| Laced Tea and Heraldry |
| Summary: | Liliana stops by with her standard while Lucienne and Jace are having some iced tea. |
| Date: | 18/10/288 |
| Related Logs: | Eh. Probably a few. |
| Players: |
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| Lucienne's Chambers |
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| I have no desc for this room. I should make one. |
| 18th October, 288 |
As the afternoon stretches on, dinner hour approaching, Lucienne is to be found in her room. The recent storms have cleared to bring the heat of summer back to the Roost, and she has sought refuge away from the madness that runs through the halls as wedding preparations hit fever pitch too; the groom is seated in a chair opposite her by the unlit fire, a pitcher of cold, laced iced tea between them. Hattie brushes at her lady's hair, more for the pleasant sensation than to set it to any fancy style, but Lucienne frowns, her cheeks tinted rosy from alcohol in her drink. "I should have known," she is telling her brother, "Seems to be becoming a catchphrase around here. But I didn't even know Jarod had heard about it, in all honesty."
A simple knock at the door, not strident, or with the urgency of, 'This must be attended to right now!'. And no cacophony of voices, so, likely as not, not an emergency. Only the dark-haired Camden, looking respectable, for the moment, a cloth-wrapped bundle in hand, Elise not far behind her, as Liliana waits just outside of Lucienne's room. "You're certain she's taking visitors, Eli?" The redhead nods, "Yes, I asked around specifically."
"Well. I won't stand for it happening again, that much is for certain. I do not care if he was in service to our Good King Robert, no man has the right to come into our home and act such to a Lady of this House," Jacsen opines, quite sincerely, and even slightly animated, for all that one hand is occupied holding up a drink. A drink which he imbibes, and freely, glancing over at the door when there is a knock at it. "I'm not getting up," he points out with a touch of humor, quite needlessly.
Lucienne smiles, then, and even giggles at Jacsen. "Oh, but won't you? I've got Hattie here brushing, Jace," she says, affecting a pout after and fluttering her lashes exaggeratedly. Her sigh is exaggerated, too, and she calls to the door: "It's open, come in!" One can probably tell her mood from the exclamation, rather unlike her. "Your lady wife-to-be didn't seem much offended," the Terrick girl continues to opine.
With the not quite usual congeniality of Lucienne's normal tones, well, that doesn't strive to engender a feeling of confidence, but, be that as it may, Liliana steps in, the door opening with one unusually, if demurely gloved hand, the bundle held close in the other. A pause, just inside the door, Eli peeking around her to wiggle fingers at Hattie, her fellow co-conspirator. "Luci, Jace," the names offered after that pause to see the lay of the land, "Hattie, I came to drop off the standard. I thought I should get it to you as soon as possible."
Whatever the tone might have indicated to Liliana, it's quite amicable seeming inside, with the lame-legged Terrick resting quite comfortably in one chair, a cup of some iced drink that drips beads of condensation held aloft in his hand. "Come in, Liliana, come in," Jacsen ushers with a hand, indicating one of the other seats about. "It's excessively hot today, and so we've put together a little something to keep us cool and pass the afternoon. I could not countenance sweating on any more correspondence anymore," he remarks with a slight shake of his head.
"Lili," Lucienne adds to her brother's greeting, peering around the back of her chair to smile at her father's ward. She beckons with her free hand, whilst Hattie behind her lapses in her hair-brushing duties to wave back at Elise. "What Jace said, come in. Hattie, go take that from the Lady Lili, so she can come sit and have some tea with us. I feel like we've hardly said boo to each other lately," laments Lucienne, disappointed, whilst her handmaiden does as bid.
Liliana hands over the bundle, with a soft, "Thank you," to Hattie, before she steps further in, and finding a seat, settles into it, "I hope you're both having a better afternoon. I'm sorry that I haven't seen either of you in what should rightly be ages. I've been back and forth between the Rockcliffe and the hall. The guests are streaming in, and I'm afraid I haven't a finger large enough to plug the dam. Eli did offer to put herself in harm's way, after we met a delightful company coming in from Fairmarket, but alas, I wasn't able to excuse her from her duties."
"Aside from boorish knights in the service of Oldstones, I am doing as well as one might expect," Jacsen remarks with a slight shrug of one shoulder. "Had I two good legs, I think by now I would have thrown myself into the sea for some relief from the heat, but this drink does seem to do some wonders." He nods to the pitcher and says, "You really ought to have a cup. Hattie, would you so mind?" He lifts his cup for a small sip, and asks, "How does the day find you, Liliana?"
