A Dance with Ruby Red

A Garden Stroll

"What do you mean you know him?" Grian whispered hastily, dragging Scar further into the garden. It had been about half an hour since what his siblings are calling 'the incident', and after many questions and comments he managed to convince them to head back into the ballroom. Scar however refused to leave him alone in the garden and had been dodging Grian's many attempts to find out why. Eventually, after many huffs and empty threats, Scar caved in and to Grian's surprise, knew the mysterious stranger personally.

"I just said I used to know him! I didn't think it would be a big deal." Scar whimpered, his hands raised up defensively on either side of his face.

Grian rolled his eyes and placed a hand on his own face, squeezing slightly before looking around to see if they were alone. There were a few groups of people scattered around the garden and Grian quickly noticed the glances they stole in their direction. It wasn't typically a good look to be seen alone with someone at a ball for fear of a scandal. But Grian deduced that all the gossip for the next few weeks would be about 'the incident' before.

"When did you know him, Scar?" Grian asked quietly, trying to look calm to divert unwanted eyes, "This information would be really helpful right about now."

Scar thought for a minute before answering softly, seemingly picking up on the unwanted attention, "It was back in my early marketing days. He was just some other normal, young lad who was interested in engineering. He would come by the wagon at least twice a week for things like copper and redstone."

"Redstone?" Grian asked, "What was he doing with that?"

Scar held out an arm silently asking Grian to walk with him, most likely to help avoid suspicion. Grian took the offer and they began walking through the garden, slowly gaining a bit of distance from the other guests as Scar continued, "I'm not sure what he did with it in the beginning. But as we got older and time passed he became famous overseas for his work."

Grian looked up at Scar quizzically as they passed a lovely bushel of roses, "Overseas? Are you saying he traveled away and came back?"

"Precisely." Scar smirked, leading them through a few more flowerbeds before looping back towards the ballroom, " A few years went by and I hadn't seen him until about a week ago in town when I found out he is now a Duke."

"A Duke?" Grian exclaimed, a bit too loud judging by the heads that turned in their direction.

"Yup. In only a few years he went from a dude to a Duke. I've been meaning to catch up with him, but I guess now I have a good reason too." Scar said, leading Grian up a short flight of stairs to the doors to the ballroom and pulling one open.

Grian hesitated at the entrance before questioning, "And why is that?"

Scar chuckled before pushing Grian gently into the ballroom and replying matter of factly, "Because if he wants a chance with my best friend, he's gonna have to get through me first."