alt_regulus | KrEEEEchr

what happened next?

Well, the new young lord decides he wants the yeoman's property as a hunting lodge, but when he demands it, the yeoman refuses, and so the lord challenges him to a duel. But first, the lord blasts the magical capstone and gateway that protected the yeoman's property, and you know that means bad things will happen as surely as you ever know anything about stories and their telling.

And so

And so, on the last morning of May, as the mists rose up from the dew-draped meadows, the yeoman told his son to be brave and steadfast, to care for his mother and to do his utmost to keep the land, whatever the outcome of the duel that day. To his wife he gave a locket he had transfigured from the latch salvaged from the ancient iron gates; it contained a shard of grey stone and a curl cut from his black hair, tied with a blood-red ribbon. Last of all before mounting his tall steed, he raised her hand to his lips. And then he rode out of the yard with a brave clatter of hooves upon cobbles.

The duel ended badly. On both sides. Straight off, the young lord broke the codes of honour, casting his first curse before the count was complete, but even wounded, the yeoman prevailed, bringing that unscrupulous nobleman to his knees. Before their witnesses, the lord renounced all claim to the property and signed a note promising that neither he nor his heirs would ever challenge the right of the yeoman or his heirs to hold that land for as long as their line continued. When all the witnesses had placed their marks on the note, the yeoman bowed and turned, but before he had taken a step, he swooned. Despite the Healer's best efforts, he died where he fell. He was buried with his wand in his hand, wearing his lord's livery like all his fathers and grandfathers before him.

I know that sounds terrible and sad, but it's not a story about this yeoman; it's a story about his son.

Did the son seek revenge on the lord when he grew up?

I like the bit about the locket.

I do think it's a bit awful he was buried in the livery of the man who insulted and killed him like that, even if it was tradition.

Pansy, I think it might be best if you were to ... limit your interactions with Regulus.

I know you are both grown quite fond of each other; Regulus has always possessed those qualities that both endear and amuse, like so many who rely on others' forbearance and goodwill for their own livelihoods. But his current circumstances are bound to cause you both further distress - his when he cannot sufficiently explain to you the privations to which his fealty subjects him, and yours when through such awkwardness he fails, as he inevitably shall, to meet your expectations, whether they are phantasies you have together concocted, attributes you have assigned to him without his active participation or particularly those in which he has given you any encouragement toward superlatives.

I would not wish proscribe you from continuing an acquaintance that obviously suits you both. Let us say instead that I merely hope to spare you a disappointment that I fear may soon confront you, should you grow ever more entangled in promises which your 'pirate' may find himself unable to uphold. Maintain your friendship, certainly, but be wary of deepening your attachment.

If nothing else, take instruction from his previous conversations with Mrs Malfoy, notably his many warnings that his time and attention are not solely within his own liberty to dictate, nor fill as he chooses.

After a fashion. I won't spoil the rest because you'll enjoy it much more if I send you the book (when books can be sent again, of course). It has wonderful pictures in the Russian style--all billowy dresses and swirling robes and sloe-eyed cattle and apple-cheeked children. It's a bit young for you, but if you enjoy it, perhaps you'll keep it to give to ~~your~~ some young person one day.

I've always remembered the locket. Mother had one with a lock from each of us, but she stopped wearing it when we were small and stuffed it in the very back of a drawer in her dressing table. She doesn't put much stock in such things, I suppose.

I think the point of his being buried in livery is not to do with the young lord, at all, but with the fact that a yeoman gives fealty to the lord's house. It's not the individual lord or yeoman that matters, but the line and the office, you see. The insignia marked him as a true son of his fathers as much as it marked him as a true vassal to the lords of that manor.

KrEEEEchr

Re: I know I shouldn't, but...

Re: I know I shouldn't, but...

Re: I know I shouldn't, but...

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Re: I know I shouldn't, but...