It took all Armand's will not to be a complete gentleman to this supposed "lady", but in truth he wouldn't mind ripping her dress and yanking her hair like a school girl in a cat fight.
"M'lady," he bowed to her, rolling his eyes behind the hair that fell in front of his face.
"Sir Decri," she responded in a tinkling voice. She was truly beautiful, if one overlooked the shallowness and corruptness. Regardless of his thoughts, his smile was convincing as she held out her hand to him. He hated this woman with a passion that should have made him burst into flames. "Always a pleasure."
"And the pleasure is always yours," he gave a small kiss on the back of her hand, which she snatched away. Must have been his comment, he mused. "A lady like you shouldn't hide near the staircase." He offered her his arm.
The woman was slow to take it, but knew that manners would demand nothing less than her best.
"How is your lord?" The tone of her voice, it was as if she knew what Armand was up to. He'd do anything to keep her away from Fanelia and the Fanels.
"Wonderfully happy and loving every moment of his marriage," Armand crowed. "The new queen is the most beautiful creature to ever have grace the King's presence."
"I see," her grin matched the coldness in her tone. "I heard he was reduced to marring a commoner." The ice in her voice was steadily, and alarmingly warming to a sweeter infliction. "I really must congratulate him."
"You know the address to the Fanilian castle, send a card," Armand offered, smirking as she glared at him. "I must say that this blue is a nice color on you."
"Oh?" She purred, as he led them to the most crowded section of the hall. He had a good foot in height on her and was able to look over most of the people in an attempt to find Van to make sure she didn't.
"Yes. It brings out the bags under your eyes."
She ripped her arm away so fast he was sure she'd taken part of his coat with her.
"I am not accustomed to being talked to in such a rude manner," she stuck her small nose in the air, turned to another, and began to chat.
Armand smirked. She wasn't used to being talked so rudely to her face he was sure.
Once she was settled into the throng of royals and ambassadors, the knight made a immediate escape. He had to find his king and quickly.
----------
"See, my dear," Mena cooed at her baby while addressing her husband, "not a single thing has gone wrong. The people are happy, as am I."
"Yes, dear," Coron replied automatically, but his thoughts weren't as nice. He kept thinking about how he'd be just as happy had he gotten his way and an apology as well. Van and Hitomi had been silently stealing glances at each other and Mena would beam with girlish glee if she noticed it. Only rarely would the couple whisper back and forth to each other, one would smile or laugh, and then the quietness would come over them again.
"Why don't the two of you enjoy a dance?" Mena insisted. "The band is the best and there is no reason not to!"
The Slena couple was eerie when both of them smiled and nodded their heads at the Fanels. Hitomi, upon seeing this slightly scary sight, grabbed Van's hand, and led him down the steps. Van didn't utter a word of protest as she took him to the dance floor, and turned to face him.
Her cheeks went pink as she awkwardly made motions to put her hands in the proper places. Unaffected by the environment since he had been raised in it, Van quickly placed his hands where they needed to go for them to join the rest of the dancers and not act as some sort of side show attraction. He was curious as she jumped at the contact and seemed coiled tightly with nerves.
They smoothly joined the dancers, both schooled to dance though Hitomi never had a reason to use it until she was married and crowned. Van had practiced many times since the girls saw him as a male, as a prince, and most importantly, as a quick way to a better social standing. He used to grumble about it before and after the parties, but like a good little prince he put up with each and every well-to-do daughter that breathed within fifty miles of Fanelia.
As long as the songs and dances were slow.
Then after everything that occurred, he just stayed toward the back of the room, almost glowing with cold warning. None of the girls would come near him; he was surprised how much of the news had gotten around back then.
Dancing with his wife, it was a new kind of comfort in a very political way. He didn't have to worry about having drooling, marriage-hungry women hounding him like a bone in a dog kennel. Hitomi was there with her charm and looks to make sure that all the single girls kept their distance from him.
Though, rumor had it, that didn't stop a good number of them. Let the girls get on the wrong side of Hitomi's temper! They'd learn quick! First, she would have to be jealous and wasn't there a law somewhere that if a person got jealous, they liked the person that they felt those things over?
Did Hitomi even like him? True they didn't try to verbally claw each other's eyes out anymore, but that only meant they'd learned to tolerate each other, not necessarily like.
Did he like her? Did he like her like that?
