(no subject)

[an_evening_star]

The star had tossed and turned a bit impatiently, unable to get back to sleep once Tristran had left and with very little motivation to do very much other than lay there sulkily and watch the grass grow in front of her nose. Which, one discovers, really is just about as dreadfully boring as one would imagine. If not more. (Granted that such a thing is even possible.)

It's somewhere around the middle of the afternoon by the time that she has finished moping - or at least pretending to sleep while she was moping - and she is seated carefully upon a patch of meadow grass, eyes trained upon the gap in the wall and out into the villiage behind it.

And, no matter how much it may seem so, she's not waiting for him to come back for her.

Really she isn't.

(She doesn't actually believe herself either.)

Comments

[nosequels.livejournal.com]

She's been looking for Robert.

Ever since the morning, after all that excitement, he'd run off claiming he had some errands to quickly run, and 'something to pick up.' Obviously it was something grand -- something for her, perhaps, but hours have passed, and ... well.

She rather misses him. And why shouldn't she? He will soon be her husband, after all.

So, the pretty Miss Victoria Forester eventually wanders towards the outskirts of the village, finding herself walking through quite a bit of meadow.

And that is when she notices a lovely woman, merely sitting in a patch. "Are you waiting for someone, my dear?" she asks.

[an_evening_star]

The voice is quiet and for a moment Yvaine isn't entirely certain if she hadn't imagined it, if she isn't losing her mind on such a grand scale that it has actually started to talk back to her.

"I do not know," she answers honestly, almost absently, still rather lost in staring straight in front of her. "Perhaps."

The part where she rather hopes so is left unsaid.

[nosequels.livejournal.com]

She smiles, and it's a radiant smile. There is a reason why she's the prettiest girl in all of Wall.

"A young man, if I do not mistake my guess, a lovely thing like you," Victoria says curiously.

She can't help the tone of voice. She's always had quite a thirst for bits of gossip - well, what else would she do to spend her days?

[an_evening_star]

That gets her to blink, shaking her head slightly and tearing her gaze away from the gap in the wall to regard the young woman next to her. It's not as though she is missing anything.

(There's still no one there.)

"In a way," she offers, a bit more wary this time, her own eyes narrowing thoughtfully.

[nosequels.livejournal.com]

She takes another few steps forward. She is certainly a fretful little creature, she thinks. Perhaps Robert will find her soon, anyway.

"I'm Victoria," she says, holding her hand out. "Victoria Forester."

[an_evening_star]

"I am called Yvaine."

The voice is a fair bit more certain now, chin tilting with an automatic sort of regality. She lets her gaze sweep up, then down, then right back up again.

And, really, if she were to be honest with herself, the girl is lovely. Rather entirely dreadfully so and some nervous, twisting knot starts itself up somewhere low in her stomach - not even nearly as finely twined as one of the golden curls upon Victoria Forrester's absolutely perfect head.

"So," she says, finally. "You are Victoria Forrester? Your fame precedes you."

[nosequels.livejournal.com]

For a moment, Victoria looks a little nonplussed. Then she smiles, perfect pink lips curving upward. Her grey eyes shine with pride and delight.

"Oh - the wedding, you mean?"

[an_evening_star]

Oh.

Oh, well, she should have expected that.

That stupid, horrid sense of loss that crackles along the edges of her is hardly necessary. She knew. She did. And she wasn't waiting - not really. It was just - she didn't have anywhere else to go. Anything else to wait for.

Her hand creeps up to her waist, clutching at the sliver chain hanging there like some strange sort of lifeline - eyes clouding stubbornly as she turns her head, teeth pulling harshly at her lower lip.

"A wedding, is it?" her voice doesn't waver half as much as she had been expecting. It's rather impressive.

[nosequels.livejournal.com]

Victoria notices the change of expression in the star. She's quite observant when she wants to be.

"Oh, you poor thing! What a beast he must be, to keep you waiting so!"

... Except she isn't particularly receptive to exactly what it is the expressions mean.

"Why do you not go through, and look for him?" Because that is what she has done. Robert has gone off and she is -- well, was -- looking for him.

[an_evening_star]

"Because ..." she starts and the words ring in her ears - a cold, dead thing, sky-fallen - before she stops and it's strange, but she considers.

Really, genuinely considers and maybe it's terrible but she thinks that it might be a lot neater like that. It was what he had expected in the first place anyhow - and she doesn't have anything to wait for anymore.

"Aye," she breathes out, almost like a laugh. "Perhaps I shall."

She tilts her head back for a moment, the blue sky above them striped with white bands of cloud, and makes her way awkwardly to her feet.

"I wish my mother were out," she says hollowly, almost stunned at just how easy it is. "I would say goodbye to her, first."

[nosequels.livejournal.com]

"Oh, hold on a minute," Victoria says, one pretty, slender hand going to Yvaine's arm. "You don't have to go right now, do you?"

She smiles. "Come, stay a while. We should chat."

And in a moment's time, not letting go of the star, she begins to talk about banns, and marriage licenses and special licenses that can only be issued by archbishops and how lucky she is that Robert knows an archbishop.

"Because Robert is so well known in Wall and other parts of England, we will be well taken care of, I'm sure." She giggles, and it sounds like chimes. "Oh, I cannot believe we will be getting married six days from now. We planned for the evening, but I think I'd much rather it be during the day. I'd like to see the sun."

[an_evening_star]

Six days.

Six days is - Well, it is a very short sort of time, isn't it? Not even a week and she had hardly realized that weddings involved such a great deal of complications. She isn't precisely certain that Tristran is the sort to enjoy such complicated, convoluted things.

Just some - some utterly ordinary, completely simple ones.

'He likes it better at night. He told me,' she wants to say at one point, but it gets lost somewhere along some path where she wonders briefly - and very unrealistically - what sort of wedding she would want. And then she's teetering on some very dangerous edge of crying again and she says nothing at all. Just tries to nod when she might need to.

[nosequels.livejournal.com]

"Oh, dear you look as though you're about to cry! Are you going to be quite all --"

It is then that Victoria looks past Yvaine and notices a respectable man approaching them. He is greying at the temples and is wearing quite an immaculate suit.

"Robert!" She waves to him. "And this is him," she says as he waves back, quickly jogging to catch up to them. "Robert, this is Yvaine. She's waiting for her young man," she says to the older man, smiling fondly at him. "Yvaine, this is Robert Monday."

He holds his hand out to her.

"And on Friday next, I shall be Victoria Monday," she continues, positively beaming as she turns to him. "Perhaps you could make something of that, my dear, in your speech at the wedding breakfast -- that on Friday there will be two Mondays together!"

Mr Monday proudly straightens, grinning down on his bride-to-be. "I will certainly consider it, darling."

"Of course you will," Victoria says confidently.

[an_evening_star]

It takes a moment for the words to sink in and she blinks absently in the meantime, haze lifting slowly as her fingers are caught by the older man's - replaced by some equally hazy giddiness, a carefully tampered glow starting at the edges of her.

She just has to - she should - make sure, Yvaine.

Mustn't be getting ahead of ourselves.

And even if - even if -

"Then," the star inquires cautiously, each word chosen with great care. "You are not marrying Tristran Thorn?"

[nosequels.livejournal.com]

Victoria turns her gaze from her husband-to-be back to the star.

She frowns.

"No," she replies easily. "I am not."

[an_evening_star]

"Oh," she says rather dimly, still blinking dazed blue eyes.

A giggle, quiet and almost helpless, and her lips curl upward stupidly as her legs give out on her altogether.

"That is - I - good."

Oh, and there's nothing better.