Amy (
kitchen_maid) wrote2012-02-15 07:41 pm
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Marian in Ambergeldar
Amy ran into Marian when she took Mal -- er, Captain Sir Malcolm Reynolds -- back to Milliways after his visit.
And, after hearing about the goings on there, had invited Marian back for a short visit to Ambergeldar. (She would have invited Marian for an extended visit, especially as Marian cannot get back to her own world, but Marian has security duties, and Amy respects that. Still, even security members need breaks.)
After what happened with Mal, Amy gives Marian a letter of introduction, just in case she winds up in Loddingtop or some such place. And she takes the very simple and practical precaution of holding carefully and tightly to Marian's hand as they step out of the bar and into Amy's wardrobe.
"It's not, I fear, the most exciting first view of the kingdom. Do mind the shoes."
It's not the most convenient thing, having a doorway in your wardrobe. Things will get in the way of coming and going.
Once they're safely into Amy's dressing room, she lets go of Marian's hand. "Welcome to Ambergeldar."
And, after hearing about the goings on there, had invited Marian back for a short visit to Ambergeldar. (She would have invited Marian for an extended visit, especially as Marian cannot get back to her own world, but Marian has security duties, and Amy respects that. Still, even security members need breaks.)
After what happened with Mal, Amy gives Marian a letter of introduction, just in case she winds up in Loddingtop or some such place. And she takes the very simple and practical precaution of holding carefully and tightly to Marian's hand as they step out of the bar and into Amy's wardrobe.
"It's not, I fear, the most exciting first view of the kingdom. Do mind the shoes."
It's not the most convenient thing, having a doorway in your wardrobe. Things will get in the way of coming and going.
Once they're safely into Amy's dressing room, she lets go of Marian's hand. "Welcome to Ambergeldar."
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"I thank you." Marian look about herself, and then smiled. "I do appear to arrived in one piece, thankfully, too."
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Thank heaven.
"So, where would you like to begin?
"I promise most of it is much more interesting than my collections of shoes and cloaks and pins and ribbons."
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Just in case.
For now, though, she'll smile, closing the dressing closet door.
"Well, we are in your home, so maybe--" Marian considered. Castles were rather large places. Except they weren't too. Once they were home. But there were always, "What are your favorite places here?"
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"But if we go to that last now, Nurse Marta will be very displeased, as Susan is meant to be having lessons, and having her Royal Mama turn up with guests is, I am told, quite disruptive. So that, at least, shall have to wait a bit."
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If the footman in the hall is at all surprised to see a stranger emerging from the Queen's dressing room, it doesn't show. The Queen does things like this.
Frequently.
"I spend a lot of time in here," Amy says, pushing open a door just down the hall.
The room is large and light and airy. There's a small sitting area by a fireplace (not lit, this season), and a desk piled with papers -- correspondance and reports, things awaiting Her Majesty's attention.
There's a portrait on the wall behind the desk of Perry (looking very Perryish, as this one was done for Amy) and another over the fireplace of Susan and Merry.
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Respectful, hands folded together in front of her, never getting closer than a few feet from anything in the room just quite yet. She recognize one the children, but her eyes rested on the other painting longer.
Considering it breath longer, before asking. "Your husband?"
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"The poor Court Painter was not at all happy about that painting. He wanted to do something kingly with crowns and ermine. But that's not Perry, that's Algernon. That's for the State Rooms. I wanted a portrait of my husband, not my king."
Though the clothes are still grand and he still looks rather royal. There's no getting around that. Perry's been King Algernon since he was ten.
"Our Court Painter doesn't like having to paint my freckles into things, either," Amy adds. "I'm afraid we are a trial for him."
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And if for a moment, she wonders how long that's really been...
Marian shook her head, bemused. "They have a very different view of what is proper than the people who are requesting the services of them, don't they?"
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"And I can see why, when you're painting a king, you expect to paint a king.
"Besides, most people probably like to be flattered by their portraits."
Amy looks up at the painting again. "But he got the smile just right."
And the crinkles it puts at the corners of Perry's eyes.
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She knew another boy like that.
"There are far worse things a king could be."
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Stuffy. Humorless.
Cruel.
"He's a very good king, really."
She grins.
"But yes, just the slightest bit silly."
Sometimes more than the slightest bit.
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"We've not had a portrait of the twins done yet, but we'll have to do that soon.
"Or one of the four of them.
"Or both.
"Most likely both."
Perry has a study, too, after all.
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Amy's smile gets very bright.
"Do you want to see what we look like when they are allowed to paint us as royally as they can manage?"
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"My dear Lady Marian," she says, "we really must."
Though that takes them out of the family's suites of rooms and down several corridors and a very grand flight of stairs and into the State Rooms.
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Though Marian does get a little sidetracked looking at all the wall hangings, glimpsing doors they pass and openings to other areas. It is entirely foreign, and it is for High Royalty, and yet there is something ultimately familiar about it all, touching a well-known place inside of her.
Except that you can tell, just wandering it, that people are happy here.
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And they can wander as slowly as Marian likes -- Amy knows this is a lot to take in and look at.
But eventually they reach the grandly carved door of the Mauve State Drawing Room.
"Ready?" Amy asks, and smiles at the footman who jumps to open the door for them. "Thank you."
This is a room for formally receiving the people who will never be invited to see the Queen's Study. It's all done in gold and mauve, and it's dominated by two huge portraits. The King in Ermine and Robes of State and the Most Impressive of Crowns is clearly Perry (or at least, clearly Algernon).
The other is of a young woman in a very grand pale purple gown. She has hair just slightly darker than gold, and a perfectly straight nose, and nary a freckle in sight. She looks almost, but not quite entirely, completely unlike Amy. (She doesn't even look like Amethyst.)
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"This is positively....horrid." The last word tremors with an only barely repressed laugh.
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"Since no one knew that Perry and I had already met, when he sent an envoy to ask for my hand. Mama didn't want to take any chances until it was too late for him to change his mind. So she told the court painter to flatter me as much as possible.
"I'm fairly certain Herr Van Turpentine painted my sister Pearl from memory and then made the hair a tiny bit darker.
"I'm still sorry I didn't get to see the look on Perry face when it arrived."
Amy looks up at it and them over to Marian and grins. "The dress is accurately rendered, though."
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The faintest of her features. No turned up nose, and no freckles, and they had utterly missed they her eyes light up when she was looking at or talking about that she loved or that made her happy.
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Amy sits in the chair beneath the portrait and attempts to adopt the same pose she had to hold when it was being made.
Which is rather hopeless because it makes her giggle.
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Her voice was teasing, as she looked from Amy's trembling shoulders, to the portrait above her and the matching one too far away from them, as well. "This Amethyst and Algernon. To have gotten a whole room to themselves."
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