Court Affairs (Charles Brandon Love story)

Chapter 2: Detestation of Parties

After the revelation she heard from Anthony, Katherine refused to speak to him. Her pride had been wounded therefore she no longer felt any cause to help him gain Lady Buckingham's favour. Although she had been able evade him for the past couple days, Katherine's luck would soon run out. Tonight was another one of the King's parties of course she was being forced to go by Anne. Meaning she would be stuck in a room full of drunk courtiers and more importantly a drunk Anthony.

Katherine absolutely detested parties, she hated the music, the wine, the fake politeness and most importantly she hated dancing. Men's hands tended to wander in the dances, and women tended to have sharper tongues when influences by drink. Yet here She stood in a corner with Lady Anne. Both dressed in their best gowns, Katherines was dark blue and gold. The corset was so tight she felt like she was suffocating but Anne insisted it made her breasts look perfect and would have any man drooling in a moment. Though she hated all of this, she loved Anne dearly. Which is how she ended up here listening as she rambles on and on about how Charles had asked for her favour at the jousting arena today, and how displeased she was at the fact I had not come. 

"I mean really Kat, I can't understand why wouldn't come. He rode right up to me and asked for my favour. MINE! he is going to ask me to dance with him I just know it" Anne gushes squeezing my hand which pulls my wandering attention back to her. 

"You know how much I hate jousting. I can't bear how often they harm themselves" Katherine lies. Not wanting to admit that if she went, she would have had to face Anthony and his team of irritating friends. 

"Oh that's a lie and we both know it Kat, you love jousting. You used to always come with me and watch." Anne pushes and tugs my hand as if to emphasize her point. Just as she was about to reply the clearing of a throat commands both girls attention.

"My ladies" Sir Brandon smiles charmingly and bows extending his hand to Anne who quickly gives it and smiles at his kiss. 

"Your Grace" Anne coos. "To what do we owe the pleasure of your presents" 

"I came to ask if my lady would like to dance" He smirks at her and she giggles brightly nodding "Of course, If her grace is fine with it" Anne looks over at Kat pleadingly and she nods.

"Go ahead, Ill find something else to hold my attention while you are away" Katherine hums and nods at the pair. Not missing the way Charles eyes roam over her figure. Which causes her blood to boil, he was holding Anne and had the audacity to look her over. 

"I'm sure you will" He smirks and leads Anne to the floor. She rolls her eyes and turns to find something to keep her interest while Anne is away, thats when she bumps into a chest. 

Looking up she finds Anthony smiling down at her brightly his hands on her shoulders to keep her steady. "Lady Macbeth, I feel like I haven't seen you in a while" He says brightly and she huffs at him.

"Mr Knivert" She greets shortly and attempts to move from his grasp. His smile quickly falls as he watches her. "Kat what's wrong?" He attempts to stop her but she pushes his hands off.

"Nothing Mr. Knivert, I am perfectly fine. Please excuse me" Katherine says and takes a step back, moving to turn and bumping into another chest. 'dear god they are everywhere'  she thinks. Looking up and meeting the eyes of a young lord she had only seen twice before. He was handsome, handsome enough to prove she could indeed get men to court her.

"My Lord, Pardon my misstep" Katherine says sweetly to the handsome man, and he looks down chuckling.

"There is nothing to pardon when such a beautiful lady crosses my path" He says and Katherine laughs at this, smiling charmingly at him. Almost forgetting Anthony's presents, that is until he opens his mouth.

"Lord Remingham, Sorry to interrupt but I was just speaking with Lady Macbeth over something of great importance." Anthony says. If she didn't know any better she'd think he sounded possessive. But she did know better, and not even four days ago he said she was not his taste. 

"And lucky for you Lord Remingham, we have just finished" Katherine says gently but with an underlining venom taking Remingham's arm. "Please Mr. Knivert must want to go find himself a partner to dance with. Hopefully he can find one that isn't to prickly. You know how some court ladies are" She says making sure to look at Anthony when she recited the words he had used earlier to describe her.

Anthony pales at that sentence looking over to Katherine quickly, he moves to say something but Remingham cuts him off. 

"Lucky for me indeed, please let's dance" Remingham smiles brightly and leads Katherine away, who simply looks back at Anthony noticing regret cross his features as she gets in place to dance. Unaware Remingham has just lead her to stand beside Anne and Charles. 

The music begins and so does the dance, it is only when a warm hand grabs her waist that she notices whom it belongs to. 'Fuck me' she thinks as her eyes lock onto Charles bright blues, a smirk playing on his lips as they turn. She can just feel every Anne's eyes burning into the pair as she was stuck with Lord Remingham for the next section of the dance. This of course wasn't her doing and she knew Anne would see that. Or at least she hoped Anne would, Katherine had no interest in stealing an unstealable man from her.

"So you can dance, I'll have to let Anthony know he owes me three pound" Charles jokes and pulls Katherine closer. She resists the urge to roll her eyes as she looks away to survey the room.

"That was a stupid wager on his part, every lady at court must know how to dance in order to get away from unwanted conversations" Kat replies earning a snort from the man.

"I suppose I now owe him money since I didn't believe you had the ability to speak. Considering  you always run off whenever I approach" He says bitting his lip and twirling her around, a scoff passes her lips before she can stop it. "what, does my gambling displease my lady?" 

"A lot of things about you displease me Lord Brandon" Katherine replies sharply, not bothering anymore to hold her tongue. Brandon was famous for not holding his so what was the worst he would do, stop dancing with her 'what a shame that would be' 

"how unfortunate, I suppose we shall have to remedy that, my fair lady" Charles says in a light tone but his eyes darken lightly and this time she does roll her eyes. 

"Why don't you go back to seducing Anne, she'd much prefer it. Far better than I" and with that last bow the song comes to an end and Katherine pulls away quickly and goes back to Remingham who takes her hand preparing for another dance.

Charles is left completely stunned, he had never been turned down so bluntly by a woman. Especially not one he had so close to him, not one that was so damn beautiful. In that moment Sir Charles Brandon decided he would do everything in his power to get her in bed.

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don't mind me just vibing over here writing two chapers

that are each over a thousand words. But I can't write a 150 draft 

for my effective writing class.