Chapter 6)
Tredorian woke with a smile that quickly vanished as he gazed at his beloved. It was just past dawn and the window was beginning to pale. Lady Julia was not smiling at him, in fact she seemed quite displeased.
"Get up!" her soft voice was a near hiss as a slender finger prodded him. "Wake up!" she was even more insistent.
As he gazed at her delectable nude form a smile curved Tredorian's mouth again. "What will my lady have of me?" He inquired, a distinctly lustful gleam in his eyes.
Lady Julia flushed as if insulted by his frankly admiring gaze. "Your immediate absence!" She retorted with a glance at the door, "My nurse will be arriving at any moment and I will not be meat for gossips appetite!"
"As my lady commands," The proud manner of his birthright stiffened the playwrights tone and posture as he rose from the bed and purposefully began pulling on his clothes.
"Poet dearest to me, do not go in anger." Julia changed her tune at his cooling gaze. "If I am to marry well, I must be as unblemished of reputation as the rose to which you compare me."
Tredorian smiled briefly as he pulled on his boots. "I would not sully the name of your honor for the world my lady." He took her hand giving it a quick but tender salute.
"Then meet me here after court tonight." She urged holding his hand. "If I am seen too much in your company rumors will rise. But at night we can be together secretly."
His smile widened and he bowed over her hand. "Until sunset then." Tredorian looked at the window. "I must away, I've work demanding my attention." He hurried out the balcony doors and down the stairs leading to the garden.
Asrai was waiting outside the theatre in the early morning gloom when Tredorian arrived. "Asrai you're a genius," He told her excitedly.
A tiny smile curved her lips. She'd been around her brothers enough that she could tell Tredorian had spent the night with Julia. Men and women changed slightly afterwards, for a few hours their minds and bodies were still half in bed. "You met her then," She murmured, her voice subdued.
"Met her, held her—" Tredorian stopped and changed his line of speech as he realized he was about to spout intimate raptures to a thirteen year old girl. "I am positively inspired!"
Asrai perked up. "Really?" She followed him into the theatre. "How shall we go on then?"
"On no, my lovely leading lady." Tredorian grinned. "You must wait for the pages." He dashed up the stairs leaving her on the stage with an annoyed and amused expression on her face.
Shaking her head Asrai looked around. In the dim light of early morning the Rose looked more old, decrepit and dirty than ever. "I simply can't bear this filth." She muttered finally and went to fetch a bucket and rags.
"Asrai, what in the world are you doing?"
The runaway princess would have recognized that rich, arrogant voice anywhere. Turning with her hands already settling on her hips in irritation she rolled her eyes. "Ned if you don't have even the faintest idea then your reputed success as a ladies man is an even bigger shock to me."
"Contrary to the workings of your illogical female mind, I am not questioning the activity, merely your performance of it." Ned returned with a taunting grin.
Asrai smiled back with saccharine sweetness aware that they were drawing an audience in Nicholas and Daniel. "Well Ned if you, as a chauvinist pig, would be more comfortable with a theatre draped in cobwebs and festooned with dust and dirt I can leave a nice muddy corner for your benefit."
"My dear Asrai." Ned shook his head like a father indulging a particularly cute but stupid child. "You deliberately misunderstand me, or can you not help it? I merely protest a lady of rank dirtying her hands so."
Asrai burst out laughing. "Oh Ned, where did you get the idea that I am a lady of rank?"
"How else would you have such a noble way with speech and accent, know of court matters and be able to advise Tredorian on the royal family's doings?"
Asrai jumped down from her position on the prop table. "I thought I'd explained that any servant in the palace would know those things." Ned regarded her intently, his piratical visage sober with thought until she said in a subdued voice. "Ned if you want to know if I am a 'lady' or not, go and ask any one of the noble families." Her tone was slightly bitter and she cast a quick glance towards the actors on the stage, lowering her voice even more. "They will be very quick to tell you what my mother is considered to be, and what they believe I am."
Her voice brightened and her eyes gleamed wryly up at the actor. "Besides Ned, if I were a noble lady, what would I be doing in the theatre, risking my 'honorable' reputation?"
Ned's mouth quirked into a grin. "That would be the question wouldn't it?" Asrai regarded him curiously and he pulled the dusty scarf off of her mane of hair. "And the answer is: no matter her rank, an actress of your talent and depth would eventually seek out the stage, she could not do otherwise."
Asrai rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say Ned." She looked up the stairs. "Its well into the morning now. Do you think Tredorian has pages for us?"
'If he doesn't Henslowe may just hang himself in despair or drown Tredorian in his own inkpot." Ned returned. He studied her. "Are you done acting like a maidservant?" He inquired. "Nicholas is going over his part with Daniel again."
Asrai grinned. "I'm finished, just let me wash off." She went to the bucket of clean water she'd set by the brazier and began washing her face and hands. Casting an irritated look at him she said in very cool tones. "If you insist upon remaining you could pretend you're a gentleman and pull the curtain shut, or at least turn your back."
