Vejita sat back against the ceramic grain of his roman bath, contemplating as the aromatic steam of the hot water soothed his nerves. He found he thought best when his whole body relaxed. He needed time to think more than ever. His next move against the Lady Marron, in his effort to secure her love. He didn't know why it mattered so much. He had been raised to be cold and ruthless, therefore emotions meant little to him as dust. However, that night he had met Marron, they exchanged few words, but he was captivated by her feminity and grace, a commodity in his experience, a young life filled with warriors and brazen women like his mother.

Vejita sighed and leaned further into the water. He needed some sort of liaison to act his part to the Lady Marron if she refused to see HIM. 'Refuse to see your own Duke... how preposterous!' he muttered to himself. He stretched his arms overheard. 'Of course!' A thought suddenly sprung to mind.

He snapped his fingers and his burly attendant, Nappa, scrambled in quickly. "You called, my liege," he said.

Vejita nodded absently. "Fetch, Goku for me, Nappa....NOW," he commanded. Nappa shot out of the room faster than a blink of the eye.

Buruma was helping Chi Chi sweep up the kitchen floor when Nappa stumbled in. "You, boy, the master requests your presence," Nappa growled. Buruma looked up from the task. "Now?" she asked. "Yes, NOW!" Nappa retorted, turning to stalk back out the room. "Where is the master?" she asked. "In his washing chambers," the older man replied before disappearing out the door.

'Goodness!' Buruma thought to herself nervously. 'Is it right for me to...' Unbenownst to herself, Buruma's cheeks had turned a bright red. Chi Chi noticed a flushed look on the young boy's face.

"Are you alright there, Goku?"

Buruma looked over at the head cook. "Of-of course," she stuttered. "Why wouldn't I be alright?"

"You are the most awful shade of red," Chi Chi commented. "Are you sure you're feeling all right?"

Buruma nodded hastily. "I'll be all right," she said to her concerned friend. "Better see what the master needs," she mused. "I'll be back to finish in a bit, Chi Chi."

"Sure thing, hun," Chi Chi smiled. "You just tend to your duties. I'll be fine down here. Just take care that you aren't developing a fever."

Buruma blushed, embarassed. "Uh...I'll take care, Chi Chi," she mumbled as she exited the kitchen. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid,' she berated herself. 'I have to remember that I'm a man. Men do not blush,' she thought in admonishment.

Vejita was just stepping out of the tub when his young page arrived, announcing his presence with a knock at the door.

"Come in," Vejita ordered. He wrapped a towel around his narrow waist as Buruma stepped inside the room. Buruma swallowed her saliva at the sight of her master, sweaty and wet from his hot bath, the warm droplets of moisture clinging to his skin like so many jewels. She clapsed her hands behind her back tightly. 'Oh, Kami.. Oh, Kami...' she chanted her herself.

"Boy?"

Buruma was brought out of her thoughts. "Uh...y-yes?" she answered meekly.

"Pay attention, boy. I have no patience for daydreaming today," Vejtia said grumpily.

"O-of course, master. Forgive me."

"Hrmph! Did you not hear a word I have spoken?"

"Lady Marron?"

Vejita rolled his eyes. "Yes.. and?"

"She continues to plague your thoughts?"

"As always, you are a keen perceptor of the obvious," Vejita said, rather annoyed.

"I'm truly sorry, your lordship," Buruma ground out.

Vejita smirked. He enjoyed the certain sparks of the young boy's temper. He reminded Vejita of himself. I'm sending you as an emmisary to Lady Marron on behalf of myself."

Buruma's once happy moody took a turn for the worst. Now she had to meet the object of her dear master's affection? Did not know how she would bare it. She set her jaw. "If your lorship wishes it, I will go."

Vejita nodded. "You will leave at noon," he said, dismissing his faithful page.

Buruma wandered aimlessly down the halls. What was she to do? She had to meet the woman who had captured her master's heart yet returned none of his affections. However, Buruma was not a selfish woman, caring to keep the Duke to herself. On the contrary, she wished him happiness that would last a lifetime, even if she would not be included in that fantasy. She had to make Lady Marron see what a kind, honorable man Duke Vejita was, and what a grand husband he would make. Buruma realized this suddenly. 'If only he could be my husband...' She shook the impossible thought from her head. She played the part of the man to keep locating her brother whom she had since heard no word from. If she had to sacrifice her own happiness to find her brother, so be it. Buruma strode off to get ready for meeting Lady Marron.

Buruma stepped out of the coach at the large gates at the head of Lady Marron's estate. She called out to the attendent on duty.

"Say, you," she shouted to a youth guarding the gates. "I request an audience with Lady Marron on behalf of my master, Duke Vejita of all of Vejita-sei." The youth looked at Buruma warily before replying.

"My Lady is sick therefore she cannot speak with you," the boy said.

Buruma smirked. 'Oh, so he wants to play games,hmmm? 'Sick'? He lies through his teeth.' "I know she is sick," Buruma replied haughtily. "Therefore I must speak with her."

The boy looked throughly surprised. "My Lady is asleep, therefore you may not speak with her," he shot back.

"I know she is asleep," Buruma replied. "Therefore, I must speak with her."

