Chronicles of an Elven Bed-warmer

Chapter the Seventeenth

Unexpected Guests

Don't own.

Two weeks after the preceding chapter.

"Bryce, Bryce!" Lady Eleanor called after her husband. As usual she found him in his study, attending to the matters of the realm. "Elissa has sent another letter!"

The lord gave an almost imperceptible sigh. "What does it say, dear?" he asked wearily.

"I don't know," she opened it with her thumb. "Let's see shall we?"

Dearest Mother and Father,

I hope this letter finds you well. Things here are going well. I have taken on yet another student; hopefully this one won't quit on me like all the others. I have a feeling she won't; she has a very strong motivation to succeed. It's Aedan's new lover! (that's confirmed, by the way!) Included you will find a copy of a sketch I have done of the two of them. (Aren't they adorable?) I am having the original redone in oils by a quite talented fellow I met at tourney last year, Antivan, I believe, Leonardo something-or-other. I'm quite looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

All my love,

Elissa Cousland

Eleanor quickly searched the envelope and retrieved the picture. It was as she feared. Her son had been seduced by a shameless hussy. Look at how she was draped all over him! Not proper ladylike behavior at all.

"Ah-ha!"she barked. "See Bryce, look at that!" she forcibly thrust the incriminating illustration at him .

The Lord took it and gave the picture a calm appraisal. It was quite good, one of Elissa's better attempts. Beyond that he failed to see anything prticularly incriminatory. That must be her there, with her head in his son's lap. The affection between the couple came through in the sketch. She was quite the looker as well. Well good, Aedan deserved something nice in his life. As third born he didn't really stand to inherit very much; Fergus got Highever and Elissa was marrying Rendon's youngest, Nathaniel, sometime in the next year or two, if either one was ever in the same place long enough to hold the ceremony. Aedan tended to get overlooked, which suited his more scholarly nature, but Bryce still felt that he hadn't paid enough attention to him as a child. Elissa got most of the attention, for obvious reasons. Still his youngest had turned out quite well, doing a fine job managing the alienage and handling most problems with a quiet competence.

"I don't see the problem dear, they look rather cute. Elissa even wrote 'all tuckered out' across the bottom."

His wife gave him the Look. The one, half-furious, half-pitying, that meant he was obviously too male to comprehend her vast feminine wisdom in this matter, and that despite all sound argument, reason and evidence to the contrary, she was right and he was wrong (or else).

Lord Cousland cleared his throat uncomfortably. "What?"

"Look at how she's dressed! It's indecent!"

"Didn't you pick out those robes?"

"It's how she's wearing it."

"I think she's asleep."

"Hmph," the Lady concluded. Then after a few moments of silence said: "Don't you have to be in Denerim for the Landsmeet?"

Deciding that the abrupt change of topic meant that his wife had seen reason, or at least given up on it for now, he answered: "Oh, the elf thing. I was going to let Aedan handle it. It's really more his area."

"Is that really a good idea?"

"How do you mean?"

"Well, your absence could be seen as a snub, that you weren't giving the queen your full support."

Bryce wrinkled his brow in thought. He hadn't thought of that. As highly as he thought of Aedan, most at court only saw him as a third child, and not a particularly distinguished one at that. Some would see it as a sign and this measure was too important for him to show less than his full agreement.

"That's an excellent point Eleanor." he conceded. "Have the servants ready the coaches. With the state of the roads at this time of year we should leave as soon as possible."

"Oh dear! So soon?" The Lady sighed a tad dramatically, "I don't know how my maids will find time to pack my things on such short notice. "

"Yes, yes, I'm certain they'll manage," he replied distractedly, shying away from the subject and setting his attention firmly back on the work in front of him. He loved and admired his wife, of course, but didn't she see he had more important matters to attend to than how many pairs of shoes she could stuff into a trunk?

"I'm sure you're right," the Lady demurred, patting her well-distracted husband on the shoulder and pausing for a moment to congratulate herself on successfully manipulating him, before carrying out "his" request. She loved and trusted her husband, of course, but sometimes men needed a bit of guidance to see things the right way.

