| To Know You |
| Summary: | The evercrossing paths of Justin and Aeliana |
| Date: | 14/09/2012 |
| Related Logs: | Any other conversational logs between the two. |
| Players: |
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| Reading Room, Four Eagles Tower |
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| The room has a large glass window and seat that looks out partially over the cove, in daylight hours the sun provides illumination to the room. Other stools and chairs linger in small groups as shelves along the walls are littered with scrolls, books, letters and documents. The contents are a modest collection of local records, histories, and literature offered to both the family and guests of Four Eagles Tower. |
| 14th September, 289 |
It is said, if one should ask, that Justin can most often be found in the reading room or his own chambers in the evening one he has taken his supper. To study law, most times. As it happens, should someone be looking for him he is indeed here. He sits at the desk, his arming belt removed to hang from the back of the chair he's seated in, his sword to gleam dully in the light of candles and a lantern. Justin reads from the slimmer book titled "History of Terrick Rulings" rather than from the heavy Kingslaw tome.
On the desk is a plate with some small porting remaining of his earlier meal, and glass and a flagon of wine. The room otherwise looks about the same as Aeliana saw it last when she visited the Lady Anais here.
Well, Aeliana had set out looking for the good lord's sister, which is what brought her once again to the reading room. Having realized that it was one the girl tended to favor. So while there's a soft rap of knuckles at the doorframe where the glow of light betrays that there is indeed a person, Ae simply continues on in with a merry, "My Lady An…"
And that would be the point where she realizes that things are not enitrely as she recalls them. "My Lord Terrick," comes murmured instead, a bemused and blushing correction as she dips a low curtsy to the gentlemen. "You are not entirely whom I was expecting to find, my lord."
Justin looks up from the book and the moment his gaze finds Aeliana entering into the room, he pushes the things on his desk aside to lay the book there, and move to stand at her entrance. "You do realize .. every time you call me that, I expect someone to be addressing my father. Please, Ser Justin will do." One side of his mouth barely curls into an almost smile, "No, my goodsister is not here. I think she and my brother are up on the terrace." Justin doesn't say why, the fires in Stonbridge being faintly visible as a glow to the east from up there, the rising smoke to blot out the stars.
Instead, Justin adds low, "You are nonetheless welcome to come in."
"But it feels so informal," came her counter, when he bid her make use of his name. And it takes her a moment to consider just precisely how she feels about it. "Yet if it should please you, Ser Ter…Justin, then I have no desire to make you feel old." It ended with a smile; her head canting to the side as she reached up to brush her hair in behind her ear. The smile had a little bit of trouble touching upon her eyes, however, for worry of those who would soon go to war, though those smokes made her wonder if they hadn't already.
Yet she enters still, drifting towards a chair opposite his own so that the desk remains there between them, "Sit, my l—-Ser, please. If I am to be at ease, then you must surely do the same."
"My father is Lord of this House. So I would feel strange to call you Lady Charlton, when that title of address properly belongs to Lord Keegan's wife. I suppose I prefer to be some what less formal when it comes to honorifics, lady Aeliana." Justin yet wears his surcoat with a belt, his antlered dagger once more stuck at an angle into it. As he resumes his seat he offers, "I know you put off the trip to Highfield. Is your Septa all right? Did she ill for taking too much cake and wine? It is just as well you wait, for this isn't a good time to travel the roads, just now."
Justin reaches over to pick up his glass and finish off the little that was within it before he sets it where Aeliana can easily reach it if she likes, then gestures to the flagon, "Apple wine, very light should you care for some."
"As it pleases," Ae murmurs with a low bow of her head; her hands smoothing in against the folds of her skirt until it's settled smoothly into place, those long legs crossed at the ankle and neatly tucked off to the left so that she presents the very picture of propriety. "I had told my Uncle that I didn't really want to go," Aeliana mentioned, when he spoke of her trip. And she still didn't want to go. "It just feels…empty to be there without my family to give it warmth and laughter. At least here there are enough distractions that I may forget, for all that Septa Myrth eats when she frets and then frets when she eats and too much of anything sweet leaves her a disaster. She's abed, still." But Rayleen was with her; a ghost of a shadow that had flanked her steps and waited now politely within the shadow of the door, like a silent extension if ere she was needed.
Yet…a faint smile tugs against the corners of her lips when the knight offers his glass and while she does in fact, reach for the flagon to pour it no more than a third of the way full, she inquires over the rim of the cup, "Is it just me, Ser Justin, or…are we developing a habit of sharing glasses?"
"As before, there is only one glass here. Should I not offer you a drink? It would seem rude. If you prefer, I will go and see if I can find someone to bring you another glass. I mean nothing intimate by it. I'm not as much for … formality as you, I suppose, living as I have for years sleeping upon the very ground with not so much as a tent to keep out the stars." Nonetheless, Justin stands from the desk and starts to cross the room to go and open the door. He looks out into the hall to see if there is anyone he might get to bring up a fresh glass, but there's no one in the hall. And it would not due to ask Aeliana's handmaiden to depart to go and fetch it, leaving her lady here alone with himself. So he looks back to her, "I will go downstairs and obtain you one, if you like."
