A/N: Sorry it took so long, my life has gone completely hectic plus the
Internet has been down for a long time. I changed 'Lord Bruno' to 'Duke
Bruno'; after my little bro pointed out that 'Lord' or 'milord' was
something you called someone, and not a title.
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William was dazed. A woman! It was a woman who had followed them all that way; showed him the cave; killed the man; saved the prince . . . It was unbelievable. Women didn't do things like that. Women wore dresses, and danced, and embroidered, and curtsied, giggled and blushed horrendously, and were polite to the prince. This woman, on the other hand, wore breaches and a tunic, didn't dance-she was graceful, true, but in a lithe, muscular way-, looked like she would rather stab herself repeatedly with the needle than use it to embroider with, bowed, kept a blank face, and told the prince off quite easily. William felt like his world had been turned on its head-never before had there been a situation like this. And still, despite the oddity of it, he found himself ready to accept Tayli into the group, accept her fighting skill, and carry on normally. So what if there had never been a female fighter before-you could always try new things. Besides, it was quite funny how she had beaten Sir Jonathan that easily.
All of the knights were completely dazed, except for Sir Michael, who looked as unfazed as if he'd just had a talk with a squire or page. He was bustling around, pouring wine for everyone to help them get over the shock.
When he'd taken a good gulp of his, Sir Luke managed to come out with the intelligent remark,
"A woman!"
"No," Michael corrected mildly, "A Tayli. There's a difference." Luke looked at him blankly.
"Never mind," Michael sighed, "You'll understand later on."
"I think I understand now," William said slowly. "True, a woman is a woman, but part of our view of womankind is how they act-and she acts completely different."
Michael saluted William silently with his wineglass before taking a meditative sip. "Does anyone feel very strongly that we shouldn't accept her?" William pondered this a bit before shaking his head decisively. He saw that others thought longer and that some shook their heads with some reluctance, including Sir Jon.
Michael turned to Terian, who had sat staring into his wine since it had been given to him. "Prince Terian? What do you think?"
Terian looked up, surprised. "I have a say in this?" William chuckled softly, as did many of the other men.
"She's protecting you," Michael said gravely before breaking into a smile.
"Then by all means, let her do so," the youth replied, before adding as an afterthought, "She's beautiful." Some of the men had distant expressions on their faces and William was shocked to hear himself think, * Yes, beautiful. And graceful, too. Absolutely gorgeous . . . * He chased the thoughts from his mind angrily. He was supposed to be working with this woman, not courting her! From the way Sir Luke and a few of the other knights were looking, William could tell, with a sense of foreboding, that they were thinking along the same lines as he had been, and that they didn't have the same inhibitions as he did. If they could get over the fact that she wasn't a conventional woman, there would be some serious flirting and probably lusting going on. And that was never a good thing, leading to jealousy, anger, and whatnot. Though it would be funny to watch them at it; William was already fairly sure that this woman could not or would not be seduced.
When Michael cleared his throat they all snapped out of their daydreams sheepishly. The eldest knight looked grim. "Let it be understood that we aren't here for a bit of let's-play-that-we're-at-court. Tayli will be your comrade; she will be equal to one of us if not better. You are to get to know her, but flirting is out of the question! I don't have time to deal with any of the side effects. A warrior stays a warrior, and if there is one thing I know for sure, it is that flirting with her just might be the thing to drive Tayli off. And, considering she's had to save the Prince 3 time for us already, it looks like she's more capable than we are. So let's not change that, men!"
A few of the knights looked abashed, a few were scandalized that Michael would think that they were going to flirt, some looked irritated or even angry, and Terian, being younger, was blushing. William wasn't sure what to think, except that he was relieved that Michael had apparently squashed the problem before it appeared.
The older knight broke into a smile and then laughed long and hard at his men's reactions, wiping the tears from his eyes. His laugh was infectious, and soon even the least inclined were smiling reluctantly. The discussions went on until Tayli came back about half an hour later.
