrow would be lovely. I look forward to it." The words left a nasty taste on Audrie's tongue, and she knew she wouldn't be looking forward to anything tomorrow.
"Perfect." The duke nodded warmly to her, and then with less enthusiasm to the others of the party.
While they had been having their conversation, the group had drawn close to the palace, and now they were close enough that there was no more need of talking. They rode to the stables where Audrie once more left her horse to be taken care of by others, as did Duke Roger. The other two, however, chose to care for their horses on their own.
Audrie stalked off in a dark mood, to the notice of Raoul and Alan, but apparently not to the duke.
~ ~ ~ ~
"Something wrong?"
"Hmm?" Audrie looked up from the letter she was writing to find Raoul standing in the doorway.
"You seemed angry. What happened?"
Audrie laughed almost bitterly. "You were there, weren't you?" She shook her head, sandy blond hair swishing back and forth. "It wasn't anything you did. It's just now I'm trapped into having breakfast with Roger. To be entirely honest, I cannot stand him."
"You can't?" Raoul stared in disbelief. "Why not? He seems relatively nice to me."
"And superior, snotty, and a general pain." Audrie sighed. "He seems to be determined to drive me insane with the random 'kindness' of dropping in when least needed.
Raoul decided to drop the topic. After all, the last time he treaded on dangerous grounds, Audrie refused to speak to him afterwards. "So, are you looking forward to the Midwinter balls next week?" Raoul thought he was switching from an unpleasant topic to one Audrie would be more happy to discuss, but he had chosen the wrong second topic.
"..." Audrie refused to comment.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"That means I'm as loath to go to the festival as I am to Roger's little tea party."
"I never thought I'd meet a lady who hated dancing as much as I do." Raoul grinned.
"Don't even bring that up!"
"Why not? What's wrong with a lady not liking dancing?"
"The fact that I have no clue how to dance, let alone whether I like to or not!"
"You don't know how to dance? Not in the least?"
Audrie shook her head sadly. Raoul looked at her incredulously. Like any typical noble, he couldn't imagine a lady who didn't know how to dance at least the most simple of dances.
"Do you want me to teach you?" Raoul suggested this alternative, but doubted she could learn in such little time. Then he wondered just what she did at that convent of hers anyways.
Audrie wanted to learn formal dancing about as much as she wanted to eat chicken feet at a dim sum restaurant (AN: I had dim sum this morning, don't blame me for the anachronisms!), but realized that if she didn't learn by that time she would be doomed to fall flat on her face in the middle of the ball.
After a seven minute pause, Audrie finally nodded. "But don't blame me if I step on your toes!"
Several toe-steppings and trippings on the hems of dresses later, along with one or two experiences of Audrie's face meeting the ground in a not so pleasant manner, Audrie could finally manage to dance one of the more simpler steps without killing Raoul's feet. Unfortunately, they were already long dead. Fortunately, it was time for dinner.
"You need to go on a diet." Raoul told Audrie as the two stepped out of her room to head towards the dining hall.
"And why should I?" Audrie glared up to him.
"Because otherwise your putting all of your weight onto my feet will be the death of me."
"And if you keep up with those manners, I won't be devastated at all." But Audrie slipped him a small grin as she left to find her seat next to.... the most boring old men of the entire court. Assuming she survived the midwinter festivals, the seating arrangements would still probably force her to die of boredom.
Author's Notes: It's been a while since I last updated... huh. Guess I've been a bit out of it lately. But now it's spring break for me so I can get back in gear and actually start writing again. Right. (Note: Thank you for so many reviews! It was great to find that so many liked my chapter!) Minor note: due to the fact I'm extremely lazy, I'm postponing the contest's winner until the 150th reviewer. This is also partly due to the fact I haven't introduced all pairings fully (In the end there are three possible pairings). Don't be angry, I have no choice!
~ ~ ~ ~
Audrie groaned and flopped over onto her stomach. A strange dead weight on top of her made it extremely difficult to turn over on the soft, luxurious bed she was laying on. Then it occurred to her that there were several things wrong with this picture. Her eyes blinked open slowly as Audrie suddenly realized she had no memory of actually falling asleep, and a sinking feeling hit her as she wondered what on her the strange dead weight on her back was.
Audrie tossed over once more, this time fully awake, and found herself staring at someone's feet. "What the hell?!" Audrie shoved the feet off of her stomach, apparently waking the owner.
"What was that for?" Jered groaned from the opposite side of the bed. He sat up to find himself staring at Audrie, who was red in the face from both anger and embarrassment.
"Just what do you think? Just what am I doing in the same bed as you?!"
"You mean you don't remember?" Jered blushed slightly at some memory that apparently evaded Audrie entirely.
"Re-remember what?" Audrie, unlike Jered, didn't blush slightly, but rather turned a red that any crayon company would have been proud to rip off. "What happened last night?"
