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"Your Grace, the King is anxious to hear your response to his request."
The Duke looked for a moment at the messenger, then sighed.
"Isn't a request from a king normally considered a command?"
"Certainly, Your Grace, but His Majesty is not your liege lord, merely a neighbor seeking assistance in a matter which involves both of your interests. So it is indeed a request, not a command."
"Walk with me."
The Duke turned on his heel and walked out towards the battlements. A light snow was beginning to fall.
"Your Grace?"
The Duke looked to see that no one had followed him outside. His retainers were used to his impulses and knew better than to intrude. The Duke often preferred the solitude offered by the ramparts overlooking the surrounding terrain.
"Your King knows very well that the Earl and I have never seen eye to eye. We have both laid a claim to the territory your King now seems to covet. Has he sent an envoy to the Earl as well?"
"I am not privy to such things Your Grace, but it stands to reason that His Majesty may well have sent an inquiry to the Earl as well. But honestly, His Majesty finds the Earl to be such a dreadful bore."
"And I am not?"
The messenger bowed slightly, "It is well known that His Majesty and Your Grace share an interest in certain activities that the Earl does not."
"Drinking and playing at cards? Jousting? Whoring? Which hobbies do you think the King and I share?"
The messenger blushed this time, "Not those things, Your Grace, but the study of war and the history of that most violent of human endeavors."
"I see."
Before the messenger could speak again, the Duke turned abruptly and went back inside. The messenger was glad of that, it was getting cold on the battlements of the Duke's castle.
So the preceding is a rough idea I have for a story. It will be fictional and only loosely based on history, though the castle depicted in the opening photo actually exists. It is the Château de Harzé in Aywaille, Belgium, a country I have a great affinity for.
Though I'm starting vacation soon and don't expect to be writing much, this story has been wandering around in my head looking for a chance to ripen and be presented to the world.
We shall see.
It was late yesterday when I was sitting at my desk, watching another episode of The Tudors when it struck me, I hadn't written anything for Saturday.
Friday had been an excellent day, went out to eat with The Missus Herself, had an excellent dinner, then went home and cut the grass in the coolness of the early evening. No doubt this story has been somewhat inspired by what I've been watching as of late, and things which I've been dealing with in real life. We'll see where this goes.
So a late night Friday idea which might go somewhere, we shall see.
Until next time, my Lords and Ladies, I bid you adieu.
