| Welcome, Cousin |
| Summary: | Riordan welcomes his cousin Jocelyn to Tordane Tower. |
| Date: | 09/05/2012 |
| Related Logs: | None |
| Players: |
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| Tower Hall - Tordane Tower |
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| The entrance to the tower opens into a larger common room for receiving guests. Effort has been made to bring warmth and light to the interior, as well. Rugs have been hung from the stone walls as well as placed on the floor to bring at a welcoming ambiance. There is a large table with several chairs off to the left of the door, a cooking hearth against the back wall, and a wooden staircase that leads up. An antechamber behind the stairs is where the servants live and bed down. |
| Mon May 07, 289 |
When a noble comes calling to the Tower for the first time, they tend to be greeted by someone important. Or, at least, someone connected to someone important. However, when the noble visitor bears the Nayland name… well. Perhaps that will explain the Regent of Stonebridge himself showing up in the hall soon after, a bright glint in his eyes as he greets his lady relative with a searching look, eyebrows rising. "What is this!?! He declares loudly, drawing glances from those servants nearby. "Who is this? I was told that my cousin, Jocelyn Nayland, had come to call. And instead of the skinny, bratty girl from memory, I see a beautiful woman of breathtaking grace and nobility! Surely I am the victim of a great and evil hoax!" There is a light tugging at the corner of his lips that betray his true mood, but for now he maintains the facade of mock outrage.
The hour was later than she had anticipated in arriving to the Tower and Jocelyns maid was nervously glancing around, "M'Lady… I told you we should have come earlier. We should not have stopped. You're Brothers will have my head."
The ever complaining, nervous, hand ringing maid made Jocelyn's sigh in exasperation, "No one will have you're head." pausing, "I'll speak up before it gets too far." Not exactly the most comforting of words, but then there are foot steps and male voice shouting. Ahhh! It must be family.
Wanting to be the picture of nobility, Jocelyn stands up straight and tilts her to look towards the approaching man, at first she didnt reconginize him, but then he gets closer and a soft smile appears on her lips. For only a moment, her smil faulters, thinking the blasted maid might have been right. But the corner of his lip twitches and her smile appears in its full bloom once more.
"Had I thought to Hoax a Nayland, I might have brought a less attractive woman and tried to pass her off as myself." She responds.
Riordan is certainly recognizable as a Nayland. The dark piercing eyes, the strong and noble nose. And, more then that, his boyish features have changed little enough in the years since the two relations saw eachother last. More so once the smile slips free, spreading across his face. It lights up the room, takes years off his face, and is utterly and truly infectous. "Ah, but Cousin, you truly are a sight," he says, reaching out to take her hands warmly, and bow over them. All the while he studies her, true amazement lingering in his eyes. "With brothers such as yours, I expected… I am not sure what I expected. But not this, surely!"
And as infection as that smile is, it only pushes Jocelyns wider, her eyes alight finally with actual happiness. Family! once again. It felt so sweet and right.
At his compliment Jocelyn dips in a curtsey and bowing her head in gratitude, "Thank you, My Lord." when she comes back up she takes his hands that reach for hers, gently grasping them. "Your gaze I take as a compliment. I suspect that you are trying to figure gage how I did not come out looking much like Ser Rygar?" Amusment lights her eyes. IT had been some times since she had seen her brother, but he was older when she left, and she doubted his features had much changed.
"A compliment, for true," Riordan says, a light laugh playing out from his lips as he gives Jocelyn's hands a gentle squeeze, before disengaging, and folding his hands behind his back. Turning to a nearby servant, Riordan says, "Prepare a guest room befitting my Lady Cousin's station, and see that she has all she needs." Turning back to Jocelyn, Riordan speaks further to her while the servant, and others, move to assist in getting the room prepared and seeing to the lady things. "And Ser Rygar is a most noble personage, you can be assured, Lady Jocelyn. Though yes… a similiar thought may have wafted across my mind." His amusement fades, a bit as another thought crosses his mind, before he inquires, "Were you informed about the duel that took place, recently?"
Turning her head toward her maid, Jocelyn gestures for her to help the servant in collecting their things. The Lady's maid new which things Jocelyn like to have touched, and which she perfered only her trusted to touch. Leaving that care away to the maid lowers her newly released hands to fold in front of her.
