Disclaimer: I do not own Ella Enchanted. If I did, I definitely wouldn't be putting up a story on a fanfiction site, don't you think? But, if you don't believe me, I'm selling my autographs, fifty bucks a pop. Any takers?

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Sir Montgomery performed a quick head-count, intending no keeping his men close for at least a few hours before they set about. To his dismay (but not surprise), one of their number were already gone. Only a few remained, among them a certain blond looker (who was still attracting too much interest for the good of his own ego).

Sir Montgomery muttered a string of curses under his breath and retreated to his rooms. Prince Jerrold definitely had something coming to him, royalty or not.

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Daria grumbled under her breath as she struggled with the well. She had figured out how to attach it to the pulley system quite quickly, but she had not realized how much water weighed. She dropped the crank again, just as it reached the mouth of the well when she heard a small peal of almost-surpressed laughter.

She wheeled around, and came face-to-face with a laughing commoner. She gritted her teeth and spoke with forced civility. "Are you waiting for use of the well?" Inez had not told her it was theirs alone, and she did not want to make fool of herself again in front of this ... person.

At her tone the rude commoner stopped laughing and she could see he was quite handsome. He had curly hair only a shade darker than her own, sharp, chiseled features and interesting sea-green (almost blue, really, Daria thought), eyes. He did not speak, merely looked her up and down, and stepped back a little, as if he had forgotten himself.

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Jerrold was caught unawares by a pretty maid looking at him angrily. Ah, he thought. It was the laughing. He gave a little bow (which the maid snorted at, which left him a little angry, for he thought he had grasped commoners' etiquette quite well over the past few years), and spoke to her with a polite, distant voice. "I am sorry for disturbing you, my lady--"

He was cut short by the woman turning around and ignoring him, resuming her war with the well. He spoke again with a touch of irritated interest in his voice. "You could at least listen to me when I speak, Miss..."

She did not take this as an invitation to speak her name, rather, she continued her fruitless war with the well. Jerrold frowned, irritated. He was not used to being ignored by anyone other than his parents, who were the King and Queen, and not some commoner who he had thought about helping...

"Well?" she spoke with her back turned.

"What?" Jerrold was confused. Was he supposed to try greeting her again? Perform some remote villager meeting ritual? Apologize? Well, he was definitely not going to do any of those things, and if the wench thought he would--

"I could ... use some help."

Jerrold could tell by her stiff shoulders and forced demeanor that she was not enjoying this at all. He grinned evilly. "Oh?"

"Yes."

"And what am I supposed to do about that?" Jerrold was enjoying acting as rudely as possible. At the palace, his mother would probably be dragging him away by the ear right about now, and he almost flinched, half-expecting the familiar pinch.

"What happened to being polite? Chivalry and all that?" She had turned around and wore a challenging look on her face. Amused, Jerrold took the bait.

"You ended those notions quite a while ago, wench, and unless you're some baron's daughter I doubt they'll be returning," Jerrold could almost see her blood boiling, and indeed, she looked beautiful when she was angry. Her nose scrunched up in the nicest way, and her hair, once tied back so neatly, was quickly coming loose. Why, even her eyes seemed darker, with a beautiful glint--

Jerrold's thoughts quickly disappeared as a considerable amount of water was upended on his head. He spluttered indignantly. "Wha--" he ducked as the bucket came flying after the water. "What in Kyrria's name do you think you're doing!"

She crossed her arms smugly. "Wenches enjoy causing pain, I thought you'd have realized that by now, my lord!"

Jerrold narrowed his eyes. A glimmer of an idea wormed it's way into the front of his brain. Smiling, he adopted a sickeningly sweet demeanor. "Ah, my lady, as you have bested me, I suppose I am honor-bound to help." He picked up the bucket lying by his feet and advanced cautiously, wary of more buckets. When she did nothing, he set the bucket down the well and pulled up quite a bit more water. Grinning mischievously, he upended the bucket on her head, and left it their. Laughing at her surprised scream, he did not have time to duck this time as the badly aimed bucket hit his shoulder.

"Ouch! What did you do that for?"

"I should think that was obvious--"

An impatient harumph broke into their bickering. They both turned, and out of the corner of his eye, Jerrold saw the maiden pale considerably, and he could've sworn he heard her mutter something like "Inez" under her breath. The source of the harumph was an old woman, who moved with surprising agility and seized both their ears with vehemence. Jerrold cursed under his breath. Uncle Monty was going to kill him.

