675-07-20 - Confrontation
Confrontation | |||||||
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Summary: Rayne sees after Baldwin's injury, a decision is made, and a confrontation follows with grave consequences. | |||||||
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Rayne would have taken notice of that wandering gaze from Baldwin when he scanned the crowds. A further smile would grace her lips as their gazes meet for even a brief moment. As the tournament begins, Rayne is intent on watching the brutality of it all, wincing here and there until it is Sir Baldwin up once, defeated, and then up once more, where he is defeated once more. Still, she is among those cheering ever so faithfully for Sir Baldwin even as he leaves the field. Intent to stay in her place and watch the rest of the tournament, she soon finds word being passed that her healing services are requested. Standing and making her way from the stands, she pulls up the hood of her cloak, this one black in color, while making her way towards the knight's area and their tents. Avoiding eye contact of any kind, she would soon be led to Baldwin's tent where she moves through the flap, and perchance the squire announces a retrieved healer. With the current excitement of the continuing tournament, there was not much needed to be done at the time to conceal her features much yet she remains silent and passive until the young squire is dismissed perhaps.
Things do not look too bad, as Baldwin is still standing. Most of his armor has already been removed with the help of a squire, the battered steel has been deposited somewhere to the side, with the padding as well, leaving the knight in a shirt and a pair of breeches. When the healer is showed in, his grey-blue eyes will instantly shift towards her, studying the hood and the cloak for a moment before he moves over to greet her. Rayne may notice he walks slowly and carefully, his face twisted into a slightly pained grimace.
The squire meanwhile hovers by the entrance, shooting glances over to the tourney field where the joust continues without the Ivounel knight. "Bah, lad, you can go and watch," Baldwin smiles. "Tourneys have become scarce of late, Who knows if there will be another soon." Hardly able to conceal his joy, the young lad offers a swift bow and moves off, hurrying as the next tilt has already commenced.
Once they are alone Baldwin turns his gaze towards the hooded healer. Waiting for her to say something, or reveal her identity. For the longer she hesitates, the more probable it is that this healer is indeed that same one who looked after him in the Isles. Still, the knight does not address her yet, standing there in this battle of silence.
There is a mental note made of how the young Knight walks and overall carries himself. Though a quick glance over is given once more when it is noted that he is without his armor and padding, so she's looking for any place that might be bleeding. For the moment, she does not lower her hood, nor remove her cloak or even say anything. Waiting, perhaps, for the right moment and once the Ivounel knight dismisses the one from his tent she steps in further.
Gazes meet and soon Rayne shifts to bring her hands up and lower her hood before loosening the cloak itself a bit - though she does not remove it just yet. A smile given before she lifts her shoulders in a shrug. "Healers are few and far between, Sir Knight. I hope my presence does not disturb you." Offering this much as she steps a bit further in but not by too much. Knowing there was a chance he might turn her away, if his devotion to his family was still enough to obey his father's wishes.
"You fought well. Or of what I know of these tournaments, you did." Trying to keep the conversation light, but she made no further move to grab anything and she seemed without her satchel. Perhaps bidding her time and waiting for the ultimate moment when Baldwin shows if he is willing to allow her stay in his tent or would turn her away immediately.
No blood stain is visible, if there were a severe wound, it would certainly show on his shirt. Standing a few feet's distance from Rayne, Baldwin will recognize her once the hood is lowered, his grey-blue eyes widening for the briefest of moments before his lips curl into a warm smile. "Miss Rayne.", he greets, his voice hardly more than a whisper. "I had not expected you would actually come here..." Hoped, maybe. "I assure you, it doesn't," he replies then. "On the contrary, I am... glad to see you..." The pain in his ribcage forgotten about, suddenly when the knight smiles back at Rayne, in his eyes a mixture of bewilderment, joy and yes, a tiny hint of worry that someone would certainly enter and disturb them.
Lowering his gaze when she compliments him on performance in the list, the knight will reply: "I certainly did well enough to reach the final three rounds. I am not a great jouster. Never was. Perhaps I have hoped for a better showing, but again..." And here his gaze drifts towards the favor that lies on the bunk, just beside where he had been seated moments ago. "I believe your favor has brought me luck."
