"Someone Like You"
Ch. 4
+ 1496, April 31 +
"I do believe you shall make the loveliest of brides My Dear." Cristian spoke as if to relieve my mind of it's odding pressures, but after that party two weeks ago nothing could relieve my mind of it's burden.
"Not yours Marquess." I reply harshly as I open the doors to the Grand Hall not at all expecting the sight that stood before me. A very handsome looking man escorting my sister, Liane, out of the Hall and into to the sitting room. I dare not speak a word for that should be her betrothed.
But a word is spoken to me, from behind, "Morning Mikaela."
I turn slowly, and said, as eloquently as I could, "Crystal, I hope the morning meets you well."
"It does, it does." She smiled as she dismissed her servant and turned a delicate smile towards me. "Shall we speak out on the grounds on this fine morn?"
I tried my best not to laugh at her apparent accent and the way she spoke more in riddles than in sentences, "We shall."
She smiled and we walked out into the front of the massive castle that was my home, "I see that the Marquess has not faltered in his heinous advances."
Again I struggled against a giggle when she spoke, she made simple statements into complex ones, "Yes, well, I think I'd rather speak on less disheartening subjects."
"I hope your nephew is to your liking." Crystal says as we approach a fountain in the lawn, she sounds exactly like her mother, as if her breeding was more than mine.
"He is the link to the future of Acadia, Crystal, the kingdom adores him." I say as the Charm School lessons kick in.
"Though that is a compliment to your brother and I, I was not inquiring about the emotions of this most honorable nation, I was inquiring of your own emotions dear sister." She replies quickly and in such a way that I can see that Stephanos has been rubbing off.
"I believe him to be the very essence of what it is to be an Andreas. And in that I believe his breeding and upbringing will be amazing and he will become the equivalent of my dear father, if that says anything." I say softly, staring down into the fountain, trying not to burst out in any unnecessary emotion; as my training calls for, for I'm sure it would scandalize my dear sister-in-law.
"'Tis an answer that I greatly appreciate Mikaela, I truly do." Crystal says as she sits on the edge of the fountain staring across the sky with eyes so dark they laugh mockingly at the sunlight, for even it cannot penetrate their depths.
"Yes, well, have you heard the news of Lord LeSteel's wife?" I asked settling into my morning gossip as I always have with some other party or another.
"Oh, that scandalous woman! And to think she will show her face at the Anniversary Gala! Only women like her would ever step out into the light of day carrying another man's child." She replied in a voice that sounds way too much like the gossiping old ladies at the parties and gala's that the Palace hosts.
"Yes, you are correct, she and Count Srevios conceived that child the night of Lord LeSteel's birthday too!" I whisper as if the news was a secret and was not widely known across the country.
"Count Bardo Srevios of Hungry? I daresay I did not know!" Crystal chirped again, I see her breeding kick in quickly as she dismissed and took in the gossip all at once. Like a true lady should.
"Well, in Acadia it's a matter of knowing the right connections and you can know the happenings over in Steepson County by nightfall." I say laughing a bit, Steepson County is at the very tip of our Country and about five days away in a carriage.
"Morning ladies!" Druex calls as he and my brother Stephanos make their way over to us.
"I think it's time to stop our silly bantering sister dear, here come the men." Crystal says sarcastically, while smiling lovingly at her husband, it was the first time I'd ever heard the breeding slip out of her voice. "Morning gentlemen!"
"I do hope my Cousin-in-law and my dear cousin, had a pleasant night and an equally special morning." Druex says in his best Lordship tone as my brother kisses Crystal's hand.
"Druex I am pleased to know that you honestly care if my bed was a soft as it was last night." I grin as I stand and take his arm, he throws that smile which has trapped many ladies.
"Honestly I don't, I just enjoy making that charming, ladylike, sarcastic side of you present itself to the sunshine." He laughs heartily, Druex was always the one when we were kids to honestly understand my place in the family just as I understood his. "I daresay that if you weren't my cousin I would have to marry you Cousin."
"Now why is that My Lord?" I ask politely looking over the yard as we approach the pond just outside the garden.
"Well, Princess you are just unlike any other well bred lady I have ever met. And I'm sure someone else thinks so also." He says looking back to make sure that my brother was well preoccupied.
"Now who would that be?" I ask as if I don't know, my dear cousin Druex thinks he is smooth but he is not at all.