^^^^^^^^^
Tayli stepped into the room, carrying her saddlebags, after seeing to Moonflight (and warning the stable hands), and observed that they must have been talking about her, as the conversation had suddenly ended. She shook her hood off of her shoulders but didn't take her cloak off because of a slight suspicion that the knights would enjoy looking at her-more specifically, at her breaches. She took her gloves off, however-after all, it was only polite-revealing hands that would have been the epitome of beauty had they not been tanned and calloused, with nails that were cut neatly short. She smiled inwardly as she realized that her hands had come as another shock to some of the knights, and mentally rolled her eyes. Still keeping up a stoic front, she gestured lazily around the room.
"So . . ." she half-drawled, "Twelve doors, eleven of you. Must be room for me then." She was vaguely aware that she was talking abnormally much considering that they were still strangers to her, but then reasoned that her usual aggressive front wouldn't sit too well, and besides, they probably wouldn't be able to interpret her intentions without words anyway.
"Yes," Michael answered just as casually, "there's quiet enough. This is the one left over-I'm afraid it's a little less luxurious than the others, someone will swap with you if you like." Tayli made a mental note to question Michael about how he was so comfortable with her-he was the oldest after all, and should be the most set in his traditions-, and then thanked him and followed the oldest knight to the door on the far right, wondering how bad the room could be.
When he opened the door and ushered her in, her eyes almost popped out of her head. The room was beautiful, of an amount of luxury as the central room between all of the chambers. The theme was green, varying from dark to light shades of green, with the same style of dark furniture, though she noticed with relief that it wasn't as richly decorated, but it was still beautiful. There was another door, which, presumably, led to a bathroom in the opposite wall. To the right of her there was an absolutely enormous canopy bed, also with green covers and curtains. Further, the room contained a desk, mirror, a window with a window seat, and two green couches with a small table. Never in her life had she dreamed-or wanted to dream-of living in such luxury. Her mind boggled, while a small, almost subconscious part scoffed at how soft people who lived like this must become. She turned to Michael, who was watching her with slight amusement.
"You said this was the least luxurious room?"
"And this isn't even all of it," he replied seriously. Tayli, almost apprehensively, opened the other door. And should have expected what she found-the most luxurious bathroom she'd ever seen, gleaming silver and light green, with a dressing room to the side. She gaped for a minute, then quickly closed the door, unsure how to feel-she'd never been in, or wanted, such luxury. Actually, she would have much rather had her cot in her small room at the school, with the small chest of drawers and spindly table, and a shared bathroom with Anna, the old housekeeper. Dismissing the memories from her mind, she unceremoniously dumped her saddlebags on the lushly carpeted floor in the middle of the room, and turned to Michael expectantly.
"Where are the other ways out hidden?"
He stared at her. "What?"
Patiently, she replied, "The way to get out other than the door. Where is it?"
He looked at her strangely for a moment, and then started laughing. Tayli frowned slightly; irritated that he wouldn't answer her simple question.
"There are none," he finally said, and this time it was Tayli's turn to let out an astonished,
"What?"
"There are no other ways out. The room was built for luxury, not safety."
"There has to be." And, with that, Tayli started running her hands over the walls, lifting up tapestries and generally inspecting the whole area while Michael just watched her, amused. Privately, she was astonished. In every other room she'd been in during her life, there had always been another, usually secret way out to ensure safety. For a place to have one door was out of the question. As a result, the school was riddled with secret passages, which Tayli and Rafe had made good use of as they played pranks on the whole school. She was convinced that the room must have had some sort of way out, if only for the servants to come and go unnoticed.
And it wasn't long before she found it. Lifting a magnificent tapestry depicting a hunt off of the wall, Tayli found a slightly less decorated panel of wood and pushed lightly on it-and, sure enough, it opened inward to reveal one of the clean, well-lit passages that the servants used. * I'll have to get Rafe to show me around these, * she thought, and then let the door swing shut as she stepped out from the tapestry. It was an ingenious system, she'd noticed-the wall was padded so that the door didn't make a lot of noise, and the door-panel itself was weighted on one side so that it always swung shut if left open. Smiling triumphantly, she stepped out from behind the tapestry to notice that everyone had congregated in her room, curious. She let her smile fade as she shook loose strands of hair out of her face, and, looking to Michael, bowed, only slightly mocking, and made a grand gesture towards the tapestry, inviting him seriously to take a look for himself.
