The Power of Friendship

[Lady Natalie Kendall]

While Emma was learning of her erstwhile fiance, Natalie had been doing the actions she was wont to do when left to her own devices. She spied on various interactions between nobles, she flirted with knights and she enjoyed some of the varied festivities offered. It was a fine day. It was pleasing to say the least. Now what she intended to do was abscond with a few bottles of Samantha Rose's wine, obtain some delicious desserts and insist that the Princess and the ladies have a fun little party in her pavilion. Emma needed some cheering up, after all.

Securing the wine had been the easy part. She would compensate the aloof duchess later. Now she had to get dessert. Little did she know, however, that she was being hunted down by her fellow lady in waiting. Little did she know that the wine was going to be needed now more than ever! For now, though, she was contently humming to herself, carefully swinging the bag holding the wine to and fro. The cooking area was her current destination.

Lady Rosalie St. Claire

[Lady Rosalie St. Claire]

Having managed to separate from Lady Fiona Lancaster with fair ease by virtue of covering more ground if they searched separately, Rosalie wandered in general direction of the cooking area, not at all aware that she’ll be able to run into the lady she was looking for there in the first place. As it was, thanks to the dark, the young woman almost run into the other, managing to come to a halt and dodge the swinging bag with something heavy that the other lady was holding, making for a comical enough picture that she herself got the giggles.

“Lady Natalie, good evening! You’re just the person I was looking for!” She chirped, managing to rein the giggles in. It wouldn’t do go about giggling like she was drunk, though if that satchel was meant for whom she thought it was meant, Rose decided that it wouldn’t stay that way for long, though she was restless enough to avoid it for now. “Do you mind if I walk with you? All the recent events’ve been making me hungry.” As well as giving her time to fill the Lady Natalie in on the events of the night before she was dragged along back to the Princess’s pavilion, since Rosalie had a feeling that was exactly what was going to happen. She didn’t mind at all, but… at least she’d be able to deter the other one a little while they looked for one more of their number. Giving a look full of curiosity toward the other lady, Rose decided that no, Lady Natalie wasn’t aware of the happenings in the Princess’s pavilion yet, or so it seemed to be, so might as well do so for her.


Lady Natalie Kendall

[Lady Natalie Kendall]

The woman was always on the verge of giggling. The giggling was like an infection: it spread from person to person! Fortunately for Rosalie, Natalie did not view this as a bad thing. It was both amusing and bemusing, really. Thus, when she heard Rosalie, she gave her a look that was a mixture of both aforementioned qualities. "Good evening, Lady Rosalie. I was actually on my way to the cooks to steal some desserts. I figured we could have a fun ladies' night. Wine, fruit, cheese and perhaps a bit of chocolate." The smile was full of excitement and mischief.

"How are you doing this evening? And what's on your mind?" Rosalie had mentioned that she was looking for her, after all. Natalie had no clue what the woman was about to share with her, but she would like as not be surprised. There was no predicting, really, what Natalie's reaction was going to be. ... Or was there?

Lady Rosalie St. Claire

[Lady Rosalie St. Claire]

Yes, the words of Lady Natalie confirmed what she was suspecting, and the wine was probably going to be appreciated by someone else, if not herself. “That sounds like an excellent idea, and I hope you won’t mind some of the desserts ending up in my stomach before being added to your bag,” Rosalie said fervently, falling in step with the other lady. That sort of night was something that was needed in her opinion, especially right now. Returning her look of mischief with one of her own, she winked toward the other.

“What think you of finding Lady Serah and taking the party to the Princess’s pavilion? Last I have seen, it seems that Her Highness could use exactly what you’re talking about.” By now she has considerably lowered her voice, the look of mischief about her hopefully giving the other passer-by the impression of conspiracy of such and not a most serious topic that she was about to divulge. “I do believe your presences would be appreciated.” She didn’t really have any clue to how to bring up the overheard conversation with any sort of grace, and thus was fumbling her way through much like she had been at the initial meeting with the Princess herself, though hopefully being her usual graceless self will stop the more curious ears from coming any closer than was needed, and hopefully, the Court rumors would be avoided.

