A/N well…I'm sure no one wants to hear any of my pitiful excuses for not updating :oP….so, on we go!

Enjoy!

Last chapter:

-Jon is planning to take part of the Tortallan army up to Trebond, where the Scanrans are attacking, while Raoul takes the other half of the army to defend the Eastern border from Tusaine

-Alanna had made it back to the palace, has finished her bath, and finds out all her clothes have been taken away for cleaning, leaving only a purple dress

-Thayet, George and Alanna are all presently congregated in front of the door to Jon's study…..

George and Alanna both stopped talking abruptly, and all three looked at the tall figure leaning on the now-open doorframe. The King of Tortall – His Majesty Jonathan of Conté, surveyed the crowd in front of his door with amused eyes, hands crossed over his chest. There was a careless grace and elegance about him that made most other people seem clumsy and awkward in contrast. His gaze landed on Thayet, as the green-eyed girl mastered the urge to turn away, and stared back at him determinedly.

"Thayet", Jon inclined his head towards her, his deep masculine voice holding a hint of frostiness as he acknowledged the girl who had turned down his offer of marriage. It was not enough to be a reason to start an argument, but clear enough to let Thayet know that he had still not forgiven her. George and Alanna looked on apprehensively from one to the other.

"Jonathan", Thayet coolly returned the greeting after a few minutes of awkward silence. The tense atmosphere eased up slightly – as both acknowledged the other's existence – even though the situation was ridiculously formal.

"Well? Aren't you going to welcome the rest of us?" George asked in what was obviously an attempt to make everyone feel more comfortable.

"Welcome?" Jonathan started, coming out of his reverie at the sound of George's voice. He stared at him, as if he had forgotten the other man was there. "Of course", he grinned, quickly slipping back to his normal self. "In fact, if YOU hadn't come now, I'd probably be sending out a search party soon", Jon added jokingly. "Where have you been, anyways?"

George looked in Alanna's direction. "Making sure SHE arrived back in one piece", he said, chuckling when Alanna made a loud noise of protest. "Isn't it bad enough that I have to make my entrance wearing a dress?" She muttered vehemently under her breath, "and NOW he's suggesting I can't take care of myself!"

Her muffled mutterings had drawn the King's attention onto herself. Alanna shifted restlessly as she looked up into that pair of unsettlingly familiar, sapphire blue eyes. She had to give Jon grudging credit that, despite the heavy load of stress on his shoulders, he still managed to retain that ever-handsome, heart-wrenching appearance.

With a vague smile, Jon took her hand and brushed it gently with his lips – the proper greeting for a lady. There was a twinkle in his eyes as the rest of her companions waited with baited breath for the explosion to occur. Alanna rarely let the slip pass when anyone referred to her as a lady rather then a knight. Apparently, Jonathan was an exception, for the anticipated explosion never came. Alanna was presently engaged in a self struggle to break her connecting gaze with Jon. With difficulty, she managed to wrench her eyes away, and snatched her hand away from his firm grasp. 'And I take it this is my cue to curtsy?" Alanna snapped mordantly.

"Well", Jon said dryly, "in the attire you're in, I didn't think it was proper to make you bow and kneel. Assuming, of course" the king couldn't resist adding, "that your dress allowed you to kneel." His eyes traveled the length of the lilac dress, making his Champion shift uncomfortably from one foot to the other. Her skirt made soft, rustling sounds to accompany her movements, and Jonathan felt his frustrations from the past few weeks start to ebb away. Part of his mind found it strange that no matter what he had tried to do to went his feelings, nothing had worked – and now the sounds of rustling silk could clam him down so.

Blushing until she was the same colour as her flaming hair, Alanna glanced down at the lilac dress. She had been so preoccupied with her own internal struggle that it had temporarily slipped her mind that she WAS wearing feminine clothing. Now, with Jon's pretend-mocking tones, it all came rushing back to her. Alanna had half a mind to give Jonathan a hard whack around the head for laughing at her. But as it probably would NOT be a good idea to give your King a concussion the first day back to the palace, she settled for a sharp jab on the arm. "Of course I can kneel!" Alanna retorted, incensed. "Do you want me to prove it?!"

"Oww!" Jon rubbed his 'injured' arm, but not managing to wipe that silly grin off his face. "That's alright, we'll save that for another day. But", he added, raising his dark eyebrows, "you DID say you were going to curtsy."

Alanna glared at him and once again resisted the violent temptation of inflicting injuries to her King. 'It's only a curtsy', she consoled herself, though her eyes were still shooting daggers at Jon. Muttering under her breath, Alanna swept up her skirts the way Mistress Cooper had taught her so long ago, and prepared to drop a curtsy. 'You can do this, just bend your knees…' An unlucky step forward caused her foot to catch on the floor-length hemline of her skirt, and she stumbled backwards.

Jon's strong arms automatically reached out to steady her, but George had already caught the unbalanced girl in his firm embrace. The King blushed crimson as his hand closed around thin air. Quite apart from the humiliation, Jon felt an area somewhere near his heart clench as he saw George's arm go protectively around Alanna's waist with a soft "whoa there". He would rather jump into a gorge than admit it, but he was jealous watching Alanna and George together. Part of him wished the Lady Knight had given him a different answer to the fateful question he had proposed twice before. The fleeting feeling vanished, but caused Jonathan to blush even more at the very though of it, and he had never been more relieved that his friends were not mind readers.

