Coren watched the little ones play with their Winsol gifts with a smile. Allan apologized profusely this morning when he left her in the bed after waking her up in the most delicious way, but she understood. Mirana being family as well as his Queen made the obligation two fold to spend the day at the Queen's Residence. Her heart ached he would not be here for the children since she knew they would miss him, especially young Scott since he bonded with Allan the moment they met, but one year away would not matter when so many more lay ahead. A smile curled on her lips as she played the night before in her head.
"How do you feel about a winter handfasting?" he breathed while moving away inside of her, hands pinned above her head with one hand while his other held her hips at just the right angle to stroke her in just the right spot to bring her the most pleasure.
"That sounds amazing," she gasped as she nip his chin.
"Good, because I have every intention of marrying you next Winsol," he growled with a hard thrust of his hips.
"Maybe we could handfast after this Winsol," Coren replied. Allan stopped moving, disbelief on his face. She laughed and tried to move against him. "Don't stop!"
"You mean it?" His eyes welled up with tears as he let go of her wrists and sat back on his heels.
"Why not? You have been waiting centuries for me," she teased, reaching up and pulling him back to her. The fierceness of their lovemaking after that more than likely would have woken up everyone in the house if Allan hadn't had the forethought to put up aural shields around the room.
"May I go to my room?" Katherine asked with one of her new books clutched to her chest.
"Come sit next to me first," Coren told her as she reached out for the young girl. Katherine shuffled over and slid next to Coren. The young girl laid her head on Coren's shoulder and waves of anxiety rolled off the girl. Katherine hadn't been acting right for a few days, and Allan couldn't coax it out of her. Mirana took her to The Lady's Pleasure for an afternoon Queen to Queen, and she didn't manage to get it out of her. Everyone in Katherine's life tried to get it out of her except Coren. She figured the young girl would tell her when the time was right, but Coren couldn't blame people for trying to figure out what was on the young Queen's mind. Wrapping her arm around Katherine, Coren gave her a kiss on the top of her head with a smile. "You get everything you wanted?"
"Do you think Momma is okay?" Katherine said, looking up at Coren through her lashes with tear-bright golden eyes.
"I don't know," Coren replied. "Do you want to know?"
"She hasn't missed a Winsol before," Katherine shrugged as she looked back to her siblings. "Papa did, because he had to work, but Momma took time off for us. She always made sure to make us stuffed pancakes and orange juice, for a special treat. Couldn't Lady Mirana make it possible for Momma to come spend the rest of Winsol with us?"
"Oh honey," Coren breathed with a squeeze of the young girl's shoulders. "I don't know if that will ever be possible. Your Momma is very sick."
"But she will get better right?" she whined desperately, drawing the attention of her siblings to the couch. Coren rose calmly to her feet with a hand wrapped around Katherine's upper arm.
"We are going to see if breakfast is ready," Coren said brightly while dragging Katherine to her feet. "Please, don't let us stop you." Coren pulled the girl out of the parlor, ignoring her whining protests, and into the kitchen where Lady Linne stood cutting out cookies. With an understanding nod, Lady Linne put an Opal aural shield around the kitchen and a physical one on the door.
"Lady Mirana and Lady Rhina can fix her!" Katherine demanded with a stamp of her foot. "Queens can make Healers cure anything, and Lady Mirana is both with help from two Healers! Lady Marilyn is powerful too."
"The type of illness your mother has takes time to heal," Coren explained as she clenched her hands to her sides. Mother Night, how do you tell a young girl their mother had an addiction and it couldn't be cured by simple healing?
"Mother could be here all the time if Lady Mirana would just try," the young Queen shrilled, gnashing her teeth at Coren. "She can do anything with her power."
"You know a Queen's Jewel strength doesn't mean anything if she uses it for the wrong thing," Coren told her girl while looking to make sure none of the other children were in the doorway. "And your mother has more than a simple illness. She has to be in a special place where she can get well. Brews and webs can't fix what is wrong with her."