0-0

Her life was going rather well, Kallian thought one evening. Three weeks had passed since her exhausting first day as Elissa's student and she had fallen into a steady routine. In the mornings she trained in arms with her erstwhile teacher, then had a bath and a light lunch, after which were etiquette lessons with Elle, who was surprisingly knowledgeable on the subject. "Just because I ignore them most of the time doesn't mean I don't know the rules backwards," the maid had stated when Kallian had asked her about it. Then after dinner came her favorite part of the day. She spent her evenings in Aedan's room, participating in various 'activities'.

The couple was about to engage in the aforementioned activities when a frantic knocking came on Aedan's door.

"Who could that be?" Most of the staff knew not to bother him during his and Kallian's 'special time', so it must be rather urgent.

"You'll never know if you don't go and see," interjected a skimpily attired elf from her hiding spot underneath the bed.

The lord sighed. "You don't have to do that, you know, everyone knows by now."

"But isn't this more exciting?"

It was, now that she mentioned it, but Aedan kept that opinion to himself and answered the door.

It was Elle, looking uncharacteristically flustered and out of breath "Milord-" she started, but before she could finish the problem became obvious.

"Ah, my baby boy, how are you? You almost never write! Are you eating enough? You look a bit pale, have you been ill?

"Mother?" he squeaked.

Under the bed Kallian tried to will herself invisible.

"What are you doing here?" Aedan questioned once he had collected himself.

Lady Cousland frowned at the unwelcome tone. That girl's influence no doubt! "Oh, well, the Landsmeet is coming up and your father absolutely insisted he needed to be there to show his full support for dear Anora. I told him that you could handle it, but you know how he is once he gets an idea into his head."

She seemed to be searching for something and Aedan had a fairly good idea what, or rather who, it was. He cursed his sister and her blasted drawing kit.

"Oh," she continued. "I had heard you had a new bodyguard, is an introduction possible?"

Ah, thought Aedan, there it is. Best to just get it over with.

"Kallian, come out, mother wants to meet you."

Beneath the bed Kallian decided that what she was wearing, while more than adequate for 'activities' was not what she wanted to be wearing while meeting a noble lady, much less a noble lady that was also her ...boyfriend's mother. She was staying right where she was.

"Kallian..."

Kallian shook her head. Nope, no way no how.

"Now, Kallian."

She was halfway out from under the bed before she knew what she was doing. He was using his 'Lord Voice', and there was something in the inflection that made it nearly impossible to disobey. She'd seen him use it in the past, though very rarely and never, ever on her. She shot him a dirty look and tried very hard not to show how much it turned her on.

She made a token attempt to make herself more presentable, straightening her hair and brushing the dust from under the bed off of her rather brief sleeping costume. It was a futile endeavor; if there were women who could pull off such an outfit in front of their lover's mother then she was definitely not one of them. She let out an awkward cough .She could feel the red rising to her cheeks. She went to shoot Aedan another dirty look to show him exactly what she thought of his actions when she noticed he wasn't even looking at her. His face was completely calm but his eyes were angrier than she had ever seen. Come to think of it she'd never seen him get angry at all. Aedan generally didn't get emotional, he was always very controlled. She'd seen glimpses of it here and there, a passion burning just under the surface, usually whilst making love, he'd take charge and roughly put her in her place, (that is to say, underneath him screaming his name at the top of her lungs,) The fact that he was so much bigger and stronger than her made her a little afraid, but a lot more excited...

Meanwhile back in reality mere seconds had passed.

"Yes, I suppose introductions are in order." He said, coldly formal. "Mother, this is Kallian Inri," The elf gave what, under the the circumstances, was quite an acceptable curtsy. All that tutoring was paying off. Aedan gave her a smile of approval that she would keep in her memories for use on cold lonely nights.

He continued: "She is my official mistress and occasional bodyguard, Kallian, this is my mother Lady Eleanor Cousland of Highever."

Eleanor started to say something but Aedan inturrupted.

"Now, if you would kindly excuse us, Mother, Miss Inri and I are about to engage in coitus."

Lady Cousland had just enough time to let out an indignant squeak before Aedan all but strong-armed her out the door.

"Umm..." started Kallian. "Was that a good ide-Waugh!" Aedan pounced on the elf, tossing her roughly to the bed, where the two of them proceeded to make enough noise that even Aedan's mother knew not to interrupt them again.

Sorry for taking so long with this, and it's kind of short, but school has me doing a lot of stuff. Yes, definitely school, and not Saint's Row 4, which is an amazing game btw, or so I've heard, because I was busy with school and not shooting aliens in the head. No matter what anybody else says.