Disclaimer: A.D.D. Writer =D

I just want you to be aware that the Rosella story in NOT a final draft - I don't even know if I should consider it a first draft.  However, I really would like unbiased feedback, so please feel free to tell me what you think the story is lacking.

Sorry if the pages are few and far between, I am trying not to get ahead of myself.  If I post too much, I will be out of typed material =)

Also, I post the story by page numbers in the Word document, and if you want to start at the very beginning, then you would have to go to the earliest  post.

Rosella pg.3

“Coming, Father,” Rose called back.  “I have to go.  Um… meet me at the old ruins in the forest.  6:00. If I don’t come, I couldn’t get away.  Don’t wait past seven.”  Rose hurried down the stairs and left.

^^^

After changing and bathing, Rose knocked on the door of her brother’s living quarters.  Jazmín answered. 

“Rose!  How are you?” she asked cheerfully.  “Come on in!”  Only when Jazmín was satisfied that Rose was as comfortable as could be, did she let her sister-in-law speak. 

“So what brought you here again today?”  she asked.  “Shouldn’t you be out riding with Ben?”

“Um, well… that’s what I wanted to talk to Jo about.  Is he here?”

“Oh, no.  He is probably in the library, or sparring.  One or the other, just like always.”

“Thanks, Jazz.  Sorry to just pop in, but I really need to talk to Joe.  I’ll see you later.”  Rose decided to check the library first.  Reaching the library door, Rose straightened her dress, on the off chance that her father was in the room, and quietly opened the door.  She knew exactly where her brother would be, so she made her way at once to the little alcove where Joe often came to read. 

“Hey, Kayrena,” Joe said, using the Birini term of endearment for ‘little sister’. 

“Hello, Joesen,” Rose said, looking over his shoulder.  “The Gypsy Queen?  Haven’t you read this one already?” 

“Yes,” Joesen answered.  Rose shook her head.  She loved to read, but she didn’t understand why her brother re-read books.  “Rose, did you come to talk to me about my reading material?” Joe asked.  “Or is there something else you want to talk about?”

“Father forbade me from seeing Ben,” Rose said, sitting down across the little table.

“Why?” Joe asked. 

“His pride is hurt,” Rose said bitterly.  “He has been proven wrong, and has refused to see reason.”  Rose told her older brother about the incident in the stable.  Joe sat back and pressed his steepled fingers against his mouth.  “I really don’t know what to do about this, Rose.  You know what Father did… he didn’t do it rationally.  To be honest with you, Rose, I think something is seriously wrong with Father.  You’re not the only one he is treating differently.  Cora is beside herself with loneliness.  She has not seen her husband at all since he has been back.  He didn’t even sleep in their bed last night.  Father won’t grant an audience with his wife.”

“Before the war, no one needed an audience to see him, unless he was busy.  Now, not even his wife can see him?”  Rose asked incredulously.  “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Joe said, shaking his head.  “It’s like he isn’t even the same person anymore.”

“So… what should I do, Joe?” Rose pleaded.

“Rosella, you know what you are going to do.  Need I give you advice you won’t heed?”  Joe asked.  Rose blushed but said nothing.  Joesen knew her so well, he knew that Rose would not obey her father. 

Rosella pg. 2

“Hold on a moment,” she said, running up to the loft, where the extra apartment was.  As she opened the door, she saw her father.  He stared at her in shock.  I must look a fright to him, she thought, with a bloody nose, several bruises, and dirt all over me...

     “Rosella!  Who did this to you?  Are you alright?”  he asked, looking genuinely worried.

     “Oh.  I ran into a door and fell – nothing a bath can’t fix – but right now, Ben and I are going for a ride.”  Rose had forgotten her manners in her haste to get downstairs.

     “Benjamin? You mean the young page?” the king asked.  Rose nodded.  “What are you doing with that boy?  You should be attending to your studies.  Look at you!  You look like a vagrant girl!  Are you sure that boy…” he trailed off. 

Rose whirled around.  Ben had come up the loft, carrying a metal bar.  He looked like he had just been caught robbing a bank.  Rose turned back to her father, and gasped, seeing the look on his face.  He thought Ben had hurt her, and was trying to once again!  The king ran at Ben, intending to kill him – or at least maim him.  Ben stopped cold, turned, and fled toward the other side of the loft.

