The van Sietter Bride Pt. 02 of 03

"There must be someone-else who would take her," Clair complained.

"You mean like el V'lair van Athagine?" Arkyll suggested. Clair pulled a revolted face. "If they do not give her a bit of a show the poor kid will end up with el V'lair or one of the el Statens," Arkyll explained. "van Thiel knows he ought to have got her a bit of polish but it is too late now and he is her father. He loves her like we love Arrie and he wants to try to get her someone decent who could make her happy, not see her chained in Athagine."

"Arrie did not go to Athagine," Clair said fretfully. "Why cannot this silly girl get a Knight like Arrie did."

Arkyll laughed out at this. "She is not a wild cat like Arrie," he said in amusement. "She is just a biddable pussy-cat who does as she is told. Arrie has to suffer a lot of gossip about being allowed to marry Han. Uncle Tashka has had to threaten the glove to get men to leave her alone in the strategic staff offices because they imagine that since she was bestowed on a Knight of the back hills who is known to be a pacifist nobody cares what-all becomes of her honour. People say papa ought to have brought her to some oldest son's bit not let her kick her heels up and run off with Hanya." They both grinned to think anyone might imagine their poor father could control their sister's obstinate wild ways.

Clair said slowly, "mama and papa never came to ask me to think about anyone." He lifted his round grey eyes shyly to his brother.

Arkyll laughed and punched him softly in the arm. "Of course not, darling," he said. "Your preferences make you ineligible. Now go off and get some rest so you can dance to break all the young girls' hearts like you usually do."

"Shut it," Clair said with a blush and a shy snigger. He was a kindly soul and always very sorry when he realised his friendly ways had lured some poor young woman into feelings for him which he was incapable of returning. Unfortunately with his delicate el Maien prettiness and his dreamy scholar's eyes lit up with his friendly open-hearted smile they would always be chucking their unwanted hearts at his fingers. Never mind the string of panting officers who came hustling more aggressively around him to his adolescent embarrassment. Clair el Maien was a cerebral rather than physical being, more their mother's than their father's son, and having to learn to put on the cold repellent look of his sister's ice cold beauty in order to make clear how choice he was of his body.

As he went off out of the room, he said, "Such luck! I have found quite a pile of novels under the bed in my room. Jolly stories about brigands and pirates and whatnot. Should you care for one, my dear?"

"Um no, I give you my thanks," Arkyll said, repressing a snigger as he lay peacefully back in the bed.

---

She made a reasonably pleasing appearance at the ball that night. Well, of course her face was painted in a manner which caused his father's face to glaze over and even his mother to look startled but she wore a pleasant old-fashioned dress in blue satin with silver lace cast over the full skirts. After considerable discussion between van Sietter and Lisette her lady's maid, it had been determined that Lady van Sietter's figure was best suited by the old-fashioned full skirts too so she did not draw the van Thiel ladies' attention particularly but Arkyll saw to his concern Dame van Thiel and young Lady el Shosta cast intent looks at a couple of the Sietter Dames who had worn the dashing new slim cut fashionable at court.

Arkyll had gone along in a dark grey raw silk suit, cut in the latest style for men and with flowers embroidered at the bottom edge of the jacket and around the high collar in a blue which picked up the blue of his eyes. An earring studded with a flower of tiny sapphires and with a grey pearl dangling from it swung in his earlobe. His jacket was longer than the old-fashioned waist-length doublets which the van Thiel menfolk wore and hung over the belt of weaponry slung low around his hips but vents in the side allowed you to see that he would easily be able to put an hand to his gloves or the decorated handguards of his sword and dagger if he so wished.

van Sietter also wore the latest cut of jacket, in a severe undecorated dark blue, which fitted so perfectly around his hard body and under which the weaponry swung so carelessly that all the men were as usual nervous around him. He had booted Clairan into a lovely suit of soft green silk and loaned him a jade earring since Clairan had forgotten his own jewellery but Clairan refused to wear weaponry since he was not a man of honour but a pacifist.