"Please," Aeliana mused, waving a hand in an attempt to still him before he'd withdrawn himself from behind the desk completely, "Relax and be at ease, Ser, for I meant nothing by it. It simply struck a resonating tune with the song from the other night at the Inn. A chance remark meant to amuse and no more. Please," she implored, a hopeful look upon her face. "One is plenty and in truth, better than none. Would you not agree?"
Justin looks amused. He closes the door, "I have relinquished the glass unto you, so now it is yours." By the way he slightly twists one corner of his mouth wryly, Justin could have been slightly baiting her, just to see what Aeliana would do. There is that rascally hint of mischief in his grey eyes as he retakes his seat.
"I learned that song at the Inn of the Kneeling Man. I have always been rather fond of it, and was suprised that you knew it. Very pleasantly surprised." Justin leans back in his chair and interlaces his fingers over his abdomin, one boot raised to lay it over his knee. "And you sing well. Do you also play an instrument?"
"I take an interest in history and song. Songs move people, they motivate them. They can lift up drowning spirits or drive them even deeper, or bid a people to survive when all seems like it is lost. There are a good many, that float about the various inns of Hollyholt and I have had considerable time to listen," she sighs, before that flicker of amusement returns and she touches upon the topic she seems to have purposefully missed.
"But as for the glass, I would say instead that it is ours, because it's bad form for a woman to drink alone and I should hate to be portrayed as a lush." Ae teased, "Alas, Ser, the only instrument I play is the crowd, much to my Septa's utter disappointment."
"That's a shame," says Justin, "I bet you would play well. I'm quite fond of music, though I do not play myself. Seems odd to me that a proper young woman would have loitered about in inns often, while at home." Fishing, perhaps? Justin smiles a little and makes a vague gesture to the glass, "Then drink as you like and I will have a little also. I am curious to know… what sort of things you like to do, lady Aeliana. Besides things political. You mentioned swordplay, and using a bow so I assume you have some fondness for light hunting, and I know you can handle a horse. I would learn if there is something you wish to do while you are our guest here, that I may do what I might to best entertain you."
"Oh goodness no," Aeliana mused, "I fear that you must have me confused with another. I couldn't use a bow to save my life, unless I was hitting someone over the head with it," she laughed; though her laughter faded over a small sip of wine and as promised, she reached forward to sit it on the desk between them so that he too might indulge as he pleased. "Though I wouldn't say I loitered with all of my time. My Uncle is of the belief that if one would lead a people, to shape them and guide them then..one must also know the people and to know well, one must listen, no? To understand. Yet Kellen is small and their numbers much smaller than those of your Roost, and I traveled often between it and home," Aeliana explained.
"Though truly my interests are not so scattered as most might enjoy. I dedicated time to the study of herbs, as a lady should know, to better tend those within her household and discovered I've a talent for it. And I've a fondness for sewing. Reading just as much as I ride. Surely I must be the same as many others you know?"
"Ah, it must have been the lady Jocelyn, then whom said she could use a bow." Justin muses. He picks up the offered glass and has a sip of it as well, though as the flagon is full, he's not feeling inclined to drink much tonight. It's a very good wine though somewhat sweeter and milder than he usually favours. He sets the glass back down where she can reach it easily, "Your interests are common among to other women, aye. But you are yet less so, yourself. I think you have a sharper mind, and a readier laugh." And a far lovelier smile as well, though he adds that not. "I suppose then I will not ask you to come along with us on one of our next hunts up into the western Highfield lands. Hunting is one of my greater pleasures, though I tend to enjoy it more when I go into the forest alone or with few, but not as much with larger groups."
"I believe I saw her at the wedding," Ae muses, though for the moment she leaves the wine to sit yet between them untouched. Typically preferring to appear naught but a social drinker when the truth was it was rare she indulged the point that it damped her wits. Still, when he complimented her, Aeliana's head demured as a quiet smile touched her lips and she couldn't help the laugh that came for it; self depreciating, but in a pleasant way. "You're kind to say so, m—Ser Justin. And I do pride myself upon my ability to think. Women are cast to such molds, it is true and yet…there's an art to navigating it. The truth is, when I was helping my Uncle manage his lands, I'd little time for other passtimes but there was a joy to be found in it. I don't feel as if I was lacking in anything and I still had time to collect rocks," she confesses, humor once more dancing into her tone. "Though you would be a cruel man to tease me so with an invitation and then take it away. I would enjoy the ride and the running of the hounds even if I were not responsible for striking down the prey. Perhaps," her smile turns mischevious, "Perhaps you shall find some way to make it up to me instead."
Justin smiles at her last, "Ah, perhaps. Or mayhap I will simply invite you afterall, to see that Highfield is recieving her due in skins as per our agreement. There are some fine wild boar up in that forest and excellant hunting. It is no wonder Tall Oaks folk were reknown for their wood craft." He lifts a dark brow at her mentioning the collecting of rocks. "Though, if you have something else in mind that would tempt you more, I'll certainly consider it." Wait, he has to stifle a yawn ere he continues, "Meanwhile, I should leave the reading room to your pleasure, lady Aeliana." Justin moves to stand for the last time, "And retire. I prefer to rise before the sun so I will bid you a good night."