"A certain Lord Grandberry shall we say." He smirks as if he is playing a game of chess and he is winning.
But he forgot his dear cousin has been playing chess years before his training called for it, "Oh, Draco? Yes, he is a charming gentleman."
"Now Mikaela, you very well know that I did not mean Draco I meant Omari." Druex says as we come to a halt in front of the pond.
I smile and try my best to pull one of those 'clueless woman' acts, "But Druex, Omari is a Duke, he is the oldest son."
"Yes, well, I do believe he is smitten with you." He grins as we walk beside the pond.
"Omari? Smitten with me? Dear cousin I do believe you have lost your dear, sweet, mind." I say shaking my head in disapproval, Omari hadn't spoken to me since my brother and Crystal arrived from Rifenall.
"No, I only state the obvious." Druex replies as we approach the gate that leads to Palace, his carriage is waiting on him.
"Are you departing this early?" I asked as we head toward the carriage.
"Yes, father and I have business in Ainsley to take care of with the elder Viscount William, do give my Aunt my love." Druex smiles as the footman helps him into the carriage.
"Will do and do the same for me. Have a safe trip." I smile as the footman closes the door to the carriage.
+ Andreas Palace: Later: The Gardens +
So far the morning had gone on without so much as a smile from the man who haunts my dreams. He has avoided me completely, he jumped, slid, and ran to be rid of my presence in his company. And as the morning went on I began to oblige his wishes and started to turn from the room whenever I noticed it was in his use.
But as the day wore on my patience was wearing thin and my lady like demeanor was becoming harder to keep up with. So just after tea I excused myself to a walk in the Gardens, alone, with myself.
Nothing has come to pass in the past couple of weeks that could change the course of my obvious lust for the man that stands with such Knightly Honor that it stirs my dear father's soul.
"The sunset suits your silhouette Princess." A deep accented voice whispered behind me, the moment his voice rang out to my ears goose bumps began to line my skin. I could feel my heart beating against my breast, it could only be one man.
"Thank you sir." I whisper softly closing my eyes tightly, wishing, hoping, praying that this wasn't just a fantasy of my mind.
"Princess you have invaded the very corners of my mind, little do you know how hard you are making the dealings of my obstinate heart." Omari whispered laying his hand on my arm, stopping any preconceived movement on my part.
"My Lord I do apologize for any interference I have dealt to your painfully supercilious heart." I reply trying as I might to get away from him before I said anything more to offend him or uncover my own unbearable emotions.
"Supercilious? I think not, maybe toward someone else but never ever towards you Princess. Never." He says softly, his grip on my arm tightening as I try again to move.
My breath gets caught in my throat, "I did not know you felt that way my Lord."
Omari chuckled softly as he took a short step toward me, so close that I could feel his breath on my neck, "Mm, I thought it was painfully obvious."
"N-No, I'm afraid...it was not." I whispered trying my hardest not to allow that trembling in my heart to vibrate through my body.
"My dear do you not know how special you are to me?" He whispered softly into my ear as his cologne surrounded me.
"No." I whispered as I softly lean into him, feeling as if I was drunk.
"Do you not see how you possess me, utterly and completely?" Omari whispered closing his eyes trying to fix the image of me in his mind.
"Sir, I don't quite comprehend the depths of your confession." I reply turning around faster than I really should have and ended up chest to chest to him.
"I do believe you are telling a tightly packed, deliberate, lie Princess." Omari smiled slowly raising my chin up with his index finger.
"A lie sir? That is a steep accusation you are making there sir, if I weren't already deeply – I should be insulted." I say quickly catching myself before I buried myself six feet under, in his love.
He chuckled deeply pulling me closer, my nostrils filled with the redolent scent of his cologne, his smile changed to a smirk and he whispered huskily, "Yes, you should be insulted? But I could never insult you...unless I let go."
"My dear sir, I should think you'd know that I don't believe that you would ever let go." I reply for the first time falling into the role of the pursued who initiates the chase.
"You don't huh?" Omari smiled, slipping his arms around my waist, making the satin material stick to my back as the warm spring sun smiled down on us.
"I don't." I smiled trying to differentiate to between the sun's warmth and his.
"I do believe you are...quite right Princess." Omari smiled at me, pulling me just a bit closer, I swear if his grip wasn't so tight I would have fainted.
