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Post by georgiana on Sept 28, 2011 6:00:45 GMT -5
It was a beautiful day. The way the leaves danced in the wind and the birds sang from the tree tops. The sun shining down so brightly that it was warming her skin and starting to make her regret she had worn long sleeves. The dress in all was fairly light, so it was entirely too horrible. Annette had to admit though; this was by far the nicest day they had seen in quite some time. Normally it was muggy and from time to time the heat was sweltering but today was just perfect. So perfect in fact that she had decided the best use of her time would be to go on a very long ride. One, where her parents in particular, could not watch and scrutinize her every move.
Ever since they had left Normandy her parents had been monitoring her carefully. Apparently she drew too much attention to the family. Annette never understood the problem with that, they were royals to some degree and it wasn’t like that was a secret. She knew of their concerns, that they would become the target of someone’s foolish attempts to gain the Kings favor. Annette couldn’t be bothered by it though. It was absurd to think that anyone could persuade the king to betray his own sister. Besides it wasn’t like she attracted attention to herself on purpose all the time. She was just naturally charming, she had a way of reeling people in she couldn’t exactly explain. Not that she really minded it. But still her parents viewed it as more of a personal curse. So they had taken great pains as of late to take away all of her chances to grab someone’s attention and had squashed any chance for her to have fun. She felt like a dog on a leash or a tiger in a cage. She was being suffocated by her parents and needed a chance to be free. This moment was hers for the taking.
Annette nodded gratefully to the stable master adding a quite but audible “Merci,” to the end. There was rarely a reason to be rude to a person. That was another thing her parents weren’t too fond of. Annette liked being wealthy and important but that also allowed her to foolishly believe it didn’t matter who she associated herself with. Her parents, as expected, disagreed but what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. Annette took the horse’s reigns, leading it away from the stables. Slowly she walked along the pathway towards the gardens. When she was far enough out of sight Annette mounted the horse. Side saddle much to her own distaste and went flying through the empty gardens behind the palace. Annette was heading towards the farthest reaches of the forest knowing that no one would be there.
Standing in the middle of the array of trees near the pond Annette slid out of the horse’s saddle. Untying a pack she had brought with her she fed the mare an apple before leading it to water. She tied the reigns to a nearby tree before pulling out a small book of blank paper and a piece of charcoal. Absentmindedly Annette seated herself under the tree and began to sketch the world around her. She had never been much of an artist but she was decent. It would have been rather horrible if she wasn’t considering she had been drawing most of her life. Still, more important lessons of etiquette and how to get a husband took precedence over things that Annette enjoyed. Thinking back she decided that her parents had brought all the attention on themselves. If they had just let her draw then she would have always been too occupied to flirt. Instead they found themselves with a child who loves artists, something that had cost them a pretty penny on more than one occasion.
Sitting under the tree Annette heard a twig break under someone’s boot. She stood fairly quickly not sure who would really venture out this far into the forest. “Hello,” she said the lilt of her French accent rather apparent. As much as she had tried to perfect her English with as few traces of her French parentage as possible, she hadn’t been entirely successful. Still, she was easy enough to understand or so she liked to believe. “Who’s there?” she asked. Annette wasn’t scared or at least it didn’t sound that way but that didn’t mean she wasn’t unsure. Waiting for a response she wrapped her hands around the horses reigns, prepared to make a run for it at any sign of trouble.
770 . Open
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