Across the room from the dancing couple, Armand frantically searched for the blue gown he'd been so sure to keep an eye on for the majority of the night. She had proven to be a slippery devil and that damned blue turned out to be far more popular than should be permitted by the fashion conscious.
He cussed under his breath, and then received a sharp slap across the face from an elder royal who called him a disgraceful servant. After giving a sound apology (only because he got caught) he scampered away after the first light blue ball gown he saw. Either he was a lousy blood hound or the woman had gotten better at hiding.
Armand had made good two rounds only stopping to take a swig of wine from one of the passing servers. That wicked witch was nowhere to be found. Maybe she was in the lady's room with an upset stomach? The knight scoffed at his own joke. Unless she fed on the unsuspecting heart of a virgin, she probably would remain hungry. The only girls in the restrooms would be the young royals worrying about their figures and sticking their fingers down their throats.
As he passed a certain pillar, so did the tip of an ice blue dress. The wearer of the dress smirked, and locked eyes on the target before brushing back her long hair and starting toward her intended destination.
Unaware of anything else but the tempo of the music, Van had to act quickly to hide the surprise when he felt a slight pressure on his shoulder. Turning around, so he and Hitomi had come side to side he laid eyes on a woman he hadn't seen in ages.
"Van, darling," purred the overly perfumed, middle aged woman as she lurched forward to trap the young king in an awkward hug.
Hitomi's eyebrows rose in question as Van's face started to turn red at the overly long embrace. Prying her off of his person, he set the lady back and took Hitomi's arm through his and bowed slightly.
"Duchess Frost," Van introduced in a voice a note higher than before. "Allow me to introduce you to my wife, Hitomi."
"Oh, poo. You've been taken off the marriage market?" She ran a finger up his sleeve and drew closer again.
Hitomi felt the muscle under her eye twitch in annoyance at the blatant display of—of whatever that woman was doing! Her grip on her husband's arm tightened as she repressed the urge to growl at the too friendly woman.
"Lady!" Armand's voice called, as he raced to join the group.
"Sir Armand," her eyes lost some of their brightness. "It's such a pleasure to see you yet again."
He bowed low to her, and with a huff, he gently took her hand and kissed it. "Likewise I assure you."
The knight saw the obviously distressed and irked look in the young couple's faces and before he could form the next few words, the band started a fast, loud song to play.
"Perhaps we should speak someone a bit quieter?" The lady suggested, hooking arms with Van. "After all, the trade treaty is about to expire and I am eager to re-familiarize myself with all Fanelia has to offer."
When asked to come, Hitomi felt her cheeks go red. As much as she hated to admit it, she felt jealous. The emotion shocked her and one of the ways to deal with shock was to run away or in this case, let it walk away.
"N-no! I'm sure the two of you have plenty to catch up on!" She gave her best smile and Van raised an eyebrow, but took her at her word.
Armand looked at his Queen, one of his own eyebrows spiked. "What's the matter with you?"
The blonde had an almost lost look on her face as Van disappeared out of the ball room and into the hall. She'd never had to suffer through one of these long and tedious celebrations by herself. Well, she did have Armand but when she glanced up again, all she saw was him retreating.
Great. Now what was there to do?
She saw the answer a few yards away. The wondrous and over flowing with sugary goodness arrangement that was known as the dessert table! With renewed energy and a brighter smile, she made her way like a kid to a bakery. Once there, she popped in one cookie and took up four more. With Armand doing whatever he was doing, which didn't consist of badgering her, she was free to eat whatever tooth rotting goodies she wanted.
As a gaggle of giggling girls drew closer, Hitomi snatched up a plate with a slice of cake on it and dodged behind a pillar. Normally she would be more than glad to join them in their laughter but there was something about a queen shoving cakes and cookies in her mouth (and probably leaving chocolate smears on her face and dress) that made it less socially agreeable.
They talked actively about the many young, handsome, and ridiculously rich gentlemen there was to pick from this year. Talk like this made Hitomi sick to her stomach. Money hungry females tended to give a lot of good girls, such as herself, a really bad reputation.
"But can you imagine," one girl in green sad rather hotly, "commoners coming in and taking our men away?"
"What?" A pink girl asked, forgetting her half eaten tart in her gloved hand.
"Didn't you hear? Not only was the queen of this country a stable girl, but also Fanelia's queen is a dirt poor rent-by-the-hour woman."
Hitomi felt herself turn to stone. What were they saying! How could they say that? None of them knew her and they were making judgments about her! She wasn't anything like they said! Not at all! Hitomi had always valued her reputation and strove to be respectable in society.