Shaking his head incredulously, he did, and, sure enough, found the passage for himself. Laughing at her stubbornness, he clapped the smiling Tayli on the back, congratulated her, and then shooed them all out of the room. Tayli looked around the room once more, considering it, and then removed her cloak, draping it over the chair at the desk, and her daggers, which she placed over the cloak.
Then she tentatively went over to the bed and sat on the edge, and was shocked at the dent she made in the mattress. It was so soft! She'd never be able to fall asleep on something so soft that she sank into it. For 18 years, Tayli had been used to a mattress that was comfortable enough at first, somewhere between hard and slightly soft. But, once you got used to it-and Tayli had never been used to anything else, besides the ground-, it got more and more comfortable. As a result, she saw this mattress as completely appalling. There was no doubt about it-she'd sleep on the floor tonight. As it was, the floor was so highly carpeted that it would probably be soft enough on its own. * And muffle any footsteps, * the fighter's part of her automatically warned. She nodded, took a last glance around, and then exited the-now her- room, closing the door softly behind her. In the common area, she saw that only Sir William was left, sitting at one of the desks and writing a letter, his quill dipping in the ink and then scratching on the parchment methodically. Dip, scratch, dip, scratch, dip, scratch . . . He signed his name, flourishing the pen and then looked up at her, smiling, a kind, if slightly hesitant, smile.
"We've been asked to spend the evening with Duke Bruno. Maybe you'd like to get ready?"
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A/N: Again, sorry it took so long, nothing has been working out right when it comes to technology or time lately. I won't be able to answer reviews either right now, but know that I appreciate all of your reviews greatly. I have to start thinking about what I'm going to write again, so it might not go as quickly as planned. I named Duke Bruno after my brother, so thanks to him for letting me (I think if I'd named anything other than a Duke after him he would have been furious-he's also the one who pointed out the title issue).
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William was dazed. A woman! It was a woman who had followed them all that way; showed him the cave; killed the man; saved the prince . . . It was unbelievable. Women didn't do things like that. Women wore dresses, and danced, and embroidered, and curtsied, giggled and blushed horrendously, and were polite to the prince. This woman, on the other hand, wore breaches and a tunic, didn't dance-she was graceful, true, but in a lithe, muscular way-, looked like she would rather stab herself repeatedly with the needle than use it to embroider with, bowed, kept a blank face, and told the prince off quite easily. William felt like his world had been turned on its head-never before had there been a situation like this. And still, despite the oddity of it, he found himself ready to accept Tayli into the group, accept her fighting skill, and carry on normally. So what if there had never been a female fighter before-you could always try new things. Besides, it was quite funny how she had beaten Sir Jonathan that easily.
All of the knights were completely dazed, except for Sir Michael, who looked as unfazed as if he'd just had a talk with a squire or page. He was bustling around, pouring wine for everyone to help them get over the shock.
When he'd taken a good gulp of his, Sir Luke managed to come out with the intelligent remark,
"A woman!"
"No," Michael corrected mildly, "A Tayli. There's a difference." Luke looked at him blankly.
"Never mind," Michael sighed, "You'll understand later on."
"I think I understand now," William said slowly. "True, a woman is a woman, but part of our view of womankind is how they act-and she acts completely different."
Michael saluted William silently with his wineglass before taking a meditative sip. "Does anyone feel very strongly that we shouldn't accept her?" William pondered this a bit before shaking his head decisively. He saw that others thought longer and that some shook their heads with some reluctance, including Sir Jon.
Michael turned to Terian, who had sat staring into his wine since it had been given to him. "Prince Terian? What do you think?"
Terian looked up, surprised. "I have a say in this?" William chuckled softly, as did many of the other men.
"She's protecting you," Michael said gravely before breaking into a smile.