[Lady Natalie Kendall]

"Yes, that is what I was thinking," she gave Rosalie a knowing nod. "A ladies' night in her pavilion. She truly could use a spot of cheering up. She's not one to be sad for one. She's usually a far happier spirit in the Court." True, it made her appear a bit innocent, but ... it was a quality that Natalie truly admired in her friend. She frowned faintly, then. "My only hope at this point is that the two of them can find happiness. Nikolai and Emma, I mean," she stated for further clarification.

The kitchens were within spotting distance. "I am thinking chocolate, though. Definitely chocolate. It's been far too long since I've experienced its sweetness."

[Lady Rosalie St. Claire]

Rosalie gave a mild frown herself. From what she heard from the Pavilion just before that, she highly doubted that would happen anymore, and said as much aloud. “I doubt that would happen if what I heard was right, that’s why I’ve been looking for you in the first place,” she murmured in a low voice, despite keeping up appearances with ease of long practice.

Beaming again at the thought of chocolate, she gave Lady Natalie a look. “Yes, chocolate sounds like a great idea, the more the better,” she agreed, wondering if she was omitting things on purpose. Then again, could one blame her at all? She’d been so distracted by the goings-on she would think just about anything would make a great idea, particularly so if it was a sweet of any kind. She could definitely use some kind of sweet, particularly right now, and a kitchen for the festival would more than likely have it, even for Ladies who wandered the grounds when they were supposed to be sleeping.


Lady Natalie Kendall

[Lady Natalie Kendall]

Rosalie's statement made her stop and turn to face her with a curious look in her eye. The look quickly turned into one of prying and examination. There was obviously something the young woman knew. Natalie felt her hackles, so to speak, rising and was immediately concerned about Emmaline. "What do you mean?" She replied in a low voice. "Has something happened?" A flurry of other questions threatened to burst forth, but she needed information first. Thus, she did her best to remain calm.

Lady Rosalie St. Claire

[Lady Rosalie St. Claire]

Feeling Lady Natalie’s proverbial hackles start rising, particularly easy to tell by the lady’s tone of voice as she asked her questions, Rosalie raised a finger up in a signal calling for attention. “Chocolate first, troubles next,” she declared and made for the kitchen in search of such. She did not deal well with gossip, or at least not the sort that she was about to indulge into, and thus needed some sort of sustenance to help her along. While she served both of them, and set aside a generous helping toward Lady Natalie’s cache of goods, though she had no clue where the other one was going to stow them until they got back to the Pavilion, she also made sure they were alone and plopped into a seat very inelegantly for a lady, not that she cared about it at the moment since there was only one other present to observe her.

“And I’d like you to listen before charging off, please, because we need to figure out how to go about it without letting on that you know anything, if I make sense, or how to go about it at all.” Raising an eyebrow toward Lady Natalie, Rosalie idly twirled a lock of her blond hair in her fingers, wondering how to go about it, before jumping in after she ate a bit of the coveted sweet. “If I understood the Princess correctly, His Highness’s gone,” she said bluntly and quietly enough only for the other lady to hear, or so she hoped, not able to find how to beat around the bush or be more gentle with the news. “Not kidnapped, not dead, just, you know… up and…” she waved a hand in a gesture of someone running away. “His sisters are left to deal with the fallout, and I heard neither is too happy by it, or by him at the moment.” It was hard not to hear about something like this, after all, but it made today’s happenings for Rose to clear things up to explain the rumors she heard of Sarkoszy’s Princesses lately. After all, those were hard to miss if one listened around carefully enough.


Lady Natalie Kendall

[Lady Natalie Kendall]

Rosalie was cruel! Cruel in making her wait until they were back into some place of privacy, but she had to agree with the young woman's caution. It also told Natalie that it was rather serious, especially if Rosalie was trying to avoid risk of being overheard. Obviously, nothing too untoward had happened to Emmaline else Natalie would have heard something by now. Still, as time went on, the more worried Natalie became. With their goods in hand, Natalie moved with her back to the pavilion.