Ned shook his head slowly. "And you wonder why I half think you're a lady of rank?" He stepped out of the prop room and pulled the curtain door shut.
Ned stood silent, watching Asrai move about the stage. Nicholas and Daniel were having a break and arguing over positioning. Meanwhile, Tredorian was still upstairs writing as if he were afraid his quill would vanish.
"Ned I envy you this speech." Asrai told him looking over to where he stood in the wings. "'Tis so inspirational… 'He who outlives this day and comes safe home…' I wish I were a man."
"Women can be warriors, queens can lead battles." Ned told her. "Say it for us…see if you can exceed my performance." He grinned as she rolled her eyes.
"Such competition." Tredorian murmured as Asrai launched into the speech. "Are you worried Ned?" He'd apparently come up behind the actor as Asrai was speaking.
"Were she a man I would be, but she can't compete for my parts, nor I for hers." Ned told him not taking his eyes from the girl onstage. "Look at her…by the gods…she could teach the torches to burn brightly…She's like a star amidst a cloudy sky."
Tredorian froze, his hand tightening on Ned's shoulder. "Ned." He whispered in strangled tones. "That's it! That's what it needs!" He turned and hurried off up the stairs again.
"Aye me…" Asrai watched Nicholas on the stage as he and Daniel played out the scene. The actor was putting everything he had into the words.
"Don't spend it all at once!" Tredorian cried rushing onto the stage.
"What?" Nicholas turned with a frown.
"You're speaking about a baggage we never even meet." Tredorian explained a bit more slowly. "What will you have left when he meets his Juliet? The love of his life?"
"I haven't seen any Juliet yet." Nicholas pointed out a trifle haughtily. "How can we know?"
"I hadn't written her yet." Tredorian grinned. "But," he turned and handed Henslowe a sheaf of pages, "There you will find Juliet and our dear Mercutio." He gestured to where Asrai and Ned were sitting on the edge of the stage.
"You cast Asrai?" Ned asked. "Finally." He rolled his eyes.
"You, Ralph, must be our nurse." Tredorian moved over to Henslowe and between them they began sorting out the parts.
Asrai eagerly began reading over Ned's shoulder and looked up at Tredorian. "but Juliet isn't here." She pointed out. "They only talk of her."
"Yes I know." Tredorian apologized. "I came upon a bit of a problem."
"I can't act after all?" Asrai asked only half joking.
"Noo…" Tredorian grinned. He bowed and said in a high falsetto tone, "Tell me daughter, how stands your disposition to be married."
Asrai blinked and after a moment of shock replied, "It is an honor I dream not of."
"Thank you!" Tredorian shouted and raced back up the stairs.
"Tredorian?" The writer turned to see Sam in the doorway. "What is my part to be?"
Tredorian grinned briefly still scribbling furiously away. "This time Sam, you'll be in a minor role, and learning Juliet's lines just in case disaster befalls us."
"So I'm an understudy." Sam said in a dull voice. "Wonderful." He turned and tromped down the steps in anger and disappointment.
"Sebastian Valmont Drakkar Obarskyr!" The prince so named winced at the coldly furious tone of his mother's voice. Though her assassin's days were long behind her, she had lost none of her skill. That she still was fully capable of killing in cold blood could be easily believed at the look in her beautiful violet eyes, now deep purple with wrath.
"My queen." Sebastian knelt, bending one knee while bowing his head as she came closer.
"Stand up." She growled the words out. As he obeyed her she cast a roll of parchment in his face. "I trust you can explain this to my satisfaction?" She folded her arms, splaying her fingers across her forearms in a way Sebastian knew was designed to enable an easy draw of the daggers concealed beneath her sleeves.
"Ah…" Sebastian unrolled the parchment and cast about for an explanation his mother would accept without killing him and which would conceal his true motive for his actions. His little adventure had been a test of Raden's, which he had passed, the second test was concealing the nature of the first from his parents. "What can I say?" He shrugged carelessly. "I was bored."
"Bored." She repeated the word with a chill that nearly had him wincing again. "Is that what I am to tell the jeweler? Prince Sebastian was bored so he broke into your establishment, left a note in your safe suggesting improved security measures and worried you to death." Her lush mouth thinned as she pressed her lips together in tight impatience. "Is that the explanation I should give all the noble families, whom I have repeatedly informed that no one is above the law? Oh, well the prince was bored, so it's all right that he committed a crime."
"Well actually Momma, I read the law, it would only be a crime if I stole something. I didn't. Everything is exactly as it was, I merely left the man a note. In truth I did him a favor. A true thief would have cleaned out his stock. There were some lovely amethysts in there, they would perfectly match your eyes when you're ready to kill me." He added the last remark hoping a bit of adoring flattery might keep her from slitting his throat, while trying to appear as if he wasn't at all worried. In truth, when his mother was in this mood she terrified him just as much as she did his siblings, he had simply learned to conceal his fear.
