Well, as time passed I began to see more and more of Valleen. I admit that she was lovely, but it was getting downright annoying. Picture this: Your sitting quietly reading a book, reviewing music, playing the piano- just minding your own business in total silence. Then up and out of the blue you hear "How are you this evening, darling?" and there she is sitting right next to you or standing behind you. You didn't hear her come in, as she never knocks... and whatever happened to 'hello'? And 'darling' what is that? I never heard any female in that time use that name so loosely. It should have warned me from the begining, but I guess that with all the excitement I failed to make any connections.
Now your asking 'what excitement' right? Hold on a moment, I was just getting there. Some patience please, love, its been a long night and I am not the worlds grandest (nor fastest) typist...
Valleen always visited me in the evenings, meeting me if not at one social event then another (there was always something going on it seemed). Now, since I had stopped going to my hideaways I was begining to get antsy- to put it mildly. I needed something to do besides rub elbows... Then it hit me. I hated the company I was with, I was sick of it- so why was I doing it. I'd promised that I wouldn't do other things, not that I would do this...Yes, I know, I'm a rat- but can you honestly blame me? You see what a predicament I was in...
So, while nobody was looking I'd slip into some room currently empty, and lock myself inside. I'd wait a while, generally just an hour or so, then make another appearance, and after drifting through the crowds I'd either go back in hiding or make up an excuse to leave. To this day I still wonder what I so feared... But somehow I knew that I shouldn't mingle in that state. I was far too tense, and having 'back-alley withdrawl' as it used to be called. I needed to gamble, get drumk, get in a brawl... anything. Just something considered unacceptable. I usually would just give in to such a desire, but when I thought of my sister I stopped dead in my tracks. I simply couldn't do that to her- I had given her my word.
I began to withdrawl from the limelight more and more... yes, I who so loved attention. I think I even became slightly bitter in spirit- I know I was in tongue...
"How are you this evening Nigel, darling?" Valleen had asked me one night, no different from the others. She looked beautiful, she always did, and her tone contained nothing but friendliness for me. She was always like that with me. She was perfect... perfectly annoying.
"Hello Valleen" I sighed, not bothering to look in her direction. I merely continued to watch the other people wandering about the room, one in particular that had caught my attention. He looked rather out of place in his dark attire, still in his coat, and moving quite quickly from one place to another. "smashing as always... Everything well?"
"Yes." She'd replied simply- I think she noticed that I'd commented on her without looking at her. "Delightful."
"Wonderful- so glad to hear it..." my tone was bland, as I didn't feel much like coloring my lies. I spoke them with no heart, no drive to make them convincing. All I wanted was to be gone from there, and I think that perhaps my mind was already. It was floating about someplace -probibly some dark cave full of card playing, drunken, stinking, thieves, and liquor pouring prostitutes- and just waiting for the rest of me.
"Something the matter?" she asked me in her sweetest voice. The only voice she'd ever use with me. I had used such a tone too many times myself though, so I knew it for what it was- entirely fake. I could think of her as nothing but a fraud with a voice like that... a fraud just like me. I just couldn't figure out what she wanted.
"There you are!" The voice threw me off, pulling my attention to it. It sounded relieved and aggitated, but what pulled me to it more was that it came from the man I'd been watching before. I had been correct- he was looking for somebody, and that somebody happened to be Valleen. "Valleen! Where the bloody hell have you been? The prince is looking all over for you.. there's been a.." it was then that he noticed me. "Oh.. I'm sorry... I didn't know you were here on business." He nodded his head in acknowledgement of me, but before he addressed me, or I him he was cut off by Valleen.
"Ferdinand, please... compose yourself." Ah, the game was up! I knew it! She was hiding something- the nervous laughter from her, and the hard glare she was giving Ferdinand confirmed my beliefs. It sent a message between them, one which I was oblivious to, but that I knew was ment to keep something from me. He fell silent, and stepped back, a very nervous expression over his face. "Can it not wait?"
"No." he replied simply. "It can't. We need you now."
"Alright" she said with a sigh "Give me a few minutes and I'll meet you there."
"But..." he attempted to protest.
"NO." she said sternly, her voice holding more sterness than I ever thought it could. She softened again, but only a bit, her voice containing the eloquence of a diplomat. "I'll be along in a few minutes, I have some things to conclude before I come. Tell him that I shall be along shortly, and when I do I will have concluded the issue I was challenged with adressing on such short notice. I have a deadline to keep, Ferdinand, I'll not have my schedual disrupted- even for the prince. Now go. I'll not be long."
"Yes m'am..." he sighed, dipping his head a bit and then he left.
I was silent, totaly stunned... prince? challenge? Deadline? Issues?... Was my Valleen, my beautiful, sweet, fraud something more? I had always thought her just another one of them, and nothing more. It was then that I began to think that perhaps I'd been wrong... No, no I was totally right. She was pretending to be something else, the role was just opposite of what I thought it- she was not insignificant pretending to be grand, but maybe someone important hiding amoung the misds of us. But it didn't make any sense... Why would a lady of such prestiege associate with a class only a fraction lower than herself and hide her power? Usually it was flaunted, a fancy broachade displayed for all the world to see in hopes of invoking envy. I decided that I would have to investigate this further...