She offered no comment on Rosalie's unladylike mannerisms "His Highness?" There were several highnesses running around this place, but Natalie pieced it all together. "You mean Prince Nikolai?" Her eyes widened, a soft gasp escaping her. "Oh, dear. Oh, hell." She let out a quiet curse, her hand coming up to her mouth to think it over for a moment. Emmaline knew about it, too. Natalie could only imagine what was going through her friend's head."Where is Emma? Do you have a sense of where her head is?"

Lady Rosalie St. Claire

[Lady Rosalie St. Claire]

The words Princess Emmaline’s head is still on her shoulders so nothing to worry about there were on tip of Rosalie’s tongue, but the young woman valiantly held them back. Right now, Lady Natalie might not appreciate a jest such as this one, though her last sentence certainly begged for a smart-aleck remark, or so was Rosalie’s opinion. Instead, she licked her spoon clear of the chocolate in order to collect herself and not to blurt anything that would earn her any trouble.

“Yes, I mean Prince Nikolai,” she nodded in agreement, belatedly remembering that aside from that one, there were several more ‘highnesses’ of various genders running around the festival grounds. “Princess Emmaline was in her Pavilion last I saw, getting ready to head back to Triadon after the archery tournament,” she said, in part to reassure the other lady that things weren’t too dire, or at least, she didn’t think they were. “It seems to me like Lady Fiona Lancaster attempted to convince her otherwise, but I know not if anything sank in yet, or if Her Highness changed her opinion.”

Pausing, she waved her spoon in a manner she would’ve a branch if that was in her hand instead. “It was in fact Lady Lancaster’s idea that we look for you once that particular discussion about Prince Nikolai wound to a close, and I agree, as you certainly know Her Highness a bit better than I do at this point and might be able to help where I wasn’t. And maybe Lady Serah, too.” She wasn’t exactly sure if the mentioned Lady was part of the group, but perhaps she wasn’t that far off the mark. Waiting to see what Lady Natalie would say to this, Rose continued munching on her treat. In situations like these, chocolate was definitely helpful.


Lady Natalie Kendall

[Lady Natalie Kendall]

Natalie continued to watch Rosalie consume the chocolate. Personally, she had no appetite for the stuff. The bittersweet nature of the treat would not help her calm her mind. Instead, she was frowning with obvious concern. The implications of this were serious. It was understand that Emma would want to go back to Triadon and not stay for the rest of the festival. She wouldn't want to, either. "Then we have damage control to do. Rumors are going to spread through this place like wildfire. Speculation, accusations and affronts to qualities of both parties."

She paused, "I could give a horse's ass as to what happens to the Sarkozsy delegation right now. I want to keep Emma out of it. Anyone who attempts to spread rumors shall get a firm dressing down from one of us. Perhaps Lady Fiona would be able to help us there. And I don't think Emma should go back to Triad alone. Do you?"

[Lady Rosalie St. Claire]

Rose hummed in thought. While she got everything Natalie was saying, this was among the first times that she actually faced the role of Lady in Waiting in a situation such as this one, the sort that demanded she take action instead of sit back and enjoy the show. Frankly, the show in this case was not among the ones that she understood, so she was taking her time to do so. If the pair of ladies thought that some sort of intervention was required, then perhaps she’d be of help.

“No, I do not, and in fact I suggested to Her Highness that I shall go along with her at the very least,” she confirmed, as she had no idea how to broach the subject of Emmaline’s taking other ladies along, for she wasn’t as close to the Princess as Lady Natalie seemed to be. “As for the damage control, I will take your and the other ladies’ lead as it’s the first time I’m facing with something like this.” Spreading out the hand that wasn’t holding a spoon to indicate her utter cluelessness about the situation in general and how one controlled such, she hummed along to help herself think. The hand that was spread earlier now went to her hair, the finger agitatedly twirling it as was her due whenever she was busy thinking.