No blood, so perhaps he would only suffer sore muscles and perhaps a bruised or even broken rib. She would not know just yet, and pleasantries were not out of the way. When she sees that smile light up his face, she smiles as well and then moves to approach him further. "Here to your tent? A healer is called, a healer answers Sir Baldwin..." She says that aloud enough that perhaps a passerby could hear, and then lowers her voice enough so only he could hear her words. "Aside, I wanted to see you. More than. I needed to be sure you were alright...needed to see, well, you." That smile never fades, but she does note all the emotions in his eyes including that small hint of worry and there is a glance to the tent's entrance. "They'd be fools to disturb you since you are being tended..."
When he is commenting on his own performance she gives a soft chuckle. "Well, I still say you are in a violent profession, Baldwin. Aside from all that, I believe you made a wonderful display. I almost wonder if you held back a little because your opponent had been the Duke of Woriscant himself." A bit of a smirk on her lips then before she hears him speak of the favor and her gaze follows his to the scarf laying there on his bunk. "I'm of the mind to agree with such a belief." Her gaze once more returning to him. "So, are we just sore then? I have a salve that will ease any stiffness that arises, but aside from such, and the vial I sent you before...I'm...not so sure there is much more I can do. You don't seem to have taken any other wounds on..." Business, because if she did not focus her mind, surely she would get herself into trouble.
"Aye," Baldwin replies to Rayne's 'official' inquiry, before he nods to her words meant for him personally. "As I wanted to see you... Miss Rayne." Admitted with a sigh as he lowers his gaze. His eyes moving to the exit of the tent next, a faint smile will conquer his mien. "They are all watching the final tilts of the joust..." Considering mayhaps chances, for the briefest of moments before he takes a step backwards. "But first,...I'd be grateful if you could have a look at this." His hands move to remove his shirt, carefully, as each movement seems to cause him discomfort. A dark bruise is already forming the left side of his lower ribcage. "So salves and such are all that will have to be applied? Or should I just... drink of that green lquid, and hope to be alive enough to wake up again?", he says with a bit of mock fatality. "I just wonder...if it's a broken rib." Judging from the pain, it is highly probable.
Shaking his head next, when Rayne distracts him with her remark about the duke, and he attempts a chuckle, before he flinches and falls silent. "Duke Alajos rode remarkably well. I cannot say I held back, though. I am sure he will be victorious today, and win the joust, as would befit him. The joust that's being held to celebrate his own betrothal."
Rayne's attention would move to the exit of the tent as well, hearing the muffled sounds of cheers from the stands before she smiles and returns her attention back to Baldwin. "It seems that the joust has them well distracted also..." She would say that much before watching as Baldwin takes those steps backwards and asks for her to look at something. It took everything she had to not give away what emotion filled her at such a sight before she would let her gaze drift to the bruising spot on his lower rib cage. "Likely, yes, I could wrap it also so that you're not able to move so much...that way it heals properly. Yet applying a cooling salve is the best option I have for you, unfortunately." A smirk then would befall her lips and before she could stop herself another comment blurts out. "I could also require some tender love and care for you, and insist that I be the one to administer such a thing..." Though, once the words are spoken, they cannot be taken back and her cheeks redden quickly and deeply.
When he flinches she's moving to remove her cloak, revealing the satchel she wore over her shoulder and beneath her cloak. "The Duke rode remarkably well, this much is true. I've met him once. He seems an admirable man. I hope he does our Duchy proud with this betrothal..." Saying this much as she reaches into her satchel to pull out a vial of a dark red color, tinged with green, and a roll of cloth wrapping. "Come...sit yourself down and we'll get you all bandaged up and right as rain..."
A brief nod comes from Baldwin when Rayne suggests her options of treating the possibly broken rib. "Then I would ask you to do that!" Although he looks up again in astonishment when she continues and he exhales, for once his grey-blue eyes locking with that of the healer for a stare long enough for her to discern a sparkle within them. It takes all of his effort to avert his gaze from her. He shakes his head. "We both know that would not be a wise thing...", the knight mutters then, his cheeks slightly flushed. Besides, he's in pain, right?
Following her bidding to sit down next, Baldwin will move back over to the bunk and sit down, very slowly and carefully, a pained grimace that may be his attempt of a smile the reaction to Rayne's comments about the duke. "Aye, he did ride well. I was surprised. I thought dukes have little time for training their martial skills." Then he falls silent as he is properly seated as she requested, an his eyes are raised to look up to the healer. "Be gentle," he mutters, as he already suspects her treatment will involve more pain for him.
