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The men in the room crowded round and just as Raoul opened his mouth to announce his cunning plan; an irate Captain Glaisdan of Haryse, stomped into the room and over to him and proceeded to glare, Raoul looked mildly back.

It made quite a comical sight, the Knight Commander, staring meekly up at Glaisdan, who was rapidly turning purple; he finally managed to splutter out, "Do you know what she said?" He didn't wait for an answer but proceed anyway, "I merely and humbly for her own good, expressed my opinion that as a court Lady she shouldn't be firing a bow like a man, and she had the nerve to tell me to go and do something useful like polish my armour, instead of sticking my beak in where it wasn't wanted!"

Captain Flyndan voiced the question that was on most people's minds, "when you say she, I presume you are referring to my Lord's goddaughter, Evelyn of Naxen?" When Glaisdan nodded, the barest of smiles appeared to flicker across Raoul's face, his Captain noticed this and, muttering something about doting godfathers stormed off, presumably in search of more sympathetic company.

After the door had slammed shut, Raoul allowed his face to relax into a broad smile, "I almost feel bad about what I'm going to do after she put him in his place so well." At a moan from one of the men he grinned, "I said almost Lerant; I still have every intention of scaring her, or at least Dom is going to scare her!"

Raoul paused and glanced around the barracks as if he was afraid Evelyn was going to suddenly appear, before lowering his voice to a whisper and beginning…

"When Evelyn was a little more then a baby I told her a ghost story, it was one of my better ones if I do say so myself, concerning a certain deceased Duke," there was a sudden rustling as all present in the room made the sign against evil on their chests, "I didn't think much of it until I was talking to Cythera this morning, she was giving off because it appears that my darling Evelyn is scared to sleep in the guest room because it used to belong to Duke Roger and she still believes the tale I told her!"

A wide grin was slowly appearing on Dom's face as he realised what it was that Raoul had planned, Raoul noticing this stopped his narration. Again this brought a moan of complaint from all those who had not seen the direction in which he was heading. Dom, who was now grinning evilly, filled them in, "I believe what my Lord wants is for me to hide in her quarters and pretend to be the ghostie, would I be right sir?"

"Correct as always sergeant, I knew I liked you for a reason," and with that Third Company got down to some serious plotting, ironing out all the finer details.

Evelyn stormed into her fathers study late in the afternoon, cold air had brought colour into her cheeks and her hair was loose around her shoulders. Gary glanced up at his only daughter and smiled, "were you out practicing? I hope you didn't get into any trouble…"

She paused and seemed to be contemplating her answer, finally she sighed and replied

"No Papa, I simply got side tracked having an interesting conversation." Gary raised both eyebrows but got no further in his questioning; instead she pulled over a chair, and began sorting through his reports, placing them into piles, urgent and not as important, her fingers moved like lightening and she soon had a conversation going…

"Papa, you know the way I have to stay in Duke Rogers old room," Gary made a noise of affirmation in the back of his throat, "well I was wondering if there was any other room that I could stay in?" This last part held a slight pleading edge to it.

Gary looked up swiftly, in a single glance he took in her clasped hands and wide eyes. "My dear, you know that unless you want to go and stay in the royal wing that there aren't any other rooms available, your sister in-laws are staying in your usual room, just give it one night."

Dom groaned from his place in the privy, which had previously been the workroom, he had been here for over 3 hours, and it was fast approaching midnight. He peered down at his clothes, there was the plush purple robe, black breeches and in his hand he held a glowing staff. Suddenly he heard a cock crowing, his signal!

Quiet as a mouse he crept into the main room, he made his way to the window and opened it, underneath his squad and Raoul waited, ready to catch him when he jumped, he took a deep breath and muttered a prayer to Mithros that he wouldn't get caught.

As he started to make ghostly noises he caught sight of her face, it almost made him burst out laughing on the spot, a tousled blonde hair was poking out from beneath the covers and her mouth was open in a small "O", just then it was pulled under the covers and they proceeded to shake…

Evelyn ducked under her covers and took several deep breaths. There was bound to be a way to deal with the monster that appeared to be in pain, (due to the strange moaning noises that it was issuing) in the centre of her room.

She became aware that there was something directly above her bed and taking a final deep calming breath she jumped up! As she caught sight of its face a scream escaped her, there was blood coming from its jeering mouth!

Dom let out a yelp as he was landed on by a whirlwind, he turned tail and ran for the window, but she had his hand and as he reached the balcony he was forced to turn around in order to free himself, as he did so she brought her knee up and hit him firmly between the legs…

Watching from below Raoul thought he had better intervene before his goddaughter damaged his poor sergeant, "Evelyn, if you don't mind I would prefer it if you refrained from hurting poor Dom," Evelyn looked down and saw her Uncle with his large hands in pockets grinning up at her, he seemed to be surrounded by about 10 laughing creatures / Dom's squad.

She gave a gasp and released Dom's hand as though it was on fire, "you…" temporally rendered speechless she contented herself by slapping Dom hard, he let out another small groan and jumped off the ledge to be caught by the men below.

"Uncle you do realise that this means war now, don't you?" Raoul smiled cheerfully up at her "yup, I thought it might, but I believe I'm winning" and with this parting shot he followed his men out through the gardens and back to their quarters. As he caught up with Dom he asked if the sergeant was feeling ok, Dom simply raised an eyebrow, "remind me never to mess with the court ladies again."

Evelyn watched the retreating men's backs and smiled, it was going to be fun getting revenge, especially as she had magic on her side, something Raoul had obviously forgotten about….