| Chamber Shuffle |
| Summary: | Justin returns to the tower to find his quarters invaded and a flurry of activity on the second floor. Lady Anais arrives to explain and Ilaria joins them to share news of the lady Rebecca's arrival. One pose cameo by Lothar. |
| Date: | 25/09/2012 |
| Related Logs: | Harpy Comes 'Home' To Roost |
| Players: |
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| Chamber Corridor, Four Eagles Tower |
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| This corridor runs over the entrance hall below, murder holes in the floor to be able to attack those below. Very small windows as these is mainly the rooms for guests and the family. |
| September 25th, 289 |
It has been a strange day. Justin's been out all day in the Roost trying to catch up on his duties in town while he's able, what with a lot of strange things happening the past several days. Giving tours to Ser Bolland and his family to survey the condition of the Terrick Lands, leading or organizing larger patrols due to the uprise in bandits or sellsword raiders, news that his /beloved/ sister Lucienne was thrown out of House Groves and sent packing for home … so it's no surprise that Justin comes up the stairs this evening looking a little worn and tired. But what, there's a surprise waiting for him as he comes into the hall of the second floor.
There are servants scurrying, furniture in the hallway behing moved from one room to another, some of the new guests wandering about. And wait, is that Justin's bear skin rolled up and cast out of his chambers as though to be discarded? The Sheriff stops in his tracks and eyes these people, "What the fu… What is going on here?" When a member of house staff hurries past without answering him, he frowns and starts towards his room, then stops when people come up carrying in furniture that isn't his! "WHAT are you doing?"
"Justin! Ben, I told you not to start on Justin's room yet." Anais appears from one of the rooms down the hall, her sleeves rolled up and a kerchief over her hair with an apron over her skirts. She might be just another of the servant girls, except for the fact that people move when she says move and try to look busy when she passes. "I'm sorry, Justin, I told them to wait until you were back," she sighs as she draws closer, brushing her hands off on the apron. "With so many people coming, we're going to need to do some shuffling with the rooms to fit everyone. There's Lord Bolland's family, and now I've got word that the new regents in Stonebridge are sending seed along with a delegation to include the new Lady and two of her sons. And now that things are quieter in Stonebridge, Saffron and Kamron will be back again, too."
Justin is not accustomed to raising his voice in doors, it's not like him. He eyes Anais, in her strange getup though it makes sense not to muss her clothes when they can hardly afford to have new dresses made for her. Nonetheless Justin doesn't look pleased, half frowning, "Isn't that … Lucienne's dresser?" It just better not be, suggests his tone. But maybe it's not. After taking a breath, he steps over to peer into his chambers which don't otherwise look to be much disturbed other than some of his things scooted over to one side of the room. "I see. So do I need to share a room with someone? If I must, do I at least get to choose whom?" Before someone might take it and get rid of it or move it into someone else's room, Justin steps back to pick up the rolled up bear skin, sticking it under one of his arms.
"It could be," Anais notes of the dresser, looking after it. "I'm afraid her room isn't going to be…available when she returns. So many people, after all." The smile that follows isn't exactly friendly, but then, neither are she and Lucienne. "As for you rooming with someone…" She draws a breath, letting it out slowly as she rubs the back of one hand at her brow. "Right now, as things stand, I've Lady Tressa and Lord Bolland in one room, Lord Jerold in another, Saffron and Kamron in a third. Luci, Faline, and Gaelena will be in a fourth, and Lothar, Bowen, and Keenan in a fifth. Nedra and Muirenn have a sixth. Jacsen and I a seventh. Ilaria and any other female guests will be together. Then I'll need one room for the Nayland lady and another for her sons. I'd prefer to leave you alone, but at the very least I'm going to have to put Ozric and Garris together, and I don't think it will go over well if you're the only person left with his own room," she concludes with a sympathetic grimace.
Standing next to Anais, Justin is outside of his chambers with the door wide open. His things have been pushed over to one side of the room and a rather feminine dresser is set down outside of his door as though someone had been carrying it into his room. The Sheriff does not look pleased. A bear skin has been rolled up and tucked beneath Justin's arm, "I see." For some reason, this is testing his patience, more than most things considering how minor an issue it is to share his quarters with family. "At least Ozric and Garris are brothers. It won't be the end of the world if you give them my chambers. I can … figure something out, goodsister. I do ask that my things not be taken and distributed into other rooms. Especially those two tapestries. Let them have my room as it is and I'll settle elsewhere."
Yeah, he's not looking too happy about this. "Maybe that Lothar fellow, if he doesn't jabber too much. Otherwise I shall not be able to do my studies." Yes, that's a good reason, right? Justin frowns slightly and steps into his room for a moment to lay the bear skin rug back onto the floor beside the bed as if to suggest someone should not remove it. He walks back out after a moment, trying not to look annoyed.
"I could put Lothar in with you and Bowen in with Ozric and Garris, if that's easier," Anais offers, turning to look down the hall and consider the rooms again. "I'm moving into Evangeline's quarters because she has the small attached room with a bed for a maid where we can put Jacsen so that the room we've been using as his sickroom can even be used," she adds, weary. "I'm sorry, Justin. If I had a castle the size of Riverrun, I wouldn't do it. At least I'm not making you share a room with Luci?" she points out, summoning up a smile with the weak humor. She hardly looks herself, with her sleeves rolled up, a kerchief over her hair, and an apron tied around her waist.
