Disclaimer: It is Ms. Pierce's, not mine.
Maura of Dunlath felt sick.
It was strange, she had survived a treasonous sibling, overcame her fear of wolves, and blown up a fort but she became ill at the thought of being introduced to court. It wasn't the thought of gossip (having a sister that was in league with, once enemy, Carthak did tend to cause the tongues to wage) that made her so nauseous. Instead it was the thought of tripping down the Great Stair in the Queen's Ballroom.
Maura is not a klutzy girl. She actually considered herself to be quite graceful, but she did have a tendency to embarrass herself at the most inopportune times. (She tried to shove the incident of her falling face first into the mud while inspecting her tenants out of her mind.)
"Are you ready, Dunny?" Sir Douglass of Veldine, her knight protector and escort of the evening, asked.
"I told you not to call me that." Maura replied stiffly to the shortening of her fief's name. It was an old bone of contention between them. Maura refused to allow Sir Douglass to call her any sort of diminutive, partially because they ranged from boyish (Mo) to cutesy (Poppet) to the absurd (Flour Child). To vex her, Sir Douglass immediately latched upon her fief as a means of attack. After six years, Maura could only choke out mild reprimands to the unrepentant knight.
"Well, it doesn't matter if you are ready or not, we're next."
Maura swallowed the bile that was trying to make her way out of her throat.
"Lady Mara of Dunlath, Sir Douglass of Veldine."
Maura stopped abruptly at the top of the stairs and turned to the herald.
"Dunny, let it go." Douglass whispered anxiously to her but Maura would have none of it.
"Sir herald," Maura addressed him, drawing on every bit of her noble heritage. "My name has a 'u' in it, kindly pronounce it."
The chief herald choked, eyes bulging out in confusion and slight mortification.
"It rhymes with 'Laura,'" Douglass whispered to the herald. He knew that the mispronunciation of her name was one of Maura's main peeves.
Maura looked at the herald expectantly.
"Lady Maura of Dunlath, Sir Douglass of Veldine." The herald repeated, beet faced.
Maura of Dunlath, friend of Stormwings and sister of a traitor, smiled triumphantly as she made her way, gracefully, down the Great Stairs.
Sir Douglass merely shook his head at his headstrong charge.
AN: First off, the misspelling of Maura as Mara WAS intentional, interested parties look below for the reason.
Some may wonder what is up with this meaningless drabble. Well, I was looking at Ms. Pierce's website the other day when I came across a pronunciations guide. I was thrilled to clear up some confusing names, such as 'Veralidaine,' when I came across the pronunciation of 'Maura.' Ms. Pierce listed the pronunciation as MAHR-a, or Mara.
I was crushed.
As a writer, though an amateur one, I understand that the author rules as it comes to names, but I couldn't help my stab of disappointment. The most common, and my opinion the correct, way of pronouncing Maura is to rhyme it with Laura.
So, I dedicate this fic to the few and the proud Mauras of the world, who battle the mispronunciation of their names almost everyday.