Author note: I haven't posted anything in ages but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about it. A friend of mine and I sat down and outlined most of what I want to write. And I finally wrote something today. This isn't it. This is something I wrote a while ago that you need to understand what I wrote today. And even this I will need to set up for you. This scene takes place as Justin and Florian are leaving the farm after the Nierkeeping event. And what you must know is this. Zara did not want to be parted from Florian in fact she begged him not to leave her. He kisses her she asks why he had never done that before in all the time they had been together. He says it was because she was so young when he took her from the dressmakers and he didn't want to take advantage of her. She says something like, "I'm not a child now." And yada yada yada things happen.

Now something else you must know that I haven't gotten around to writing yet is that in all that time that he was "not taking advantage" of her he was paying a lot of attention to Justin mostly because Justin had just lost his father and needed an older male role model. But Zara mixes it all round and thinks that there's something more going on there. Anywho she confronts Justin about it and at first he's angry and then he thinks it's hilarious and teases her about it incessantly.

I think that's all you need to know. Ok here you go and I promise to someday write all that stuff I just told you about. Oh yeah, and I switched to third person.

"Just be careful; both of you. Don't do anything stupid," this last comment was directed at Justin and accompanied by a dirty look.

"Hey," he answered back, laughing, "I'm just glad it was the doc and not you who sewed me up. I've seen your stitch work. You'd have had me looking like a monster."

"Oh," she growled, "You are a monster." She slapped his arm.

He feigned painful agony and then he bent down and whispered in her ear, "I guess you're satisfied now that ol' Florian's not queer."

Her face burned. "How did you . . ."

"You didn't really think I was unconscious all that time did you?"

She tried to hit him again but he was already upright in the saddle and had urged his mount forward.

"What was that all about?" Florian asked her.

"I'm sure he'll tell you," She was still watching Justin with a scowl on her face.

Florian put a finger under her chin and tilted her face up to look at him. "I'm not sorry for anything that I've done," he said to her.

She took his meaning and begged once more, "Please don't leave me."

"You know I have to." He caressed her face with his fingers, "but I'll send for you soon."

"Be careful," she said again willing herself not to cry.

"I will." He kissed the tips of his fingers and laid his hand again on her forehead.

She closed her eyes and didn't open them again until he and Justin had ridden well out of the yard.

"Are those tears, my dear Zara?" Stock asked as he came up to stand beside her.

"I'm not crying," she answered defensively, "I never cry. I just . . . had something in my eye."

Stock chuckled. "Now who's the poet?"

"Oh, shut up." She turned on her heal back towards the farmhouse furiously wiping away the non-existent tears with the back of her hand.