"Then by all means, let her do so," the youth replied, before adding as an afterthought, "She's beautiful." Some of the men had distant expressions on their faces and William was shocked to hear himself think, * Yes, beautiful. And graceful, too. Absolutely gorgeous . . . * He chased the thoughts from his mind angrily. He was supposed to be working with this woman, not courting her! From the way Sir Luke and a few of the other knights were looking, William could tell, with a sense of foreboding, that they were thinking along the same lines as he had been, and that they didn't have the same inhibitions as he did. If they could get over the fact that she wasn't a conventional woman, there would be some serious flirting and probably lusting going on. And that was never a good thing, leading to jealousy, anger, and whatnot. Though it would be funny to watch them at it; William was already fairly sure that this woman could not or would not be seduced.
When Michael cleared his throat they all snapped out of their daydreams sheepishly. The eldest knight looked grim. "Let it be understood that we aren't here for a bit of let's-play-that-we're-at-court. Tayli will be your comrade; she will be equal to one of us if not better. You are to get to know her, but flirting is out of the question! I don't have time to deal with any of the side effects. A warrior stays a warrior, and if there is one thing I know for sure, it is that flirting with her just might be the thing to drive Tayli off. And, considering she's had to save the Prince 3 time for us already, it looks like she's more capable than we are. So let's not change that, men!"
A few of the knights looked abashed, a few were scandalized that Michael would think that they were going to flirt, some looked irritated or even angry, and Terian, being younger, was blushing. William wasn't sure what to think, except that he was relieved that Michael had apparently squashed the problem before it appeared.
The older knight broke into a smile and then laughed long and hard at his men's reactions, wiping the tears from his eyes. His laugh was infectious, and soon even the least inclined were smiling reluctantly. The discussions went on until Tayli came back about half an hour later.
^^^^^^^^^
Tayli stepped into the room, carrying her saddlebags, after seeing to Moonflight (and warning the stable hands), and observed that they must have been talking about her, as the conversation had suddenly ended. She shook her hood off of her shoulders but didn't take her cloak off because of a slight suspicion that the knights would enjoy looking at her-more specifically, at her breaches. She took her gloves off, however-after all, it was only polite-revealing hands that would have been the epitome of beauty had they not been tanned and calloused, with nails that were cut neatly short. She smiled inwardly as she realized that her hands had come as another shock to some of the knights, and mentally rolled her eyes. Still keeping up a stoic front, she gestured lazily around the room.
"So . . ." she half-drawled, "Twelve doors, eleven of you. Must be room for me then." She was vaguely aware that she was talking abnormally much considering that they were still strangers to her, but then reasoned that her usual aggressive front wouldn't sit too well, and besides, they probably wouldn't be able to interpret her intentions without words anyway.
"Yes," Michael answered just as casually, "there's quiet enough. This is the one left over-I'm afraid it's a little less luxurious than the others, someone will swap with you if you like." Tayli made a mental note to question Michael about how he was so comfortable with her-he was the oldest after all, and should be the most set in his traditions-, and then thanked him and followed the oldest knight to the door on the far right, wondering how bad the room could be.
When he opened the door and ushered her in, her eyes almost popped out of her head. The room was beautiful, of an amount of luxury as the central room between all of the chambers. The theme was green, varying from dark to light shades of green, with the same style of dark furniture, though she noticed with relief that it wasn't as richly decorated, but it was still beautiful. There was another door, which, presumably, led to a bathroom in the opposite wall. To the right of her there was an absolutely enormous canopy bed, also with green covers and curtains. Further, the room contained a desk, mirror, a window with a window seat, and two green couches with a small table. Never in her life had she dreamed-or wanted to dream-of living in such luxury. Her mind boggled, while a small, almost subconscious part scoffed at how soft people who lived like this must become. She turned to Michael, who was watching her with slight amusement.
"You said this was the least luxurious room?"