“Coward!  How dare you touch my daughter!  Come face the consequences!  Coward!”  he bellowed, pulling out his sword.  Why is he overreacting so? Rose thought desperately, trying to get her father to stop.

“Father, stop!  He didn’t do anything!  Father, he’s unarmed!  FATHER, NO!”  Rose cried, to no avail.  She looked around, desperate to find something, anything, which would save Ben from her father’s unreasonable wrath.  She spotted the metal bar Ben had dropped. 

Crude, but do-able, she thought, rushing to pick it up.  She ran back to her father.  He had Ben backed up against a corner, about to strike.  As the sword came down, Rose jumped in front of Ben and thrust the metal bar up to stop the weapon.  The momentum pushed her back, forcing her to lose balance and land on Ben.  He let out a surprised “umph.”  The metal clashed.  The king stared at his daughter in shock. 

“He did nothing, Father.  I swear!” Tears were streaming down the princess’s cheeks.  She looked at her father and shifted her weight to get up.  She heard a grunt.  Rose had forgotten that Ben was underneath her, and had just accidentally elbowed him in the gut.  She quickly rolled into the hay, and stood to face her father, the bar still in her hand.

The king was dumbstruck. 

“He is innocent.  It was my fault.  I wasn’t paying attention, and ran into the door.”  The king regained his composure, and, with a somewhat hurt expression, said, “I forbid you to see him again.”  He then walked away.  Ben still lay in shock on the floor.

“You okay?” Rose asked him, helping him up. 

“Huh? Oh, yeah.  But what about your father?”

“What about him?” Rose asked.

“He said we couldn’t see each other.”

“Oh…. Um…”

“Rosella! Get down here!”  the king called.

Roeslla Pg. 1

     Rose entered her brother’s sitting room to deliver the message Jazmín, Joe’s wife, had given her.  When she entered, she stopped short; her father was in the room.  This was more surprising than anything.  He had been on the battlefield for the past three years, fighting Branola.  Rose hadn’t known that he was back at the Palatial City.  She hadn’t spoken to her father the entire time he had been gone. 

     The king was walking towards her.  She heard a warning her step-mother had told her the night of her last encounter with her father. 

     “You are a woman now, Rose,” she had said.  “You must act like one.  Where your father is concerned, you are a princess before you are a daughter.  The next time you see him, act like a princess greeting her king, not a daughter her father.  Curtsy.  Be ladylike.  When you address people in his presence - in anyone’s presence, really – use proper titles.  Greet the most important person last.”

     “Prince Joesen,” Rose said, dipping her head.  She then turned to her father.  “Your Highness,” she said to him, curtsying low and gracefully.

     “Princess Rosella,” the king replied, looking annoyed.  He turned back to Joesen.  It was obvious that Rose wasn’t welcome – at least not to her father – so before she left she waited until a stopping point in the conversation and told her brother, “Princess Jazmín wants you, your Highness.”

      Joesen caught up to her a while later, and said, “Hey, Rose!  Where have you been?  I have been looking for you everywhere!”

     “I’ve been in the garden the whole time,” Rose answered.  She was still a little annoyed at her father’s reaction to her, and was a little irritable. 

     “Oh,” Joesen said.  He knew that Rose was lying, but let it go.  Rose was normally a good liar, when the circumstances called for it, but Joesen knew his sister, and could tell easily when she was lying.  Rose simply didn’t feel like explaining herself – not that she would have to.  The change in her father had been drastic; he had gone from a loving, carefree father to a harsh, uptight king in the three years he had been gone.  Jo looked at his sister in sympathy.  He knew how Rose felt at being so coolly treated by her father.  

     “Oh, I’m late!” Rose exclaimed, seeing the sun, changing the subject she knew would come up soon.  “I promised to meet Ben for a ride!”

     “I was wondering when you would notice,” Jo stated, smiling, conveniently “forgetting” what he was going to say.  Rose punched him playfully in the shoulder, grateful for his not pursuing the conversation, before running to change into riding clothes.

** ** **

Rose ran into the stables.  She had gained so much momentum that she nearly ran into Ben, and, veering to the left, in an attempt to avoid him, ran straight into the door.  She laughed as she fell to the ground.

     “That’s what I get for forgetting,” she panted as Ben helped her up.  He looked startled, but laughed along with Rose.  After the laughter had subsided, Rose realized that her nose was bleeding.