Rayne would stand there a moment, listening to Baldwin, to his reaction from the things she said. She also would wait until he was seated on his bunk before she would approach further, kneeling beside him, placing her satchel on the ground beside her and those items she needed to use were placed on top of it. She had something else in her satchel, something she would carry with her until the moment came when she felt ready and able to read the contents. Still, something about what Marcus said, and how Baldwin was reacting now... she could slap Marcus for putting silly thoughts in her head. "So, what would be a wise thing, Baldwin? As it stands, we cannot avoid each other forever, especially if situations like this continue to arise. Why is you father so adamant that you and I not see each other?" Asking as much even if it wasn't her place, and she had a way she wanted to sort of take this conversation - if it should steer in such a way.
"Have I ever not been gentle to you, Sir Baldwin?" Asking that with a smile and a sparkle in her eyes. She moves then to press around the dark bruise, soft hands taking care in not causing too much pain - but there would be pain never the less. She was assessing for the break in the rib, but there still was not much she could do. If the rib seemed in place, then he would be fine, just bedridden for a while, but it also could be he was just severely bruised. After all, it would take a hell of a punch to break a rib thru armor and padding.
"I wish I had an answer to that question," Baldwin replies with a sigh. "As to what be wise. Alas, I am glad to see you, Miss Rayne, can't deny that. Also that your presence does enough to doubt my... previous way of dealing with this." Emotion flashes in his grey-blue eyes, as he admits that, and they linger on the healer kneeling down beside him before he closes them and shakes his head, another sigh leaves his lips when he feels her gentle touch moving to probe the bruise. "As for my father, he is perhaps right not to trust in my discipline, as I feel it is... hard indeed not to give in to... OUCH!"
Even if she was gentle, her inspection is clearly causing him discomfort, and what a sobering effect pain can have! All bewilderment and desires are suddenly forgotten about, but each of the ribs, at least, seems to be in place and not broken, at least not entirely.
Something was lurking in the back of Rayne's mind, but she wasn't sure how to approach the subject with him. "I am glad to see you too, Baldwin. I wish it could be more often..." Saying as much while seeing the emotion in his eyes and then she realizes his words which cause her to blink. "What do you mean....doubt your previous way of dealing with this? What...would you have done differently? Run away to the woods with me?" A laugh then before she's pressing on his side and causing him pain which makes him yell enough she flinches and snatches her hands away. "I'm sorry... Baldwin...I'm so sorry...." Saying that much before she moves to pick up the salve, pouring a little into her hand and then applies that directly onto the bruising.
"Well, it doesn't seem like there are any broken bones. Which is a good thing. It is highly bruised though, likely from a direct hit to the area..." She would say that much while applying the salve which has a cooling affect due to the eucalyptus and mint she's cultivated into it. Once it is applied, she would move to wipe her hands onto her pants legs before thinking twice about it and then moves to take up the wrapping. "I'm not going to bind it too tightly, but I will bind it a bit. I do think you should get yourself to bed and stay there for several days, and then take it easy for a few days after still. Once the bruising begins to go down, you should be your normal self ready to slay the next big evil out to get us."
"I dunno," Baldwin replies with a bewildered smile. "I wouldn't have anything differently, alas, sometimes I catch myself wondering..." A chuckle comes to her question of him wanting to run off to the woods with her, and a slightly awkward look is shot her way. Then the pain comes and he flinches.
Holding still then, his teeth clenched until the pain subsides, the effect from the salve already kicking in, air will leave his lungs next in a relieved sigh. A nod the silent reaction to Rayne's words. "I see. And I thank you..." His words trailing off, as his grey-blue gaze moves to find hers again. "So I have to rest - again?" He shakes his head with a bit of despair. "You are safe from me then.", Baldwin adds after a moment. "I won't run anywhere." //Even not into the woods with her.// His gaze follows Rayne as she prepares the bandages, before it moves again towards the exit of the tent. Cheering can be heard from the crowd, as the jousting still continues.