"But she could do all of that here," Katherine screeched as she threw the book on the floor. The girl started jumping up and down while screaming. "It isn't fair that my mother isn't here and I want her now!"
"That is enough," Lady Linne shouted, grabbing the girl's shoulders and giving her a hard shake. "You need to behave yourself with the decorum of a Queen. A tantrum like this is not how any young lady should represent herself. Now, take yourself upstairs and calm yourself so you can join us for the brunch." The young girl sniffed and shook Lady Linne's hands off her.
"Fine," Katherine huffed while turning on her heal. She reached to doorway with a mutter Coren almost missed. "If Mirana was a real Queen, she could do it."
"No," Coren barked with a flick of her finger. The book under Katherine's arm flew into Coren's hand and she vanished it before the girl could react.
"That's mine!"
"No it isn't," Coren told her, jabbing a finger to the bedrooms. "Not until you have thought about how wrong the words you just said were."
"Lady Flora said a real Queen would do it," Katherine sneered with hatred in her eyes.
"And now you have been sent to your room with no chance of coming out for the rest of Winsol," Lady Linne sighed while putting an aural shield around the young girl with a matter of fact tone. The girl screamed silently, throwing such a violent tantrum she shook the cabinets with the force of her stomps. Scott came to the doorway of the kitchen and immediately disappeared back into the parlor with a point of Coren's finger. Katherine ranted and raved, her face red with tears streaming down her cheeks while she vented in silence. It took a bit for her to realize she had been silenced, and when she did her look of fury while looking from one woman to the other made Coren wonder exactly how much time she had been spending around Lady Flora. Coren sent the request for the aural shield to be dropped to Linne, which she complied with and thankfully replaced it with a bubble physical shield around the young girl.
"You will go to your room, and I will be contacting Lady Millstone to come talk with you about your behavior," Coren stated softly. The color drained from Katherine's face and her bottom lip quivered. "And I will also being telling your Uncle Alec what you said."
"Please don't," Katherine croaked as she wrung her hands together. "I didn't mean it. I was angry. Don't tell Uncle Alec."
"Everything has a price," Coren told her with a point of her finger to the door again. Katherine sulked out of the room without another word and Lady Linne let out a slow breath through her teeth.
"This is not good," she said while giving Coren a look.
"Let's give the kids more cookies and hope the children don't notice their sister is gone," Coren sighed as Bianca came into the room with a furrowed brow.
"Why is Katherine going to her room?" Bianca asked, calling in a sweater and wrapping it around herself. Coren barely noticed the slight chill until that point, probably from not only Linne and herself but Katherine as well.
"I'll explain while you help me hand out these cookies," Coren replied with a wave of her hand to the tray of already cool cookies. "It will take the sting out of the disappointment they will feel of their sister not coming to see the play tonight."
Jolin gasped for air after yet another coughing fit wracked her body. The wicked cold she caught had taken it's toll on her the last two days, and ruined her Winsol season. Lady Solye poured tonics down her throat to ease the symptoms, but this cold had to be ridden out. She had been well enough to watch everyone open Winsol gifts and to have breakfast with everyone to only be sent to bed before lunch to rest. Unther insisted she stay in bed the rest of the day when he caught her throwing up after a nasty coughing fit, which she had to admit did make it cozy to have everyone come crowd around her while Lavender and the other children of the Court played with her toys at the foot of her bed as she drifted in an out of consciousness from the grogginess of the healing brews. Perhaps she could make it a Winsol tradition to have the Queen lay in bed and the court attend to her while the children of the court play with their toys and games at the foot of her bed or with her. While she desired no children of her own, the thought of having several around her didn't bother her.
