Kidnapping the Prince

Kidnapping the Prince Installment XV

This chapter is dedicated to Wolveseye for being such an awesome and dedicated reader. Thank you so much!

Kidnapping the Prince Installment XV

~ DAY EIGHT OF THE BALL ~

“Dan asked to court me yesterday.”

Ryan choked on his oatmeal and sputtered, his eyes watering, as I beat him on the back and handed him a glass of water. When he regained the ability to talk, he wasted no time in almost yelling, “He did WHAT?”

I sighed and began a speedy recount of yesterday’s events. “So Dan asked to court me in the courtyard yesterday morning, and then we saw you ‘stealing’ from the king, and he was really mad and I thought I would try and make him less mad by saying you probably weren’t trying to be a thief but then he was being stupid and got mad at me and said that it was okay for me to stick up for my thief of a brother so of course I got all defensive over you and said that if he really thought you were a thief he probably didn’t want to spend time with a thief’s sister and then I kind of killed him with my eyes and then I left.” Ryan stared at me without moving, his mouth agape.

“Okay, wow,” he said at last. He shifted himself in his chair and turned to me again. “So, basically you cheated on Lucas, then yelled at the prince and broke off a courtship, all in the span of about three hours?” I glared at him, irritated.

“No, no, and no,” I crossed my arms, feeling a headache coming on. “First, I did not cheat on Lucas–”

“Yes, you did,” Ryan cut in. I glared at him again, perhaps with a little more poison this time.

Taking a deep breath, I went on. “No, I did not, because I only said yes for the job.” The little voice inside my head started to scream, “LIES!” but I shushed it quickly and went on before the voice or Ryan could disagree with me. “Second, I did not yell at the prince. Well, maybe I did, but let’s just say that I loudly reprimanded him, and third, I did not break off our courtship.”

Ryan sighed. “Must you always complicate things? So close to the end as well.”

“We only have three more days here, how much trouble could this be?” I snapped, peeved.

“Uh, let me think,” Ryan tapped his chin sarcastically, “a lot.”

Resisting the urge to cuff him, I strode over to the window and opened it. Unusually cool summer air drifted in and made my hair dance lightly around my face. The feeling soothed me, but only slightly.

“Milady, milord,” Talia greeted us tonelessly as she opened the door. Since that morning two days ago when I had caught her and Ryan together, she had been avoiding all eye contact with both of us. Obviously it was causing Ryan a lot of pain, but he would never admit that.

“Good morning, Talia!” I chirped. She shot me a nervous smile and for the briefest second her eyes met mine before returning to the table, which she was clearing. Ryan excused himself with a grunt and disappeared; within seconds, Talia had gone too. As soon as the door snapped shut behind her, I ran back to my room and returned moments later with the release order tucked carefully into the monstrously large sleeves of my dress.

“Be back later!” I hollered to Ryan’s closed door before taking off down the tower and out the castle doors. Upon reaching the Locks, I located Phillip, and he led me down the Lock’s curving hallways until we reached the corridor the overseer’s office was in. I peeked around the corner: two soldiers stood guard outside; one had his back to the door, the other was facing his companion from across the hallway. Ducking back behind the wall I whispered in Phillip’s ear for a minute before he took off down the hallway with a determined nod. I strained my ears, listening, until I heard the loud crash of metal on metal followed by screams of rage and Phillip’s high-pitched apologies.