Love Comes Slowly: Upcoming Change
"Listen, Amélie, what Eamon writes to me: 'Due to your naming Arl of Redcliffe, you are obliged to attend the next Landsmeet.' Isn't it interesting how my older brother thinks I'm about to avoid my duty?"
"You can't really be surprised, now, can you, Teagan?" replied Amélie a bit absent-mindedly as she caressed the cheek of her son, cradling him in her arms while sitting in a rocking chair. "You were infamous for avoiding attenting the Landsmeet."
"Well, before the Landsmeet was also infamous for being terribly boring. But with you by my side, my dear, it will definitely be much more... enjoyable," said Teagan while smirking. She looked up and gave him a smile. Truly, this Landsmeet will be much more enjoyable, since they were going to make more than just the formal visits to other banns and arls - they would also pay visit to the banna of the Alienage, to Shianni, and that promised a refreshing company. They would still attend several balls and banquets - but they also planned several feasts of their own. And most of all - they would be in this together.
He returned to the letter - and further he read, the darker his expression became. "I'm afraid we've got a problem, Amélie."
Something in his voice made Amélie's stomach clench in s strange feeling of foreboding. "I'm not going to like that, am I? So, shoot - it's the colour of my dress, isn't it?" she asked, pretending to take it lightly. 'It always worked for Alistair,' she thought. And after a long time she thought about Alistair without pain.
Teagan shook his head, eyes still focused on Eamon's writing. "Some of the nobles are voicing out doubts of our marriage really being consumed and Roland being my son." His knuckled turned white as he gripped the letter. "How dare they!"
"Which nobles are loudest in their doubts? If any of us happened to step on their toes in the past, it's possible this is the way they are trying to get back at us," offered Amélie an explanation, sounding calm, but inside, she was, as Oghren would say, scared shitless. As a daughter of teyrn she knew how vicious nobes could be, if one crossed their path.
"Loudest of them is son of previous arl of Denerim - Vaughan - and bann Loren. Some of their allies are voicing doubts as well, although with much less conviction."
So, Vaughan and bann Loren. The man who was famed for his interesting tastes and the man whose wife and son died in the attack at castle Highever. And their allies. An enemy known. She knew how to deal with them.
She gave Teagan a calm smile. "We'll have to be careful."
Nodding, he stole a look at the baby in her arms. Roland maybe wasn't his son by blood - but it didn't mean he won't fight for his wife and son with all his might.
o.O.o
"It's good to see you here, Shianni."
"Nah, Maker, I swear that you two, bann Sighard and his son over there and your brother are the only people who are worth talking to amongst the nobility," grumbled the elven banna. "Most of those nobles are too stuffed up to even bother to talk to an elf and the rest just loves to be all 'ah, sorry, my dear, I didn't mean to mistake you with a servant.'" She snorted. "Arrogant bastards."
Amélie hid a smile. "That's because they never had seen you in action, Shianni. Otherwise they wouldn't even dare to act like they mistook you for a servant. I know that after that talking down I received when I first entered the Alienage during the Blight I wouldn't dare to do that."
Shianni had enough decency to look ashamed, while Teagan showed keen interest in the topic. "Talking down? My dear, how comes I haven't heard this tale?" he asked, his arm around her waist drawing her closer to him. Turning to Shianni, he pouted. "I swear she held back most of those interesting stories just to torture me with the knowledge of my own ignorance about her adventures."
"You keep secrets from me, my dear wife," he said accusingly to her.
She batted her eyelashes. "Only to keep you interested in me. But that's why you love me so, my husband."
Just as the words left her mouth, she would slap herself for them. Blush coloured her cheeks and her heart skipped a beat when he gave her a look full of smouldering passion. "Yes, but that's just part of the reason..."
Shianni coughed and rolled her eyes at their collective blushing. "What about you two got some room, hm? There are actually people who have came for different reasons than to see you making innuendos at each other, damit."
"Just what are you three doing that my poor sister is blushing so hard?" sounded new voice. All of them turned around, facing a man with chestnut hair and a wide smile.
"Fergus!" cried Amélie, breaking free from Teagan's embrace and hugging her brother. "I thought you'll never arrive!"
"Couldn't let you and Teagan face the wolves on your own," he said quietly, while he patted her back affectionally. Holding her at arms lenght he examined her closely. "And let me tell you - the marriage treats you well."
They were interrupted by a snort. "Hah - you should hear them just before you arrived, Fergus. They were so sweet that it could make a weaker person choke on the sweetness."
Fergus' face lightened up. "Shianni! I didn't know you'll be here!" Amélie noticed something in his posture change, he seemed more comfortable now. They all talked for some time, smilling politely at everyone else who walked around but not inviting anyone between them.