Much like the other bodies dashing to and fro, so Ilaria joins the fray seemingly out of nowhere. The young girl looks a bit harried, and her hair is in disarray. She stops in the middle of the corridor, watching with wide eyes at the servants move about to clean and haul furniture and other goods. "Is someone moving out?" she asks the empty air before spying Anais and Justin just a few doorways down. "Oh!" she gasps, lifting the hem of her skirts and dashing forward to meet them. With a tiny shriek, she ducks beneath a rolled carpet perched on a servant's shoulder that appears in her path suddenly as they turn to address a companion. The diminutive girl nearly crashes into someone else, but the older woman sidesteps her neatly.
Finally, Ilaria comes to a pause, panting and with red cheeks. She reaches up quickly to smooth her hair down - or to try, at least, although it seems no use - before advancing the final few steps toward the Terricks. "Lady Anais, Lord Justin," she greets, and her voice is far more calm than her outward demeanor, if still a little breathless. "We have been looking for you, both of you."
Anais's good-brother has loosely hooked his thumbs into his belt and watches the house staff going on about moving things around. Justin gives her a nod, "Do whatever you need. Put one or two in my chambers, or three if you have to and we'll make do, Anais. You … probably know already that I don't sleep in my chambers regularly anyway." He lowers his baritone, "I don't much abide staying inside the walls when I don't have to." It's just as well that he wasn't cooped up inside the keep during the siege. That would have been hard on him. Justin skims a hand through his dark hair, then partly turns as he hears Ilaria's voice.
"We, lady Ilaria? And whom besides yourself might be we?" Justin offers her a smile, "Also, good evening. What might we do for you?"
"Well I certainly don't want to drive you out of your home," Anais sighs to Justin. "Luci, maybe, but-" And then Ilaria approaches, and she stops herself, looking over with a flicker of a smile. "Ilaria. Forgive me, I know it's all a bit chaotic at the moment, but everything should be in order by the time everyone should be heading for their beds." Taking in the disarray, she pauses, brow arching. "Is everything all right?" There are any number of servants moving through the hall with furniture, bedding, wall hangings, and everything that pulls rooms together. Anais, Justin, and Ilaria are gathered outside Justin's room, though Anais doesn't quite look herself, with a kerchief over her hair, an apron around her waist, and her sleeves rolled up.
Ilaria blinks at Justin. Perhaps there is something in his tone, or perhaps she is just overtired, but her lips turn down in a slight frown. "We? Did I say 'we'? Well, yes, we were - earlier. Lord Lothar, Ser Darion and myself. We were outside having a chat when guards practically dragged a noblewoman in with her two retainers." She pauses, swallowing, and reaches up to place her cool fingers on her heated cheeks. "She claims to be the Youngwell, to be Lady Rebecca Nayland. We were looking for a room for her, with the situation being so crowded, butshe is in mine for now. I do not know where the guards took her Septa and her pageboy. I think he was a page? She begged guest right."
Lothar comes heading down the hall, or from the stairs or just walks out of a wall for all that most folks could tell with all the bustling going on right now around the rooms and he just looks around at everything moving about, he can't help but overhear Ilaria as he almost stumbles into the small group of nobles, "I think they got moved into the servant's quarters Lady Ilaria, either that or escorted into the dungeon but I doubt that the guards would have been that bold."
Indeed, the door to Justin's chambers is wide open and most of what little was in the room has been pushed to one side to scrunch it up and make room to move in more furniture. There is a /huge/ golden brown bear skin rug thrown on the floor by the bed of what was once a monterous beast. The room otherwise looks rather sparten for a noble's quarters, barely appointed but for two old, faded tapestries on the walls.
Ilaria has Justin's full attention. He flicks his grey eyed gaze to Anais, his brows slightly to rise at the part about a guards dragging in a noblewoman and her retainers - and then even though you'd think his dark brows couldn't rise any higher, they do at mention of Rebecca's name. Justin blinks at the lady Ilaria as if he surely didn't hear that right. Oh. And there's Lothar wandering up, mentioning the dungeon. The Terrick Sheriff gives his cousin a nod for greeting, "And why might they drag a noblewoman of /any/ house into the keep, or think it appropriate to put her into the dungeon, if they were so bold? What has happened? What did she do?"
Justin looks to Anais then, "Why was I not sent for?" This sounds like something that might concern him, as Sheriff.
"This is the first I've heard of it," Anais shakes her head to Justin, looking a bit taken aback herself. "Ilaria, could you slow down a bit?" she says, looking back to the other woman with a small smile. "You said the Young lady Rebecca? So that would be his daughter from his first wife, who's been with the Groveses. Was she set upon, or merely weary from her journey?" she asks, keeping her voice even and calm.