Arkyll reflected that he must get his mother to talk to her mother about her manner of dress. He was sure that as soon as the two silly pigeons got to court and saw the ladies going about in the new cut they would rush to buy Lady el Shosta a dozen new gowns and it would not do for her. Those narrow skirts and the low cut V neck would not flatter her curving sweet figure. The old-fashioned gowns with the bounce of the petticoats gave her rustic regional ignorance a charming appeal that would be lost if she forced her rounded breasts into the new cut in an attempt to make herself appear tall and slender.

The new cut was designed for women like his sister. Well in fact it had been designed for his sister. He could see her in his mind's eye in an ice-blue satin dress that the famous artist Hyaline and his life partner the former King's seamstress ran up for her with an high stiff collar up around the back of her neck, a delicate white lace of flowers cast over the whole that made you think perhaps she might one day melt out of the Ice Princess which her expressionless face suggested she was. The slim skirts ran down her long legs from her slender waist so strong from riding, scandalously suggesting the elegant shape of them as she moved in the shimmering satin skirts. She was suddenly so beautiful, even to his careless brotherly eye which had often seen her legs in jodhpurs and thought nothing of them even if they were being delicately suggested by the shimmering swish of satin skirts. He turned laughing to Hanya and saw Hanya's face golden bright with lust staring at her and he suddenly realised how dangerously alluring the sight of her legs was. They both turned to van Sietter, he adored a bit of come-hither in a dress so he was just watching her with a rueful pride then van Sietter's face suddenly clenched up in thunderous wrath and they turned back and saw she was dancing in the arms of that scum el V'lair van Athagine.

Angels of Hell! el V'lair's father old van Athagine was still a friend of their father's and of Uncle Tashka's (although Uncle Vadya never would give him a sword hand) so their father could not give young van Athagine the No for a dance. Old van Athagine was a damned reprobate but his son was a disgusting scoundrel whose company the younger el Maiens avoided. Arkyll felt a quiver go through his shoulders to see his sister: tall and fair and pure, with el V'lair van Athagine breathing down her neck. He saw out of the corner of his eye Hanya's hand clench so hard that the knuckles went white on the hilt of his sword where it swung in his belt beside the big muscular thigh in a brown thigh-length army boot but Hanya could not give the glove over Arrie, they all knew she was kissing him but he had not offered her a ring. The kid was so young, that was why, their father had said to poor Hanya that she could not possibly know her own mind so he kept his favours in his pocket. She was so young she probably did not know el V'lair's disgusting reputation. The scum was laughing at something she had said, some innocent remark and that louche villain had the nerve to laugh down her neck, his fingers loose around her strong hand always so perfectly in control of her horses, his horrible hand groping her slender ice-blue satin waist. el V'lair's head lifted and he saw them looking at him dancing with that flower of the high nobility whom all the oldest sons were starting to sniff at: the honourable daughter of the el Maiens. He gave a disgusting grin and turned her in the dance and Arkyll saw that her normally cold expressionless face was shining with the wicked beautiful laughter of a pale Angel as she looked deep into Hanya's angelic beautiful blue eyes creased with torture to have to see her dancing with an oldest son who could come and ask for her body to be bestowed on him in exchange for the rich wine-growing region of Athagine.

Angels, that wild one. The oldest sons of the high nobility ought all to breathe a collective sigh of relief that she ran off with a Captain-Knight of her own region instead of coming to be bestowed on any of them. None of them did: that proud beauty, they looked wistful if they met him and hesitantly asked after Captain-Lady Arianna el Maien of the King's Generals' strategic staff offices and whether he had any hopeful news of the war, would she be riding home any time soon? Oh how he longed to see her cold face come riding back through the grey stone castle gateway with her husband by her side, and run himself ragged trying to guess what wildness she might be about so he and Han could save her from the worst of it.

Meanwhile there was this soppy biscuit to consider, standing in her best dress sniggering anxiously and shoving at her younger brother who was poking her in the backside. Dame van Thiel suddenly snapped a fan on the boy's head with a furious whispered expostulation, Arkyll pretended he had not seen any of this, repressing the amused curl of his sweet full red mouth, his slanted blue eyes sparkled round to Clairan with laughter. Clairan was looking forbiddingly stern, obviously outraged by this childishness.