"It's not a bad life... living out in the woods. It's simple... but it's pleasant enough..." Rayne would say as much when she caught that awkward glance her way. "So...nothing different... you wouldn't have said anything different, or perhaps not said anything at all?" Asking that much before taking a breath and letting it out slowly. She could hate Marcus for all of this, hate him for the rest of his life. Maybe it was all just a bittersweet dream. A fantasy she concocted in her head that needed to be squished. They could miss, and want, and desire all they wanted, but at the end of it all - Marcus was right - a man who loved regardless of station would do all for that love. Baldwin seemed more duty bound.
"Yes. You have to rest again. Maybe if you didn't go around sticking people you wouldn't have to rest so often...." She would say that much while wrapping those bandages around his midsection. "I would also say that I should come check and change the bandages, but since I'm not allowed near you...." She would pull, ever so gently, on those bandages, just enough to keep them snug around his form. Tying off, tucking away, making sure they would stay in place, she then caps the salve and hands it over to him. "One application in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening until that's all used up. You still have that vial I sent you? It will help with the pain as the other did in the Isles...I have another with me if you care to take it also..." Not sure how often he drank it, and how soon he had consumed the last.
Baldwin looks back to Rayne, catching maybe a bit of indignation there in her reply. "It's not that easy," he replies woith a sigh, "for me to leave the path that has been already laid out to me by my father. Gods, even sometimes I think this path will be impossible to follow, with those high goals he'd desire me to achieve - to be honest - I doubt I could ever reach them." The glance he gives her sullen and brooding suddenly. "But if... I should decide to follow my heart in this... more than this will be at stake, than my father's happiness. My family's reputation. Yours, too..." He falls silent then, a tiny twitch of his brows indicating a bit of discomfort, when she pulls the bandage tight and fastens it. The knight will nod to her instruction of applying the salve, accepting it with one of his hands. "Aye, I still have the vial," he replies to her question next. "Haven't used any of it so far..." The conversation now lingering in the area of information being exchanged between healer and patient. Drifting into clamer waters, or so it seems. When suddenly the fingers of his other hand reach for hers, closing about her wrist, and he'll pull her closer towards him.
"Please. Don't leave." His voice sounds hoarse now, his grey-blue eyes locking with her gaze as they stare at her with sudden urgency. "Do not leave me like this. I would hate to feel anything is amiss between us... Rayne." And before he knows what he is doing, his arms move to wrap about her and pull her closer to him, regardless of any dicomfort it may cause him. His own lips are suddenly in dangerous proximity to hers, and if she does not pull away, will seek to kiss her.
Rayne would catch that look while listening to the words that Baldwin speaks. "I do not even know what the reputation of my family is. My parents were healers, and it is what they taught me. It's all I know. With no parents to continue guiding me, no family whatsoever to watch over myself and my actions....I suppose it clouds what all I could consider being right or wrong." She takes a breath then to let out slowly. "But if they left me with any wisdom, it was to follow my heart, my dreams and passions. I never thought I would find myself in such a position..and I suppose with the difference of our lives, I cannot imagine what it is like to hold up to the wishes and desires of my family. Yet reputation be damned, Baldwin. Loving you makes me no different in my abilities to care for the sick and wounded, just as you loving me makes you no worse a knight..."
"Well, I am glad you've not had reason to use the last vial I gave you..." She would say that much further in response to his information about the gifts he received. Having watched the slight discomfort he went through when she finished binding his sides and she could apologize for giving him such discomfort once more, but instead she broods in silence a moment. Until she feels his fingers close about her other wrist, and soon finds herself drawn up and closer towards him, in an instant more his arms are around her, pulling her against him fully.
"I ... I had no intention of leaving just yet, Baldwin... and there is nothing amiss...I do not think..." Or was there? Had he somehow seen into her thoughts, knew of the doubt and uncertainty that plagued her. Knowing it must pain him in no small way to hold her in such a way, and yet she could not bear to draw herself back. His lips in that closeness, hearing the words that pass them and after a moment she simply whispers, "..Baldwin.." before finding his lips have sought her own and in searching find them for a kiss which she certainly falls into, and returns.
While the first kiss they had shared through the bars of a cell in the Isles had been rather brief, more a timid taste rather than a real kiss, their second in the public gardens of Deavel was certainly less restrained, a long and intimate kiss, which Baldwin had broken in the end before leading her back to the inn. Those two kisses had certainly another quality to them though, as they were not overshadowed with denial, the notion that any closeness would never be permitted between the two of them, as there had still been hope to receive his father's blessing.
