Hello and welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors. Good to be back after missing a week. I’m not quite sure why that happened; probably because everyday is still Blursday around here and I forgot until the signup deadline had passed. But life is shaping up and so is the plot, so …

Onward! Today I get to introduce a favorite-to-write character of mine, the mysterious lady in red from Snow, my current work-in-progress.

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The woman bowed her head again. She had a regal bearing, and Gabriel guessed she must be a relative of one of the visiting lords. Her black hair was swept up in elaborate braids, knotted at the base of a long and elegant neck. Her nearly perfect white skin set off her dark eyes. She wore a scarlet gown with bell sleeves and a sweeping skirt that must have made traversing the many narrow stairways of Rosenthal difficult. But she was dressed for the feast, obviously. Dark jewels glittered on her fingers.

“Begging your pardon,” she said.  “I had hoped we would be introduced properly, by King Tristan.  I am Gwyneth, widow of Lord Baltan.”

That’s the official ten. Here’s a bit more:

Gabriel rummaged through his memory for the name Baltan and came up with nothing.

“Well met, Lady Baltan. You must have travelled a long way.”

“I did, your lordship. I came to request the aid of the queen but alas, she died before I could reach Rosenthal.  Your brother, King Tristan, kindly took me in.”

Gabriel moved farther into the room and glanced at the large leather bound tome in Lady Baltan’s arms. He recognized it as a book of poetry, one of his mother’s favorites.  An unreasonable irritation pricked at him, but he stifled it. It was wrong to expect his mother’s rooms to be preserved as a shrine. She never would have wanted that.

“You’ve been here since the queen’s death?” he asked.  He walked to the hearth, which was cold.  He couldn’t remember ever seeing it unlit, even in the depths of summer.

***

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Blurb in progress for Snow:

Following the death of his mother the Queen, Prince Gabriel returns home for the first time in three years, hoping for a reconciliation with his estranged brother, the new king, but all is not well at Castle Rosenthal. King Tristan has fallen under the sway of a mysterious noble woman with a dark past, and all along the border of the Black Forest, magical denizens are on the move. Gabriel begins to fear for his life. Is the handsome huntsman in on a plot to assassinate him, or is there an even darker, more evil power afoot? A forced flight into the Black Forest may expose ancient magic at work, if Gabriel can survive long enough to uncover it.

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