He had not offered her any ring so he was not in any way obliged but this was an excellent way to get the tongues waggling. Arkyll stepped up to the uneasy cluster of the van Thiel family and said courteously, "Lord van Thiel, may I ask for the honour of Lady el Shosta's hand in the first dance?"

van Thiel was red-faced with gratitude. Dame van Thiel nearly burst into tears of joy, giving Lady el Shosta such a shove in the small of the back that the poor young woman stumbled and nearly fell into his arms. Arkyll adroitly caught her by the waist and one hand, supporting her weight easily through the adaptation of a move he had learned in the peace corps. He turned, slipping her hand in his arm to stand with her while they waited for the musicians to strike up.

Inevitably the silly bitch, er biscuit, was sniggering and giggling helplessly. This would not enhance her reputation so he looked at her with a fierce glare and said in an unusually harsh tone of voice: "Do you have an opinion on the war?" It lacerated his heart to expose himself to thoughts of those so dear to him on the battlefront but he must find some way to get her to appear sensible. She was not actually that bad, just a sweet little pussy-cat who had been brought up in some slack lazy way and required firm management.

"Oh um er, sort of," she stuttered. Then she said shyly: "My uncle is at the war. Mama had a letter a two-three weeks back but they may not write how it is truly going, may they?"

"No," he said softly, "but it is always good at the least of it to know ... people are still alive."

"Your sister and brother are at war," she said.

"Yes," he answered her. He stared off at the empty wooden floor of the big old dining hall with its tables cleared away for the dancing and the people surging chattering around the edges. When she gave his arm a gentle squeeze with her hand, he looked at her in surprise. He smiled softly and sadly at the young woman who also feared for family members at war. His slanted blue eyes that she had so often read descriptions of in the gossip-sheets (they were like sapphires, they were like the eyes of newborn kittens, they were laughing or sparkling or flirting) slid away from her hesitant sympathetic gaze with a flash of tears in them.

When he took her in his arms for the dance he became much more hopeful of her chances. She probably did a lot more riding and running about than they would admit to and so she had a physical fitness that allowed her to move with lithe grace in the dance. Her curving waist was surprisingly firm under his big fingers, it was hard to resist the temptation to grope her sweet curves while pretending to just be moving her about, to pull her closer to his cock which was swelling softly under the cover of his long jacket and let her weight press on it. She swung prettily down the floor from his hand, laughing with a sweet pleasure shining in her over-painted eyes.

Arkyll loved to dance even when he was not feeling tempted to grope his partner and he was supposed to be behaving in an improper manner with her so he asked her for the next dance too and threw himself enthusiastically into the enjoyment of dashing up and down, lifting her and swinging her about, feeling the swish of her big skirts wrapping around his legs, laughing down at her with those exquisite slanted blue eyes as she laughed up at him with her over-painted round eyes. He realised because he was so close to her that her eyes were brown, pretty with her blonde hair. He made a mental note to tell his mother to tell her mother to stop disguising this by slathering her eyelids in blue under the mistaken impression that blonde hair should have blue eyes to achieve some spurious ideal notion of beauty.

van Thiel and Dame van Thiel and his mother were grateful. His father watched with an expressionless face before turning to politely offer his hand to Dame van Thiel for some more sedate dance, lightly kicking his youngest son in passing as he did this to remind him to go and seek some suitable partner.

Arkyll felt he had begun compromising himself well with the two dances he had given Lady el Shosta and took a break to eat some snacks and share a joke with Clairan before offering his hand to some other over-excited flattered young women. He interleaved the good dancers with some plain women who probably did not ordinarily get even the one dance, ensuring that he handed them over onto some Knight or officer. The officers of the ceremonial First Sietter troop in their gorgeous red parade silks with the gold-embroidered collar knew what the van Sietter family expected of them in this regard and went to it willingly. The First Thiel officers in fetching brown and gold were surprised but acquiescent. The First Sietter officers were dreadfully young because the older ones had transferred into field troops to go to war, Arkyll had to kick one or two of the gigglier ones and he and the First Sietter Commander grinned indulgently at this. He was sorry to see that Lady el Shosta had been obliged to go up and down with some ruddy-faced boar of a Knight, obviously some old friend of her father's. She looked reasonably happy to be jigging up and down in the dance but he thought it was a pity they had not made sure she got the pick of the young men to make her laugh and her eyes sparkle so that she could set off to court confident of her charms.

