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Possessed--Part Five

Started by Evie, February 09, 2011, 01:26:36 PM

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Evie

   Part Five—Backwards Glances

   April 30, 1126
   The Port of Desse


   "Javana!"  Seisyll waved joyfully at the young woman disembarking from the ship that had conveyed her from Andelon across the Southern Sea and up the Eirian River to this bustling port city closest to Rhemuth.  His sister turned at the sound of her name, spotting him in the crowd after a brief moment and waving back, a brilliant smile brightening her features at the sight of him.  Seisyll made his way through the crowd, his steps picking up speed as his sister met him halfway, throwing herself into his outstretched arms with a happy cry.

   After a few moments, he gently disengaged from their embrace, holding his sister at arms' length to take a better look at her.  "Andelon has quite agreed with you, I see.  You've blossomed."  He looped her arm in his, glancing around for Sextus.  Eventually he spotted Sextus  gathering up Javana's baggage, accounting for each piece and making arrangements for their conveyance to Tre-Arilan.  He nodded in satisfaction and turned back to his sister.

   "Lord Walter will be most delighted to collect his new bride at the end of the month, I'm sure.  But I'm glad we'll have a little time with you first."  He brushed back a tendril of hair that had come loose from her braided hair and was now blowing across her face in the river breeze.  "And Sophie is quite excited to meet you, and eager to help you with your wedding preparations...."  He waved his hand in an airy gesture, accompanying it with a wry smile.  "Fripperies and the like, whatever it is you women discuss when you've got your heads together."

   Javana laughed softly, a light blush coloring her cheeks.  "Oh, that's right, I am getting married this month, aren't I?  I've been focusing so hard on my studies, I very nearly forgot.  I suppose that's awful of me, isn't it?"   She glanced up at her brother.  "Have you heard from Lord Walter lately?  He wrote me several letters earlier on, but my last from him was a couple of months ago."

   "Only once, a few weeks ago, when he wrote to confirm that he would be returning to Rhemuth in early May and traveling to Tre-Arilan for the wedding once his business there is concluded."

   Javana studied her brother, noticing the carefree light in his eyes and the easing of the lines of strain she'd noted in his expression when she'd seen him last, when she waved goodbye to him from the stern of the ship taking her to faraway Andelon a mere fortnight after their mother's death.  "Marriage seems to be agreeing with you," she teased gently, "though I think it's perfectly horrid of you to marry while I was still away.  Could you not have waited another month?  Is my new sister such a paragon of loveliness that delaying a wedding just a few weeks longer would have been such a torment?  We could have had a double ceremony, you know."  She grinned at his chagrined expression.

   "Truth be told, I simply didn't think.  And yes, Sophie's quite lovely—at least I think so—and waiting another month for her might have driven me to drink."  He grinned.  "You might have come home to find me reeking of cheap ale and singing soulful love songs...."

   Javana exploded with mirth at the mental image.  "You mean like Sextus does when he's overimbibed?  Though I wouldn't exactly call those 'love songs'...."

   "I heard that, sister!"  Sextus caught his eldest sister up from behind, making her squeal as he lifted her high of the ground and whirled her before setting her back down again with a sound kiss on her rosy cheek.

   "So, tell me of my new sister," Javana urged.  "How did you meet?  Do I know her family, or is she someone you've only met since my departure for Andelon?  Does she keep you too occupied to remember how to pick up a pen and parchment?"

   Sextus burst out laughing at that final jibe.  "Oh, I can answer that last one!  Seisyll's had his hands far too full lately to even think of writing letters, not even to his dearly missed sister."  He grinned as Seisyll's cheeks grew slightly flushed.  "And he only met her...when was it, Seisyll?  December?"

   "Yes.  Mid-December, shortly before Christmas."

   Javana's eyebrows rose.  "And you married the first week of April?  My, that was fast work!"

   Seisyll grinned sheepishly.  Sextus's eyes took on a gleeful glint.  "Oh, yes, it was like watching one of those generals from Ancient Rûm in action.  'I saw, I conquered, I --'"

   "Sextus!"  Seisyll's hand shot out to smack his younger brother on the back of his head.  Javana stared in bafflement for a few moments before the light dawned and the giggles began anew.   

   "Well, you haven't changed, at least!" she said to Sextus.  "When are you ever going to settle down and find yourself a woman to marry?"

   The younger Arilan brother rolled his eyes.  "On my income?   On a balmy day in West Hell."

   "Don't listen to him," Seisyll advised with an eyeroll of his own.  "If he didn't spend so much of his coin on strong drink and the dice games, he'd have more to spare for the upkeep of a decent woman."

   Sextus snorted.  "And if I were leg-shackled to the sort of woman you consider 'decent,' I'd truly be in need of that strong drink I'd have no coin left over for!"

