CAPTIVE by the Prince

Chapter Twenty

Dusk had arrived and Ana was roused by her lady’s maids to ready her for her journey towards her husband’s estate in Eldar, the northern land of Elfiro. Her husband. She was still not used to calling Ivan as her husband. When her mother had left for Sanggre earlier that dawn, she had thought Ivan would sleep with her. Wasn’t that the sleeping arrangement for married couples? But Ivan, as per her trusted Erien, was busy making plans of some sort with his men. Of what nature the plans were, Erien had no idea.

Ana just gave Erien a shrug, telling the elf that it didn’t matter what Ivan had been doing, or that she had spent her wedding night, or wedding day since she had already accustomed herself to sleep during the day, alone in her chambers. But secretly, she was kind of disappointed that Ivan avoided her after the celebration.

“Well, it’s his loss!” she told herself. “He just missed a lingerie fashion show!” Not that she was ever going to give him a live show of her wearing that flimsy black lace her mother referred to as sleeping garments that her queen mother had given her daughter as a wedding present. No. She wasn’t that bold enough. Or sexy enough. In fact, she suddenly felt self-conscious about her thin frame. She never had a problem about how she had looked like before. But now that she was married to Ivan, and the way those court ladies with extremely large breasts barely covered by their flimsy, poor excuse of a dress gave Ivan several amorous glances yesterday… she suddenly wished she was well-endowed like them.

She gave her head a swift shake. Now she was having self-esteem problems. Just great. It’s Ivan’s fault! No, really. If he just avoided looking at those ladies with big, over-sized, humongous, alien-like–

 “Are you ready?” Ivan’s voiced suddenly echoed within the walls of her room. She snapped her head to the doorway where Ivan stood, looking impeccably handsome in his white shirt and black fitted trousers. He was again staring at her with a dark scowl on his face, and she was puzzled as to why her husband looked as if he wanted to strangle her.

“Yes, I am,” she answered. “Are we to go now?”

Ivan gave her a small nod and strode away from her room, leaving Ana no choice but to follow him.

A cold night welcomed her as she climbed inside the golden carriage provided for her use. She was accompanied by her two lady’s maids –Lucya sat beside her while Erien sat on the opposite.

Ivan preferred to be outside riding his white stallion. But Ana had the distinct feeling that he was avoiding her. She pushed the curtains to the side and took a peek outside the carriage. He was beside them, and several of his men surrounded her carriage –some were at the front, while others were stationed at the back. She also heard Ivan earlier giving orders to two of his men to scout ahead. It was as if they were travelling to a very dangerous journey and they needed all the protection they could get.

She leaned back on her seat and sighed. She noticed Ivan had started acting aloof towards her since the night after the celebration. She recalled his murderous look that dawn when he interrupted her conversation with her mother. After that he began treating her like how he did before –with vile and contempt in his eyes.

The carriage suddenly tilted to one side and swayed, causing Ana to slam to the side, her shoulder hitting the door with great force. She yelped once more when the carriage toppled its side, and she heard the horses whine and several voices shouting for instruction.

She felt the carriage sliding down a slope, and saw the frightened look on Erien’s face as the elf continued to wail, bracing herself by giving the golden squab of her seat a tight grip.

Ana was about to reach for Erien when she felt Lucya grabbing her arms and suddenly she was no longer inside the falling carriage but outside on the cool night, sprawled on the ground.