<span style="color: #0080FF">Earl Wylyam Ramsay</span>did not object when Elizabeth pulled her hand away and intentionally left her glove behind. Any favor of hers was a memento that the young man treasured. He usually looked over his small collection of them when writing to her. In the long months between their sporadic meetings it was nice to have something physical to remind him of her feelings.<br/><br/>Wil curled the glove up in his fingers before anyone else realized what had happened and slipped it into his pocket. While his favorite memento was a lock of her hair that she had sent once, the glove was still truly appreciated. This was especially so since she could not say how she felt in public – so any physical representation of her feelings sent the young man reeling.<br/><br/>He smiled warmly in the face of Sir Jonas’s and Peter’s cool responses – taking their negative tone in stride. Clearly Wil didn’t have their approval, but nonetheless he didn’t really care. The young noble was someone who truly and desperately loved Elizabeth – and was an Earl to boot. Someday her family would come around, he suspected. Wil also took comfort in the knowledge that Jonas didn’t want to marry her off to anyone – so he had as good a shot as any man in that court at one day convincing him to relent. Based on Elizabeth’s letters he suspected that her mother would have liked him. He took no small amount of pride in that, even though he would never have the pleasure of knowing for sure in this life.<br/><br/>“Ah do indeed wish yer company, mah friends. Eet’s settl’d then – we shall sup together at the same table tomorrow eve. It will be mah pleasure,” he added with a deferential nod. Wil, realizing his foreign accent was not helping his case, did his best to minimize his brogue while in their presence.<br/><br/>Turning his attention to the thrones at the front of the room, Wil watched with interest as guests approached with their gifts and were received by the King and Queen with circumstance and formality.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">What were they really thinking,</span>Wylyam wondered to himself.<span style="font-style: italic">Especially about that woman Victoria?</span>The Dutchess was the only woman whom Wil genuinely held concerns about. She was someone he knew better than to cross and did his best to steer clear of. Either way the line was still quite long and Wil needed to kill some time, so he decided to try and continue the conversation with Elizabeth’s family.<br/><br/>“If Ah may, will either of yeh be takin’ part een the jousting, or the melee? If so we shoulds be on the same team. Ah coodn’t bring maself to harm either of you – even in mock combat,” Wil added sincerely. The last thing he wanted to do was accidentally harm or even embarrass the two men – that would certainly not help him convince Jonas to release the hand of his daughter.<br/><br/>“I promise yeh, Ah will bring spear and armor this time!” he said, joking about his combat with a brigand outside of Lake Palace.<br/><br/>In that conflict Wil was forced to charge an armored knight with only a sword in his possession. While he won the contest, he was wounded seriously and brought to the very threshold of death’s door. It was only Elizabeth’s quick thinking that saved him in the end.<br/><br/>Wil flashed a charming smile at the two men, hoping that reminding them of his valor while defending Elizabeth would be worth at least a partial thaw of their icy tones.