“Personally, I would spread some rumors myself, for I know that a vast majority of them are usually so out of control they aren’t true, and this way we’ll be able to control what is being said, perhaps.” Quirking an eyebrow in curiosity to what Lady Natalie thought to the matter, Rose poked her spoon into her dish before holding it up like a sword at attention. “This way we might be able to take care of the courtiers left in Triadon and make them so confused they won’t know the truth if it danced in front of them and had tangible form.” She said nothing about Sarkoszy delegation, though she was of belief that perhaps Lady Natalie was too harsh and quick to judge. Time was going to tell which one of them was right, but for now, Rosalie waited for the other lady to confirm or deny her suggestion. New as she was to this game, she was uncertain whether she was right or wrong, and thus, taking the lead from and observing others would be done more than acting herself – unless there was a suggestion she could follow.


Lady Natalie Kendall

[Lady Natalie Kendall]

"Mm," she smiled dimly, "I've seen somewhat similar situations but nothing quite of this magnitude. It has been absolutely a disaster. I've never seen anything quite like it." She shook her head ruefully and then smiled almost viciously at Lady Rosalie's suggestion. "Perhaps we should. The Court is going to wonder what Princess Emmaline did wrong. Perhaps we should turn that on its head. Perhaps we should get them questioning what Prince Nikolai did that he had to flee?"

She spread her hands. "A scandal? An affair? He got caught with someone? I have no idea. But like you said, it will take the pressure off of Emma and onto them. Let them deal with the damage control for now. We have enough of it." She frowned further in thought. Would this work? Would Emma even appreciate such actions on her part? Ah, to hell with it. Natalie had never been the most cautious or hesitant of ladies. "I think we should do that."

Lady Rosalie St. Claire

[Lady Rosalie St. Claire]

Rose hummed in appreciation, knowing that she herself would probably enjoy harassing the eldest Sarkoszy prince with a few rumors of her own making. “Not bad, I have to admit I’m yet to learn rumor spreading. All I can do, and, as such, probably should, is to act the way I usually do.” She beamed toward Natalie and fluttered her eyelashes, twitching in place with barely reserved energy. “Really? Oh, how awful, no wonder he just had to leave!” Her voice a few octaves higher than it normally was in a failed imitation of a typical court lady, Rosalie giggled and stuck a spoon into her mouth before she made it worse.

“I would avoid maligning the others, though,” she continued, voice slightly muffled due to the spoon in her mouth and quite back to normal. “Who knows, one of the Princesses just might end up being one of Demeria’s. Much like Daddy’s likely raging, I wouldn’t want to step on anyone’s tails, much less the royalty if anything happens. Plus chances are we’ll be caught.”

Perhaps it sounded entirely too cautious for Rose’s usual behavior, for she was as curious as anyone else, but she thought when dealing with royalty, curiosity usually was a bad idea. She also hated being caught, which probably showed in her tone. She hummed a bit more. “Though we could, perhaps, let bits and pieces of truth into those rumors. The Dukes’re unlikely to be caught into them, since I suppose they’re all in the know of real thing, but everyone else?” Not quite so lucky as their graces, who were in the middle of things, that was for sure.


Lady Natalie Kendall

[Lady Natalie Kendall]

"Mmph," she had to agree with Rosalie's reasoning there. The rumor spreading could quickly backfire on them and it would only make matters worse. "So, we won't go too far. Just a little bit to get them questioning the purity of Prince Nikolai rather than Emmaline or Nikolai's sisters. I do have to admit that I like those women. Anya is a kind and gentle woman, not to mention stunningly gorgeous. I'd love to get my hands on her and fit her for one of my creations. She'd fill it rather nicely. Katya, I can tell, is blossoming into a lovely creature herself." She tapped her chin thoughtfully, but was determined not to get distracted.

"Alright, so then we're agreed. We'll do what we can to protect Emmaline, get her out of here and let the others deal with the mess for a while," she nodded firmly.