"You started singing very off-tune, so loudly that everyone else insisted you shut up. They ended up tossing you in here with you still singing. You won't be able to walk around in public now, you know."
"Singing?!! That's it?!" Audrie's eyes attained the look of a wild boar. "And you nearly gave me a heart attack for that?!"
"Well, yeah. What were you thinking?" Jered winked at Audrie with a cunning look in his eyes.
Audrie's fist met Jered's chin, and not in a way Gandhi would approve of. "What about after that, huh?" The evil glint in Audrie's eye, and perhaps also the fact she had one of her arms wrapped tightly around his neck, turning him slightly blue, and the other holding a knife firmly pressed against his throat, convinced Jered that it would be best to talk.
"After that, I ended up slightly drunk, and since this is my room, I forgot that you drifted off in here and went to sleep. I didn't notice you at the time."
Audrie's hands moved to begin massaging her temples. "Goddess protect me, you are an idiot, Jered."
"It's not my fault you were drunk and got yourself shoved in here!"
"So? Still, people will talk."
"About you? Never. You're much too respected around here to have people talk about you." Jered robustly defended his friend. "Besides, they don't have the nerve to anger you after what you did to Raoul yesterday."
"Great, what a comfort."
Audrie hopped off the bed and stood in the mirror to inspect herself. Upon finding no faults beyond an extremely messy bedhead, Audrie started raking her hair with a brush she had found on the desk. Upon closer inspection of the brush, Audrie turned to glare at Jered. "What are you doing with a court lady's brush?"
"Nothing."
"No lady of the rogue would own such a brush. Where- and for that matter, why--- did you get this brush?"
"No particular place, as no particular reason."
"I'll believe that as soon as I see men crossdress as women." Audrie snorted as she finished brushing her hair and deftly left the room.
Upon entering the din Audrie felt a shooting pain in her temples. "Oh, just great." She muttered as she headed over to the bar. "Do you have any hangover cures?" She looked hopefully to the bartender, who barely restrained a grin.
"Hangover, Spades? I'm not surprised, after last night."
"Yeah, well... yeah." Audrie could have slammed her head on the table for her lack of decent vocabulary for describing her headache, and if the slamming helped her ignore the pain, all the better.
" I do believe I have just the thing." A small twinkle in the bartender's eyes gave Audrie small hope as he winked and then creaked open a door behind the counter. Apparently it led to his stash of alcohol, since he came back with a glass dark with a mysterious liquid.
"And this would be...?" Audrie raised an eyebrow at the brown syrup-like concoction. "Or dare I ask?"
"This would be the hangover cure." The look on Audrie's face was one of surprise and disgust, causing the bartender to laugh outright. "Merely a joke, lass, merely a joke. If you care to know, the best thing for a hangover is by far not so complicated a mixture as this." Instead, the bartender poured a translucent brownish-gold liquid from a pitcher into a glass. "Here, drink this."
"I assume this is somewhat...safer?"
"Of course, of course. I wouldn't give you this, child. This is a poison, requested by you last night."
"I requested a poison last night? Of what type and for what purposes?"
"You said, and I quote, 'the worst you have and plenty of it, so I can shove it up that duke's ass.' As a note of reference, poison doesn't work very well if you put it in a person 'that' way."
"Uh, right." Audrie turned slightly red once more. "Anyway, I guess I'll be going now." Audrie stood and was about to go when she remembered she needed her regular clothes, which happened to still be in George's room.
Rapping lightly on George's door, Audrie waited outside his door. She had just begun to tap her foot impatiently when the door opened. Entering gracefully, Audrie cast a glance to George before sweeping up her folded clothes from the day before.
"I assume you'll be heading back then?" George grinned slightly before winking at her.
"Yes, I will be."
"No goodbyes then?" Another wink.
"No, not really." Audrie glared at him warily as she changed her hair and began fixing it into something more appropriate for a lady.
"Too bad." George managed to wink once more before Audrie shot a nasty look at him.
"Is there something you're trying to tell me rather blatantly yet I still seem to be missing?" Audrie's dark look was one of foreboding. "For that matter, nearly everyone else I've seen today seems to have something in their eye as well. Perhaps there is dust settling."
"So, how was last night?" George questioned lightly, ignoring Audrie's interrogations and ill-boding glares.
"What do you mean by that?"
"You know..." Audrie's questioning look told him she didn't. "You. Jered. One room. More than enough beer."
"Excuse me?!! Nothing happened!!" If Audrie had any choice in the matter, George would have been a tiny pile of smoldering ash at the moment.
"Oh. Well, sorry. Never mind then."
Audrie shoved George out of the room while she was changing, only to stalk out with a final menacing look as she made her way to the door of the inn, only to stop once more and realize that she couldn't be leaving until Raoul and Alan bothered to show up.