With her family it wasn't always easy, but she had managed.
"I heard that she got pregnant and blamed the prince in order for him to marry her," a snotty voice replied.
Her appetite grew smaller and smaller as she listened to them ruthlessly tear her down, spilling out rumors like filth from the plumbing tubes. She wasn't sure what to do, but stand there and shake. Her food forgotten, she felt the tears of humiliation building up behind her eyelids. This was pathetic! Normally she would put those presumably pompous princesses in their place by a few well chosen negative comments of her own. The only thing that stopped her was the voice faithfully reminding her that she was a representative of Fanelia.
Imagine what would happen if she was to storm about downing every single girl in the palace that wasn't herself, Mena, or the baby princess. Half the kingdoms would probably conclude Fanelia was insane and declare war. Again, Hitomi thought darkly, Armand would be right about her bringing the ultimate death to the kingdom.
"Don't let them bother you," a honeyed voice broke her sad and lonely thinking.
Giving her attention to the speaker, Hitomi received an eye full of beautiful. The woman was breathtaking! Long blonde hair, crystal blue eyes, and a figure that would make those pampered prisses envious.
To the dragon cave with it all, Hitomi almost felt jealous!
"Excuse me?"
"Don't let them bother you, they are just sore about being thrown over by the prince— I mean king," she smiled with pearly set of teeth that peeked out underneath rosy lips.
"Thrown over?" Hitomi pushed, curious about what it meant.
The woman turned to her side, tapped her chin with the end of one gloved finger, "I'm not sure you are ready to hear this."
With an innocent smile, the female faced the Queen again. Hitomi asked politely for her to tell but the woman still hesitated. "Are you sure?"
"Yes."
There was a wickedly friendly smile upon the woman's lips as she took in a deep breath, and started her explanation.
---------------------
"And how are you my beautiful little filly?" Armand asked after the royal couples had said their farewells. Hitomi, who made the good-bye short so Mena could return to her daughter, now named Yona, merely glanced up at her personal knight before climbing the steps into the carriage without his assistance.
He rolled his eyes and mounted his own animal as his lord entered the carriage. The Fanelian band was on the move again.
Van had been up for hours and having had a rough night's sleep. Hitomi's frigid attitude had disrupted any harmony that was needed for peaceful slumber without a fear of waking up bald do to an angry spouse and a razor.
"What's upsetting you so much?" Van's queried with smooth coolness The last thing he wanted to do was inflame her issue, whatever inane thing it might be, by being gruff.
"Nothing," she replied, her own voice an unnatural neutral tone. "I'm fine."
"Then why are you upset?"
"I'm fine," she insisted once again this time she punctuating her answer by crossing her arms tightly over her chest. Truth be told, and it wasn't hard to believe, she wasn't fine. Van couldn't get a word out of her, although his attempts were only half-hearted and less than enthusiastic.
He sat back in his seat and crossed his arms, mimicking his boiling wife. He could push her, try to extract an answer, but it was annoying to do that to someone who obviously didn't want to talk.
The king had his fill of that when he didn't want to talk. Merle, Armand, and all the others became pests. The more they pushed, the more he would retreat into his silence. When they finally did learn the truth, it really wasn't because of anything they did, but what they had stopped doing. They ceased bothering him and he opened up enough to let them know.
The duchess, though a bit too hands on, had been as flirtatious as ever, but she was intelligent. The loss of her husband had driven the woman from a state of perpetual calmness into a state of a permanent hormonal teenage or something. A wire crossed, something snapped and her escape was to regress into a giggling, suggestive woman from last night. No matter, she was still understanding, still full of advice.
He just had to make sure her hands kept to herself during their talks.
"Tell her what happened. If you think you two are getting close, take the first big step and try to get closer," had been her advice. Duchess Frost wasn't one of the privileged persons who knew about the incident in detail, but she had taken enough guesses to get a rough idea.
How could he tell Hitomi what happened? Did he want to? As Van's eyes stole a glance of the woman across from him, he still wasn't sure. As much as he would like to there was still that gut wrenching feeling of failure in his stomach, eating up his heart, and making him cold inside.
Then the thought occurred to him, what if she didn't care about him or what he had to say? The mere thought of any other pain or rejection made his mind lock up. Turning his face away from her sharply, he scowled as he watched the kingdom of Slena pass by in patches of green and trickles of people.