Blowing her nose in an unladylike manner, she wished she could be downstairs with the large celebration the entire household planned over the course of the last month. A gag and another coughing fit had her reaching for her tea on the bedside table. The warming spell managed to keep the tea a tolerable temperature, but the liquid still had a stale quality from sitting in the cup for too long. Her nose cleared slightly with the warm fluid sliding down her throat, so she didn't mind the taste so much. Maybe I should send for a fresh pot, Jolin thought to herself as someone tapped on the door to her rooms. The door opened without waiting for Jolin's answer.
"Brought you more of your healing brew, along with a fresh tea setup up for you," Cinda said as the cup in Jolin's hand vanished, along with the rest of the set nearby. "We figured you could use some since you are feeling poorly still. The kitchen has set aside a large amount of the sweets and food for you to have tomorrow, if Lady Solye approves. However, tonight you are to drink the brew, and if you manage to down it quickly you can have the tea while it is still hot."
"And if you are a good girl and drink it up without a lot of whining or fuss, I will even read you a bedtime story," Prince Xavier stated with a smirk as he strolled in with book in hand.
"I am not a child," Jolin snarled while rolling over in bed to face away from him. Her reward ended up being a coughing fit so rough she ended up flopped back on the pile of pillows with Cinda fussing while Jolin attempted to catch her breath. Lady Solye rushed in with a different tonic soon after Jolin got settled, along with a couple of Healers in training, and Lord Unther.
"You said you felt better," Lord Unther growled, glaring at her from the foot of her bed with the Healers examined her.
"I feel fine," Jolin wheezed with a sip of the healing tonic. A light pressure on the foot of her bed drew her attention to the left of Unther to see Prince Dark Midnight making his way to her side. He crouched low and shimmed his way below the probing hands to lay his entire length against her with his head on her lap. She smiled and scratched the large cat behind one of his ears. "Hey you. I'm fine." His disgruntled huff told her he didn't believe her, but he rewarded her with his rumbling purr when she moved her hand to scratch under his chin.
"Finish the tonic and you are to not get up at all tomorrow," Lady Solye proclaimed while waving off the other healers. "And before you protest about that, you need to think about what it would do to us if you end up dying from this."
"I am not…" Jolin saw the look Lady Solye gave her and realized just how serious her condition must be to get the kind of look she was getting from a Healer. Jolin downed the tonic in a couple of gulps and handed it back to Solye with a nod. "I suppose another day or two in bed won't hurt, especially over Winsol."
"Oh, two days in bed would most definitely do you some good," Lady Solye replied as she vanished the cup. "Such a wonderful idea. Bed rest for two days it is, my lady." Jolin narrowed her eyes at the Healer while Cinda started to prod the other young women out the door. Two days at the end of Winsol wouldn't normally amount to much, but the play the night after next did sound absolutely delightful when she read about it in the papers. She would be missing an evening at the theater with Unther and Lady Phillipa, as well as a nice dinner out. Lady Solye had been protesting her going out since the cold started, and Jolin had a sneaky suspicion the Healer had been looking for the reason to keep her in the estate. Jolin handed the reason to Solye gift-wrapped and on a platter. Lady Solye vanished the healing brew off the tea tray while Cinda poured a cup.
"Three sugars and a splash for you," Cinda told her with a wink and a nod to Xavier. *Be nice.*
*I am always nice.* Jolin prodded back while taking the cup from the maid, hurt she would say such a thing. Despite how Xavier treated her, she always made sure to treat him with respect. His cold civility to her told her everything she needed to know about what he thought of her, which made her wonder why he now sat in a chair next to her bed. Lady Solye and Cinda left with assurances they would be back in the morning to check in on her while Prince Dark Midnight and Prince Xavier stayed in their respective positions. The three of them sat in silence as Jolin sipped on her tea, no one moving or saying a word while the fire crackled.
"Guess I should begin since you drank the healing brew without much prodding," Xavier stated, calling in eyeglasses and settling them on his nose. "Though the potency of the brew may have you falling asleep before I make it through the first chapter. I might have to re-read it to you another night."
