A/N – Thanks, as ever, to everyone who's reviewed the last chapter. Not much to say about this one, except enjoy. Oh, and Happy Valentines Day for tomorrow!
Chapter Four: Chaperon
Sienna sat in her room, embroidering a small square of cloth. 'Always such a dutiful daughter,' she thought with a hint of bitterness, and she raised her eyes to where Brietta was standing in front of the window, brushing her long, glossy hair as she stared out with dreamy eyes.
Sienna smiled to herself as she put her embroidery down, and she made her way, on silent feet, to where her maid was standing, and peered out over her shoulder.
"Ah, so it is Drystan that caught your eye," she said in Brietta's ear, causing her to jump.
"I wish you wouldn't do that!" Britta said in an annoyed voice, when she realised it was Sienna.
"What?" Sienna asked, a mischievous smile on her face. "Tease you about Drystan, or creep up on you?"
"Both," Brietta said with a mock-pout.
Sienna laughed, "Oh forgive me! You have to let me have my fun. It's not as if I'll ever get the chance to moon around, falling in love."
"You might," Brietta replied evenly.
Sienna met Brietta's gaze, and the older girl could see, carefully hidden in the depths of her eyes, a deep unhappiness there. She was very like her mother, Brietta thought, slightly startled at the realisation. Both suffered without ever letting anyone else see any signs of it.
Sienna was shaking her head. "No," she said softly. "You know that princesses don't get to fall in love."
"You may fall in love with the man that you have to marry," Brietta offered out what little comfort she could.
Sienna smiled sadly. "Things don't work that way, you know that." She pulled herself together, smiling overly-brightly. "But why worry about things that have not happened yet? My parents have not even spoken to me of marriage yet, so it seems that I still have at least a year of freedom left."
Brietta studied her anxiously. "Are you really alright Sienna?" she asked, her voice full of concern.
"Yes," Sienna said, her voice giving away nothing. "Just bored!" she exclaimed as she threw herself onto her large bed. "Do you know how long it's been since I last went out of this place?"
"I'm sure I have no idea," Brietta said, sitting down and smoothing her skirts. When Sienna was in this wild, wilful mood, she usually felt like giving up on her.
"When we arrived here!" Sienna said. "I have not been out since we got here."
"Then go riding," Brietta told her in an infuriatingly calm voice.
Sienna paused, and rolled over to look at Brietta.
"You wouldn't mind me leaving you?" she asked. Although in her mind she was already soaring over the plains with her horse, Ch'niel. Brietta hated riding, and never accompanied Sienna when she rode out.
"Oh I'm sure I could find something to occupy my time," Brietta said, as she silently wondered where Drystan might be.
Lucan stood in his usual place, just behind Arthur's left shoulder, as the King bent over a tablet on the table before him. He finished writing on it, and handed it back to his squire who added it to the growing collection in his arms. 'So this is what a squire does,' Lucan thought, slightly irritably. 'Act as a bloody clerk, when I could be doing something useful.' He thought wistfully of Arthur's new horse: a black stallion with a serious dislike of humans. Lucan knew that, if Arthur gave him the chance, he could make such a mount of the stallion that Kings would dream of riding it into battle. He sighed, slightly louder than he intended, for Arthur turned around to him, his eyebrows raised.
"Bored?" the King asked, amused by Lucan's lack of subtelty.
"No my Lord," Lucan said, shaking his head quickly. "In fact, I am having more fun than I have in a long time."
"Good," Arthur grunted, turning back to his work, leaving Lucan to roll his eyes at the ceiling and return to his fantasies about riding the stallion.
Another half-hour passed, and another tablet was just being added to Lucan's pile, when there came a soft knock at the door. Both Arthur and his squire looked up expectantly as Sienna entered.
"Mother said to tell you that I'm going riding," she said quickly, turning to go immediately before her father could have a chance to say anything. This plan, however did not work.
"Stop!" Arthur's commanding voice rang out, halting Sienna in her tracks. "Turn," he told her. She did so, her eyes brimming with a pleading look that would melt the heart of most fathers. "Explain," Arthur demanded.
"Oh please father," Sienna begged. "I haven't been out riding in ages!"
"Did your mother agree that you should go out alone?" Arthur asked.
"Well, not exactly," Sienna said in a wheedling voice. "But..."
"There are no buts, young lady. You will not go out riding alone," Arthur said in a decisive tone, turning back to his work.
