Immortal Ballad *ON HOLD*

Parlour/Date

DATE

"Alecxa my daughter you look wonderful, just like a goddess!" her father exclaimed.

"Grazie, Padre."

"You do look lovely." said Marckus. He approached her and added, "The queen herself would be jealous of you."

"Grazie, Signore."

"We should probably get going." said Marckus. Yet he didn't move. He stood in front of her and looked at her. He couldn't take his eyes of her and her dress.

Her gown was crimson red, which brought out the beauty in her eyes. The silk petticoat was white, the gown itself was mainly red. It was decorated with shining blood red roses lined up in a row around her waist, the laces was made out of faux gold. She had a girdle adorned with precious jewels and expensive gold. The houppelandes dropped from her arms nearly touching the floor, the back of the dress was open showing off her back which dropped down near her waist. Her dress was bouffant and flowing with every step she took.

"Mi scusi for staring but you look lovely."

"Grazie. Thank you, Marckus." Alecxa smiled and said, "Where are we going?"

"I thought we'd go to Ponte Vecchio." he stopped. Marckus could 'see' she had already seen Ponte Vecchio with Irial. "unless you've been there already..."

"Naturalmente she hasn't. We have only been in Firenze for 5 months." Lorenzo chuckled. "You bambini have fun!"

Lorenzo walked away, smiling. Just before heading up the stairs, he looked back and saw Alecxa and Marckus talking intently. If everything turned out right then pretty soon he would have a son-in-law. His smile widened.

Irial looked on from behind a curtain door. He heard Alecxa laughing and saw her face. He knew that laugh. She was pretending to be amused when really she was uncomfortable. Irial had heard it so many times before at the events her father made them go to. The flirtatious manner in which she portrayed was fake. Irial had learned long ago that what Alecxa wanted, Alecxa got.

The couple stepped out into the night.

*¤*

Instead of sight seeing they went to his home. It was bigger that Alecxa's! It occupied an entire corner. The house had a garden in its center with hundreds of flowers ordinated in circles and other shapes. She gasped in awe at the different colors of the flowers. Marckus explained that he brought back seeds from every flower he saw when he visited other countries. Then he walked away.

She quickly followed him into the dinning room. It held a huge wooden table that occupied nearly the entire room. Marckus once again explained, "I don't like to eat alone, many of the servants eat with me. I have 20 servants... I eat with them maybe 3 times a week." And again walked away.

The whole night he showed her his entire house. In every room he say something about the room. Like in his study he told her, "I have over 200 books, in over 10 languages. Any one is welcome to read, I actually encourage it." He told her his wide interest and his vast knowledge.

When they got to the last room, his bedroom, he looked sadly down.

"I was married..." he said. "a long time ago." He opened the door and ushered her in.

A huge painting of a beautiful women hung near the bed. Her dark complexion and wide blue eyes stared at Alecxa. The woman's dark hair circled her like a halo. She wore a tiara and a gold necklace with intricate designs on it Alecxa had never seen before.

"She beautiful..." Alecxa whispered to herself.

"She was, wasn't she?" He came up behind her and sighed. "She died a while ago."

"How?"

"An ... accident."

"What was her name?"

"Ife..."

Alecxa stood in silence. He was obviously still in love with her.

"How long ago? Was it recently?"

"Centuries ago..." Alecxa looked at him. "I mean It feels like centuries ago." he quickly added.

"I'm sorry..." She said.

Then suddenly, he turned to her and his mood turned happy.

"Non ti preoccupare. It is the past."