"I thought the demon dead didn't age like the rest of us?" Jolin croaked over her tea cup. Xavier opened the book and looked at her over the rims of his glasses with a quirked brow.
"Are you going to make fun of me, or are you going to let me read?" he asked. Jolin leaned back into her pile of pillows with a grumble and sipped her tea again. He shook his head with a smile as he turned the first page. "The day began with a sunny walk through the main street of Elmwood. Lady Tracker couldn't waste the day…" Jolin absently petted Dark Midnight while Prince Xavier's words flowed over her. The cadence and rhythm of his voice kept her entertained with the story, plus he changed his voice for when people spoke. She closed her eyes at one point and could almost see the scenes playing in her head as he vocalized the words on the page. Her entire body relaxed as the words flowed over her while she sipped on her tea. The cup quickly emptied and Xavier paused to make her another cup.
"Thank you," she told him as she took the cup with a grateful smile. He gave her a nod while settling back down into the the chair. Dark Midnight moved from her side to lay at the foot of the bed near her feet, warming them as the tea warmed the rest of her and Xavier continued to read. Her lips pulling into a smile as the content feeling she got from the whole situation reminded her of…
She blinked and stared at the fire as she realized her father never read her a bedtime story. He and her mother weren't exactly the most affectionate type of people. When Jolin was ill, they would hire a nursemaid to take care of her, who mostly kept her alive until the illness passed. This was the first time she could remember someone read to her in bed while she was ill.
"Someone's falling asleep," Xavier mused while he lifted the tea cup out of her hand.
"Mmm?" Jolin groaned, blinking up at him with confusion.
"You have been staring at the fire and not hearing a word I have been saying for the last few moments," Xavier explained with a nod to the large cat snoozing beside her. "You should follow his example and take a snooze. Sleep off the brews."
"I promise I was listening," she protested.
"Tell me what I said in the last few minutes then," Xavier said as he used Craft to float the tea tray into the sitting room area. Jolin struggled to remember what he last said, only to give him a sheepish smile with a shrug in response. He laughed and shook his head while placing his hand on the bed. The space under the covers became warm, as well as her pillows propping her up. "That should help you doze off in a few moments."
"Mmmmm warming spell," Jolin cooed while pulling the covers up to her chin.
"I am surprised no one else had thought of it before," Xavier drawled, ruffling her hair with a smirk. "Now sleep." Jolin stared at his back as he left the room in shock. Was he just affectionate with her? Treat her like, someone he actually liked?
"The healing brew makes my brain fuzzy," Jolin grumbled with an adjustment of her covers as she wiggled herself deeper into the pile of pillows to surround herself in the cloud of warmth. "Blame it on the healing brew."
Lady Mirana deeply sighed at the letter in her hand. The actions of the young Queen did not bode well. She could not keep the young girl away from Lady Flora when she attended parties and nights at the theater without breaking Protocol. Her influence on the young Queen could potentially be almost horrific if this kind of behavior was already being exhibited with the few short moments the young woman had been in the presence of Lady Flora.
"Come back to bed love," Luc groaned. Mirana looked over at the man who stretched with a smile on his face, deliciously naked from the waist up and covered only with a sheet below. She knew allowing him into her bed for Winsol was the most cliche gift she could give him, but with him being wealthy she had to come up with something original and what he could not buy himself.
"In a moment dearest," she replied with a wave of the letter in her hand. "I must allow myself to think over this matter." A gentle kiss on his lips turned into more, and she only pried herself away with the promise to not be long with the matter. Something like this could not wait, and she must visit the young Queen herself to go over the matter with her. He, of course, insisted on dressing and traveling with her to Coren and Allan's home. The two of them arriving downstairs at a late hour alerted the rest of the house and her uncle Alec plus Teral insisted on going as well. Mirana swore to herself to keep her mouth shut in the future about such things so late as the four of them walked down the lane, much to the protest of the men who wanted to hook up the carriage and disturb the rest of the household. Her insistence the home village of the Queen would be safe enough to walk along in the night if the guards were doing their job.