"Yes, I had heard about the quality of the knights in the service of Oldstones, I am still debating whether or not a rolling pin to the back of his head is strictly ladylike or not. I am currently leaning towards like. After all, I can always cry a rough and tumble upbringing or too much time in Cookie's company as the cause for my warped sense of proper and improper. Though if it's relief from the heat you're interested in, I could give you some small list of secluded places you might enjoy." Another smile, to Hattie, as she delivers the tea, "Well enough, thank you. The days grow shorter and the work ever longer, as they say."
Lucienne winces a little, rubbing at the back of her own head at the mention of rolling pins colliding. "That sounds nasty, but not undeserved. Perhaps the knight in question might take a knocking in the tourney, should the Seven see fit to punish him." Leaning back in her chair, she seems to take a moment to contemplate that, or perhaps something else. Hattie sets about filling a spare cup for Liliana, and that seen to, gestures for Eli to join her for a hushed gossip session on the further side of the room.
That suggestion, the rolling pin to the back of his head, does cause Jacsen to laugh. "Oh, now that might be something worth seeing, I think, Liliana," he insists, his vaguely inebriated mood lighter than some of late. "What is that you brought with you? A standard, you said?"
"They'll just shake their heads and say, 'Oh, it's that Camden woman again." A slightly wicked smile crosses her lips, briefly, before her expression rights itself. The glass is accepted, sipped slightly, set set aside, again with that word of thanks, before she picks back up the thread of conversation, "I cannot speak to whether or not he will get his just desserts at the joust, but if he should deign to participate in the archery, I fully intend to send him back to his master looking the fool for being defeated by a woman." Yes, she is taking part in the tourney. With the Lord Ser Jerold's permission. "Oh! Yes. It's been our great labour, Eli and I…well, mostly Eli, since the announcement." Liliana rises from her seat, calling the two handmaidens over to help her. The bundle is unfolded, the standard within the rich Terrick purple. The crest on it the Terrick crest impaled on the dexter, right side, and the Banefort one on the left, sinister side. Above the shield itself, a crowned terrick eagle, to signify the Lord's place as heir to the House.
Her brows lift, but Lucienne doesn't make comment on the implied participation of Liliana in the wedding tournament. Instead, she blinks a few times and smiles, amused, before remembering her cup and its contents for a sip. As the standard is unfolded, she takes a moment to look it over before announcing, "It looks wonderful, girls. Did you really put a stitch on it, Lili? I know embroidery isn't your… most favored pastime." Lucienne slides a look to Jacsen that plainly says: you should be honored, if she did.
He laughs at Liliana's answer, insisting, "That's exactly why you should do it, Liliana. You'll get away with it!" Jacsen is quite amused, though willing to swallow that humor to pay some more serious attention to the woman and her unveiling. "That is quite impressive, if I do say so myself…" He gives the standard another moment of consideration, before turning his grateful expression on Liliana. Then he smiles over at his sister, nodding to her assessment, and then looks back to the Camden Lady to hear the answer to Lucienne's question.
"I imagine, having little to loose, I can get away with most anything," again, that wicked smile, but a mock gasp of indignance to Lucienne, "I did, with great help from Eli. We used to work on it out in the gardens. We tried to make it a secret, and I don't think the few that ever saw us working on it knew what it was. Do you remember when we used to do our needlework, Luci?" Liliana, being so dreadful at it, that tiny dots of stain or punctures of the needle used to have to be dotted in the pattern to show her where to thread her needle. "We did it the same way." Which might explain the gloves, likely covering needlestung and slightly swollen fingers, "I wasn't sure, if it might want to be used for the wedding, but I thought, it would make a good gift regardless."
Lucienne can't help but to giggle again at Liliana's response. "I'm sorry, Lili. But it really does look wonderful - it must have taken you forever to trace out the stitches before you sewed it. What a thoughtful gift." She buries a smile in her cup again, adding aside to her brother, "Don't think there'll be anything quite so laborious from your sister for your wedding, my love."
Jacsen frowns with feigned hurt at his sister's comment, shaking his head. "Would I only have been given a sister half so thoughtful," he remarks, before turning a more genuine smile on Liliana. "It is very impressive, Liliana. I don't know what the decor or the like really is for the wedding…" His brow knits some as he asks no one in particular, "Is that bad of me?" He shakes his head. "Anyways, I don't know what the decor is like, but if it suits, I would be glad to display it."
