lคץ ๓є l๏ฬ

[assassinrue]

Cassius gave a crooked smile. "Very safe mi'lady. Now, I'm no handmaiden but I know a few things about hair and dresses."

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

"Good. Then let's get started." She gestured toward the wardrobe. "Why don't you pick out a dress for me? I have a meeting with a... suitor today." She said the word 'suitor' with distain. Men came from all over the North to seek her hand, partly because she was a powerful woman, and partly because she was rumored to be one of the most beautiful women in the kingdom. She had no desire to meet this man, but it would be rude to send him away.

[assassinrue]

Cassius walked bodly over to her dresses and looked at each one. "This." He finally said. It was a dark green dress with silver trim to match her eyes. Flattering yet authoritative and modest.

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

Averyl nodded approvingly and walked over to join him.

[assassinrue]

Cassius laid the dress out on the bed and signaled her to turn around.

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

Averyl did so and swept her long hair forward so it wasn't in his way.

[assassinrue]

Cassius began to loosen the laces on the back of the Lady's night gown. He was as neutral a hand maiden as he was a servant, his face flat, his eyes unseeing, carefully avoiding unnecessary contact. He knelt as he pulled the gown down over her shoulders and pooled it on the floor around her feet. "Please step out ma'am."

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

Averyl stepped carefully to the side, avoiding the gown's fabric. She felt a tingling crawl up her spine. The knowledge that she was standing here, undressed in the eyes of a man? She knew he was a servant, and that it shouldn't matter, but it did to her.

[assassinrue]

Cassius avoided looking at her as he walked over to the chair where she had disposed her slip last night. He took it gently in his hands and walked back. He knelt again at her side, the slip an open ring on the floor. He didn't say anything this time, focusing on looking at the floor instead of her.

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

Averyl stepped inside and raised her chin, staring at the wall across the room and focusing on anything but the man standing beside her.

[assassinrue]

Cassius pulled the slip up her body and hooked over her arms on her shoulders. The fabric was tighter than the night gown and a lot thinner, it was harder to avoid contact and her skin felt like silk against his rough worker's hands. He grabbed the dress and hovered it above her head while he pulled it down. He adjusted the skirt of the dress then stood to lace up the back. He wondered if her was required to lace up the front of the dress too, which he knew right now was unlaced and laying invitingly open over her chest. He remembered the way his wife's good dress had hung open at the chest like that to before he'd lace it up with kisses. He swallowed back the memory and the sudden urge to do the same to Averyl.

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

She tried to ignore the way his rough hands against her skin affected her, but that wasn't easy when her heart fluttered.

[assassinrue]

"Shall I lace up the front, Lady Averyl?" Cassius stood facing her back, his finger woven around each other behind him.

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

"I think I can handle that," Averyl said calmly. "Thank you, though."

[assassinrue]

"Very well. I shall fetch your shoes and pins for your hair." Cassius moved about, selecting her finest shoes and a long silver hair pin with an emerald dangling off the end. When he returned, he placed the shoes by the chair he asked her to sit in and once she sat, he began to work on her hair. He created five French braids around her head that he joined in a high bun which he held in place with the pin. He moved in front of her and brushed his fingers along her temples and hair line, free several wavy tendril of hair to frame her face.

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

While he was bustling about, Averyl had closed the front of her dress. Now, she looked up at him and smiled. "Where did you learn to do this?"

[assassinrue]

"My wife." Cassius didn't feel like expanding on the topic without invitation but he knew if the Lady asked, he would tell her everything, every decision and moment that led to him learning all he knew about hair and dresses and shoes.

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

Averyl looked up at him. "You loved her a lot, didn't you?" She sounded sad. Mostly, she wanted to know what it was like to love someone like that. She might never know.

[assassinrue]

Cassius nodded. "We were each other's everything. We grew up together, our mother's we best friends and our father's went hunting together which usually left us to go play." Cassius shrugged uncomfortably. "We became inseparable." He smiled at a memory. "I thought the first time I kissed her I had ruined everything. But then I noticed she began to dress nicer, wore flowers in her hair, she got nervous around me. I proposed a year later."

[ᴄʀʏsᴛᴀʟғʀᴏsᴛ]

Averyl smiled faintly. "It must have been nice, having that kind of love. I'm sorry you lost it."