A/N: Thank you for being patient! I've had major writer's block on this and I have a short attention span!
The Rose's Ruse
Chapter 8
"Have I done something to make you angry, Nathaniel?"
"Of course not, milady, why would you say that?"
"I just... haven't seen much of you is all."
This was the precise moment Nathaniel had been trying to avoid all month. For a girl as clever as she, he was certain that she would have confronted him sooner. After all, they had been inseparable during those few blissful days before he knew. He didn't want to see it because he did like Lady Blair quite a bit, but... Chuck was his brother. Yes, of course he knew of his reputation with women and of course he cared deeply for the beautiful flower who stood before him, but he could hardly ignore the voice in his head that nagged at him, saying she could be the one; the one who could turn his womanizing brother into the person he so desperately wanted to become, the person who would make Lord Bass proud.
"Will you accompany me into town today? There are a few things that I-"
"-I'm afraid that would be impossible." He turned from her and faced the window. Chuck had always told hiim that he could not lie with his eyes. He held his back rigid and straight, dignified and respectable even as he knew that he was about to do something unforgivable. "We have not been very wise in these few days together, I'm afraid. You are at the age of marriage and I have my duties to fulfill for Lord Bass. To be seen together in such an indecent manner-"
"-indecent?" Her voice cracked and his heart ached at the tears drowning in her throat, but he had to do this properly and cleanly. It was only fair.
"Regardless, I believe it would be best if we weren't so... liberal around each other."
"Is that how you truly-"
"Yes." He was resolute and in the air, in her foosteps as she walked away, he could taste the exact moment when Blair Waldorf froze, inch by inch, vein by vein. She left a frost in the air that bit at his bones and he prayed that he had done the right thing by her.
* * *
She broke into a run the moment her foot touched the dirt road, and when she slammed open the stable door, Daniel and Jenny dropped the bridle and saddle they had been carrying. "I need to break something."
"Lady Blair, what ails you?" They saw in the way her slender shoulders shook that something had gone horribly wrong. Not a line of joy or humor could be detected on her face.
"I need to break something," she repeated with a slight tremor in her voice.
"A pile of twigs that I have broken off from the firewood lies behind-"
Before Dan could finish, she had taken the ax from its place against the wall and stomped past them, the blade making a harsh sound as she dragged it across the ground behind her. The pair winced when they heard the cracking noises and her exasperated grunts. "Do you think she is all right, brother?"
"Of course not. Finish preparing Master Chuck's horse and I will ask if she requires anything... less destructive."
"Good luck."
* * *
She was a mess the likes of which he had never seen on her before. Pieces of woodchip and dried leaves nested in her hair and tangled in her skirts. Her craftfully styled hair fell to ruins, strands hanging madly and haggardly around her flushed face. When she swung the ax, she let it hang behind her in her hands, her elbows up in the air so that she may depend upon the momentum when she brought the metal down uon the mess of twigs resting on the ground. Dan had to watch himself lest he die by her hand in a way that was too violent and bloody for his poetic soul. "Would you... would you like to talk about it?" He stayed a safe distance from her.
"If I wanted to talk, Daniel, I wouldn't bother dirtying up my dress, now would I?"
He watched her chop the already compressed twigs into little bits and pieces of the floor and looked at her face, flushed and distressed. "It might offer you some relief if you talk about it. Recall that time when I, by complete accident and no fault of my own, tore all of Lady Eleanor's corsets when I was trying to-"
"No amount of talking, Dan, will make Nathaniel Archibald less of a heart-breaking scoundrel. In celebration of my complete loss of faith in men, I must destroy things. Do you understand, Daniel?"
At this, he was puzzled. If he had to declare any single person within their household to be infuriating to the degree of violence, it would have to be Master Chuck. "Uh... no, I don't believe I do understand."
She turned to him then, her expression almost savage, and pointed the blade in his direction. "Of course you don't! You are of that most atrocious gender that holds no guilt about ripping the hopes and dreams of a young girl to shreds! Now get out and let me break things!" Daniel required no further warning. It was always a bad idea to argue with Lady Waldorf while she was angry and held a sharp object in her hand. Subconsciously, he rubbed the scar at the edge of his palm and recalled a time when she was but a child and he had tried to convince her to finish her plate.
No, Daniel did not wish to be decapitated today.
* * *
"It is still not ready? It has been a while since I asked you and your brother to prepare my horses. I suppose that is just the quality and efficiency of work I should expect from someone who has never been outside this God-forsaken village." Chuck leaned against the wooden beam at the front of the back house and stared at the blonde while she worked. "And where is that brother of yours?"