Tilting her head up, her heart nearly plumets to her feet. "Duel?" The light in her face vanishing almost as quickly as it lit her face to begin with. "Was-Was it Ser Rygar?" the tension balling up in the pit of her stomach.
"Peace, cousin," Riordan assures, gently, as he speaks to explain and reassure. "Ser Rygar challanged an enemy of our house, and proceeded to participate in a Trial by Combat. He won, and though he did recieve injuries, he is well now. He is healing well and good, and with rest, will be back to full duties soon enough." He pauses, his expression apologetic, offering, "I am sorry. I did not mean to worry you unduly. But I wanted you to be prepared, when you see him."
"Noticeable injuries?" Jocelyn asks, "They must be if you felt the need for me to be warned of them before I saw him." The tension in her stomach has eased with the great relief that her brother is alive, and for from what she understands, well.
Once the Lady's maid instructions one which items are to be left and which are to be kept for personal handling, she returns to stand a respectable distance away from her Lady.
"You need not offer your apologies, Ser Riordan. I feared that my arrival would bring me such news and I allowed my mind to fall into my imagination before you could explain yourself." Jocelyn feels her lips pulling upward in a soft smile once again.
"He will be fine," Riordan reassures once more. "He's been seen to by a skilled maester, and we've a loyal serving woman who is absolutely amazing when it comes to herbs and medicines, as well. He is in good hands." The Lord Regent of Stonebridge mirrors Jocelyn's smile with a lopsided one of his own. "Well, he is your brother. And though I am sure he would disapprove of 'unfounded sentiment'," the last words said it the stiff and correct voice of Rygar, or at least Riordan's attempt at it, "Followed by a sniff of superiority, I know the worry one feels for siblings." Not surprising, since Riordan recently went to war with many of his kinsmen, Ser Rygar included, as well as Riordan's own brothers. And, of course, there is the fact that Riordan's brother, the former Lord of Stonebridge, Lord Ryker, only passed away about two months ago. "Now, you must be famished, Lady Cousin. We have already had supper, or I would invite you to my table," he then says, moving on to more polite talk. "However, if you like, I can show you to your rooms, and have something brought for you?
Jocelyn appears stricken again but it vanishes quickly enough and small laugh passes from between her lips, "By the Gods, I pray and beg you not to tell Ser Rygar of my worry. I fear he will disown me and strip me of any title if he were to know." Of course she says so amusment in her voice. The attempt of Rygar voice does have her laughing though, and she lifts a hand to cover her mouth and muffle the sound, "Oh dear, Ser Riordan, how nice it is to be around family once more."
With supper having been brought up, she places a hand to her stomach, "I am rather hungry. I do think a rest and some food would me well." Jocelyn pauses though, "Will I be able to see Ser Rygar? If not, will tell him of my being here? I'm not sure he or Lord Roland of my being here."
"Your secret is safe with me, Lady Jocelyn, I assure you," Riordan says with a large smile, one that grows as she shares in his amusement. "Family is the most important thing," he then agrees, in genuine agreement. "It is good that you are returned to us." As a servant approaches at a gesture from the Regent, most likely ready to lead the pair of relatives to the room that is reserved for the newly arrived Nayland lady, Riordan says, "I will have someone see if he is awake, though he may be resting. Roland is not staying here in the Tower, but I can see if someone can locate him for you as well." And then, another servant approaches, and murmurs something to Riordan. When he turns back to her, it is with an apologetic look. "I fear I must abandon you temporarily, cousin. Duty calls. If I am not able to see you again tonight before you find your rest, though, I hope you have a pleasant night. And know that it truly is a pleasure to have you here."
"You are grateful to you for the warm welcome and the room you've prepared for me." Jocelyn would not have expect less from her dear cousin, but it was nice to know she was right. "Also for checking on my brothers for me, I long to see them."
When he has a servant approach she turns her head to the Lady's maid "Gather the rest of the belongings the the chamber is ready."
When she turns back to Riordan, she has seen that look one time too many and knows what he's about to say. "Duty call Ser Riordan. Again, I thank you."
Stepping away from him she walks with her maid toward the room that the servants have begun to lead her too.