Recovering his slipping wits, Jon chuckled as George set Alanna back on her feet. The girl was flushed with embarrassment, and would not meet anyone's eyes. "At least you attempted", he whispered very audibly to a glowering Alanna. "Better luck next time".

Alanna opened her mouth to retort pointingly that there was not going to BE a next time, when the door was flung open wider, and a gleeful Gary pounced on her, closely followed by Raoul. Between the two, Alanna caught a glimpse of the study, filled with chairs clustered around the desk, which was filled with maps and various scrolls.

"Its about time!" Gary intended to sling an arm around Alanna's shoulders, but due to height differences, ended up flinging the arm around her neck, almost cutting off her air supply. "We were starting to think you had gotten lost in the palace."

"Gary, you're strangling me", Alanna gasped, as the big man led her into Jon's study. As soon as he let go of her, she made a beeline across the soft, deep-red carpet, and sank into a plush chair in the most unladylike manner, grateful that her two friends made no comment about her attire. The dress had caused more humiliation than she had bargained for, and Alanna made a self-resolution that it would be a long time before she would venture near a skirt. She's had her share of embarrassing incidents.

"So, that's the general plan." Jonathan finished explaining his newly formed plan to the newcomers. Thayet had seemed intensely interested in the oak bookcase behind Jon's desk the whole time he had been talking, but she nodded resolutely along with the others.

"Trebond-" Alanna eyed Jon thoughtfully. War was something she could handle, unlike skirts… "That'll take us a week at least. The Scanrans could be LIVING there by then."

"And Raoul, he's not going to manage the journey to Atlan in a few days." George added dubiously.

"If you two have a better plan, I'll be more than delighted to hear it." Jon snapped, glaring at the pair of them.

George sighed. "Jon, stop jumping down our throats, we're just trying to help." He started placating, while Alanna reached for the jug of fruit juice.

"If 'help' comes in the form of pointing out every little flaw in the plan, than I don't want to hear it." Jon snarled. He knew he was being unreasonable, and that they WERE trying to help. Fixing flaws was an important part of the planning stage for battle, and he knew it well. But he hated the way they doubled up to gang up on him - belittling him. It's as if he wasn't feeling stupid enough already!

Alanna, who's patience had never been a strong point, felt her cheeks grow hot, and her temper starting to simmer. Her hand trembled as she tried to keep a rein on her anger, but murdering Jon with her glare. If looks could kill…

Unfortunately, in her urgency to get her anger under something that resembled control, Alanna lost her firm grip on the cup of iced fruit juice. Watching in helpless horror, she saw the glass slip beyond the reach of her fingers and fall in slow motion. It clattered onto the polished, hard desk, and shattered into what could only be described as thousands of fragments.

The noise caused everyone to turn and stare at her, as the ruby-red liquid rushed over the edge of Jon's desk, and cascaded down onto Alanna's purple dress. The juice slowly infiltrated into the silk material, staining it a deep red. Alanna jumped up before it had a chance to spread farther, only to have the damned juice trickle down the length of the dress, making it look like it had sprouted veins.

Mortified, Alanna looked up at everyone, who were looking back at her with a mixed expression of amusement and apprehension. 'This is too much, this dress!' Alanna thought, emphasizing the last word vehemently. 'Whoever said dresses made the wearer look elegant must have been dropped on their head as a baby!' She could once again feel the colour flaming into her cheeks, not un-like the deep read liquid in its dominating conquest over her lilac dress.

Alanna caught Jon's sapphire blue eyes, as he struggled to contain his laughter. It was probably not a good idea to push her over the edge at the moment, seeing as how she was already irked with him. In silence, he gave her stare for stare, until Alanna finally tore away her gaze. He couldn't pretend he didn't feel his heart beating erratically as he stared at her crimson face. Damn, he was trapped every time he looked at her. She could weave her spell around him all she wanted, and he knew he would have no choice but to dance to her music.

Shaking his head to clear his jumbled mind, Jon bought time for himself by helping George and Raoul clear the stacks of documents off his desk, some of which were already tinged with the read color of the juice. He didn't look up, in case Alanna was looking at him.

She wasn't. Alanna was a bit preoccupied trying to keep the juice from soaking into the carpet. Little tendrils of hair whipping around her face, until she finally came to her senses and blurted out that she was going to go clean up. Still spluttering rather incoherently, she stood up as Gary forced out 'go ahead'. Nobody stopped her, as she almost tripped over her skirt again in her haste to exit the room.

Everyone stayed still, not daring to look at each other, until the door clicked shut behind the flustered Lady Knight. Giving her three seconds to get out of ear-shot, all 5 of her friends burst out into uncontrollable laughter. 

A/N lolz, did I bore you all into unconsciousness? everyone nods Sorry about the absolutely boring chapter, I had a bit of a writers block…please review!!…if you're not all snoring from the boredom… :oP