After avoiding contact ever since he had received the verdict of his father, after a few letters and a meeting by chance with the healer he loved so dearly, it is seems his feelings wash over Sir Baldwin with unexpected force, the kiss continuing for as long as she allows, his lips clinging to hers, unwilling to let go of them, as if this kiss were the last they were allowed, and as if he gave a damn whether they would get caught or not. She may notice, his arms wrapped about her frame are trembling a touch from the tension that suddenly leaves him. And if there is pain from his bruise, he does not care.
At one point the kiss will be broken, and he will smile at his Rayne, his grey-blue eyes overflowing with his sentiments for her. "Rayne...", he murmurs, his hand moving to brush gently along the side of her face. "I... am willing to leave everything behind for you. If that is what you want.... Truly want..."
Indeed there was something about this kiss, how it lingered longer than their first touch of lips certainly, but perhaps even longer than the one shared in the gardens. Rayne held on to it, drank in the moment like it was water and she was dying of thirst. Wandering eyes be damned, if they were caught so be it. All doubt, all agony, everything that was negative about their love, about their wanton need for each other melted away in that singular moment. She knew, beyond anything, that the man holding her, kissing her, loved her. Feeling him tremble, she grips just a bit tighter to him, for the sake of showing she was there for him, and not intending to let go.
Still, they would both need air to breathe, and at some point that kiss would have to be broken. It is with a sigh of near relief that such a thing happens, and Rayne would lift her moss green gaze to find the grey-blue of Baldwin's own eyes, a smile lighting her face. Though what she hears next throws her just a little. She hadn't expected it in the least, but if she needed something cleared up, that question in the back of her mind answered, there it was. Only now that she had it, she wasn't sure what to do. He left the decision with her, but it was one she could easily commit to.
"I want you, Baldwin. Live with me in the forest, your father be damned if we see each other while you live under his roof, I care not. I just want you.. if you have to leave it all behind for such a thing to occur... then I have a heavy heart to see you give up what you've achieved in this life, and yet I am selfish enough to allow myself joy in knowing you would do such a thing." She would speak, and it was perhaps the most diplomatic response anyone could ever give. Yet Rayne never saw herself as a selfish person, and with the mentality to look after the well-being of others... it should come as no surprise she would give such a response. The only thing left was for her to slip away from Baldwin's hold - if but for a moment - because despite all else now certain suspense was killing her, and she would pull out a wooden cylinder from within the confines of her satchel, and then....she sets it aside and returns to Baldwin's side, now relaxed enough to sit on the bed next to him, in close contact. "So, will you? Come out to the forest of Woodwatch Keep, and survive with me for the rest of our days?"
The decision was not really one that he had made after calm contemplation of the alternatives, rather a realization when Rayne had suddenly been reunited with him in that kiss, that he could not bear to be without her, and to continue without her like he had been forced to before. It would have involved a deeper pain than the current discomfort of his bruised rib.
"It will be my home, and my father's support I will lose," the knight clarifies. "I am a grown man and free to make mine own decisions. I'm a knight still, I will be able to make a living, perhaps enough for the two of us. So, yes." He smiles. "I want to be with you, Rayne. And I'd like to go about it properly. As it is you I love I want us to get married. We will seek out the Old Temple in Athereyne, or maybe... the Blessed Clearing here in Woriscant. We'll have one of the former priests give us their blessing and record our marriage in the chronicles, for all to see. We can live in the woods, or someplace else, I don't really care, as just to be with you... is the only thing that matters to me now."
And damned be his father, whose high ambitions have suffocated him for as long as he can think.
Rayne listened to all that Baldwin spoke and would shift to press a gentle kiss against his cheek. "You care not where we live, and I care not where we marry. Though it seems we are of the same mind...that so long as we are together. Everything else is just details. I simply wish to be with you, Baldwin." Though she wondered if she should let him break the tie that is between father and son. On the other hand, she knew he could not live under that for very much longer. In fact, in these moments of revelation, of Baldwin making a decision to move away and off with her, he sounded the happiest she had heard him since upon their meeting.