   "So," Javana said brightly before her two brothers could turn their formerly joking mood into a sibling spat, "Where is Sophie from?"

   The brothers exchanged glances over her head.  "Nyford area," Sextus said.

   Seisyll remained silent, his formerly merry expression now quite serious.  Javana turned to look at him in growing bafflement.  "What is it?" she finally asked.

   Seisyll studied her for a long moment, then sighed.  "Well, you're bound to hear sometime or another, so I suppose there's little point in putting off telling you.  Sophie is—that is, she was—a de Varnay.  She's Sir Stefan's younger sister."

   "She's--"  A shaft of pain, white-hot, shot through Javana's heart.  "Oh."  She glanced away quickly to regather her composure, then smiled up at her brother, attempting nonchalance.  "And how is Stefan?  Well, I hope, and with no more worries over the family fortunes?"

   Another shared look above her head.  "Fairly well," Seisyll assured her after another brief silence, "although Stefan's and Sophie's father, Sir Ranulf, died unexpectedly this past January, waylaid by brigands on their way back to Kestrel Mote from spending Christmas and Twelfth Night in Rhemuth.  Stefan nearly died in the attack also, but he remained stable long enough to be brought back to Rhemuth, where Bishop Duncan Healed him."

   "Oh, Jesú...."  Javana forced down the sudden upwelling of emotion.  She belonged to another man now, was promised to Lord Walter.  No use in dwelling on past loves, not when she had a wedding to prepare for, and a new life ahead learning to love a man who cared enough for her to pursue her as Stefan never had.  Still, she was glad he was all right.  As hurt and angry as she might have been with him once, she'd never wished him dead.  "Well, I'm glad he's doing fine now, and I hope, since they were returning to Kestrel Mote when they were attacked, that he managed to retain his manorial lands after all."

   Another quickly shared look.  "Um, yes...that's the other thing, actually.  Stefan...um...well, Sir Ranulf's fortunes were still in arrears when he died, so to secure his inheritance, Stefan ended up needing to marry quickly."

   She absorbed the new shock, feeling strangely numb.  "I see.  An heiress, I presume?"  The voice sounded slightly distant, as if coming from some other person's body, surely not her own.

   "Yes."  Seisyll's voice sounded gentle, or perhaps just equally distant, she wasn't sure which anymore.  "He wed Lisette de Courcy just a few months past.  The last week of January, I believe."

   The words startled Javana out of her shock.  "Our cousin Lisette?  But...she rarely ever  ventures off her father's lands!  How did Stefan ever manage to meet her?"

   The guilt and mute look of appeal in Seisyll's eyes answered the question for her before he even spoke.

#

   May 15
   Tre-Arilan

   "Oh, Javana, that iridescent shot silk will make a perfect veil for you!  Those dusky blue hues blended in with the shimmering violet silk threads of the weft makes it a nearly identical match for your eyes at this distance."  Sophie gazed admiringly at her sister-in-law.  "You Arilans have the most amazing eyes.  I wish I had them!"

   Javana risked a quick look at Sophie's eyes, so much like Stefan's, then turned away, toying with the fabric draped around her face to mask her pain.  "Oh, but yours are far better suited for your pretty brown hair, Sophie.  And I think you're right, this will make perfect veiling fabric.  I suppose I'd better start hemming it tonight, if it's to be finished in time to take to Caerdraig with me after the wedding."

   "I've not met Lord Walter yet.  What's he like, and are you excited about marrying him?"

   The question was asked in all innocence.  Javana folded the sheer veil silk slowly as she considered how to answer.  Despite her anger at her brother, she couldn't bring herself to resent his new wife, who had gone out of her way to be welcoming and helpful to her in the short time since her return home to Tre-Arilan.  Javana had worked out that Sophie knew only the smallest part of what had passed between herself and Sophie's brother—enough to know that they had once been acquainted and had been fond of each other, not enough to realize how deep Javana's love for him had once been...and was still, if she allowed herself to think of him.  To actually feel her emotions instead of simply stuffing them down deep inside where they could trouble her no longer, because she had a life to get on with, and Stefan could no longer be a part of it.

   "He's...quite courtly and attentive, and very handsome.  A trifle impatient, I think, but then again, men tend to be...at least my brothers certainly are, and as for Uncle Denis...."  Javana gave a drily amused snort.  "Have you met Denis yet?"

   "Oh yes, not too long ago!"  Sophie smiled.  "I adore him."

   The amusement in Javana's eyes grew.  "Oh?  Well, I suppose someone has to."  She grinned.  "I expect you've not run into his curmudgeonly side yet."

   Sophie giggled.  "Of course I have.  Sextus does still live here, you know, and I've seen their blow-ups.  But he's all growl on the outside and a big pile of mush on the inside."