"Quite right, quite right." I mimicked looking up into the brown eyes that have had infatuated me from the moment I began floating in them.
"Shall I?" He whispered, his voice husky with emotion just as mine was, his breath was warm and minty filling my senses.
"Shall you what My Lord?" I ask placing my hands on his chest caressing the folds of his Tailor made suit-jacket.
"Kiss you Princess." Omari replied softly removing his hands my back and replacing them on my face.
"Yes." I replied slipping my hands around his neck as his brought my lips to his, sending lightening through my body slowly and deliberately. His lips were as soft as rose petals and his tongue tasted of peppermint as he deepened our kiss. I had no intention of letting him go, none what so ever.
+ Andreas Palace: Later: Mikaela's Room +
"I have heard exceptional rumors about you and a certain Duke of a North African country." My favorite cousin, and best friend, Lady Aria Seimston said as she lounged on the couch.
"Exceptional rumors?" I asked raising my eyebrows as Taran brought in a tray of Tea.
"Yes, I was speaking to Viscount Rhett William and Sergio a couple of days ago. And Sergio brought up you and the Duke and I just thought it was exciting, he is so much more handsome than Marquess Von Hatten!" Aria squealed like the immature seventeen year old that she is.
I smiled sipping some tea like the Lady my mother raised me to be, "Yes, he is an amazing man, his outer beauty and all."
Aria raised an eyebrow smirking like her mother, "Amazing man is he?"
"Yes, and he kisses like one." I grin as my cousins mouth falls into a perfect 'O.'
"You kissed him? Mikaela!" She yelled in mock surprise but her face betrayed her tone she was excited because in her seventeen years she'd never been kissed.
"Yes, yes I did and it was well worth the wait. So how is the betrothal to Rhett going?" I asked as if I even cared, I was just happy that my family had given me a chance to choose my own love.
The smile almost slipped off her face but she kept the facade up well enough that it looked real, "It's going...OK, I think I'm the only one in love."
"Why? Last I saw him I thought he was dutifully devoted to you dearest." I spoke as if I had the control of the country, though I know I'd be last in line.
"Just as you said, he is 'dutifully devoted' to me, just as the country expects him to be. But I want him to be devoted to me because he WANTS to not because everyone EXPECTS him to be. Though I believe you'd never understand Cousin." She said laying back in her chair with a sorrow filled sigh.
"Do you think you could make him fall in love with you Aria? I mean, honestly, you are not ugly, nor stupid, nor impertinent. I don't see how he could not love you as much as you two have been together." I said sitting my cup down on the tray, smoothing the burgundy dress slowly.
"It's not that easy Mika, it's like he loves me as that five year old girl that made him eat dirt! Not as the seventeen year old Lady that wishes that he would try to engage me in sophisticated conversation. God, you don't know how I've tried." Aria whined staring off into the fire, I understood what she was saying but there was no way I could help her, you can't make a colorblind dog see a bright red bone.
But before I could return with my own answer a knock came to my door and Taran ran to answer it, "Yes Master?"
"Is the Princess well?" A deep accented voice asked and my heart raced, I knew who it was.
"Taran please let him in and excuse yourself!" I said quickly glancing at my reflection in the mirror across the room.
"Y's M'ss." Taran answered obediently, "Come in sir and excuse me."
Omari walked in with the first smile I'd ever seen outside of our many late meeting with one another and I say it was beauty, "I just came to see if you were well."
"Why wouldn't I be?" I asked standing to look at him, forgetting my cousin behind me.
"Because you left dinner hastily and did not eat much, I feared for your health my darling." He said walking toward me, looking me over head to toe, "Do you feel faint or anything?"
"No, no, I feel fine. I left quickly because my patience was wearing thin sitting next to the Marquess. But thank you for being concerned." I replied sweetly taking his outstretched hand, I wanted to scream because he thought enough of me to make sure I was feeling well.
"Well, I think I'll have to speak with Winifred about the seating arrangements, you need to eat darling." Omari kissed my hand softly, "I shall see you in the morning, sleep well my love, I have business to attend to."
"Yes, sleep well." I reply in a lovesick voice but I did not care how sickening I sounded.
Just as Omari walked out Aria spoke, "You two are definitely in love, I was sitting here staring at both of you and neither of you even acknowledged my presence."
I could do nothing but smile, I was finally beginning to translate that book my next step was understanding it.