The door in the back opened and in came dull little Daniel Humphrey rushing past as though spirits were after his soul. "Ah, speak and he doth appear. Tell me, my good, and I use that term with much hesitation, man, what kept you from completing the tasks that the master of the house asked of you?" Chuck really had no patience for this today. Truly, he justed needed to get out of this house, meet some women and perhaps get quite... familiar with a few of them. It had been far too long.
"Master Chuck! I was just... well out back there was a situation and..."
"Boy, you have to learn to distinguish when I actually care about what you have to say and when I don't. Most of the time it will be the latter."
The rambling fool fell silent and Chuck was relieved. He was not prepared for another detailed itinerary of his day thus far. No one needed to know exactly how Daniel Humphrey spent his day from morning to night. Then the little blonde spoke out as she brushed the horse's mane. "Lady Blair was... upset, Master Chuck."
"Oh?"
"Oh yes, very much so." Just as Chuck began to walk in the direction of the harpy's wrath, Daniel stood in his path. "Despite your crass manner with us, Master Chuck, I sincerely do not wish for any harm to befall upon you. Therefore, I beseech you, save yourself and leave her be. I myself was nearly beheaded for providing comfort on the sole ground that I have external male organs."
Chuck's face curled in disgust. "First order of business, Humphrey. I never want to hear about any of your organs again nor do I need to know anything about your methods of reproduction. Secondly, never compare yourself to me please. Someone is bound to be embarassed. Lastly, when I say someone, I hope you understand that I mean you." He pushed at the servant's shoulders with his fingertips and brushed them against each other as though a thick layer of dust had settled upon it. "When I return, I hope that my method of transportation will be ready and the two of you will have scurried back to the house." Without another word, he stepped through the door from which Daniel had just come out.
He was expecting to see yards of white lace covering a girl doubled over in tears, but Chuck had forgotten that country ladies were... rather eccentric. It was comical, certainly, to see her chopping away harmlessly. The twigs hardly made much more than a tiny crack of a noise. He could laugh.
But then he saw her face.
She had been so full of smiles for the past few days that it was strange to see her lower lip trapped in a frown and her brow furrowed up in concentration. Finally, her arm hung loose, weighed down by the ax in her hand with the blade resting lightly on the floor. Slowly, he clapped. "Bravo."
She turned to find him leaning against the door. Why did he always do that? "Fantastic. This is exactly what I need. I would say, spare me your ridicule, but I doubt you would listen."
"I hope, Ms. Waldorf, that you are not trying to procure firewood. This would hardly do." The massacre had resulted in little scraps of wood lying reckless on the floor, each measuring barely four centimeters. "Also, we have manservants for that sort of thing. Really, you country girls don't know much, do you?"
Her face turned red as she dropped the ax and stalked toward him and just as her scowl was about to spit out another acidic reply, something strange happened. There was a twitch. And another. And suddenly, her whole face seemed to just crumple upon itself as tears poured down her cheeks to mat in her hair. All right, so this was what Chuck had been expecting when he walked in, but now he was rather lost at what he should do. He put a hand on her shoulder and said, "there, there." That appeared to be... customary, was it not? Oh, he was no good at this sort of thing. His only interactions with women were... encounters.
"I thought - I thought he liked me!" He was surprised when she actually assaulted him. Well, not so much, but she did just grab the handkerchief out of his pocket without a word! She wiped her face pitifully. "We were having such fun together but now... now he wants nothing to do with me!"
"Are you speaking of..."
"Nathaniel, of course! Your heartless dandy of a companion! This is entirely your fault!"
"M-my fault?"
"Had you not come here, I never would have met Nathaniel and I never would have had my heart broken! Does that bring you joy, you devil of a man?"
He had learned long ago that women do not listen to reason, so he sighed. "All right, then. What will you have me do, my lady? Murder my best friend to calm your anger?"
"Ha! I would have run his heart through with a dagger had I been sure that he possessed such a thing. Now I am not so sure." This exclamation brought about a new round of tears and she dabbed at her face lightly with the cloth. He winced at the big wet spots spreading across his 100% silk handkerchief. Goods such as that are meant to be decorative, not useful.
Still, he put his arm around her when he saw her little body shaking from her sobs. "Come now, my dear. 'Tis not so bad. Nathaniel is hardly the only man in the world and there is much fun to be had. I have yet familiarized myself with the town. Let us go on an adventure now, shall we?"
"But it is hardly an adventure for me! I grew up here." Her voice was calmer now, small like a mouse. He wasn't sure which he preferred.
"Well then consider yourself a kind soul navigating a stranger through your homeland then. I will not beg, but I ask only for the consideration of those poor, helpless twigs." She stared at him for a long minute, weighing her options. It was just as well, really, because he could feel the skin of her arm, warm and most likely soft under her sleeve and smell the soaps she used and he was beginning to feel that old familiar feeling. Perhaps it was for the best if she...
"All right then. Let us go."