Strongjaw & The Dish

* 5 *

(TRIGGER WARNING!!!!  RAPE

The acts portrayed herein are violent and horrific. PLEASE feel free to skip it and move to the next if this theme is a trigger to you. 

If you wish to skip it,  stop reading at the  * * * * * and then pick it up at chapter 6. Thank you.)

Almost a year since he'd passed through her life again. Over the months she'd seen him often. She'd traveled to Vasselheim with the recruits Lord de Rolo had her collect, and he was a beast in the Crucible but even more ferocious outside of the sands. She'd been back in Whitestone for a month now, and his arrival was only a touching of base before he was off again to the glorious wedding that Lord and Lady de Rolo had never had. Their friends had been a bit tetchy about this fact and eventually they gave in and set about the planning of a get-away wedding at Dalen's Closet, a resort in Marquet. The wedding was going to be something to see, but as Lady Cassandra had gone ahead by ship with Kynan as her personal guard, which left Trisha to keep an eye on things at home.

"Hey." Grog grinned as he paused in the hall, his hat tucked under his arm, a truly hideous thing, but he was proud of it. "Sorry you can't come."

"Don't you worry about me, Poobah. I'm fine here." She shrugged and crossed her arms. "You won't be gone long enough to write, so that's the only bad thing." Her wink given teasingly as he hurried off to the garden where his friends were waiting to meet up and make the transition.

Lady Vex'ahlia, Lord Percival, and their new baby Vesper had been enjoying the somewhat bittersweet first couple of months of parenthood. Despite the expectation, Lady Vex'ahlia was a very 'hands-on' mother. Vesper had a nanny, but she was not the main source of the baby's care. She was a back-up to the Lady herself. Trisha had spent many a night in the halls of Whitestone Castle watching the Lady walk the baby, bouncing her lightly in her arms as she sang in soft lullaby words to soothe her back to sleep.

Once the group had moved to the Sun Tree, and the castle was empty, Trisha began the work of preparing. She rang the bells and called the servants up, as well as sending words to the guards. "When they return, we will ..." She looked from face to face.

"Have the place spotless and shining as Pelor's own living room!" One of the maids spoke up with a smile.

"Have the streets washed down and swept, every bit of refuse picked up between the Sun Tree at the castle." The head of the gardening staff said with a firm nod.

"Handle any problems that may come up and assure that nothing troublesome awaits them when they return." Viagan Brughur, current Pale Lord of Wardship on the Whitestone Council, (and Trisha's commander) spoke up with a brushing of his mustache with his index finger.

"Hang the sign to welcome back the Lord and his Lady with congratulations and the best wishes of the people of Whitestone." A woman spoke up, her grin evident. "Been passing it around place to place for a week. Hardly a spot on it isn't covered with messages from the citizens."

"Good. Good." Trisha gave a nod to the others who she'd been plotting this with. "They don't plan to stay overlong. The rehearsal is tonight, the wedding tomorrow. No doubt they'll take the day after to recover from the celebration, but they could arrive as early as Miresen morning, so, we need to be ready by then."

Every face seemed as determined as she was herself, and so, with a little clap, the group was dismissed to their own tasks. She did what she could make sure that the castle was being made ready, nodded as she walked the path to the Sun Tree, seeing the streets clear of broken branches or bits of bracken. They should come home to nothing but relaxation. All of them. They'd had a busy year and the next would still hold much in the way of rebuilding all across Exandria as well as here in Whitestone.