   "Oh, Denis?" Jashana asked, entering Javana's chamber, her arms laden with new gowns for her sister's trousseau.  "Yes, the nieces can do no wrong, and the nephews can do no right."  The younger Arilan sister grinned.  "I caught on to that ages ago.  Uncle Denis is a sucker for the pitiful look too."  She turned towards Sophie, miming a sorrowful expression.  "See?  Sad face."  Jashana's features took on a kicked puppy expression so ludicrously pathetic that her new sister-in-law burst into giggles.

   "You two must have been awful to that poor man when you were growing up!"

   Jashana's eyes sparkled with mirth.  "Oh, no more so than he deserved."  She glanced at her sister.  "Where do you want these?"

   "The bed will be fine," Javana assured her somewhat absently.

#

   May 18
   Tre-Arilan Great Hall


   The wedding guests began to arrive, even though the wedding itself would not be for a couple more days, but some of the family and friends gathering to celebrate the upcoming nuptials had traveled for several days to get there, and would doubtless be staying at least a day or two after the wedding before heading back home again.  For some of those guests, this would also be their first time to meet the young Laird's new bride, the hostess for this family event.  Sophie, therefore, was rather in a dither, being quite shy to begin with, and now fretting about making a good impression on her new husband's friends and relations.

   One new arrival, however, brought a sparkle of joy to her eyes and a ready laugh to her lips as she threw herself into his embrace, savoring his warm hug and the familiar clove soap scent of him, so like their father's.  "Oh, Stefan!  How I've missed you!"

   Stefan gave her an easy grin.  "It's been, what, hardly more than a month since we parted ways?  Surely you can't have missed me that much!"  He tugged one of her braids teasingly, the grin subsiding slightly as he studied her.  "Is married life everything you'd hoped, or shall I rearrange your new husband's face for you?" he joked, though his eyes scanned her expression in slight concern, in case her enthusiastic reaction to seeing him again owed more to unhappiness at her new station in life than simple sisterly love.

   Sophie blushed, her eyes dropping demurely.  "Oh, no, I quite like being married!"  The blush deepened, and Stefan chuckled.  "It's just...I'm still a little homesick, I suppose.  Oh, not so much for Kestrel Mote, just for...family.  My family.  I know the Arilans are my family too now, but still...I'm only just getting used to things here, and being mistress of a manor is far different from simply living in one, especially since I didn't grow up here...."

   He drew her close again, dropping a kiss on top of her veiled head.  "You should steal away with Lisette sometime when you get a chance, then.  I suspect she's feeling much the same way.  She puts on a brave face, but I catch her wiping away tears sometimes when I walk into her bower.  Maybe it would help to spend a little time with someone else who is going through the same thing."

   "Oh, poor dear!  And it must be so much worse for her too...no other family around to help ease her into things, aside from you."  She paused, suddenly looking uncertain.  "I mean...that is...."

   Stefan smiled.  "I know.  No other women in the house, aside from the maidservants that is.  No family aside from a husband, who's not only a man, but still mostly a stranger and one of those 'things' she's getting used to.  I don't take offense, sweeting.  I know that's one reason she has trouble opening up to me fully yet.  But you and she seemed to get along well in Rhemuth, so I was hoping maybe spending a little time with you would help her in a way that I can't."  

   "I'd love that."  She looked around.  "Where is she?"

   "Oh, she's not with me this trip, but we'll be passing back through in a few weeks, I expect.  I was just up--"

   "What in the hell is he doing here?"  Seisyll's face was thunderous as he approached the pair of them, gently steering Sophie by one elbow towards the nearby withdrawing room and gesturing curtly to Stefan to follow.  

   Sophie looked up at her husband, then back at her brother in bewilderment.  "He's come for the wedding....Haven't you?"

   "Wedding?" Stefan said, equally confused.  "No, I was passing through this area on my way back from settling some of Lisette's affairs at her late father's estate."

   "Oh!" Sophie looked from one man to the other.  "I just assumed, since you and Javana knew each other, that you and Lisette had come up for....Stefan?"

   Stefan turned pale, glanced at Seisyll, who stared back stony-faced.  "Javana's getting married this weekend?  I....  Sorry, Seisyll; I had no idea.  I'll leave, of course.  I never meant to intrude...."  

   "Oh, you don't have to go.... Seisyll!"  Sophie turned imploring eyes towards her husband.

   Seisyll took a deep breath, releasing it in a heavy sigh before turning to face his wife, his expression softening slightly.  "Actually, love, he does.  Your brother is welcome to visit you any other time, with or without Lisette, but not on this occasion."  He glanced back at Stefan, steel in his eyes and voice.  "Javana's endured enough grief already without a fresh reminder of you to reopen old wounds.  She'll be marrying in two days' time.  Please leave before she finds you here; the last thing she needs is to enter her new life with doubts and second thoughts, wondering if you finally got around to coming for her two years late."