"The poor man is doing an inventory of his entire storeroom, as well as the displays and safe." Sabine ignored her son's compliment even though his admiration still warmed her heart. "You are never to do anything of that nature again, not unless the Crown requires it of you!"
Sebastian prevented himself from breathing a sigh of relief. Under Raden's tutelage he was technically in the service of the Crown and required to obey his superior. His mother had just provided him with the perfect justification for his future actions while he learned the trade she'd so excelled at.
"If you are so terribly bored you may assist Raden in searching out your baby sister!" Sabine snapped trying to hide how worried she was about her youngest daughter. "And stop terrifying innocent citizens."
Asrai pushed Nicholas away from her with a gasp of disgust. "Gah!" She wiped her mouth, "That is disgusting," She proclaimed much to the amusement of the company.
"Uhmm…Asrai…" Ned delicately tapped his chin with a finger. "Romeo is supposed to kiss Juliet passionately."
She looked at him and one eyebrow arched with incredulous disdain. Tredorian, watching her grinned behind his hand and mentally cast her as a queen in his next epic. "Ned you cannot mean to tell me that wet lips and wiggling tongue are equivalent to passion?" She inquired coolly.
"It's not my fault you can't kiss." Nicholas sputtered at her, his pride wounded.
"And it is your fault that you can't." She shot back at him. "Juliet is a virgin, she's never been kissed before. She'd be just as repulsed as I am." Dark violet eyes looked pleadingly at Ned and Tredorian. "Trust me, as first kisses go, it was awful."
"Asrai…uhmm…are you trying to say…" Ned glanced at Tredorian, for once at a loss for words.
"Asrai, haven't you ever been kissed?" Tredorian asked keeping his voice low so the whole company didn't hear. Unfortunately the excellent acoustics of the stage bounced his words about, until everyone was looking at Asrai.
The girl blushed and hung her head before looking up in annoyance. "No I haven't. And neither would you be if you had two older brothers determined to guard your virtue as if it belonged to the queen's daughter." She snapped. "So I know what I'm saying. Having someone's tongue thrust down your throat isn't a proper first kiss, let alone the introduction to passion that Juliet is supposed to be getting."
"I agree," Ned said unexpectedly. "But you are to kiss each other several times I think…so it will become more passionate and that is…" He grinned very wickedly, "Surely you've seen couples embrace, they tend to devour after a few gentle kisses."
Asrai blushed, "Ohhh…yes I've seen couples kissing." Her thoughts flew to her parents and their still passionate relationship and a sweet smile curved her lips for a moment.
"So we'll teach you then," Ned shrugged off the problem. He glanced at Nicholas' annoyed face, "But not you."
"And not you either Ned," Tredorian said dryly.
"What? You don't think I can control myself? Its stage kissing." Ned retorted, "I shan't seduce her before the entire company."
"No, it's later that I'm worried about," Tredorian told him. "I'll take care of it," He stepped forward and gave Asrai a slight bow that made her giggle nervously. "The first time she's ever been alone with a man," He says of Juliet and Asrai nodded seriously.
"She'd be nervous, excited, and he's coming closer and closer." Asrai murmured, "She'd be frightened and attracted at the same time."
Tredorian nodded and began speaking the line, "Have not saint's lips, and holy palmers too?" He took her hand and held it palm to palm in his, as they circled as if in a dance.
"Ay pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer," Asrai replied, her voice clear and true, but trembling with emotion as Tredorian came so close.
"Oh then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do: They pray: grant thou, lest faith turn to despair." Tredorian as Romeo spoke the words in a projected murmur of imploring seduction.
"Saints do not move, though grant for prayers sake," Asrai as Juliet seemed determined to argue against this overwhelming emotion she was experiencing.
"Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take," Tredorian moved even closer, until there was barely a hand's breath between their bodies. Hands still palm to palm he bent down slightly and pressed his lips gently to hers. "Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purg'd."
Asrai took a deep shaking breath and as Juliet stared up at him as if shocked and attracted both, "Then have my lips the sin they have took."
"Sin from my lips? Oh trespass sweetly urg'd. Give me my sin again," He moved closer until their bodies were touching and kissed her again, gently but longer, his mouth slanting over hers more intimately. As he withdrew Asrai stared up at him, silent with shock.
"Ah…well…" Ned interrupted when Asrai seemed unable to speak the next line. "It was good you were here Tredorian, now if we may continue with the scene?" He looked at Nicholas. "I trust you have learned by example?" His glance speared Asrai. "And you, my lady Juliet, are able to pretend sufficiently that you like Nicholas."
"Juliet is falling in love with Romeo." Asrai retorted. "That should be sufficient for me to endure Nicholas."
"Remind me to be mindful of your sharp tongue should we ever have a scene together." Ned drawled. "I wouldn't want to get blood on my doublet." Asrai merely grinned and him and turned back to Nicholas as Ned gestured at them both. "All right, lets begin the whole thing again."