"Ladies and gentlemen - please, make your way to the banqueting-hall, where your supper is being prepared for you," sounded voice of the bann, who was hosting the ball. Teagan offered his arm to his wife and when he turned to Shianni, he saw that Fergus already had seen to that, leading Shianni with him, ignorant to the stares it drew to them.
The supper itself would be quite uneventful, if several of the the nobles didn't had some stupid remarks to Guerrins, Fergus or Shianni.
"Just how fares your little son?" was the first question towards Fergus, followed by "and wouldn't it be nice, if he had siblings?"
"I've heard some shocking stories about happening in the Alienage," said a little bubble-headed young lady. Shianni nodded, completely blank face. "And do you know what's most shocking about them?" After a "no" response Shianni added: "They're mostly true," making her friends choke on their drinks.
And finally:
"Tell me, my dear," asked an elderly old banna from Maker knows where. "Tell me how you met our dear Teagan."
That was question both of them could easily answer. "I met Teagan in Redcliffe, during the Blight," answered Amélie, giving Teagan a look through her eyelashes. The wine she drank during the supper made her feel bold, bolder than ever before. She liked how lightheaded she felt. And how she could everything what went... not overly good blame on the alcohol. Leaning towards Teagan she kissed him on the cheek, giving him a smile, noting the way his eyes darkened. Not with anger but... was it desire?
"Ehm," coughed Fergus with a knowing smile. Amélie saw flickers of sadness in his eyes. With a sinking heart she realized how it had to look - like the dinners at Castle Cousland, few years ago, when he was sitting next to his wife, stealing kisses and exchanging longing looks, promises of more to come. But... more to come? With Teagan?
Suddenly, the image of herself with Teagan didn't seem so strange. It was rather... inviting, to say the least. And as she thought with a mental giggle, it would show the gossipers something about marriages not being consummated. Just... how do you seduce a man who is as experienced as Teagan and who would likely not be fooled by her clumsy flirting?
o.O.o
Maker's breath, if the woman won't stop with sending him that smile, he's going to drag her from the ball and teach her a lesson that men shouldn't be tempted that way. Oh, the suffering he was put through.
First, it was the surprise with her time in Denerim's Alienage. "That's why you love me so." His heart stopped beating for a second. 'Am I that obvious?' he thought. No, she probably still has no idea of his true feelings, as blush coloured her cheeks, her eyes shyly cast down.
Or the moment when that annoying old harpy asked how they met. Amélie gave him a kiss, lingering her lips on his cheek. And giving him an absolutely amazing view of her cleavage.
Why, Maker, why was she teasing him so?
"Teagan, could we dance this waltz? It's my favourite melody."
Ah, talk about the Sirene... "If you wish, my dear," he replied smoothly, taking her to the dancing floor and when the music started, leading her throught the complicated steps connected to this melody. On beautiful blue Hrakon. He looked down to say something to her - when he found himself looking not only into her eyes, but into her cleavage again. And again, she gave him that smile, slow, tempting and promising.
And finaly he had enough.
Dancing with her out of the assembly room, he leaned down to whisper in her ear. "My dear wife, I think it's time for you to realize you should not tempt me so."
Batting her eyelashes, she said with feigned innocence. "Oh, me tempting you? Perish the thought, dear ser!"
That spurred him into action. Pressing her against the wall, trapping her on place with his arms on both sides of her, he kissed her hungrily. To his surprise, she responded eagerly, drawing him closer to her, as close as physicaly possible, her tongue teasing his lips apart. Taking in her taste for the first time in the months of their marriage, he reveled in the fulness of her lips, sweetness of her mouth, the way her tongue danced with his, how the curves of her soft body fit into his. It was wrong to use her intoxication like that, he thought, but as her fingers woven themselves into his hair, he couldn't bring himself to stop kissing her now.
And then, when her hands started to trace down, down his chest, they were discovered.
"Teagan Guerrin, what do you think you and that woman are doing here?"
o.O.o
In the very first moments she wanted nothing else but scream why. It. Had. To. Be. Isolde. Maker, why was she the one who had to discover them almost in flagranti? She shrunk as much as she could, hiding behind the solid form of her husband, hoping to escape Isolde's eyes.
But Teagan wasn't about to allow his sister-in-law to continue. Abruptly turning around he hissed: "That woman as you insist calling her is my wife. And as for what we were doing, in case you haven't recognized it, it's called kissing. Any other questions from you, Isolde? Or you, Vaughan?"
Crap. Even Vaughan had to catch them?
Without any further speaking Teagan grabbed her hand and almost run towards the assembly room. When they were right in the middle, he took her in his arms again and kissed her breath away, hungrily, like a man who craved for a kiss for a longer time than he could remember, making her knees buckle under her.
Shocked silence descended on the whole feast, everyone staring at the kissing pair in their midst. And then, the sound of someone's clapping broke the silence, making everyone's eyes turn towards them.
"What?" asked Shianni with a smirk, her hands still clapping slowly. "Have you never seen anyone kissing?"