Warnings: Sibling Rivalry. It's vicious.
Chapter Twenty: At Needlepoint
"Elensar, you are not to be in the practice courts! Especially not with two unmarried men as your only attendants."
"Owen's my brother," I pointed out, getting a glare for my trouble.
"Come, sister, to the South Terrace at once." She latched onto my elbow and dragged me away from Owen and Dhal. "First you run off with the King of Delran, then you fall in love with him," She spoke, making a mockery of the words, "You consort with the common folk and run through the halls, skirts kilted up. You associate with knights in their practice ring! Do you not know your station?"
"I know it perfectly well, Evadne. I am the Youngest Princess of Meridian, but that matters not to me when I am with my brother for he could easily replace you as heir to the throne." I smiled cruelly. "You know that as well as I. Father wouldn't mind having a male heir- in fact, Owen might be preferable as he isn't sleeping with every ambassador that sojourns here." If looks could kill I would have been very, very dead.
"I," Evadne dragged me closer by my hair, "Do not do that. I am a married woman, dear child, I am better than you are." She glared at me, and then released me. "Come, girl, our sisters await us."
"Yes ma'am." I bowed my head and followed her meekly. I had stepped over the line and I knew it. Evadne would find some way to punish me for it, I knew. I just didn't know how or when.
We arrived on the terrace to find my other sisters waiting for us, and I quickly hurried over to a spot by Alyssa. She silently handed me a hoop with a flower pattern printed on the fabric. I pulled a needle out of the pincushion and threaded it with pale green thread. I knotted the end and pushed the needle through the fabric.
I worked on my embroidery tirelessly, loving the reprieve from Evadne's murderous glances that it gave me. I lost myself in the satin stitch that filled in the leaves of the flowers, the backstitch that arced around the outer edges of the plant and kept the green from spilling over onto the flowers.
I wondered at all the heroines in my favorite novels that hated embroidery. I couldn't understand why they hated it with such a passion; I enjoyed it well enough. I loved that I could create something that looked so precise and delicate. I delighted in turning long strands of color into something that was beautifully recognizable, like the flowers I was working on. The embroidery took up all of my concentration and I began to relax into the steady rhythm of the backstitch.
I was so absorbed in my needlework that I stifled a startled scream when Alyssa tapped my shoulder.
"Elensar," She pointed to the herald standing in the doorway, "Father summons you." She smiled. "Go with Haran now." She pried the hoop and needle from my fingers. "Go."
I smiled and shook my head, "Yes. I wonder what he wants to see me about…"
"I don't know." Alyssa pushed me toward Haran. "Go."
I took the arm that Haran offered me and gladly left the South Terrace and my sisters. "Haran, do you know why Father wants to see me?" I asked the herald.
"No, dear Princess, I do not." He chuckled, "Why would the King confide in me?"
I raised an eyebrow. "You are his trusted confidant, he has said so on many occasions. Of course you know."
Haran kept his face straight. "Indeed I am."
I glared at him. "You're not going to tell me, are you?"
"No." He smiled at me. "You'll sate your curiosity soon enough, Princess." He led me into the antechamber of my Father's study. "Milord, My King, your youngest daughter has come to see you."
The door swung open and Father welcomed me with a smile. "Ah, Elensar, come in."
"I did." I curtsied before him, lowering my eyes respectfully.
He chuckled. "Come to me, daughter." He held out his hand and I took it gingerly. "There are questions that must be answered, my dear. Evadne has already ascertained your virginity and virtue, but I must verify for myself."
I smiled tersely, "Of course, milord."
His eyes clouded with the hurt from my obvious rejection. "Elensar, why this formality with me now? Yesterday you were only too happy to see me!"
I turned to him, stoic and cold. "Why this formality? Why bother with love? You ask me the same thing either way, and either way, I must answer. I don't know if you'll believe me or not, but I should hope that you would at least trust me to comport myself with some modicum of modesty."
Father touched my hand, and I jerked away. "Elensar, I do trust you." He sighed and turned away. "It's King Adrian that I don't trust. I saw how he behaved when he was here. He was so intimately attached to your eldest sister and I could do nothing about it. I worried for you, Elensar."
"Oh." I looked up at him. "Thank you," I offered softly, and hugged him awkwardly.
"Darling, those questions must still be addressed. Did the foreign King seduce my lovely daughter and take her maidenhood from her?" He looked unsure of himself as he said that, and I almost smiled.
"He tried." I blushed. "He almost succeeded too," I added softly.
Father looked at me sharply. "But you did not succumb to him?"
"No." I looked up, hoping not to see him revile me.
My father sighed and kissed my forehead. "You are a strong child. You know what you want, and he is not what you want."
Defiantly, I tilted my chin upward and looked down at the old man. "There you err," I smiled vindictively as he stared at my sudden change with astonishment. "Adrian is exactly what I want."
"What is this nonsense, Elensar?" Father seemed a trifle flustered. "You are too young to know what you want. You don't know that you want him, in fact, I know you don't want him." His hands rested heavily on my shoulders. "You are yet a child and King Adrian is a grown man. He may have convinced your passionate soul that you want him, but not your heart."
"No!" I wrenched myself away. "He said he loved me, and he asked me to marry him. I am not a child! I know what I want! I want Adrian."
"He doesn't love you," Father looked at me sadly, as if he pitied me. I hated that. "He's probably marrying a court flower that has been nurtured in the glass house that is his court. He doesn't love you, Elensar, not in a way that really matters."
"How do you know that?" I tried to push the memories of the looks that he gave to Ilea out of my mind. "How do you know that he doesn't love me?"
"He kidnapped you, Elensar. Would a lover do such a thing?" Father grabbed my wrist. "He could have courted you in the more appropriate way, rather than carry you off if he truly loved you."