   "Will someone please tell me what is going on?!" Sophie pleaded.

   Seisyll raised an eyebrow at Stefan, who blushed, unable to meet his sister's gaze.  "Later, sweeting," he assured her.

   "I'll write you once I get home, Sophie," Stefan said quietly, turning to leave.  "And I'll let you know when Lisette and I will be traveling this way again.  Though under the circumstances, if you'd rather I simply drop her off for a visit and then pick her back up on my return trip...."

   "Seisyll!"  Tears filled Sophie's eyes as she turned hurt eyes towards her husband.

   "Javana will be leaving for her new home in a few days, Stefan," Seisyll said.  "I don't intend to bar my brother-in-law from his sister's home; her family is mine now, and as I said, you are welcome to visit some other time.  But not for Javana's wedding."  He turned to Sophie.  "See him out please, sweeting, and if at all possible, make sure Javana never finds out he was here."

#

   May 18
   En route to Tre-Arilan, just outside Rhemuth


   "That man looks familiar," Sir Aylmer observed as he and Walter rode along the main road leading westward from Rhemuth.  He glanced back over his shoulder at the rider who had just passed them.

   Lord Walter glanced back also.  "Lots of men look familiar, Aylmer.  What of it?"

   Aylmer frowned, trying to remember where he'd seen the man before.  After a moment, the light dawned.  "I believe that's the knight who attempted to court your lady a few years ago.  The one whose letter I brought back to you."

   "Oh?"  Walter peered intently at the departing rider, trying to get a better view of him.  "Well, at least he's heading away from Tre-Arilan, not towards there.  Still, he shouldn't be in this part of the Kingdom at all, should he?  He's a Nyford man, I thought."

   "From Nyford area, yes," Aylmer confirmed, "though I heard a few months back that he'd married a woman from the western border."

   "Ah."  Walter nodded.  "That probably explains it, then.  Still, it wouldn't hurt to make sure he's not trying to win back his lost love.  Once we're at Tre-Arilan, make some discreet inquiries, try to find out if he's been seeing Lady Javana again or not."

   "And if he has, my lord?"

   Walter smiled grimly.  "Then kill him."


Part Six:  http://www.rhemuthcastle.com/index.php?topic=660.0
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

AnnieUK

Denis?  A big pile of mush?  Let me think about that for a second.... NO!!!

And poor Stefan again. :(

Evie

Quote from: AnnieUK on February 09, 2011, 01:43:12 PM
Denis?  A big pile of mush?  Let me think about that for a second.... NO!!!


ROFL!!!   Well, you're not his niece, are you?   ;D
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Jerusha

I think in this case it's still poor Javana.  Stefan at least has a bride he can grow to love and she will likely do the same.  Javana will never grow to love Walter - I just hope she survives him.
From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggity beasties and things that go bump in the night...good Lord deliver us!

 -- Old English Litany

derynifanatic64

Kelson, Alaric, and Duncan would never believe that Denis was mushy in any way shape or form.  Walter probably won't like it when he finds out that Seisyll has married Stefan's sister, if he hasn't already.
We will never forget the events of 9-11!!  USA!! USA!!

Evie

Actually, Walter couldn't care less who Seisyll marries, as long as he gets Javana for himself.  Since Caerdraig is on the other end of the Kingdom, it will be easy enough to keep Javana away from her siblings and extended family after she's married him.  Which isn't to say she'd never see them...but it's a loooong way from Tre-Arilan to the Kheldish Riding....   
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

derynifanatic64

I'm sure it will at least be an annoyance to Walter that he is about to be related to Stefan by marriage.  It's an extra minor complication for Walter, but I'm for anything that will make Walter's life uneasy--no matter how major or minor that complication is.
We will never forget the events of 9-11!!  USA!! USA!!

Evie

Well, it certainly won't make him any more eager to bring Javana to any Arilan family get-togethers, that's for sure.   :D
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

Elkhound

One hopes that her training in Andelon will have given her a few tricks Walter doesn't know.

Spontaneous Human Combustion, perhaps?  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_human_combustion

Evie

#9
*dies laughing*

Yes, I'm sure there will be many times when Javana will wish she could apply that one.   :D  Unfortunately, despite Javana's formidable training, Walter's cunning and deviant criminal mind has ways of devising certain work-arounds....  

There will come a time in the story when Javana will be exceedingly glad she had that formal training to fall back on, however.  In fact, I just wrote that chapter this afternoon.   But for reasons I can't disclose yet, she won't be able to make full use of it until then.  And that's really all I can say about that.  ;D
"In necessariis unitas, in non-necessariis libertas, in utrisque caritas."

--WARNING!!!--
I have a vocabulary in excess of 75,000 words, and I'm not afraid to use it!

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