His poor old papa. Arkyll went to the musicians and had the pleasure of a word then trotted over to the down-hearted van Sietter to say: "C'mon papa: the men's dance. You'll give me one dance before I break my heart over Lady el Shosta, eh?" He sniggered and winked and smiled to see his father's lean handsome face light up. His father loved the men's dance, which he used to dance at the hunt balls with Uncle Tashka, the two of them going up and down the wooden floor stamping their boots, throwing each other's long lean bodies to and fro, laughing and flashing their infamously charming eyes about.

As the music for the men's dance started up the dancers surged chattering off the floor and stood around the edges, raising their hands ready to start clapping. Arkyll wrapped a muscular arm around his father's lean hard back and felt his father's strong thin arm wrap around his back. Two of the First Sietter Lieutenants had come out on the floor to join them and one of the more flirtatious had naughtily sought the hand of a First Thiel Captain who had come with a titillated gleam in his eye. The music started and they went stamping and laughing up the floor, Arkyll swinging his father's tall lean long body about and pulling it back, his father jerking Arkyll's muscular big-boned body to and fro, his slanted grey eyes gleaming with fun at the unexpected treat of the men's dance he loved.

As they came panting and laughing out of the vigorous dance, Arkyll bethought him that it was time he rescued Lady el Shosta from boring buffton friends of her father's and took her up and down the floor again himself. He looked about the big dining-hall, in amongst the gowns and silken outfits, but he could not see her. He gave a puzzled frown and eventually he strolled over to her mother who was refreshing herself with a bowl of wine punch and laughing merrily with some other Dames, clearly highly relieved it was all going off so well. She tilted her eyes at him with that alluring smirk in the corner of her plump mouth and the dimple dipping in and out in her cheek. He liked a mature lover, she usually brought experienced skills and sometimes some interesting new trick to his bed and his father did not ordinarily trouble him about any one-day-one-night set of favours he collected off someone who would not expect him to be offering his ring but he stood well back from Dame van Thiel without an answering smile. They had come here for van Thiel's counter for his mother, not for his glove on behalf of his wife's honour, and poor young Lady el Shosta would become down-hearted and cease to sparkle with happiness if she thought her own mother had lured the prize of the marriage market away from her own shyly emerging physical charms.

"Sevie?" Dame van Thiel said, taking a quick look about herself, "er, I mean Lady Sevianne must ... perhaps have gone to see about the snacks."

He looked coldly at that and she blushed, putting her bowl of wine punch down and saying she would go and bring the silly minx ... the Lady Sevianne back to the dancing. She was that conscientious, Captainofthepeace-Lord Arkyll, such an help in the management of the household. His mother would find her a great help around Castle Sietter. Er, his father.

Arkyll reflected that the gossip would be even more beneficial if it was rumoured that he and Lady el Shosta had snuck off out of the ball together so he said he would take the air and cool himself down.

He strolled down the corridor towards the castle entrance, turning over in his mind some issue related to the mission he had been involved in. When he overheard a scuffling through an half-open door, he initially assumed it was the flirtatious First Sietter Lieutenant and the First Thiel Captain and put a bit of speed on but then he heard a squeaky voice say, "No, no!" and he knew it was a woman.

"Come on, you minx," growled a male voice. "It is not the first you have given and that lovely young Lord is not serious for you, I know that."

Arkyll shoved the door back to disclose Sevianne in the grip of the ruddy-faced buffton Knight who was a friend of her father's. His peace corps training took over. He was in the room with the disgusting boar in his grip, one arm twisted up the man's back, the wrist of the other in his tight fingers. He dragged him off Sevianne and chucked him to the side of the small chamber into which the loathsome scum had lured her for his groping hands to violate.

She stood staring at him with her eyes wide and her chest starting to heave up and down in terror in the bosom of her blue silk gown. He could see the hysterics coming, he turned and gripped her by the arms, saying in an intense hiss: "Not here, not now, you silly bitch! Save us the scandal!" Luckily she burst into tears at this instead of starting to scream her head off.