"What time is it?" Audrie plopped down in a seat and glared at Jered in implication for the time.
"Can't be past noon, I'm sure."
"What precision." Audrie scoffed at him. "Bartender," She hailed to the old man sitting behind the counter once more, "I've a favor to ask of you. Could you fill up this flask with that hangover cure?"
Audrie tossed her empty flask to the old man, forgetting that he wouldn't be able to catch it. She was about to start apologizing profusely when, to everyone's amazement, the old man caught it with relative ease.
"And you all thought I was just an old geezer." The bartender cackled at everyone's surprise, and went ahead and filled Audrie's flask to the brim. Then he capped it with a cork and tossed it back with ease similar to such previously displayed.
This was a subject of discussion for the next twenty minutes, with several clapping the old man on the back and laughing. Audrie herself just allowed a broad grin and a sip of the mixture provided, sitting on in silence mostly, rather than joining in on the laughter.
Another twenty minutes after the joke of the old bartender died down before there was a loud creek of the door of the inn opening. It turned out to be Raoul with Alan standing not much behind him. Upon their arrival Audrie snapped up into a more 'lady-like' sitting position and crammed the cork back into the neck of the flask.
"You're here." Raoul sighed with relief. "And here I thought George would be telling me you keeled over from a heart attack after being to the inn."
"I'm not nearly so frail, Raoul. Don't insult me." But rather than glaring, Audrie smiled broadly in Raoul's direction. "Beyond a few nasty scares," Audrie glanced maliciously towards George and Jered, "nothing went wrong at all."
~ ~ ~ ~
The trip back to the palace was relatively silent, other than the light snippets of conversation along the lines of "So, did you have a nice time?" and "Everything was alright then?" and, like any normal person, "Did you eat your vegetables while I was gone?" Er, wait no, that's not right, never mind, no one asked that.
"I presume George made sure no one...?" Raoul looked nervously over to Audrie, who struggled to keep her face straight.
"No one what?" Audrie decided to draw out Raoul's discomfort for all it was worth.
"No one, well..."
"What? Really, I'm curious." Actually, she wasn't. Audrie knew perfectly well what Raoul was asking.
"No one groped you." Alan finally answered for his companion. "When we finally arrived at the palace and brought him to the healer's, all he could think about was what would happen if someone tried to flirt with you, or something of the like. He made up his mind that if anything happened to you that was less appropriate than anything at the palace, Jon would sentence him to death by nagging."
"Oh, well, he needn't worry then. Nothing happened." Audrie would have tortured him more by mentioning how she awoke, but then realized that would embarrass her far more than him. Better for the others to be ignorant of her bad singing.
Relief registered on Raoul's face the instant Audrie reassured him, only to grow tense once more when he noticed a shadowy figure not far ahead. Gripping his sword, Raoul nodded to Alan, who seemed to have noticed the figure as well.
As the two silently agreed to rush ahead to protect Audrie, they didn't notice her making gagging faces and facial expressions not unlike mine when I have to watch my little sister for four hours. She had just been searching for a book in one of her bags to slam her head against when her male companions surged ahead to fight the mysterious man in their path.
Audrie noticed her lack of companions just as she found her book, and strived to keep from laughing as she saw them up ahead, barely stopping before they ran into the enemy. They had stopped so suddenly when they realized just who the man was.
As soon as Audrie regained her composure, she greeted the figure. "Roger, what a pleasant surprise." (Cough, cough), "For what reason have you come so far out of your way to escort us back home?"
"Only your safety, my lady. After a night in the city you must be rather... traumatized." The duke smiled brilliantly, making Audrie want to ride over and smack him.
"Traumatized? Poor soul, I do believe you've gotten me mixed up with Delia, now haven't you?" muttering to herself she added, "Mixed up and obviously dropped on his head as a child. Poor thing...not." But she smiled prettily to Roger as she added this, and he didn't seem to notice a thing.
"Perhaps, perhaps." Roger smirked. " Well then I've come for no reason, haven't I?"
"Apparently so." Audrie resisted the urge to trot her horse over and tie his loincloths in a knot.
"Well, I suppose we're still both heading in the same place, aren't we?" Roger smiled once more, this time keeping it plastered falsely on his face.
Audrie nodded curtly and nudged her horse ahead to join the others. But now that Roger had joined the group, the mood dampened significantly, and barely a word was spoken. Audrie kept her eyes coldly on the road ahead, refusing to bristle or even react at all at Roger's intent gaze that bored into her back.
Roger hadn't come just to make sure she was alright, that much Audrie knew. But she couldn't even fathom his actual reason. It continued to plague her as the group plodded on towards their destination.
Finally, Roger broke the silence. "Tell me, Audrie, is there anyone courting you?"
