[color=blue]"E-excuse me, Milord. I would have to leave you now. I... need to excuse myself to the privy, you see. Too much beer."[/color]

Phillip chuckled at the young woman's confession, short and sharp and low but not at all unnoticed.  He didn't mean to laugh, but it was funny.  It would have been funny coming from a Peasant to another Peasant; it was even funnier coming from a Peasant to a Noble.

"Of course, m'lady," Phillip said simply, again using that [I]title[/I] that was more appropriate for someone of higher standing.  After she again curtseyed and then grasped at her for her father's arm, Phillip tried to ensure that their discussion had meant something to him by adding politely, "Marina of Echo Valley."

Phillip smiled as he watched the young woman essentially drag her intoxicated patriarch into the crowd and eventually out of sight.  Without hesitation, a number of peasants stepped closer with hopes of engaging their Lord in a similar manner as Marina had.  Phillip listened to them politely for a couple of minutes, then made a familiar gesture to Terrano.

"I'm sorry," he called to the villagers as he stepped between them and Phillip, who was already turning away to make an exit.  "It's been a long day and a long journey..."

Phillip didn't hear anymore of his Captain's excuse as he and four Guardsmen headed away from the feast for the bridge.  Other villagers tried to engage him or simply bowed or called out their thanks for the event.  He was friendly with them, but Phillip's mind was elsewhere.  He slowed as he mounted the bridge, looking back to find the faster moving Terrano and a third pair of Guards nearly caught up to him.  

"Go ahead," Phillip told the Guardsmen.  Once he and Terrano were alone, Phillip said with a suggestive tone, "The Master of Coin … I was speaking with him earlier about the need to staff the Keep from the village population … that we didn't bring enough house servants with us."

Terrano's lips spread in a knowing smile.  "I believe that is true, m'lord.  Should I go to the village tomorrow … ask around … fill some vacancies in your staff?"

Phillip hesitated a moment.  He was still getting comfortable with the power he now wielded.  Honestly, he wasn't sure he would ever be comfortable with the idea that if he saw a pretty face in a crowd and wanted to see the pretty body attached to it, all he had to do was send Terrano or one of his other Counselors out to make the arrangements, sometime with the need for coin, sometimes only with the promise of future favors.

Some Nobles didn't bother with coin or favors at all.  Instead, they only gave their command and got what they wanted.  Phillip swore he would never be that kind of Ruler.  

"Yes, please do that, Captain," Phillip confirmed.  

"A chambermaid, perhaps," Terrano continued, even though they both knew nothing more needed to be said.  "Perhaps a young, curly headed brun--"

"[I]Yes,[/I] Captain," Phillip cut in sharply, just before turning his head to chuckle and suffer a hot blush through his neck and face.  He began walking away from his mentor, finishing, "You can be a mean, mean man sometimes, Captain."

"[I]Yes,[/I] m'lord," Terrano agreed with humor in his voice.  He called after his Master, "I will work on that, m'lord."

Terrano turned to look back on the village and feast that continued off to one side.  Today had been a good day.  With any luck, the days to follow would be more of the same.

[center]##########################[/center]

[color=blue]"Father, that was a bad idea,"[/color] Marina chastised her father as she led him away into the darker village.  [color=blue]"He was leering at me. And you perfectly know what nobles could get away with with us peasants."[/color]

Bill laughed, both out of inappropriate humor and out of a feeling of accomplishment.  Earl Phillip had liked his daughter, there was no doubt about that.  Bill may have been drunk and teetering, but his eyes had worked just fine.  And his eyes had seen the [I]Noble's[/I] eyes taking a walk up and down his beautiful daughters form. 

Tomorrow morning, when he was suffering a hangover headache and begging his wife to stop yelling at him to get up and out into the fields, Bill would probably begin to question whether or not what he'd done tonight had been a good thing.  Marina was right about her last statement; Nobles could get away with anything when it came to peasants, and when it came to [I]chaste girls[/I] like his daughter, that [I]anything[/I] they liked to get away with was to make them not so chaste anymore.

After three flagons of beer, though -- or had it been four, or five -- offering Marina to the Earl with the hope that coin would be coming the family's way had seemed like a stellar idea.  Even now he justified himself to Marina with, "Your Lord liked you, and that's a good thing.  And tomorrow, you will cross the bridge to seek an audience with the Earl … to see if there is work for you in his--"

Suddenly, Bill fell forward and slammed onto the ground with a thud.  He grunted, more in surprise then in pain, then laughed as he felt cold enveloping the foot that was now less one shoe.  He looked back to from where they'd come and saw his shoe stuck in a root that had grown up out of the ground.

As Marina attempted to help him back to his feet, Bill pulled her down to the ground and wrapped his arms around her.  He laughed, then gave her a big, sloppy kiss on the cheek.  He grasped her face and turned it to look directly into her eyes.

"I love you, daughter," he proclaimed with a sincere tone.  "You are my child … my only child … my loving child … and I would do anything for you … give anything to you … anything I can … anything I have."

He hesitated to turn his head and burp, laughed with drunken joy, then looked to Marina again to continue … now with tears beginning to fill his eyes.  Almost sobbing, he apologized, "I have failed you … and your mother.  I have failed you.  I have nothing to offer you but the breath in my body--"

He burped again, laughed, and warned, "And right now even that is nothing you would want to have."

He pulled her tightly to him in an almost crushing bear hug before looking into her eyes again as he continued, "I have failed you … and I have nothing to offer you.  But you are a beautiful girl … and you can go out into this horrible world of ours and [I]take[/I] what you need … [I]take[/I] what you want.  It is all up to you, my beauty … my daughter … my love."

Bill gave Marina another wet kiss, another tight hug … this one lasting longer … ending only … when his arms slumped away from her and he fell back to the soft grass … out cold and already snoring.