A snicker of laughter from the woman itself, "Indeed, many a sleepless night and may strips of bandages," is the answer to Luci's comment. But as she returns to her seat, "Not bad, it wasn't really your wedding for most of these months, and given that it seems, as the groom, and from what I know of weddings, all you really need to do is show up at the right time," isn't that the whole thing of weddings, after all? "And say the right words, I don't think you're to be chastised for it." Weddings aren't, after all, really for the groom, but for the bride, mostly. A nod of her head, as the two handmaids begin to refold the banner. "If not at the wedding, then, perhaps the tournament, but I will leave that for you to decide. The House herald might well find that it clashes completely with his design for the crest he's made to designate your new status." But with the standard now away, she seems content to try to turn attention back to the two in the room, and away from herself, "But I think you were already deep in conversation before I arrived."
"Your sister isn't so terrible, if lazy when it comes to embroidering heraldry," Lucienne retorts to Jacsen, with a wealth of mirth. She waves a hand around, dismissing his terribleness for the lack of knowledge about his own ceremony, draining her cup as she does so. The handwave extends to Liliana, too, eventually. "You weren't interrupting anything terribly important. We were just talking about the state of Jarod's face, and that terrible Ser Coope. Did Gedeon speak with him, do you know? Truth be told, I'm not particularly enthused about seeing him again." She sets her cup down, and clarifies (in that way that fuzzy-headed girls oft seem to feel the need to): "Ser Coope, that is."
"I shall not forget the sacrifice of delicate hands and sleep you made on my behalf, though I suppose it was mostly Jaremy's behalf for a while there," Jacsen tells Liliana with a smile, and indicates her cup. "You really out to sit and relax and have a drink, though. You'll soon forget all about sore hands and the heat," he assures her. "As for Gedeon and Ser Coope, I am not certain, though I doubt Ged would have left it for long. It's only to Ser Anton's benefit to have the matter already addressed before anyone could push him on it, after all…"
"For a while, perhaps, but the crowned eagle was added solely for you. I will not have people thinking they can have the luxury to whisper about you being the second son, when you are not second in such things." A cruel truth, perhaps, but not one Liliana seems willing to accommodate. "You are the Young Lord now, and I will take a rolling pin to anyone that deigns to look at you in a manner I choose to dislike." And in that, Lili seems, for a while at least, the girl she was so long ago, though only Luci, of the two Terricks present would remember her so, "As to the two knights, I also cannot say. I have seen neither of them in my wanderings. Though it seems to me that it should be the Lord of Oldstones dealing with the insult, and not another of his knights." The glass she does take up again, though she takes only a small sip, "I am afraid I have only a small appreciation for spirits."
Does Lucienne wince a little, at the phrase 'second son'? Perhaps it's just imagined, for the expression is so small, and hidden as she leans forward to refill her own cup, Hattie so occupied with Elise as she is. "It seems to me that we are not all the courtiers we imagine ourselves to be," she notes in an idle tone as she pours. "Even less so in times of turmoil, perhaps. Nevermind, though. If the matter's been seen to, then it has been seen to. — It's mostly tea, Lili, even I can drink it."
Jacsen makes a sound that can only be inferred as agreement with Lucienne's comment. "I suppose it is done, and so be it. Still, I'm inclined to agree that the Lord of Oldstones, as such, should have been the one to deal with it, especially given the individual to whom a slight was so paid…" He waves a hand. "But there is nothing to be done on it now. I should rather like to look for ways to encourage friendship with the Valentins, instead of discord. We've Naylands enough for such, no?"
"And yet, we have heard little enough from them these past few months. Do we even know if they plan to send anyone to attend the wedding? To show themselves off to the southerly Houses, if for no other reason than that. It never bodes well, when the quiet between the Roost and the mire spreads out so long." perhaps smartly, Liliana opts not to continue the vein of thought that wends its way towards the subject of Jaremy, "I am almost of a mind to go awandering after my Uncles, just to see what can be seen."
"I… don't remember seeing word from the Naylands," admits Lucienne, frowning thoughtfully down to her cup. "Not that it means they haven't responded. I will chase it up." And so the conversation continues, sometimes inspired, sometimes bland, sometimes just a comfortable silence between three siblings. And they depart for dinner, and Lucienne is a little drunk, the end.