"But father!" Sienna protested, and as Arthur raised his head she turned the full extent of her charm on him. Sienna had perfected the melting-hearts expression, and Arthur, though concerned for his daughter's well-being, was also too human to be able to deny anything of Sienna when she put that expression on.
"Alright," Arthur said with a sigh. "Lucan, you will accompany her."
Lucan, shocked as he was at this pronouncement, did not miss the flash of irritation in Sienna's eyes.
"Father!" Sienna protested, just as Lucan said, "But Sir!"
"Stop complaining!" Arthur said in exasperation. "You wanted to go riding, didn't you?" he asked Sienna, who nodded mutely. "And you were bored?" he asked, rounding on Lucan. "So you will stop complaining. I have enough work to do as it is."
Sienna glowered at Lucan for a moment before speaking. "I'll be in the stables in half an hour," she told him before turning and stalking out.
"You better be there in twenty minutes," Arthur told Lucan without looking up. "She's likely to try to go without you."
"My lord," Lucan assented, though in a voice that was far from happy.
"Take the tablets to Bors before you go," Arthur dismissed Lucan. "And try not to be too long. There are still jobs that need doing today."
Lucan hesitated for a moment before speaking, "what horse am I to ride my Lord?"
Arthur looked up, troubled for a moment, fleetingly troubled. He shrugged. "You can take Iblis," he said, naming a docile mare with little character.
"My lord," Lucan said in assent as he left, though he was inwardly fuming. Not only did he have to escort the pampered princess who obviously could not stand the sight of him, but he had to ride a mare who would rather die than show any enthusiasm for life.
He sighed as he delivered the tablets, but by the time he had gathered his weapons and cloak, and entered the courtyard he was feeling moderately enthusiastic. It had been a long, long time since he had last had a good ride, and he was hardly expected to talk to the princess was he? How bad could things really get?
An hour later, and Lucan realised that things could get worse. He could hardly get Iblis to move, and Sienna had not deigned to even look at him since she had arrived in the courtyard. She rode far away from him, and her pretty grey mare, Ch'niel, seemed only to happy to oblige her with whatever pace she wanted.
Lucan scowled angrily, giving Iblis another boot in the ribs to try and extract some more enthusiasm from her as he followed Sienna across the open heath.
Sienna played gently with Ch'niel's mouth down the reins as she rode, reminding the exuberant mare that she was still there. Neither the princess nor the mare had been out for months, and both wanted to stretch their legs ad get rid of the excess energy. If only she didn't have the squire with her, Sienna thought moodily. Still, at least she was out riding, instead of being cooped up in the stuffy fortress.
Lucan glanced up at the sky. It was going to start raining. Clouds were beginning to form, and he felt the wind pick up. Although he knew that it would be nothing more than a mild rainstorm, he felt obliged to inform the princess ahead of him that she would get her delicate little features wet if she didn't get a move on back to the garrison.
Lucan pushed Iblis forwards to a reluctant trot, until he was beside Sienna. She glanced at him disdainfully, but did not speak, and Lucan sighed inwardly. It seems as if someone had neglected to give her an education in courtesy.
"It's going to rain," he told her.
Sienna turned to look at him, bristling inwardly. Did he think that she was so spoilt that she would flee from a bit of rain?
"Are you going to head back to the fort?" Lucan asked when he realised that he would be getting no answer.
"And return to embroidering material?" Sienna said indignantly, before she realised she had spoken out loud. "I'd prefer to get wet."
Lucan, initially surprised at her outburst, found himself grinning slightly. "Me too," he agreed.
Sienna looked at him with raised eyebrows: an unspoken question.
"Not the embroidery part," he conceded. "But anything's preferable to holding tablets."
Sienna, who had almost smiled when he had commented on the embroidery, displayed an astonishing change of tack, and she scowled at Lucan. "I hardly think my father enjoys it any more than you do!" she said primly, before pushing Ch'niel forwards to ride ahead of Lucan.
Lucan shook his head. Why did he have to get stuck dealing with a conceited and ill-mannered royal? As he tried to exert some enthusiasm from his pessimistic mount, and catch up with Sienna on her tightly wound mare, it started to rain.
Lucan was soaked by the time Sienna decided that they would go back. The wind had picked up, and blew straight through his thin clothes onto his wet skin, so he was glad that he would have a chance to get into dry clothes, even if it did mean lugging tablets around the garrison for the next few hours.