Which led to another memory and she would let out a soft laugh. "I remember, not so long ago, the young strapping knight who stumbled and stammered when in the presence of a woman. Look at how you have grown and in only a short time..." A smirk, and if some people had it their way, she would be locked up for witchcraft and surely that was another example of such. Either way she would smile, and then seems to give it some thought. "So...how would you go about doing this? Arrive at home only to tell your father you're leaving? Not go back at all? Do I sneak you away with nothing but the clothes you're wearing that were under your armor? Surely there are some things at your home you wish to pack and bring with you." A sentimentality of course, and nothing more. Rayne was just the type to think of something such as that.
Reaching to take his closer hand to her, she attempts to entwine their fingers and gives his hand a squeeze. "I love you, Baldwin."
A soft chuckle comes when Rayne speaks of his old stammering self. "Oh, I'd rather forget about that time. And to be honest, I do not intend to sneak away. I need to tell my father personally." His smile dims, but the determination in his eyes remains. "I need not return to Athereyne, to tell him this, actually..." He adds thoughtfully, hardly disturbed by the sound of approaching foot steps from outside, through the already dimming of the cheer of the crowd. Nor by the sound of the tent flap being drawn aside to admit a single figure in.
"Hrrrm."
Someone clears his throat and Baldwin looks up, his grey-blue eyes widening as he resists the urge to jump to his feet too hurriedly. "Father," he gasps, and for once some of the determination is simply drowned in surprise, shock and something else that shows in the flicker in his grey-blue eyes.
"Now ain't that sweet," Lord Erek intones, his brows furrowed in displeasure as his eyes shift from Baldwin to Rayne and then back to his son again. "Is that how you two keep to your word? You disappoint me, Baldwin. And here I thought you were too virtuous to consider dallying with this commoner wench?"
"Well... sneaking away was only a thought... a passing thing to be honest. I did figure you had a need to go home and get some things together." Rayne would say that much, but when Baldwin mentions about not even having to return home to tell his father he was leaving, she simply nods her head. "Suppose it is a good thing I have one or two about who will help me by running letters and other such things into town when I am not prepared to be present." She would say this much before something catches her, a flicker of motion in her peripheral vision and she would turn her gaze to the entrance of the tent only to see Sir Erek there and not looking too pleased.
Though it is the surprise from Baldwin that catches her and she would perhaps be the one to stand, and while the scene could look suspicious, it had all began with innocent intent. Still, what Erek says has Rayne getting her back up just a bit as he is of the mind to call her nothing more than a commoner wench. "My lord, a healer was sent for...and with one unable to tend to anyone due to her own condition, and none other being present, who am I to deny such a request?" Oh she wasn't going to keep the facade of such up for very long, and perhaps had a thought that Erek knew of what they were discussing.
There was also the matter of an out of place wooden cylindrical container laying in the middle of the floor, which she had retrieved and then set aside.
It takes him some effort, but Baldwin rises slowly from the bed, his face temporarily twisting into a pained grimace. When he finally stands he does so with his back straight, his head held with a certain stubborn pride.
"Father.", the knight greets with the hint of a tremble in his voice. "Indeed. I had sent for a healer, and that it was Miss Rayne who followed the call has been a coincidence, and certainly not design." His gaze flits to Rayne and he will nod ever so slightly if their eyes should meet, before it returns to the steward.
"She is /not/ a wench, and I ask you not to call her that, neither in my presence nor hers!", he says, with more emphasis to his words now. Again that flicker shows in his grey-blue eyes as he inhales deeply. "Father. Tis a good thing you come to check on me as it gives me the opportunity to set certain things straight."
"Oh? Were you hurt?", Erek retorts sharply. "I wonder how you managed, after putting so little effort in to win the joust. I still have a hard time to accept you were bested by the duke, that whining weakling of a man. But indeed. A healer was sent for then?" The steward stands there in the middle of the tent assessing Rayne and his son coldly. A tiny twitch of his brows when he notices that glance his son shares with the woman.
"So? Out with it, Baldwin. What is it? I can't wait to hear what you have to say.", he finally spits out, impatience and a certain anger already clearly discernable in his tone. His gaze may brush that cylindric container, but only briefly, as it does not seem of much importance to him at the moment.