The boy was in a state of consternation. He left his post and ran towards the main house at a good pace.

"Lady Marron," he addressed a young woman sitting at a writing table.

She looked up at the intruders. "What?" she said.

"A young page from Duke Vejita's court is here. I told him you were sick; he seemed to have foreknowledge of that and said he needed to speak to you. I told him you were asleep, he seems to know of that too and said that he needed to speak to you. What shall I do, Mistress?" the boy panted, out of breath.

Marron looked curiously at the youth. "I am interested by this.. ermm...uh..."

"Gohan," the boy offered.

"Yes, Gohan. Let him in," she ordered while throwing a veil over her face.

Buruma waited patiently out in front of the estate, whistling a light tune from her homeland.

"Will you stop that, boy?" Nappa growled from his place on top of the coachman's seat. Their ensuing argument was interrupted by the flying of gravel as the young boy, Gohan, skidded to a halt at the gates.

"Lady Marron had agreed to see you," he said. "But you only," he added as he noticed Nappa descending from his seat. Nappa grumbled and climbed back up. Buruma gave the young boy a dazzling smile and followed him through the gates and into the main house.

As they neared the door to the drawing room, Buruma squared her shoulders and puffed her chest in her effort to look more manly. She sauntered through the large wooden doors. There was a very curvaceous woman sitting at a desk, a dark veil covering her face from view,

"Are you the lady of the house," Buruma asked. "For I would not waste the telling of my precious message on another."

The Lady Marron tilted her head. "Yes, I am master here." Buruma was curious to see the face of her rival.

"Remove your veil so that I may look upon your face," Buruma ordered.

Lady Marron was taken back by her brazen request but complied.

Buruma was surprised. The Lady Marron looked very much like herself but with a rounder face and shallow eyes, Buruma's face was cropped short like a man's but Lady Marron's ran long and full like a waterfall, cascading down her back. Buruma was at that moment envious of the woman's feminine beauty, that which Buruma craved to show her master that she possessed. Marron had a full chest hardly contained by the collar of her gown. Buruma used wrapping tape usually reserved for the legs of horses to hold her own generous chest in and add to her guise of a young man.

Buruma knew she had to flatter Lady Marron to get her guard down and get her accept the proposal of Duke Vejita, as much as that thought pained Buruma.

"So is your master's audience with my face, then?" Marron questioned.

"You are indeed as beautiful as my master says you are," Buruma commented.

Marron giggled. "Well, yes.. I am very beautiful, aren't I?"

Buruma grit her teeth to keep herself from lashing out at the woman who was quickly getting on her nerves. "My Lord loves you like the leaves love the sun; cannot bear to part with its unearthly rays."

Marron giggled. "Your Lord know much about me, but no. I cannot marry him. It will be eight year hence that I will let anyone outside these walls cast their eyes upon my face," she said with conviction.

"If I could love you as my master does," Buruma began, "I would make myself a cabin of willow and birch sticks at the head of your estate, so that I could call upon your name, I would write endless sonnets about you, Lady Marron, and sing them at you from my cabin; your name, then, resounding from the hills of Vejita-sei, and I would make Echo, the mountain nymph, cry out Marron. That you could not rest between the battling of the elements of earth and air, but you should pity me and relent.

Marron stood, stunned, for a moment before collecting her thoughts. "You--you might do as such," she began shakily. "What is you parentage?" she asked the handsome youth.

Buruma replied. "Above what you see my as now, my parentage lies; however, my state is well. I am a gentleman," she concluded.

Marron motioned a hand to dismiss Buruma, though reluctantly, but now before saying, "Go to you master and tell him that I cannot love him. He shall not send anymore messengers, unless perchance you return and tell me how he takes it."

Buruma nodded curtly, turned and left.

Marron watched the young page leave her presence, resting her cheek upon one hand, thoughtfully. Marron carefully repeated Buruma's words. "Above my fortunes, yet my state is well. I am a gentleman." Marron sighed gently. "It is the noble truth," she concluded. "Everything he does: his tongue, his face, his action, heart, and spirit, all plainly show he is a gentleman..." Marron sat upright in her chair. "If he were the Duke, I would surely marry him," she said, aloud, a light blush touching her cheek. THe young page had taken a hold of Marron's affections so quickly like the arrow from Cupid's bow.

Marron sat for a few more minutes contemplating her newfound feelings for the handsome young man, page to the proud yet frigid Duke. Marron chastised herself for falling in love so quickly.

However, it is common knowledge that the blame people place on themselves is gentle indeed and had no deep cut as with the blame placed by others on the self. Marron knew how odd the match would be between herself, a noble woman and a young page. Yet this Goku's words and manner ignited a thirst within herself which would not be quenched until she had the gentle, passionate page for herself. And Lady Marron was a woman who always got what she wanted.

Marron beckoned a servant into her drawing room and proceeded to place a generous diamond ring within his hand. "Take that to the page that has just left my estate, " she ordered. "Tell him that he had left it with me as a present from Duke Vejita." The servant left quickly to do his lady's bidding. Of course, Buruma had NOT left a diamond ring with the Lady Marron; under this pretense, she offered the page a confection of her love for him. But would he accept it, she wondered.

* * * * *