She should have heeded their advice, for just a few moments outside of the city a group of men swarmed upon them. Mirana shielded herself and called in her own weapons while the others called in theirs. The attackers did not stand a chance against them all, even at the uneven odds of nine to four. While none of them were killed, two sustained severe enough injury the Healing House had to be informed while the others were detained in wait for the rest of her Court to arrive. Mirana clenched her war blades with barely contained desire to slice off their heads for being foolish enough to attack her on Winsol night, but they needed questions answered so she allowed her cold rage to wash over the men kneeling in front of her.
"I shall clean those for you, Lady Millstone," Lord Prothvar stated, a hand outstretched to her.
"I should rather them look upon the blood of their compatriots to encourage them to tell me what I need to know," Mirana informed him as she took a step forward toward the group. "For they should know how I can easily make them one of the Demon Dead if they do not give them what I ask for in terms of information."
"And I do not want to see your pretty toys destroyed by allowing the blood to rust them for being on the metal too long," Lord Prothvar explained while taking the weapons from her. He took them to the side and began to use snow to clean them just as the Healing wagon came to gather the two injured attackers.
"As Queen of Shalador Nehele, I ask you to tell me why you did this," Lady Mirana demanded quietly, looking over the men with her entire Court at her back. "Once we know what we need, you shall be escorted to the borders of my Territory. If we have to pry it out of you, then I will give you to my men to do what they see fit."
"I don't know nothing," one of the men cried. Mirana set her gaze on the young man, no boy, at the end of the line, whose flush cheeks and tear bright eyes gave her pause. "They told me I would earn a good bit of coin, and I need it for my family."
"And you didn't question what you were doing?" Prince Grayhaven asked with a nod to the other men "Surely one of them would have told you some vague notion what your task tonight would be."
"The only thing they told me was they were going to knock an upstart little…" the boy trailed off as he looked at Mirana and the men behind her with a now bright red face. "Well, they said someone needed to be taught a lesson."
"I see," Mirana said, sending a thought to Teral and gesturing Prince Jacob forward. "These two will take you somewhere for more information while I question the others."
"Come along pup," Teral sighed while grabbing the boy by the collar and pulling him to his feet. "Prince Jacob and I will get you some food in your belly while you tell us what you do know."
"Thanks sir," the boy stammered with a glance to the men on the ground.
"No need to worry about them," Prince Jacob told the boy as he wrapped his arm around the youngsters shoulders and turned him toward the village. "Our Queen is a fair lady. We will go sit by a fire for a bit and discuss what little you do know." When the three were far enough away, Black shields domed over the area.
"My men are going to question you further right here," Mirana sniffed, calling in a chair. She settled herself in it as she listened to the men protest their innocence to her. Once she had completely settled, her men began their questioning under her watchful eye. The small bit of violence her men did barely scratched the surface of what she would have deemed acceptable to pressure the strangers into admitting what they were doing in her Territory. It took so little for the attackers to confess what little information they knew themselves, it was almost laughable. Her heart twinged slightly at the thought of the women who these men associated themselves with. Their cowardice told her everything she needed to know about the caliber of men they truly were.
"I think it is time we escorted these gentlemen to our border," Alec coughed with a nod to the group of men coming from the direction of the Landen settlement. Mirana blinked in shock at the sight of the large gentlemen being led by Elder Heath, an older man who shambled along with assistance of a gnarled stick she had seen him whip around with skill to defend his flock despite what his outward appearance would have you believe. Some of the men carried torches while others had pitchforks and large clubs in their hands.
"Happy Winsol Night to you, Lady Mirana," Elder Heath called out after the shields dropped. She stood and vanished the chair with a smile to the older man.
