Chapter Three

The knock on the door awoke her. Evelyn had been reading on the sofa in front of the fireplace and had dozed off. She'd spent every night here this last week. She couldn't bear to sleep in her bed right now. Not with him gone. Then again, maybe if she could finally get a decent night's rest, being Viscountess wouldn't seem so daunting.

As she walked to the door, she heard giggling from the other side. Smiling, she opened it.

"Izzy", she said, shaking her head.

"Hello, my dear," Isabella sauntered in holding a couple of bottles of wine followed by Varric and Fenris. Each said their greetings as they passed by and made their way to her living room. Evelyn rolled her eyes and shut the door.

"To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?" Evelyn asked teasingly.

Isabella plopped down in a chair sideways and casually threw her legs over the armrest, "Since you can't come out with us anymore, we figured we'd come to you instead."

Evelyn picked up the book she had been reading and put it on the end table, folded up the blanket and fluffed the pillow back up before sitting down on the sofa. Her actions were not lost on her best friend.

"Feeling a bit lonely lately, I take it?"

"Leave it alone, Izzy. I'm too tired to have this conversation now," she glanced over to Fenris, "and I'm certainly not going to get into this with you."

Fenris threw up his hands in innocence, "I didn't say a word."

"And let's keep it that way," Evelyn glared at him.

"So...," Isabella cleared her throat, "we thought we'd come over here to cheer you up a bit, maybe try and take your mind off of things, for a while."

"Yeah, Hawke, lately you've been as bad as Broody here", Varric elbowed Fenris and smiled at Evelyn.

"I do not brood," Fenris replied indignantly.

Evelyn smirked, glancing over at them as she opened one of the bottles, then the other. She went into the kitchen, got a few glasses, then poured the wine.

She took a sip, then said, "Wow! I must have been pretty bad off lately. What did you do, Izzy, raid Fen's cellar?" The wine was excellent.

"As a matter of fact, I did. I'd figured we'd never properly celebrated our new ruler, Madame Viscountess, so here we are," Isabella grinned at her.

"Call me that again, Captain, and I'll have Aveline throw you in the stocks, something I'm sure she would take great pleasure doing," Evelyn said as she took another sip of wine.

"Going that well for you, then?"

"Very funny."

"Oh, come on, now...how many of us would like to be able to throw our ex-boyfriends in the Gallows for betraying us. He is an 'ex' now, right?"

Evelyn rolled her eyes, "Yes, most definitely an ex."

"Does he know that?"

"He's a smart guy. I'm pretty sure when he was being hauled off by the Templars he figured it out."

"If he were smarter he wouldn't have blown up the chantry."

Evelyn set her glass down and took a deep breath, "Is this your way of cheering me up? If so, you suck at it. And I said to leave it alone. Besides, as long as he's securely locked up, he's the least of my worries at the moment."

"Well, I'm sure you'll be fine. Taking care of other people's problems is kind of what you do, isn't it? Maker knows you have plenty of experience with that." Isabella smirked.

Evelyn sighed again and took another sip of wine. They were right, she realized, she had been brooding...a lot. And feeling sorry for herself. What difference did it make, though? Wasn't she allowed a little bit of grief, just for a little while? Well, it had been a week already...

"Alright, Izzy, you're right. Why don't you get Merrill and Aveline and the four of us will get together? It'll do me some good to get out of Kirkwall, even for a day. Bran's been after me to pick up some new clothes, anyway. Apparently armor is considered unladylike for a Viscountess."

Isabella lifted her glass before taking a sip, "Yay, shopping! I'll get with them and we'll come up with something."

In addition to no longer wearing armor, Evelyn had also been advised to stop carrying around her staff. Even though she was a mage and the people knew it, the Seneschal felt that it might be better if they weren't constantly reminded of it, especially with the city's history and the current political upheaval. She hated to admit it, but he probably had a point.

The four of them continued talking and by the time Evelyn realized how late it was, she had to admit that she did feel much better.

"I hate to cut this short, guys, but I need to get some sleep. Bran wants me to go over the plans for the Ferelden refugees in the morning before we send them to King Alistair for his approval, and then I need to meet with the financiers and figure out how we're going to pay for all of the improvements that need doing."

They all said their good-byes and left. She walked over to the fireplace, picked up her glass of wine and finished it. Then she made her way up the stairs, determined that tomorrow would be better, starting with a good night's rest.