Lucia Brabante and Ser Richard Armitage . . .
Whilst you all know me as Mesmered, for the night of the Ball you may call me Lucia Brabante and until today, I was excited to be attending. I was sure Ser Richard Armitage, an entrancing visitor to Veniche, would ask to escort me.
Niccolo de Fleury
This morning I was Receiving, and fully expected him to call. My toilette and coiffure were painstaking and I wore my favourite gown, my riding habit. Aine knows one never rides a horse in Veniche unless it’s a water-horse and if one knows anything of their nature, one knows one wouldn’t be alive to tell the tale. But my riding habit is slick and well-cut and damnably seductive and just to make sure, I wore a divine bodice underneath, with the first three buttons of the jacket undone to display it.
My bodice!
My riding habit is the colour of fresh damson plums and I believe it becomes me on a good day.
But . . . and aren’t there always damnable buts . . . Ser Richard didn’t call and sadly I believe he may be escorting someone-else, some lucky woman I don’t even know.
I tell you I despaired, and resolved to spend the rest of my life solitary and writing, even though it is considered a hobby by my lady friends. All my emotions must surely make good reading for the adventure-starved of Eirie!
My lady friends came, sipped tea, ate cake and gossiped and nary a full-blooded male crossed my threshold. I almost threw the women onto their gondolas at the end, so despairing was I.
I climbed the stair to my chamber, RIPPED, yes, RIPPED my riding habit off my body and slipped into a white and blue striped silk day-gown, tucking in a lace fichu at my neck. But I quailed at the presumed propriety and tore it away, undoing my hair from its chignon so that it was wild. And I began to write. Furiously.
That is how my maid found me. ‘Lady Lucia. Ser Niccolo de Fleury has called. He apologises for his tardiness but his ship docked less than an hour since. He begs that you attend him. He said please.’
‘Ser Niccolo de Fleury! I know him.’ My spirits began to rise. Ah, I thought. A merchant, a fighter, a spy, an intellect to defy most in Veniche, a banker, a lover of women. And unlike Ser Richard whom we all know is Other, untouchable and utterly immortal,
Ser Niccolo is mortal and very touchable and perhaps more my cup of tea. ‘Tell Ser Niccolo I shall be down forthwith.’
And that is how I, Lucia Brabante, writer of books of strange and wondrous fantasy, came to be attending the approaching Masked Ball with a man whose life, I tell you, could fill eight books.
More on Ser Niccolo and Ser Richard anon . . .
I can’t wait … though I still hope Sir Richard will go to the masked ball.
I thought, Maria, that he may escort you.
Ser Niccolo is a wild sort of man, he tells me he has just returned from Iceland which accounts for his somewhat odd appearance at this point. His hair could do with my maid’s care for a start. But . . . he is my escort and one must not be churlish.
Looking forward to hearing your backstory on the night.
Sorry – that last picture – Wow! – is that Uhtred? Gorgeous!
I believe it is, Grufffalo, although it is something I have not yet seen here in Australia. The wild hair and the look of a man who has travelled far and against great duress fitted the character of Niccolo de Fleury perfectly for this bizarre story of The Masked Ball that Pat, Rebecca and myself are writing.
Thanks for dropping by and why don’t you come to the ball?
and now, i begin at the beginning! love it. nice to meet you, lucia! and niccolo is of 8 books. oh my, it will take awhile to get to know him. have yet to read a dunnett. mayhaps, now is the time – especially with such an intrigueing character to follow.
Incredibly interesting read! Truely.
Thanks Jeri. Such fun to write as you will see in a reply to another viewer. Ends up being 20,000 words on the blog and the ending happened at a blog-event we were holding. The story is a total spoof but each of we three writers used actual actors as our characters. I used Richard Armitage as Niccolo de Fleury and Richard E Grant as Sir Percy Blakeney, Rebecca used Alex O’Loughin as Hugh, and Pat used Allan Cumming as Bacigalupo. The purpose initially was to create a back-story for our own characters for the Masked Ball event that we held, but a story crept out of it very quickly. Fan-fiction/flash-fiction at its most fun!
Heh I’m honestly the only reply to this great writing!
Meghan, this was a fan-fiction story that two of my friends and I wrote in the lead up to a major blog-event we were holding. The whole story continues in various posts and is about 20,000 words long and we are going to edit and polish it and publish it through Lulu just for fun and so that we all have a copy each. We never planned the way the story would go, we just literaly took up the next chapter off the back of the last chapter. The ending happened at the blog event and was STUPENDOUS. Do keep reading, its fun and a total spoof!