"And this isn't even all of it," he replied seriously. Tayli, almost apprehensively, opened the other door. And should have expected what she found-the most luxurious bathroom she'd ever seen, gleaming silver and light green, with a dressing room to the side. She gaped for a minute, then quickly closed the door, unsure how to feel-she'd never been in, or wanted, such luxury. Actually, she would have much rather had her cot in her small room at the school, with the small chest of drawers and spindly table, and a shared bathroom with Anna, the old housekeeper. Dismissing the memories from her mind, she unceremoniously dumped her saddlebags on the lushly carpeted floor in the middle of the room, and turned to Michael expectantly.
"Where are the other ways out hidden?"
He stared at her. "What?"
Patiently, she replied, "The way to get out other than the door. Where is it?"
He looked at her strangely for a moment, and then started laughing. Tayli frowned slightly; irritated that he wouldn't answer her simple question.
"There are none," he finally said, and this time it was Tayli's turn to let out an astonished,
"What?"
"There are no other ways out. The room was built for luxury, not safety."
"There has to be." And, with that, Tayli started running her hands over the walls, lifting up tapestries and generally inspecting the whole area while Michael just watched her, amused. Privately, she was astonished. In every other room she'd been in during her life, there had always been another, usually secret way out to ensure safety. For a place to have one door was out of the question. As a result, the school was riddled with secret passages, which Tayli and Rafe had made good use of as they played pranks on the whole school. She was convinced that the room must have had some sort of way out, if only for the servants to come and go unnoticed.
And it wasn't long before she found it. Lifting a magnificent tapestry depicting a hunt off of the wall, Tayli found a slightly less decorated panel of wood and pushed lightly on it-and, sure enough, it opened inward to reveal one of the clean, well-lit passages that the servants used. * I'll have to get Rafe to show me around these, * she thought, and then let the door swing shut as she stepped out from the tapestry. It was an ingenious system, she'd noticed-the wall was padded so that the door didn't make a lot of noise, and the door-panel itself was weighted on one side so that it always swung shut if left open. Smiling triumphantly, she stepped out from behind the tapestry to notice that everyone had congregated in her room, curious. She let her smile fade as she shook loose strands of hair out of her face, and, looking to Michael, bowed, only slightly mocking, and made a grand gesture towards the tapestry, inviting him seriously to take a look for himself.
Shaking his head incredulously, he did, and, sure enough, found the passage for himself. Laughing at her stubbornness, he clapped the smiling Tayli on the back, congratulated her, and then shooed them all out of the room. Tayli looked around the room once more, considering it, and then removed her cloak, draping it over the chair at the desk, and her daggers, which she placed over the cloak.
Then she tentatively went over to the bed and sat on the edge, and was shocked at the dent she made in the mattress. It was so soft! She'd never be able to fall asleep on something so soft that she sank into it. For 18 years, Tayli had been used to a mattress that was comfortable enough at first, somewhere between hard and slightly soft. But, once you got used to it-and Tayli had never been used to anything else, besides the ground-, it got more and more comfortable. As a result, she saw this mattress as completely appalling. There was no doubt about it-she'd sleep on the floor tonight. As it was, the floor was so highly carpeted that it would probably be soft enough on its own. * And muffle any footsteps, * the fighter's part of her automatically warned. She nodded, took a last glance around, and then exited the-now her- room, closing the door softly behind her. In the common area, she saw that only Sir William was left, sitting at one of the desks and writing a letter, his quill dipping in the ink and then scratching on the parchment methodically. Dip, scratch, dip, scratch, dip, scratch . . . He signed his name, flourishing the pen and then looked up at her, smiling, a kind, if slightly hesitant, smile.
"We've been asked to spend the evening with Duke Bruno. Maybe you'd like to get ready?"
$$$$$$$$$
A/N: Again, sorry it took so long, nothing has been working out right when it comes to technology or time lately. I won't be able to answer reviews either right now, but know that I appreciate all of your reviews greatly. I have to start thinking about what I'm going to write again, so it might not go as quickly as planned. I named Duke Bruno after my brother, so thanks to him for letting me (I think if I'd named anything other than a Duke after him he would have been furious-he's also the one who pointed out the title issue).