---

Lady Gwenneth was distraught. She let her sister handle the preparations for the knights, she set herself upon finding scouts to search for her daughter. She had called her father to help her, and he obliged. Sir Vernon was not to be trifled with, and the dozens of scouts they had found had set off at a thundering pace.

However, there was still the matter of Boris. Lady Gwenneth had wanted her father to fire him for her, but he insisted all he would to was stand by in case he got violent.

"Now, Boris..." Lady Gwenneth eyed him with trepidation. He looked so hopeful, standing there as if he was a scout as well. Lady Gwenneth's eyes brightened as the thought struck her.

"Boris, do you want to keep your position here?"

Boris nodded. "Yes, your Ladyship."

"You can!" Boris smiled delightedly, revealing a missing tooth "But... I have conditions." Boris' face fell slightly. "You can keep you position if you can find my daughter," and, not waiting to see his reaction, she sent him off.

"This will come back to haunt you, daughter."

"Oh, psh, Father, it's not as if he'll actually find her! And then we'll be rid of him!"

Sir Vernon smiled mischievously. "You are not as clever as you think. But, come, Maurine is calling you, she's screaming about something having to do with a rosebush..." His comment having produce just the reaction he had wanted from his oldest, he set off pointing Boris in the right direction, intending for his daughter to learn her lesson quite well.

---

Sir Montgomery was quite shocked as Jerrold came up to him in the tavern's main room. His nephew was quite wet, and his eyes were smoldering with anger. The only words he spoke to the now comfortably dressed (and warm) man were that the townspeople had yet to find out who he was. He led the man down a dusty road past the outskirts of the town and into a small huttish house, where an obviously irritated elderly woman greeted them. Sir Montgomery groaned inwardly. What had Jerrold done now? The boy was not a quiet traveler. Every town, nay, every farmhouse they passed caused them trouble, usually thanks to his annoyingly curious nephew.

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A/N: The spelling/grammar errors in the previous note are niggling at me; I'll have to fix them sometime... (Remember the first paragraph in the chappie? JERROLD! As you've all figured out by now, hopefully...) Squee! It's very easy to figure out the effect Daria and Jerrold are going to have on each other, no? But, down to business. I love you all. Well, only those that review ((thanks to Lalaith8, Lilybet Edyvean (who I love doubly as much), HI! (who also deserves a cookie), Bridget, Emily, sourjellybeans56, itsallabout me, and Kittycutie)), who I'm finally thanking by name this week.

itsallaboutme: Have you read the book very carefully? Because the recurring names of some of the characters (in the reviews and in the story) should drop you a hint. No? Well, Daria is Prince Charmont's mother, and, looking at the summary, it implies that this is how his parents fell in love. (At least, I'm saying they fell in love, because an arranged marriage makes for a less romantic plotline... They could certainly learn to love each other, but then there're no passionate, stolen kisses and confusion and hurt... Though I suppose you could work it in to the story somehow, if you really wanted to, but that's not what I'm writing, so... er, no more rambling. Right.)

Hah! Finally, some Jerrold! All right, it was brief (which is what I meant before about the satisfaction rating), but it's much harder to write Jerrold than Daria, I find. The plotlines and basic jist are in my head, but I'm not entirely satisfied (but when am I ever?) with the writing. But, alas, it must be done, and I do love him, and since the pairing in this story is canon, he can't mysteriously disappear like I want him to when I'm writing this thing. Of course, I could just keep the third person slightly Daria-based, but that wouldn't be half as fun as having a muddled Jerrold sort out his feelings and such. And besides, the bias would leave you in the dark concerning Jerrold's side of the story.

This was intended to be a very, very short (a few chapters, at most) friendship ficlet about Daria and Jerrold (mostly to sort out these unloved and depressing feelings Daria's been having), but it's running away with me at an alarming rate. (And, knowing how much I ramble, the only thing you'll look forward to is the ending, which is the only thing I will NOT let myself drag out-- I have this fear of rushing things in the story, you see, hence Jerrold's surprisingly late appearance.)

Again, I apologize for the horribly long note (which, consequently, is no longer a note at all...), and the horribly short chapter!