Once again, Ilaria grows nervous. She drops her gaze to the floor much like a child receiving punishment, although Justin's tone is as polite as it can be considering the circumstances. She clasps her hands together so tightly that her knuckles turn white, clearing her throat once both he and Lady Anais have finished speaking. "Lady Rebecca did not exactly arrive with fanfare and a regal retinue, my lord. She was disheveled and dirty, and nearly dropped right from her horse, but nobody mentioned being set upon. I do not think they encountered bandits, my lady, but only a hard, hard ride. From the state of all of them when they arrived, though, I would not judge the guards harshly in their suspicion. She did not actually announce herself as Lady Rebecca immediately." Technically the woman did not say it at all.
Ilaria glances up to Justin briefly before looking to Anais. "You were both sent for - immediately, actually, but as all three looked about ready to perish on the spot, Iwell, wethat is to say, Ser Darion ordered them fed and cleaned and given rest, and I told Lord Lothar to put the Young Lady in my chambers. My girl is tending to her while she rests. She fainted, and Lord Lothar had to carry her, but I think she is only sick with exhaustion." She bites her lip to silence herself.
Ah, so it then is made more clear, for Ilaria's first telling came across as something else entirely. Justin gives a slow nod, encouraging her patiently, "Ah, that is well then. Of course we do not refuse guest right to those in need who do not come bearing ill for our House. Ser Darion, yourself, and Lothar did as you should. Thank you, Ilaria." There is a look to Anais, "We have no Maester in the tower, now. With the lady Muirenn away, we should send for Mistress Dania that she might attend to them, if she has returned from Stonebridge. I should like to be informed when the lady Rebecca is up to seeing guests. /If/ she was attacked or harried upon Terrick lands on her journey here, I would know what trail to take up."
Anais presses two fingers to her temple, letting out a slow breath. "Thank you, Ilaria," she says with a small, though warm, smile. "I hope you'll forgive me if I ask you to continue to share a room with her for a bit, at least until we have a better idea of just what she's doing here. I do hope she wasn't planning on escaping Lucienne," she adds, dry. "She's run in entirely the wrong direction for that. But perhaps she'll go back to Stonebridge with the other Naylands who should be arriving in the next two days."
Relaxing visibly, Ilaria exhales a breath she is not aware she's been holding, and she lowers herself down to her heels from standing on her tiptoes. "I had no intention of imposing upon you, Lady Anais and Lord Justin, but I felt the situation warranted immediate action." She smiles, and the expression widens a bit when she is asked to share her quarters. "Please, I would be more than happy to assist in making Lady Rebecca comfortable. I know Heolla will enjoy a new face; she must be so sick of me without even Lady Katrin to torment." Now that the moment has passed, she nearly sags with relief, reaching up to touch the back of her right wrist to her forehead. "Lord Justin, if it please you I will be sure to send someone to inform you the moment she is awake and ready to speak. That is, if I know where to find you this time."
There is an amused look to his good-sister before Justin twists his mouth wryly, "Alas, if only the Groves had kept her." Which one of them does he mean? Anais knows. Ah yes, she does. Justin looks back to Ilaria to hear out the rest. Then he gives her a nod, "Thank you. As for finding me, during the day I'm in the town, working on the various rebuilding efforts, or tending to Sheriff's duties, or possibly out on patrol. About the best that can be done is send a rider like Nathaniel who knows the most likely places I frequent and spread the word that I'm wanted at the tower. You need not say why - someone will eventually know where I've been off to, lady Ilaria." Which even so, doesn't mean anyone will find him before evening when he usually returns to the tower, like tonight.
Anais casts a sympathetic arch of her brows Justin's way before looking back to Ilaria. "I'm grateful for the help," she assures the other woman, reaching out to set a hand to her arm. "Truly. I think the servants are all a bit scattered at the moment, with so many people showing up and so many things to see to, is all. I'm sure someone would have found me eventual-" And just then, a red-faced servant girl comes running up, stopping short in front of the group. "It's all right, Beth," Anais laughs softly. "Unless it's something other than Lady Rebecca?" When the girl shakes her head, Anais nods, waving her off. "At least I can say I've never had a chance to get bored here," she murmurs, rueful.
Ilaria nods, and nods again, looking between Justin and Anais much like a child would be double-checking her parents' mood. She lets out a quiet laugh, one devoid of a nervous tremble, and glances down to the ground for a moment while she calms completely. "Of course, Lord Justin, and I will be sure to send him out as soon as possible. Thank you—very much." Smiling, she looks back to Anais and raises her eyebrows. One glance over her shoulder is enough to see that the aforementioned servants are still at it. "I do not know how you could get bored, truly. This is far more exciting than Stonebridge was."
Justin smiles a little at Ilaria, then huffs a breath in lieu of a laugh for poor Anais, "You can go if you need to, Anais. I should get out of your hair and let you see things settled as you see fit. Perhaps I can lure the lady Ilaria up to the terrace to keep me company while I take my supper. If you need me good-sister, I shall retire to the reading room to study, if … it's quiet enough." Else forget it - Justin will likely scram and go find somewhere to lay himself down to sleep beneath a fragrant pine where he can have some peace.
With that, he looks to Ilaria to see if she will accept his invitation and offers her his arm if she will.