"Happy Winsol Night to you as well, Elder Heath,"Mirana called back as the group approached with grim expressions on all but Elder Heath's face, who smile pleasantly and held out a hand. Someone slid a large gaily wrapped box into his palm as Mirana's court started to drag the attackers to their feet.
"One of our patrols saw these gentlemen heading over your way, and decided to come see who wandered in our midst this late at night, on Winsol Night even," Elder Heath said while holding out the gift. "We also decided it would be a good time to deliver the gift instead of interrupting your day tomorrow in case these men were important visitors."
"Uh-huh," Mirana replied, flicking her eyes over the large group of armed men.
"However, I can see these men are anything but important," Elder Heath stated with a gleam in his eye. Mirana noticed the blacksmith she visited just the other day to check on his daughter's broken wrist from a fall in the field helping her mother herd their sheep tighten and twist his grip on the large hammer he usually used only on metal, and took a deep breath.
"I will happily take the gift, and respectfully request you and your men return home," Mirana told him as she used Craft to float the gift over and hand it off to Allan. "My men can handle these men from here. They were just leaving."
"With respect, we are yours as well, my lady," Elder Heath sniffed, snapping his fingers and gesturing one finger at the right side of his group. Three men stepped forward and moved to stand behind the six remaining attackers. "These men will help the members of your Court. Whatever the Queen's Will, they can carry it out."
"We were just about to escort these men to the border of the Territory," Prothvar informed Elder Heath as he, Yarek, and Jared stepped forward. "We will gladly take the help in handing off these men to the guards at the Dena Nehele border. Their Master of the Guard is waiting with his own group of men to hold them at their… guest quarters for gentlemen such as these." Which we will probably be building our own of once Winsol is over, Mirana thought to herself while the attackers were led away as the other men exchanged pleasantries, though she could still feel the anger and frustration from Luc as he chatted with Elder Heath about banalities. Her entire Court's anger simmered with the threat to boil over as they talked with the Landens about their plans for the rest of Winsol. When the Landens walked away to head back to their village, a Black shield went up over the area again and her Court surrounded her.
"They should have been killed for attacking you," Luc seethed while the other men stared daggers at her.
"We would not have found out anything if we killed them," Mirana explained, jerking a thumb to the group of men disappearing into the trees. "By killing them, what little information we did get would have been lost. And believe you me, if I wanted them dead I wouldn't have to have you to do it for me. Do you know how difficult it was for me to pull back on the two who managed to get through? A newly vested Queen killing males or having them killed does not look good for anyone."
"While that is true," Lord Richard coughed as he stepped up to the two of them, "it was well within our right to kill them, per Protocol. No one would dare question the need to destroy males attacking our Queen in her Territory. However, I do applaud your restraint. It will not go unnoticed you decided to give mercy to the men since it is clear they did not know they were being paid to attack a Queen. The young man we separated from the pack has given Teral and Jacob everything he knows, and they have him in one of the guard houses till he can be escorted home in the morning. Our two patients have been healed enough to be taken to the border with their compatriots. The question is, what we are going to do with the rest of our evening?"
"We will be going back to the Queen's Residence," Mirana stated with a look up at the night sky. "It is much too late to speak with Lady Katherine about her behavior after spending the time to question the males."
"Would have been nice if they knew who hired them," Manny sighed while holding his arm out. She threaded her arm through it and gave Luc a mental jab to drop the shields. He did as she requested, but she could tell from what she could feel from him he wasn't happy about her allowing Manny to escort her back to the Queen's Residence. A smile curled her lips with the thoughts of what she could do to make him not so angry while distracting herself from the fact the men where hired by someone who wore a powerful enough Black Widow glamor she and Manny could still feel the power on the males who attacked her.
Author's Note:
Hello everyone! I hope you like this chapter and once again I am so very sorry it has taken such a long time for it to become a thing. I tried to have it up at Christmas for a present for all of you still following me, but I didn't have the mental capacity for it. I hope all of you are well in this trying time. Please don't hesitate to let me know what you all think about this!