"So it's a little dramatic! He's announcing to everyone that he loves me by flaunting it in front of everyone." I jerked my hand away and stalked over to the door, preparing to walk out. "He. Loves. Me. And I. Love. Him." I jerked open the heavy door and slammed it shut behind me.
"Milady," Markus, Evadne's guardsman stood before me, bowing politely. "Please, milady, reconsider your decision to depart."
"No." I attempted to push past him.
He stood unmoving, apparently impervious to my shoves. "Milady Princess, you must. I am not allowed to let you leave until you are bidden to do so." I kicked him hard in the shin, and he winced. "Your Highness, please, refrain from physical violence as well."
I crossed my arms and looked up at Markus. "Why?" I knew I sounded like a petulant little brat, but I didn't much care.
"Your father is the King, and he wants to talk with you, therefore, as his daughter, you should talk with him. Also, as he is a King and you are only a Princess, protocol demands that you defer to his rank and go back in there whether you like it or not."
I glared up at him, watching him watch me. His blue eyes were impassive, waiting for me to make the inevitable decision and go back into my father's study. "Fine." I spun around, hitting him with my hair in the process, and dragged the door open.
"Elensar, sit." The King motioned to a chair that faced his own luxurious seat. I sat. "You have behaved most abominably to me today, and I will not tolerate it. Even if you are my beloved daughter, you must accord me the respect that is due to me. Now," He smiled at me, "If I may continue to ascertain answers from you?"
"You may." I held myself in a way that could have been described as bordering on militant.
"Did the foreign King make any attempts to threaten you?"
"No." Then, "Yes."
He raised an eyebrow. "Please, explain."
"He kidnapped me, didn't he?" I stared at the floor sullenly. "Kidnapping isn't exactly a friendly thing to do, is it? However," I smiled sweetly, "He made up for all of that when he told me he loved me."
Father ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "You're being difficult."
"I know." I twirled a piece of hair around my fingers, feigning boredom. "Are there any more questions for me, milord?" I looked out from between my fingers. "May I be dismissed?"
"No, you may not. You will stay here until you've learned how to behave." He harrumphed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He began his questioning again, and I responded with the curtest answers that I could manage. It was a painful process that lasted well into the afternoon, wearing on both of our nerves.
In the end, I had slumped back against my chair in a most unladylike fashion and had resorted to grunts in place of answers.
A blessed interruption spared us from further torture. "Milord," Markus softly called. "It is time for your appearance to Common Court."
The King looked up wearily, and asked, "It has grown so late?"
"It has," Markus replied, sounding as if he was trying to stifle his amusement. "While you and your daughter were closeted in there, the hours marched on."
"Ah, how they have!" Father said, standing slowly. "Time goes on, whether you want it to or not," He murmured, musing to himself.
I ignored him, lost in my own little world of questions and doubts.
"Elensar, I must leave you. Please, find your way back to your rooms and entertain yourself until supper." His hand glided gently over my head before he left.
"Yes sir." I unfolded myself from my chair, wavering slightly as I stood. I stretched and then departed as well.
"Princess," Markus said as he waited at the door for me, "May I escort you to your rooms?" He bowed deeply.
I snorted at his gallantry. "If you wish," I acquiesced, taking the arm that he proffered.
"I take it that you were not happy that you went back in there?"
I turned a sardonic glance onto him. "Oh, it was just de-light-ful."
"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, then." He chuckled, mocking me gently.
I happened to accidentally step on his foot, which successfully ended the laughter. "Sorry." I smiled cheerily.
A look of annoyance flashed across Markus's face. "Manners, milady, are greatly appreciated."
"Appreciated, but not required, good knight." I tilted my head towards him, regarding him with a rather patronizing look.
"Don't look at me as if I am stupid, milady. Just because you are nobly born and I am not does not mean that I do not understand," Markus chided me, meeting my gaze without fear.
"Pardon my manners, then, Sir Scholar." I pulled myself away from the deep blue wells that regarded me so frankly.
"So done, Princess Elensar." He smiled, and I felt my good humor returning as we walked.
"Guardsman Markus, would you care to join me for a walk in the gardens? I am finding your erudite company most pleasing to my most humble self." I tried to suppress the smile that curved my lips, but failed miserably.
"If it were at all appropriate for you and I to walk together, then I would most gladly bend to your will; as it is not proper in the least degree, I cannot." He paused to face me. "I must leave you here milady." He lifted my fingertips to his mouth and then dropped my hand as if it burned. "Fare thee well, Princess, until we should meet again."
In an instant, in the span of a few short words, my cheerful humor had fled, chased by flaming anger. "Let us hope that it is not soon, then." I fixed him with a snapping glare, seeing my anger matched in his face with cool indifference.
"Again, farewell," He repeated, bowing. Markus turned on his heel, his boot digging into the carpeting, and marched off.
I closed my eyes, not wanting to see another of my social blunders walking away. He kissed my fingertips, the thought drifted through my head, but it was not like Adrian. I dragged my palm across my face, wiping away imagined tears. I love you… I turned, and pushed the door open, falling into my room and sinking into the bed. Catch me, I added, remembering my parting words to Adrian. Catch me soon.
Author's Note: It's been forever since I updated…and I'm so sorry! Due to swim team, family problems, school and psychotic ex-boyfriends…I was unable to do anything, including update. I'm so sorry it took me so long! Ack! Please, forgive me! I'm also very sorry that I don't have time to respond to each of my reviewers personally, but I want to say a BIG thanks to all of you! You guys are the greatest, seriously.
Please, review again and tell me what you think of this chapter!
To my Reviewers, all of you:
Thank you thank you thank you thank you!
