1. FIVE memorable moments with your best friend and one you would rather forget
1. The night we met at the Court of King Richard III. The affinity between us was instant, but it was not until later that each of us learned what the other one was. Everyone, including me, knew he was married and had eyes mainly for those with fair hair. But we proved that sometimes social conventions and assumptions can be quite incorrect.
2. Hsu being in France to help deliver Caroline. He had been away for a very long time in the British Isles and in Holland, but he made it just in time.
3. Even though he was an SS Colonel, I was secretly glad it was Hsu who took up residence at the Chateau de Rochefort rather than some other German officer. Later it was he who helped me to either hide the family heirlooms in the catacombs or ship most of them off to Switzerland even as we pretended he was looting from us.
4. Having my youngest daughter, Jocelyn at the tender age of four announce to an entire room at Hsu’s ranch in Switzerland that she was going to marry her godfather. No one spoke nor made a sound as she regally walked across the room, and then promptly crawled up into his lap and fell asleep in the very territory that she had just claimed as her own. Hsu was wonderfully gentle and indulgent with her.
5. The night that I finally told Hsu that if I could have done so, I would have moved Heaven, Hell and Earth to have given him a son. I think it was that night in which he finally understood why I asked him to be the Godfather of my daughters. I had many reasons, but it was my way of giving him, albeit indirectly, that which I could not have provided for him otherwise.
And the one to forget: Hsu once was teaching me how to ski. I do not like snow, and I certainly do not favour Winter. I did, however, indulge my friend and ended up breaking the skis and getting hopelessly tangled up in underbrush on that mountain in Switzerland. It would seem the only bramble bush in the area and I found it. The cuts and bruises on my skin healed quickly, but my ego was rather sore for many weeks afterward. Every once in a while, when he is being particularly stroppy, he does continue to remind me of it.
Muse: Fanny Fae / Faelyn de Rochefort
Fandom: Original Character
Word Count: 401
Fanny Fae 
… I did not know that it was planned all along, for the Colonel to assist you in hiding the family treasures of de Rocheforts, Madame. I *falls silent*
*placing gentle fingers under her protege’s chin she raises Amarante’s eyes to her own* Would you think that as your Lady and Queen I would leave us defenseless? That I would do anything to endanger you, Caroline, our People? War was difficult, and those treasures were not just things they were links, forged with those that went before. How safe would we have been if Hsu had not done as I had asked him to do?
You must understand, Amarante, my dearest one, that he is not the ogre you think him to be. Or..*smirk* maybe he is a little bit of an ogre at times – but he has risked himself well enough to help us.
*says nothing at the first three as there is nothing that needs to be said between the two of them, he just smiles*
4. Your youngest surprised even me with her announcement, although I haven’t heard anything recently on her offer. I have to say, though that her settling on my lap as she did then, helped so soon after returning after that trip.
5. I have probably said this before, if you could have you would always have been the first choice to carry a child of mine, and I shall always be grateful for the gift of being in your daughters’ lives.
*smirks* You have to admit, Frances, that it is not often at all that one gets to hear such colourful language being directed at a bush and two pieces of wood. Maybe this winter you would give it another try?
*smiles in return*
4. Be careful, mon ami. She is very ambitious, and she may yet surprise us all. You may think she has forgotten about the pronouncement of her youth, but I know that she has not.
5. And you have blessed their lives for your presence.
*smirk* Leave it to you to be able to pick out my own particular brand of colourful metaphors in alternating Gaelic, Sidhe and French. Perhaps I could be persuaded, but it will take a great deal more in the way of coaxing and entreaties to make it worth my while.
4. You know I have no problem at all with ambition, and I look forward to seeing how she uses hers. In that case, I shall be prepared.
4. And I’m honoured you allowed me into their lives.
Then I shall have to get to work. I suppose Sebastien has never skied either, we could all go. Rent a small chalet away from the crowds.