Missed you

Writers: Paula, Eimi
Date Posted: 30th March 2011

Characters: Benaroy, Zelanka, Petriv
Description: Zelanka gets ready for the Feast and remembers a happy moment.
Location: Amber Hills Hold
Date: month 13, day 30 of Turn 5
Notes: Turns End

Zelanka was dressing up for the Turn's End feast. The dress she wore
wasn't new, but she had modified it so it looked like it was. She was
trying to decide how to wear her hair. Up or let it down?
"Petriv, what do you thing I should do with my hair?" she asked her
husbands opinion.

"Just let it be open, I like it that way," he suggested.

Zelanka nodded and run a brush through her now silvery-golden curls.
Next she need to pick up jewels to match the dress. For a headwoman who
had started as a ward of the hold, she had very good collection of
jewelry. She rummaged through the box. There were few pieces she had
inherited from her mother, most were bought by Petriv and few were gifts
from him.
She pulled a bracelet out and watched the light glitter on the rubies.
Petriv never asked where they came from. He probably knew, she thought.
It was hardly proper to give gifts to someone else's wife, she smiled at
the memory, but sometimes you just didn't care....

~*~ Flashback ~*~

He had been away from the hold for many sevendays, securing a trade deal
with the Beryl Plains Hold. When he and his men rode to the yard, she
was just one on looker welcoming their Lord back. But he would seek her
out later, in private, she knew it.

His eyes had searched her out immediately. It was her face that he had
longed to see for the past sevendays, even as the Lord Holder paraded
unwed daughters in front of her. They were pretty to be sure, but it
was Zelanka who had captured his heart, and this long separation from
her had been truly painful.

Benaroy smiled and waved at his people as they greeted him, making small
talk as he made his way through the crowd. Finally he reached her! But
he still could not let everyone see the love that was so evidently
written all over his face when they were alone. "Zelanka, would you be
kind enough to bring up food and drink to my room in about a candlemark?
I need to see my children, but I'm famished."

"Yes, my lord," she curtsied.

A candlemark later she was holding a tray and knocking his office door.
"Your food, Sir!" she called, in case someone was with him or passing
the hallway.

He had made sure no one would be around by the time she arrived, and was
ready to open the door as soon as he heard her voice outside it.
Benaroy could not hide the relieved smile as his eyes finally fell on
that beautiful face. "Come in."

"Welcome home, Ben. It's nice to have you back," she said. She wanted to
kiss him but the tray was on her way.

He was not about to let that get in his way. Taking the tray from her,
he set it down on th floor against the wall. "I missed you so much,
Zela," he murmured as he swept her up into his arms, being still strong,
if not as young as he once had been.

She was more than happy to just melt in his arms. "I missed you
terribly," she murmured tenderly.

"It was all I could do not to race ahead of everyone else just so I
could find you," he murmured as he lay her down on his sofa. "You
really shouldn't turn the Lord Holder into love-sick fool, you know."

"I can't help it. I was pining the whole time you were away, people
thought I was sick or something," she replied, stroking the muscles that
were
still firm under he touch.

The thought that she missed him so much pleased him to no end. He began
pulling at the laces that held her bodice closed. "Those last few days
the candlemarks just seemed to drag on forever. But I knew every
meeting finished brought me a little closer to the moment I could see
you."

She murmured with pleasure and kissed him with a passion.

Her kisses made his body feel a thrilling burn rush through his veins,
as did the feel of her soft skin under his fingers. Zela could excite
him like no woman in a long, long time. It was a dangerous addiction,
he knew, fooling around with a married woman. He knew it was wrong to
love her so, even as he guided her fingers to buckle of his belt. But
soon all thoughts of right or wrong were forgotten until they both
relished in their secret passion and fell into each other's arms,
completely spent and fulfilled.

"Can you come to my room tonight?" Benaroy asked softly as he carefully
lifted a tendril of hair that had stuck to her dampened brow.

"I don't know yet," she said. She had a husband and two children, she
just couldn't come and go freely.

"Well," he said, trying not to let the disappointment fill his tone, "I
better give you your present now then. I just have to find my pants."

"I think you kicked them under the chair," she said and giggled a bit.

"Well, that's a first," he chuckled, disentangling himself from her arms
and crawling across the floor in an most undignified way to retrieve
them.

Zelanka bit her lip not to laugh out. Who could believe her if she ever
tell anyone about this?

Pulling the trousers out from under the table, he pulled a box out of
the pocket. He took the more Lordly path back by standing up and
walking back to the sofa. "This is for you. A little souvenir to prove
that I was thinking of you."

"Oh, you shouldn't," she said, pressing the package against her chest.
She knew she should not accept anything from him, she was married woman
after all. It wasn't proper and besides, how she was going to explain
their sudden appearance? But she just couldn't say no to him, in any matter.
She opened it. "Oh, it's so lovely!" the light glittered on the rubies.

Benaroy was no fool. He knew a bracelet like that might be hard to
explain. Taking it, he gently lay it over her wrist. Fastening it he
said, "I know you may only be able to wear it when we're together. I
just had to see it on you."

"Thank you, Ben," she put her arm around neck and kissed him.

"I may be an old fool, but I am a lucky one." He cupped her face,
leaning his forehead against hers and closing his eyes. Benaroy wanted
to remember these moments with her, for even then they both knew it
could not go on forever.

~*~

She slipped the bracelet to her slender wrist. It had been long ago and
she could wear it safely now. She would wear it for _him_. She pulled out
a necklace that has been anniversary gift from Petriv and somehow matched
the bracelet. She had always wondered about that. It was too strange for
coincidence. She frowned a bit when she noticed that the lining in her
jewelry box was torn. She'll fix it later.

Last updated on the February 9th 2013

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Missed you