<b>Carriage of the Duke of Ostbering</b><br/><br/>Basil stared blankly at the page, the same page he’d been staring at for the past five minutes without a single word registering.  He couldn’t stop running all the possible scenarios the young Lady might get up to when let loose on the capital.  Very few of them seemed good.  For him, anyway.<br/><br/>He wished she wasn’t as likeable as she was, maybe then he could forced himself to quit years ago.<br/><br/>The command from the Duke to travel to Auxcora with Lady Tara had been a mixture of curse and blessing.  Basil was an Auxcora native, born and raised, but had spent the last twenty years in Ostbering trying (and failing) to guide his charge in the proper ways of noble behavior.  In all that time he’d returned to the capital once, for his uncle’s funeral, and the thought of finally returning to the bastion of manners and decorum and culture and girls-who-didn’t-drive-him-mad-on-a-daily-basis had filled him with a simmering excitement.<br/><br/>But at the same time, he would be completely responsible for Tara’s behavior…<br/><br/>He did his best not to think about the impossible task given to him, it would only drive him mad.<br/><br/>His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden rapping on the carriage door.  He turned to it, glowering as his eyes narrowed.  No doubt it was some beggar or other undesirable that was looking for some charity from a ducal carriage.  Tara liked to indulge them but they’d get little charity from him!  Frowning, he snapped his book closed and moved to the door, looking to shoo the beggar away.<br/><br/>He flung the door open and his mind seemed to explode in pure blankness.  He stared gormlessly at the vision of beauty that greeted him.  The angelic looking lady, clad all in simple white garments that only served to enhance her beauty, armed a look of pleading desperation clashed violently with the smirking devil that he did his best to serve on a daily basis.<br/><br/>“Whah,” he managed to say in a panted breath, the best he could manage in such a shocked state.<br/><br/>This was one of the reasons he’d been so happy to accompany Lady Tara to Auxcora.  The women back in Ostbering may not have been as insane as his mistress, but they still held that wildness that seemed to infect all the Ostbering folk.<br/><br/>He’d long yearned for a cultured and dignified lady of Auxcora, and had planned to do his best to find a partner on this journey south, one willing to accompany him back to the wilds of Ostbering.  He’d never expected to find such a paragon of beauty and civility to come knocking on his door before they’d arrived in the city proper.  She looked like she’d just stepped out of a poem and into life.  Was this what they called serendipity?  Was this his reward for such long years of suffering?<br/><br/>He examined the worried look in his eyes and flicked his gaze up the street, automatically eyeing the two nondescript men walking with a combined purpose.  Years serving the Duke and Lady Tara had developed a sense for danger, whether he liked it or not.  He turned back to his guest, trying his best to arrange his bungled thoughts into something coherent.<br/><br/>“Can I help you, my lady?”<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>