Rayne catches that glace from Baldwin but she just as easily only gives a slight nod of her own before her attention is taken elsewhere. Though she seems to smile even more as Baldwin sticks up to the fact that she was called a wench, and how she was nothing of the sort. Not that she would ever stand up to someone above her for calling her such a thing, it was nice that there was someone to go to her defense.
"A bruised rib, My Lord... either the Duke, or the one who rode with Sir Baldwin after...got his side fairly decently." She couldn't help but give a report, affirm what has been said from them both. Still, with father and son talking among themselves a moment, and with certain affirmation in her head, Rayne would move to pick up that cylinder in the middle of the room, busying herself with it a moment. Perhaps to make it seem like it was something else pertaining to her calling in life. The healer she was, when truly she was reading a line of her own history. Though she wouldn't say anything just yet, reading Marcus' words diligently to ensure she did not overlook something.
Still, it was something that may or may not work in favor of Baldwin and herself. Only time would tell in this moment.
Baldwin exhales, and some of his posture seems to fade, when he is confronted with his father's disappointment. His eyes grow wide with astonishment, as he cannot believe his own ears. "Father! I rode as well as I could. And need I stress the fact that I wasn't unhorsed, and only bested by points? And after all, I've reached those final rounds. Does that weigh so little in your eyes?" Lowering his eyes then as he swallows when the duke gets his share of taunts. "Father, I..."
His gaze follows Rayne as she walks over to collect the cylinder, and the corners of his mouth twitch slightly. Then looking back at his father as he urges him to speak.
"Th...There is something I have to tell you, father. A m...matter of great importance. I know, you may not approve, but hear me out. It is mine decision, and hers too, that I will marry Miss Rayne Devantry. Because we are feeling a closeness to each other we can never experience with any other. We are in love, yes, which may mean little to you. But... we cannot be without each other. Father. I am willing to accept the consequences, but I'm not willing to deny Rayne the legitimacy of the matrimonial bond."
Erek listens to his son as he speaks, ignoring Rayne for now. Not even acknowledging her explanation, but scratching his chin pensively, while his impressive forehead is wrinkled with scepticism. A silence follows Baldwin's bold words. Until finally Erek's reaction comes, and he laughs looking clearly amused. That amusement is tempered though by the steely look in his own grey-blue eyes.
"Hah! Speak no more of this folly, and I will be willing to forget you've mentioned any of it. You are clearly not yourself, son, but the victim of this wench's cunning and your lack of control over your..." A vague gesture there as Erek fails in putting it nicely. "... your cock! You will never marry this woman because I, your father, will not allow it."
"Now just a damn minute!" Rayne, the commoner with a loose cannon for a tongue, would stand and turn to face the pair discussing Baldwin's fate. Though the colors of her eyes, while usually a mossy green, would have hardened to a deep jade even as the corners of her lips lift in a twitchy smirk. "Do you truly think so little of your son that you would consider him to have been wiled out of his mind? Your son has been nothing short of a gentleman, and I - My Lord - am not some petty brothel whore." Saying this much as she moves towards Baldwin, actually handing the papers over to him - whether he chooses to look or not is beyond her.
Still, the papers depict notes of following a line that connects Rayne to a noble house of Woriscant. She's nothing short of a bastard branch from the house - of course - but noble blood beats within her veins.
Her attention, however, returns to Sir Erek for a moment. "If you think so little of your son, then what matter is it to you that he does as he wishes with his own life? Who is it that truly determines the sanction of those bound by duty? Hell, if you were any type of father, knowing that your son is so willing to do whatever it takes to be the man he wishes himself to be, then what part do you truly have to tell him otherwise?" A smirk befalling her lips still. "Also, my dignity and sanctity are well in place and tact, My Lord, to have anything thought of myself otherwise is quite a grievance."
Baldwin has turned very pale at his father's reply. He swallows hard and lowers his gaze, the expression in his grey-blue eyes pained, as if his father had slapped him in the face - which in fact he had verbally, in a way. His fingers will close around the parchment Rayne hands him, without looking at it first, as he tries to regain his composure and his wits to meet his father in the next round of this verbal sparring about his future, thereby leaving Rayne the opportunity to give her opinion on the matter - which manages to bring a faint smile of admiration for her spirited reply about on his face.
