Some story ch. 3

  He looked amazing. His hair fit perfectly beneath his beautifully embroidered hat and fell softly against his face. It was light brown and cut up the back the longest part barely reaching the middle of his neck. Many emotions lay still on his face and with such withdrawn sadness and regret did he stare past his plate that Elka wondered how he managed to even put the occasional bite he lifted into his mouth. He worried that he would fail once and the image would be ruined, for all his denial of the event around him to others Elka knew he looked simply like a bored prince, not given to sinful and passionate emotions such as the Lord Tomby, reserved and regal.
  And he must admit however much he had disapproved of his entirely black outfit when Hansel had insisted on wearing it, really he was the only one still in mourning clothes, it went incredibly well with the entire image.
  Elka smiled. His depression would leave soon; he was just still upset about teh duchesses death. Elka laughed at his word choice "the duchesses" she didn't even have a name now it had been completely forgotten as if she had never existed. It wasn't even capitalized.
  "What are you looking at?" Hansel turned to stare at him with an annoyed look.
  "I was just thinking how noble you look." Elka couldn't help but smile sarcastically as Hansel's glare darkened and continued in a voice like velvet. "No on will doubt your ability as Duke after today. Its all about appearances to these people you know."
  "I hate this," he looked grossly at Elka's outfit. It was light blue with darker blue embroidery and trimmed in white lase. "You could have at least worn black."
  "But this is a celebration."
  "Of death."
  "Of a new begging." Elka corrected grinning.
  "The beginning of the end then. I never agreed to this."
  Elka laughed, "What happened to your determination? I thought you wanted power.
  Do not think us not being here would change the circumstance of Lady Latreem's death." It was a lie but oh well. Elka continued speaking sounding concerned. It didn't sound forced at all.
  "We are simply taking advantage of something unfortunate. Think, would you rather Lord Tomby be Duke? If you do not want this job now, and i assure you your mind will change, then think of it as a last request from your "mother", a community service if you will. The last thing she would want is her cruel brother ruling over her beloved people."
  Hansel stared at him for a moment and looked a way looking retched.
  "I supose you are right. But i still can not be happy about this."
  "Its okay it is normal to feel sad. It is because she was special to you and you haven't had time to mourn proberaly because of the chaos." Elka smiled again.
  "But now is not the time to do so either. You should enjoy yourself, why don't you dance?"