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Vale of the White Horse
Topic Started: 5 Jan 2010, 13:03 (19,395 Views)
Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
She dressed without Braegne's help and left the room. It was very quiet still, but not everyone was still in their beds. She supposed she could go to the kitchen to ask to prepare her an early breakfast. She was halfway, when she ran into Eiluned.
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'Good morning, my lady,' Eiluned said with a small bow. She knew that Briallen had spent most of the night in her own room and it had her worried. It seemed to confirm her bleak outlook on the future and she'd been on her way to Tudwrig's chambers to check up on him. 'You are up early. Have you had breakfast yet?'
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
'Not yet, I've been up only just.' Her eyes travelled from the woman to the hallway behind her.
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'I will -' she paused and smiled before correcting herself: 'I mean to say, if you tell the cooks they will surely provide breakfast for you.' Briallen was the mistress of the castle now, and it would take her a while to get used to it.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
'Yes, I was on my way. Did you...is lord Tudwrig awake already?'
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'I don't believe he is. He usually sleeps late after long days,' Eiluned said quietly. 'Had you any plans for today?'
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
'He said he'd take me riding...' She could not look at the older woman. Somehow she realized that Tudwrig would not take her out today.
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
Eiluned nodded her head. 'If you want, I shall give the orders to prepare for your trip,' she suggested, and silently prayed that she'd keep giving mere suggestions for a long time to come.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
'Oh, I...He wasn't feeling very well last night. Perhaps he can't.' She walked on, slowly. 'I'd like to see him today, if he is unwell. I have understood that you tend to him when he's in bed.'
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'Perhaps the fresh air will be good for him,' Eiluned said carefully. 'I shall see if he is feeling under the weather while you have breakfast.'
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
'Actually.' She halted. 'I noticed that his room was very poorly aired.' This was hard; she did not want to critisize Eiluned, but now that she was mistress here, she did have the right to correct her. 'You should make sure that improves, Eiluned. It is very unhealthy for a man to be locked up for days with the shutters closed. Perhaps I can check on him, bring him some breakfast. My own can wait, I'm not so hungry yet.'
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'When he has a severe attack, the light is too much for him,' Eiluned answered in a reasonable voice. 'I have been trying to work with the means given to me, but you have my word that I shall try to improve on it as much as I can.' She smiled at Briallen. 'Breakfast should not ever wait, my lady. It is the most important meal of the day. I was on my way to the watchtower, your husband's chambers are on the way.'
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
She suppressed a sigh. 'Fine. I will see how he's doing later today.' She nodded at Eiluned, then went on her way to the kitchen to ask for an early breakfast in the hall. She moved her plate from the high table to the seats in front of the fire. Hardly anyone was here and she did not want to sit alone.
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
She wished it could be different, but Eiluned wanted to be sure how Tudwrig was doing before Briallen went to see him. It could be disaster if she went to see him when he was under the curse. She hastened to his chambers and pressed her ear against the door.

Gwenllian didn't sleep much that night, but finally dozed off just before dawn. When she awoke, she was in a little less pain than the day before. Thank the gods, for she had feared that it would be one of those moons where she couldn't do anything but lay in her bed for days. She pushed the blanket away and started unbraiding her hair, looking around for Rhywallon.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
He had used this brief time to have a dip in a small stream nearby. It had felt good to stick his head underwater and let the current wash away the nightmares. Not had he had slept much; the cold meant very little to him, but it had kept him guarded and on duty. Still, he had slumbered some, and the darkness had come upon him inevitably. Rubbing the curling side of his hair back, he saw that the girl was awake. 'We'll reach a settlement this afternoon,' he said as a greeting.
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
She nodded and folded her blanket, putting it in her saddlebag. 'Good,' she said, relieved. The lack of provisions had made her slightly nervous. 'It is my turn to walk, isn't it?'
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
‘It is, if you count it fairly,’ he shrugged. He was probably the better walker, but he would not object if she wanted to walk so badly. He got on their only horse, taking the reins in his own hands.