When she is done he has little to add. "I am very much myself now, father, more than I ever was. Because until now, I've tried to fit in that picture you had of me, trying so hard to please you, father. To make you proud. But you ask too much of me. I will no longer deny myself and my convictions. I am a knight, aye, and for making that possible, I owe you my gratitude. I will remain true to the principles of chivalry. And I will NOT become the pawn in your game of power you may use to further your petty ambitions. If you will no longer have me as your son, so be it." His voice is quiet, the light tremble beneath the outwardly calm surface soon fading, as he becomes more and more determined during his speech. After that he will drop his gaze to the parchment, skimming it, as if to punish his father by ignoring him for a moment.
Lord Erek meanwhile will take his time and listen, his mouth twitching when Rayne speaks. "Bravo, a commoner wench who doesn't know her place," he smiles impertinently as he brings his hands together for a brief mock applause. It is when Baldwin speaks though, that amusement will turn into displeasure, and finally anger.
"Who do you think you are, son? This isn't the way you should talk to your father! A pawn? I wish you weren't that dimwitted, that our family could be actually proud of you. Instead you've disappointed us, more than once. Look at the way you took care of your sister. Look at the trouble you got yourself into whilst in the Isles. Look at your repeated failings at tourneys. You were not born for great things, and so we will do fine without you, Baldwin. You are disowned, disinherited, unfit to carry our name. And from now on you will not be my son anymore."
A glare is shot in Rayne's direction. "Congratulations, wench. You got yourself a rather poor example of a knight and nobleman. Enjoy him while you can.", he hisses, before he spits out, saliva hitting the ground a few inches away from his son's feet, and the steward moves to leave the tent.
Rayne would listen to the continuing interaction between Baldwin and his father, though it did nothing to quell the rage that was still building inside of her. Still, she would actually hold her tongue still for the moment while they converse and it is not until the very end of what Sir Erek will say about Baldwin being disowned and the like that she would scoff and then gives a laugh. Though she finds the Steward's eyes upon her, and listens to the words he speaks in her direction and there is a shake of her head given. "I think I have myself a fine example of a knight and nobleman. And I shall enjoy him for the rest of my days, gods willing. On the further, if you do not think he is fit for the house of Ivounel... then perhaps he will find a place of worth for the house of Lithgor." Saying that much before she would fold her arms across her chest and actually gives a little bit of a smirk to those words.
Baldwin would have had time enough to skim through the papers by now, his eyes widening as he slowly comprehends the meaning behind them. Looking up to shoot his father a glare just in time to catch that final remark to Rayne, and see his father's saliva flying his way. His grey-blue eyes shifting to Rayne briefly as she speaks, and finally lets the bomb drop.
It is enough to make his father stop at the exit and turn slowly to shoot the healer an inquiring glance. "I beg your pardon? Are you meaning to tell me you are some long lost daughter of this admittedly minor House of Woriscant?" His lips curl into an amused smile. "My, you are not only impertinent, but also mad."
"It is the truth," Baldwin hears himself speak up against his father. "She... her grandfather was fathered by a Lithgor. According to these notes.", he says, looking astonished as he holds out the papers.
"You can go check the records just as I had a friend of mine do. As a part of my initial agreement to stay away from your son as best as possible, I had to have certain errands and tasks ran by others. Cost me a pretty coin or so, but worth it in the long run never the less." Rayne would speak, her head help upwards in a certain sort of proud way. "Someone by the name of Arix. Sir Arix Lithgor... now that I see nothing keeping me away from running my own errands, I may look further into it myself." Oh and that smirk never fades, seeing the look on Sir Erek's face when she made the announcement to begin with was priceless enough and now... though notes on parchment were one thing...Rayne knew the information received from Marcus was true enough. A glance over her shoulder before she steps back, to place herself at Baldwin's side, with a more prideful and happy point in being there. Feeling as though she belonged there now and forevermore.
Lord Erek grabs the papers and studies them briefly, before he hands them back to Baldwin. "That does not change a thing, really," he remarks with a slightly sour look. "You'll marry a commoner wench with a tiny hint of noble blood, a bastard's granddaughter - now, what difference does it make?"
And here he turns his icy stare to Rayne. "Do not fancy yourself as being on par with us, wench. You remain far below Baldwin's station. And I had hoped for so much more." The Steward of Castle Equitaine lets out a mirthless chuckle before he turns and disappears through the tents exit.