The Bulgarian Mare

“Just charming. Where are you from? I apologize, I have seen you around I just haven’t have the pleasure to chat.”

“I am Bulgarian. My father is a diplomat and ambassador to the king, but he is old and couldn’t make the journey to be here, so I have taken his place.”

Glancing down at the ground, Lui Mei couldn’t help but feel pride in her words of praise. Growing up, she was trained to speak formally and gracefully- her mother always said a man wanted a pretty face not a pretty mouth to hold. So she kept her mouth shut as she watched and listen to the world around her. “I thank you my lady.” Lui Mei bowed at the women before shyly glancing up at her. The way the women talked didn’t seem to match the look of grief upon her face yet she didn’t bush into it.

“The home i’m from I do not yearn for.” Lui Mei Mei spoke as flashes of her true homeland entered her mind. The look of disgust and hatred upon the villagers faces as they shunned and tormented her and her mother was forever engraved into her mind causing her to slightly clench her fist in anger and sorrow, for the unmarked grave of her mother is now burried under years of dirt and rain. “I yearn for my lover who took me in dispite my bloodline and sheltered me from the cruel world i’ve grown accustomed to. But even their humans shunned their cubs.” Snapping her gaze towards the night sky, she allowed a faint smile to dance across her face. “We weep tonight for when the sun rises a new day has come to dry up those tears.”

“You do not need to thank me. I should be thanking you, for filling my head with pretty words tonight,” Alexandra said. Her praise was perhaps a little excessive, but she was a flatterer by nature, and that was not to change tonight. There was sorrow in her companion’s expression, evidently Alexandra’s retort having conjured difficult memories for the other female. “If you do not yearn for it, then it is not your home,” Alexandra said, softly. She had grown up on the move, travelling from country to country with her father. She knew that home did not always mean what it was supposed to. “You said it yourself. You have been sheltered from what would harm you, by the one you long to see tonight. There is your home, not where you have come from. That matters very little,” she added by way of explaining her words. “I hate to think of anybody weeping tonight,” she said, hand rising to her own cheek in a gesture of grief at the prospect. 

Anne turned around her poised head in her usual elegant manner upon hearing the remarks made by a female behind her. Smiling cordially at the seemingly-friendly-looking brunette, she then spoke in her usual slightly soft-spoken but clear and quite soothing voice, which was sometimes laced with compassionate undertones, and this time, it was no exception given the subject of conversation. ”Oh, so you’re one of the guests who attended the first summit in Switzerland and stayed there for quite a period of time, I presume? “she inquired, looking quite interested. “If so, I do sincerely hope for your sake that the your optimistic perspective will come true, dear, “she smiled with a kind expression. She tactfully refrained from voicing her own personal opinions that despite the magnificence, exciting and highly rich in culture and entertainment that composed the quite beautiful reputation of the country  of France, Anne herself did truly question if one could truly feel a sense of peace or home underneath the excitement, glitz and glamour of it all.

“I am indeed,” Alexandra confirmed, speaking as though to her oldest, dearest friend, despite knowing next to nothing of the woman she was speaking to. She knew her name, and her title, of course, she had been brought up better than to not make the effort to learn the names of everyone at court, but that was the extent of Alexandra’s knowledge. “I suppose that will depend on whether or not the others hold the same perspective as me,” she mused, furrowing her eyebrows as though in thought for a moment. She hoped with all her heart that what had happened in the Swiss court would foster a sense of unity between the nobles and the royalty. “However it turns out, it is far better than where we have come,” she added. Switzerland was full of the ghosts of bad memories now, every shadow lurking in the corner a threat. They were better here. 

“It’s a very different country than Switzerland. France and it are so close and yet seem worlds apart.” Ingrid sighed. “Norway is unlike both of them, it’s… interesting to adjust, but I find France a better host already. None of arrived here to news of a plague, already things have begun so much better.” 

“It is different, but I believe that anywhere can feel enough like home if you give it a chance,” Alexandra said, positively. She had, herself, spend most of her childhood with  her father, a diplomat to Bulgaria, travelling from court to court. Change was nothing new to her, and after what had happened in Switzerland, it felt good to start afresh. “Do you miss your home? It has been far too long since I last saw Norway,” she asked, eager not to discuss the circumstances that had caused them to leave Switzerland. “I agree. Here is better,” she put, simply.

“Before my bed a frost of light, is it hoarfrost upon the ground? Eyes raised, I seen the moon so bright. Do you see the same as me? or does the sun block the horizon from me to you.” The soft sorrow laced the women’s voice as she looks upon the night sky. “I bend my head in shame for the path i’ve led slowly turning to in vein. Guide this sorrowful cry to my lover who sadly has to wait for my arrival.” Her words spoke of the grief she felt for being so far away from her lover, China. The homesickness pulled at her heart as she turned her body to the direction of home before feeling the unknown stare upon her back as the kind blew gently. “On my journey here. I’ve learned the moon and sun will never be as one for every time I gaze upon the beauty of the night, my people see the sun. The wishes a prey for will not reach them for when I aww a star fall they see the crown of the sun. Now I have to lean upon the shoulders of the wind to give my letter of yearning to them. Do you yearn for something you can not see?”

“Sorry to intrude, but your words are pure poetry. They are quite beautiful,” Alexandra said with what she hoped was an encouraging smile towards the other female. She saw the beauty in most things in this world, but had found the words particularly lyrical. The question caused her to pause, her smile faltering as her mind flooded with memories she would rather forget, of yearning and sorrow, of a rosy-cheeked little boy and the fever that took him. “My homeland, of course. We all yearn for home when we are not there, do we not?” she said, bracingly. 

“i really do enjoy france…. it’s more peaceful than switerland. it has more cultural value, also. it will spark more ideas.”

“I just love it here, it’s my favourite, after my own country of course,” Alexandra said with a contented sigh. With her father, she had travelled through many of the foreign royal courts, and after, when she was groomed to take his place, but nothing could beat the French. 

Little Henrí was happy to be home, and so was Constance. The stress of the travel back had been nothing compared to the events which had unfolded in Switzerland. For the first time in a long while, she felt well and truly safe. Watching her little lapdog sniffing happily about the hall she couldn’t help but smile. She hadn’t realised that she’d been stressed until now when finally everything was good. Everything except for the way Henrí had decided to try and mount someone’s leg. Constance was swiftly into motion, picking up the little fiend and looking down at him. “Ah, vilain chien!” Naughty dog, indeed. Even as she tried to look disapproving she was having trouble refraining from laughter. “We do not do that.” Pressing a swift kiss to the dog she passed him into the arms of a lady companion. “Dogs will be boys.” 

Many would have given the dog a good kicking, but Alexandra was far too fond of all things small and fluffy. Instead, she gently shook her leg, hoping the movement would dissuade him from getting his leg over, as it were. “It’s quite all right. All men are the same, regardless of the species, it seems,” she said, with a mischievous grin. “At least this one has the decency not to leave a stain.”