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
She had never walked much, aside from daytrips out into the fields, but she was determined to keep up a good pace. At least the going was easy through the grassy plains, and they reached a proper path soon enough. 'For how many days do we need supplies, would you say?' she asked. They wouldn't arrive for a couple of hours still, but thinking ahead was always a good thing.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
'It depends on your hurry,' he said. 'If we adapt a slower pace and go from settlement to settlement we'll need less. But if you want to go straight on to Caer March, we shall have to cut through a piece of wildwood.'
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'Hm.' Gwenllian thought for a moment. She didn't like the sound of that wildwood, but on the other hand she would like to get to Caer March as soon as possible. 'What would you suggest?'
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
'Give me more input and I will tell you,' he answered. 'Don't forget that I'm a hired man, Gwenllian. What I suggest is based on safety and the amount of haste you tell me we have.'
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
She shrugged and looked ahead. The settlement had doomed up on the horizon. 'I would like to get to Caer March as soon as possible, but I don't know how dangerous that wildwood is. If it is just as a robber's den as the previous forest, I should like to avoid it. Besides, before you left you told me that there were things you had to take care of yourself, and that I should digress to your opinion. So I thought I'd do just that.' Gwenllian flashed him a quick smile as they walked into the settlement.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
Ah, she had a point there. As they rode into the settlement, he hoped that he had delivered her at Caer March before he had to go on his other missions. It would be unfair to drag her into it. Rhywallon dismounted, seeing as the streets were nearly too small for a man to ride. There was market ahead. He followed the crowd slowly, thinking he saw the square ahead already. Then he stopped to blink. He thought that surely his nightmares had flared up before his eyes, an invisible thing, nothing but a bad dream reawakened. But then the dark dream bumped into someone, and the other person fell on the ground, got up, cast a glance to utter a curse, fell silent and hurried off. Where the other person stood, a big space had formed. Rhywallon felt unable to move. His face had drained of all colour.
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
When he stopped, Gwenllian nearly bumped into him herself. 'Rhywallon, what -' she stopped when she saw how pale he'd become. Confused, she looked around for the cause. What was going on? Someone stumbled against her and nearly threw her off balance. The people in the square were all giving wide berth to a single man; a Roman officer, she saw. Rhywallon was staring at him, which made her wonder if they knew each other. She stepped close to him and touched his arm. 'Let's go on,' she said quietly.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
It was not good. This was not as he had planned it. This meeting - he had gone over and over it in his head. Years of honing his plan, but now was not the time he had chosen. The gentle touch on his arm made him snap up. He felt unreal, dizzy. Go on, she said. But that was near impossible. Now he had seen the man, surely he must run up and squeeze the blood out of his veins... But no, he must not. Rhywallon drew one ragged breath and forced his body to turn around. Draw attention and this opportunity might be lost. Even a Roman would remember a face such as his own.
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
Thank the gods he listened to her. He really looked out of sorts. Gwenllian tried searching his face for an answer, but it was impassive, though there was something flickering in his eyes that unnerved her. She saw an inn on the edge of the square and pointed at it. 'We shall get our lodgings there,' she said and took a hold of the reigns of her horse. It was probably best to buy a horse for Rhywallon first.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
While Gwenllian pulled him away, he worked to get his breathing under control. He thought he managed quite well after a while. Now what? Must he order her to retreat to a room, wait for him to finish this? He shook his head. 'We will go to the market later. It's too busy now.'
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'If you say so,' she agreed and tied their horse to the beam next to the door of the inn. Just as she was getting the saddlebags, a little boy of about ten or twelve appeared and offered to take their bags inside for them. Gwenllian nodded and pressed him a copper in his hands, which disappeared in his pocket. 'I hope we're not too late for lunch,' she said to Rhywallon, hoping to sound natural and not as nervous as she felt.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
'Lunch?' he snapped, still distracted. 'This isn't your husbands household; lunch is when you decide to eat, not when it is served.'
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'Oh, I do beg your pardon.' Gwenllian frowned and turned her back to him, walking towards the innkeeper to get their rooms for that night sorted out.
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