Audrie fought her regurgitation reflex upon hearing the duke interest in her personal life. "Why would that be of importance to one of your stature?" She avoided the question like the plague.
"Curiosity, you could say."
"Have you no curiosity for, say, Raoul's personal life? Certainly his is of more interest than mine."
"So you have none then?"
Finally, Audrie began to show signs of annoyance. Her eyelid began to tick slightly, and it was obvious she was straining to look emotionless. "Perhaps a different subject would be better."
"Oh no," Alan broke in, "I like this one very much, my lady." Audrie glared at Alan with such annoyance he was afraid what she would do to him later.
"Has no one any respect for privacy?" A plan struck in Audrie's mind. "Certainly the king wouldn't like to hear of such rudeness to a lady." Blackmail. Ah, the ultimate solution to everything.
"I was only curious whether you had any plans for, say, breakfast tomorrow morning." The duke's false smile turned to one which, to Audrie's dismay, was in fact rather sincere.
A pit formed in Audrie's stomach. "And what does that have to do with my having suitors?" Her tone remained one of ice.
"Having a suitor would take up much of your time, preventing you from having breakfast with me."
"I'm not sure of my plans for any breakfasts in the future. Perhaps when they are more... imminent, I will be more sure of them."
"If you have no particular commitments, then, perhaps tomorrow would be a suitable day? Is that soon enough for you?"
Audrie silently cursed herself for her choice of words. "Breakfast tomorrow would be lovely. I look forward to it." The words left a nasty taste on Audrie's tongue, and she knew she wouldn't be looking forward to anything tomorrow.
"Perfect." The duke nodded warmly to her, and then with less enthusiasm to the others of the party.
While they had been having their conversation, the group had drawn close to the palace, and now they were close enough that there was no more need of talking. They rode to the stables where Audrie once more left her horse to be taken care of by others, as did Duke Roger. The other two, however, chose to care for their horses on their own.
Audrie stalked off in a dark mood, to the notice of Raoul and Alan, but apparently not to the duke.
~ ~ ~ ~
"Something wrong?"
"Hmm?" Audrie looked up from the letter she was writing to find Raoul standing in the doorway.
"You seemed angry. What happened?"
Audrie laughed almost bitterly. "You were there, weren't you?" She shook her head, sandy blond hair swishing back and forth. "It wasn't anything you did. It's just now I'm trapped into having breakfast with Roger. To be entirely honest, I cannot stand him."
"You can't?" Raoul stared in disbelief. "Why not? He seems relatively nice to me."
"And superior, snotty, and a general pain." Audrie sighed. "He seems to be determined to drive me insane with the random 'kindness' of dropping in when least needed.
Raoul decided to drop the topic. After all, the last time he treaded on dangerous grounds, Audrie refused to speak to him afterwards. "So, are you looking forward to the Midwinter balls next week?" Raoul thought he was switching from an unpleasant topic to one Audrie would be more happy to discuss, but he had chosen the wrong second topic.
"..." Audrie refused to comment.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"That means I'm as loath to go to the festival as I am to Roger's little tea party."
"I never thought I'd meet a lady who hated dancing as much as I do." Raoul grinned.
"Don't even bring that up!"
"Why not? What's wrong with a lady not liking dancing?"
"The fact that I have no clue how to dance, let alone whether I like to or not!"
"You don't know how to dance? Not in the least?"
Audrie shook her head sadly. Raoul looked at her incredulously. Like any typical noble, he couldn't imagine a lady who didn't know how to dance at least the most simple of dances.
"Do you want me to teach you?" Raoul suggested this alternative, but doubted she could learn in such little time. Then he wondered just what she did at that convent of hers anyways.
Audrie wanted to learn formal dancing about as much as she wanted to eat chicken feet at a dim sum restaurant (AN: I had dim sum this morning, don't blame me for the anachronisms!), but realized that if she didn't learn by that time she would be doomed to fall flat on her face in the middle of the ball.
After a seven minute pause, Audrie finally nodded. "But don't blame me if I step on your toes!"
Several toe-steppings and trippings on the hems of dresses later, along with one or two experiences of Audrie's face meeting the ground in a not so pleasant manner, Audrie could finally manage to dance one of the more simpler steps without killing Raoul's feet. Unfortunately, they were already long dead. Fortunately, it was time for dinner.
"You need to go on a diet." Raoul told Audrie as the two stepped out of her room to head towards the dining hall.
"And why should I?" Audrie glared up to him.
"Because otherwise your putting all of your weight onto my feet will be the death of me."
"And if you keep up with those manners, I won't be devastated at all." But Audrie slipped him a small grin as she left to find her seat next to.... the most boring old men of the entire court. Assuming she survived the midwinter festivals, the seating arrangements would still probably force her to die of boredom.