fitzloved quote bot

"Bee looks like me! Yours and mine and doubtless the most beautiful and clever child that ever existed!"

"Then, good night, Fool." I opened the door and went out into the corridor. "Good night, beloved," he said from his fireside chair. I shut the door softly behind myself.

"Sorry about your friend. That Golden fellow." "Yes." "You went back a way." "We were boys together."

"If you insist we must both take different names now, then I shall call you Beloved. And whenever I call you that, you may call me Fool." He simpered a lovesick smile. "Good night, Beloved. We have been apart far too long."

I began to tremble but not as badly as he did. He shook. I went to him, drew him to his feet and held him tightly, as much to still my own shaking as his.

I wished they would all go away. Except the Fool. I wished he would join me. Somehow, I had always thought he would join me.

His touch was gentle, but the sensation was an arrow in my heart. I physically spasmed, a speared fish, and then froze. The Fool ran through my veins, hot as liquor, cold as ice.

"You promised!" he roared. He seized the front of Beloved’s shirt and pulled him close. "You promised me. You said you would choose her life over mine." "Not like this," Beloved wailed. "Not like this!" Abruptly my father seized him in a hug.

"Nettle. I loved that man as I have loved no one else. But if you heard there was anything improper in our bond, there was not. That was not what we were to one another. What we had went beyond that."

I ran my fingers lightly down the lines of his jaw, and around his eye socket. At least no bone was damaged. "Who did this to you?" I asked him. "I walked into a series of doors. Or the same one several times. It depends on which door you ask."

"You may sit wherever you please. Would you like to be together, or to mingle?" I longed to exchange a glance with Amber. Instead I patted her hand on my arm fondly, and she immediately replied, "Together, if we may."

He leaned down suddenly to rest his brow against mine. "When I remember how beautiful you were," he whispered brokenly, and then fell silent.

Perhaps, somewhere there is a toymaker who makes puppets that are a delight and a marvel. I hope he wears an earring of silver and blue. The fingerprints he left on my wrist have faded to a dusky gray. I think I will always miss him.

A quick end for him, some part of me suggested, but I roared out, "No! No, no, no! Beloved Fool! No!"

"The name my mother gave me, I give to you now, to call me by in private." He closed his eyes but his grin grew even wider. "Beloved. She called me only ‘Beloved’." "Fool!" I protested. He laughed. "She did," he insisted.

"Does anything show?" I asked him, turning for his inspection. He surveyed me with a smile and then assured me salaciously, "Everything shows. But nothing you’re worried about showing."

I tapped my chest with my forefinger. "Fitz, that’s me. Yes. My name is Fitz. Are you lost?" I tried to make my voice gentle and reassuring so as not to alarm the poor creature.

"You promised!" he roared. He seized the front of Beloved’s shirt and pulled him close. "You promised me. You said you would choose her life over mine." "Not like this," Beloved wailed. "Not like this!" Abruptly my father seized him in a hug.

"Bee looks like me! Yours and mine and doubtless the most beautiful and clever child that ever existed!"

"She wears a freedom ring in one ear, you know, the earring that Chalcedean freed-slaves must purchase and wear to prove they have been granted their freedom. She said it was a gift from her one true love."