Lily watched her brother, frowning, then up to the sky. The kestrel was flying lazy circles with nothing to dive for. Raw strips of meat lay untouched in a bowl beside Riley. But he was sagged against the stone rail of the turret, watching Edward, and the woman, and Britta unhappily. Lily, for her part, couldn't care less who Lord Edward Draven married, but she knew it meant a lot to Riley. As much as the thought made her sick with sadness and anger, she knew her brother had hoped to find a father-figure in the bumbling lord from Highheart. For Lily, there'd be nothing better than Edward marrying Lady Whoever down there and leaving their family alone. But she loved her brother more than she hated Edward.
"You're not giving Gregory much to do," she noted, referring to the kestrel, of course, by his first name.
Riley just shrugged. Dejected. But Lily was undeterred.
"Here," she said, taking one of the strips of meat and tossing it into the open air. The little kestrel sighted the piece of meat immediately and fell into a plummeting dive, caught it, and soared back up into the air. After he ate it, he went back to circling, looking for the next piece.
Riley, she saw from the corner of her eyes, was still watching the happy trio below. Well, that gave her an idea! Taking the next piece of meat, Lily threw it casually towards the trio.
Riley saw what she was doing too late. "Lily!" he gasped, covering his mouth with his hands. "But Lord Edward is letting us-"
She smirked. At least she had his attention. Holding the bowl of meat so he couldn't snatch it away from her, Liy threw another piece, this time closer to Edward and Rosalie. She grinned wider when she heard a muffled sound of surprise from below. Like a lady trying to keep her composure. She cast Riley, who still looked mortified, a knowing look, then threw the third further and, when the kestrel dove for it, this time it came so close to Lady Parks that it almost snatched one of her strawberry blonde curls!
A very unladylike shriek followed, and even Riley had to join his sister in a fit of giggles. The siblings ducked behind the stone wall of the turret so they wouldn't be seen from below, holding their sides in laughter. Even if Riley looked quite guilty about it! From their hiding place, Lily threw another piece of meat over the side of the turret.
Below, Lady Rosalie had been thinking what a smug little inconvenience Britta was. The last thing she wanted to do was play with the girl all day! And she was also increasingly curious who these 'children of a friend' were. But before she had a chance to come up with something nice to say about it all, a small hawk dove out of the sky very close to them!
"What was that?" she asked, suppressing a yelp, and looking around wide-eyed.
"Greg'ry!" was Britta's happy response, laughing and clapping her hands. Riley had shown her the kestrel before and she loved it!
When it came back though, the damned bird nearly took her head off, and Lady Parks couldn't help but shrief in surprise and terror. She patted her hair, trying to compose herself after the outburst while Britta squealed gleefully. And here came the bird, diving after another piece of meat that was heading, unseen by Rosalie, straight for Rosalie's head!
