TAKEN BY HIM

CHAPTER 17

Gem looked left and right, getting ready to strip down to take a much needed bath in the village stream.

The sun was extra qruel today, beating hard on them as if to make a point and Gem had cleared a plot of land under its harsh rays, getting it ready for farming. She very much liked farming, it was peaceful once the hoe stopped hitting her foot while she was trying to make new ridges.

She was about to remove her chest wrap which she used to flatten her bossom when she heard sharp footsteps, she hurriedly put on her top but froze when she heard a voice.

"Stop!" she stopped, praying to the gods that it was not who she thought it was. "Turn around and slowly step away from the stream young man, you should be out in the fields not taking a fancy dip," the voice jokingly said while others laughed, they were obviously teasing her.

"I just needed a bath," she said in a deeper voice.

"Probably bathing to go lay with a maiden or even already done it," another voice joked and everyone erupted in laughter before they slowly moved away. Gem was about to relax when something slittered out of the bushes and she let out a shrill scream, scaring everyone into alertness.

She prayed to Isham that they would not think otherwise of her as a man but as usual, her prayers were not heard. Shashan stepped towards her and stared her straight in the face, he was certain that he recognized her now.

"You!" Shashan stopped short, he could not believe this, it had almost been a year and finally here she was, a little bit different but it was her nevertheless. The red haired beauty that tried to kill his prince twice and his queen once.

He stepped back to make sure he was not seeing double, he even walked away to look at her properly from a few feet to satisfy his mind.

Gem froze, he recognized her, and she also recognized him, her mind began to race a mile per minute as she thought up an escape route, if she ran for it no doubt the guards around would chase her and catch her.

If she pretended to faint then she would pretend to wake up in a dungeon and if she claimed to be daft and dumb that would not work out too well either.

Shashan began walking towards her menacingly, "I'm talking to you!" Shashan bellowed and Gem shook like a leaf in a storm.

She backed up a little while he advanced. "Me?" She asked pretending to be confused for a minute.

"Yes, you, we have been looking for you for almost a year now, I will not mind killing you right here for what you put us through," he snapped in front of her and Gem blanched, his brown eyes looked cold and dark.

Gem deepened her voice to sound like a man before speaking, "I do not know who you think I am but I assure you, I am not the person you speak off."

"Then who are you?" His brows furrowed in anger as more guards began to surround her, Gem cursed in her head, she should have just made a run for it while she could.

"I am elock, the younger brother of Enoch from igdaliah and I am also a farmer-" Gem was cut off as Shashan's hand shot forward and grabbed her short black hair in a painful grip, emulating a whine from her that was in no way masculine. It was pitiful.

He smiled as her green eyes clouded over in pain and panic, she wanted to escape but not if he had a say in it.

"Tie her up," he motioned to the guards beside him, "today is the day she will pay for her crimes against the crown."

"Is she the one?" A guard asked, uncertainty clouding his harsh features because all he saw was a young man, slightly beautiful but a man nonetheless.