Court Rivalries - Chapter 12

Everybody Gets Annoyed

Summary: A brother of a certian sergeant goes to court with fancies of catching a lady knight. Dom follows his brother to the escapades of court, hoping to win over his friend before his brother snatches her away, out of his grasp forever.

Disclaimer: You all know the drill, Thad's mine (unfortunately) and the rest of them aren't.

Neal's eyes flashed dangerously, and he stormed up to his cousins.

"How dare you! How dare you both! Speaking of my best friend as if she is only a possession to be won, someone whose life's course you have a right to decide! Kel's marriage, if she ever chooses to get married, is not your decision! Some stupid fight won't change her feelings towards either of you!" Neal snarled at them both, yanking the desolate Dom up forcibly.

Thad raised an eyebrow at the fuming Neal. "But cousin, I think you are mistaken. Her love was not what we were fighting over. Nor her hand in marriage. We, Nealan, were fighting for the right to court her."

"Because that is so much better," Neal drawled sarcastically, glowering at his oldest, and at this point, most annoying cousin.

"Leave it Neal. He won fair and square. He is allowed to court her. I won't get in his way."

As he said it, he shrugged Neal's hand off his shoulder, and turning made a slow departure in the direction of the King's Own barracks, leaving Neal to stare after him in sheer disbelief.

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Kel scowled, tugging breeches and tunic on carelessly.

Four days had passed, and Kel was extremely frustrated. Dom was nowhere to be found since their joust. Had she offended him somehow by accidentally kissing him?

She knew that she had offended Thad, but at this point, after him constantly following her around for the last four days, it didn't seem that he was much bothered about it anymore. It seemed that she would never be rid of him, let alone be able to find his brother.

Kel sighed as she tugged a comb through her hair and picked up her glaive.

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The glaive swirled, sparkling blue as the morning light caressed its edges, and came to a graceful stop beside her right foot.

As her weapon came to a stop, Kel heard footsteps walking up behind her. With a growing sense of inevitability, Kel recognised the now familiar footfalls, and turned around.

Kel felt utterly repulsed at the unexpected pressure of Thad's lips on her own.

She detached herself, dancing away from his grip, in what she hoped looked like a playful way, turned around, glanced back over her shoulder at him as she made her way back to her rooms with her glaive.

"Water Nymph Courtyard, one candle mark after the noon meal, See you there!" Thad shouted after her.

As she turned a corner into the gardens she had the freedom to look downright nauseated. Grateful for the water fountain a few feet away, Kel submerged her face in the cool water, attempting to wash her mouth out.

Rubbing her hands over her face, Kel sighed morosely. Thad was becoming more of an annoyance with each passing day. Sometimes, like now, she had the tolerance not to be rude to him – it would not do she reminded herself, for the house of Mindelan to be frowned upon by any other noble house of higher stature (they already did that enough solely because of her knight status) – but it was becoming increasingly difficult to be kind to him when his brother was nowhere to be found (and Kel had the sneaking suspicion that he was hiding from her) and he insisted on trying to court her and treat her like a delicate court lady. Oh, and the fact that he assumed that she would like to see him anytime he wished was certainly bugging her.

Well, she might as well see what he wanted, as tracking down Dom to apologise seemed like a hopeless option at this point.

She sighed yet again and decided to find Owen and get that lip balm that he had managed to steal from her rooms back. She shook her head amused, I wonder what his new lady would say if she knew of his new found obsession with ladies lip balm.

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A big thanks to MalfoyZutaraFreak, who has offered to beta this story for me! Thanks to all my fab reviews for this story, and especially to those who have reviewed most of my chapters! And a special thanks to the reviewers for my last chapter: opalshine (for all her wonderful suggestions too), Lioness Queen, LouLaBelle13, lady knight Keladry, BobtheFrog, 'Me' (whoever you are, thanks for all of your reviews!), stardust718, Wannabe 3rd Lady Knight, Starzgirl, deathequalsoul, and oirishgoddess (and thanks for all the reviews for my other stories)