Sienna was riding slightly ahead of Lucan, and as she reached the top of a crest in the land she pulled Ch'niel up, staring in wonder at the sight before her. A light, silver rain filled the air in the couple of miles between her and the fort, and a rainbow crowned the garrison. The land in front of the fort was all farmed, but a long, straight road ran through the patchwork fields. Sienna could feel Ch'niel aching to run, and the road, now soft enough for her mare's delicate hooves, and without any bends that she would have to slow down for, was just too much to resist.
She turned around as Lucan came up behind her and halted next to her. He whistled low, under his breath, and Sienna was surprised that he had even noticed how beautiful the old Roman buildings looked through the silvery curtain of rain.
"I'm going to stretch Ch'niel's legs," Sienna told Lucan.
Lucan nodded. "I'll try to keep up."
Sienna grinned at him, she actually grinned at him: Lucan was amazed, before she pushed Ch'niel off into first a trot, which grew faster and faster until she gave up trying to control her, and gave her her head. Ch'niel plunged forwards with only a few strides of canter before she broke into a gallop, and Lucan was momentarily worried that Sienna would fall; until he saw how confidently she handled her mare.
Suddenly Iblis realised that she was being left behind, or perhaps she realised that home was near - Lucan did not know either way, but the next minute his lazy mount was cantering faster than he thought possible.
Sienna glanced back over her shoulder, and her surprise showed on her face when she saw Lucan just behind her. He grinned at her, a rakish, excited grin, and Sienna could not help but laugh out loud as the two of them drew level and thundered down the road to the fort.
They pulled up just before the gates, and trotted in, side-by-side. Both had mud splattered up all over them, but Lucan strangely did not mind the prospect of hours of grooming the horses clean once more. It had been worth it.
Neither did Sienna worry overmuch about the looming sermon from her mother when she was presented with her daughter covered from head to toe in mud. 'A new dress, ruined!' Sienna could almost hear her mother's voice saying. Still, any amount of scolding from her mother would be worth it for that ride.
Lucan swung down from the heavily-breathing Iblis, and he flicked the mare's nose as he moved around the front of her. "It's your own fault for being so unfit you know," he said to her, as he moved to help Sienna down.
She took the hand he offered, and slid down to land gracefully on the ground as Lucan looked wistfully over at where two grooms that he did not recognise tried to break Arthur's black stallion into saddle.
Sienna, seeing that Lucan's attention was focused over Ch'niel's withers, turned to see what it was that he was looking at.
"They'll ruin him. I could do better than that!" Lucan exclaimed angrily, as he watched the grooms try to subdue the stallion with brute force.
"You're so arrogant!" Sienna said furiously, turning to face him.
Lucan blinked slightly, taken aback by Sienna's reaction. He had only really been commenting to himself and had certainly not expected the princess to reply the way she did. "I'm sorry?" he asked, wondering if he had heard right.
"You are cocky, and boastful, and you have no concept of gratitude or respect for anyone."
"Don't presume to think that you know anything about me or my life, princess," Lucan said, his face darkening.
"You think you are so special! You are so…" she fumbled for the word, her anger rising, "…big-headed!" she finished crossly.
"Well it's better than being a spoilt, pampered, conceited princess," Lucan retaliated with aplomb. "My lady," he added, managing to inflect a huge amount of derison on the two words.
"How dare you?" Sienna screeched.
"Forgive me, princess" Lucan said, his voice full of scorn, though his words were polite.
Sienna said nothing, but stood for a moment, both staring into each others eyes, each daring the other to say something. Eventually Sienna gave way, and, gathering the tattered remains of her pride around her, she swept away.
Drystan whistled low as he came to take Ch'niel from Lucan.
"What did you do to make her like that?" he asked, raising his eyebrows as he watched Sienna storm off.
"I don't know!" Lucan protested, his scowl deepening. "She's so spoilt."
"You should be more careful, my friend," Drystan said, real concern in his voice. "If she told her father you said any of that to her, heads would roll. Probably yours."
Lucan shrugged. "She's a conceited, stuck up..." his voice tailed off.
"Pretty though," Drystan said in wistful voice as the pair led the two horses into their stables.
"I hadn't actually noticed," Lucan admitted as he began to untack Iblis. He stopped as he remember something, and leaned over the partition in the stable, so that he could see Drystan. "I thought it was her maid that you were always staring at, anyway?"
Drystan blushed a dark red, which was all the answer Lucan needed. He laughed, and started to brush Iblis down, whistling merrily to himself, his previous bad mood forgotten.