The Lady in Armour

Chapter 11 - LIES AND PRETENTIONS

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CHAPTER 11             -               LIES AND PRETENTIONS

“Hanna, is that you?” Liam asked as he tried to look at Jo’s face.

Jo avoided his gaze and looked up at the beautiful Talavera tree. She did not know that after seeing the place where she’ll die – with the person whom she was destined to be with on her death – she could feel any worse. In her mind, she couldn’t stop complaining as to why she had to die with someone whom she was avoiding.

“Are you really Hanna?” Liam prodded. 

“Yes,” she lied. 

Jo really felt awful because it seemed like her lies were unending. It wasn’t her plan to dress like a woman and pretend to be Hanna. All she wanted to do was make Hanna feel better by wearing the dress she bought for her and have a peaceful evening under the Talavera tree. She asked herself: Until when do I have to pretend that I am a man? Until when do I have to pretend I am my sister in front of Liam? Until when can I fool everyone?

When will Liam be able to tell that the person in front of him is me and not Hanna?

It wasn’t the first time Jo pretended to be Hanna. She’d done it before and when their father caught them, he made her promise to never do it again.  

She and Hanna used to switch places when they were still young just for the fun of it. They easily fooled everyone, including their father. It started when they were fifteen. One night, when their father said that Jo was not allowed to leave the house for three days as a punishment for punching a boy who tried to court Hanna, Jo begged for Hanna to switch places with her.   At first, Hanna was dubious. But when she saw that Jo really wanted to go outside, she agreed on the condition that she had to come back before midnight. If Jo failed, she’ll tell everything to their father.

It was that night when she first met Liam.

It was unexpected. Never in Jo’s wildest imagination did she think that she’d meet the cold prince, as what the others call him, in their farm not far away from her home. She was one of those women who wanted to meet the prince in person and she always thought she’d meet him one day inside the castle with the king, queen and his younger brother and not in their farm with the noisy chickens and putrid cow manures.

“Wh – What are y – you doing here in our farm,” Joanne stammered. “Prince Liam?”

Liam merely looked at her.

Is there anything you need, your highness?” asked Joanne. She desperately wanted to have a conversation with him and prove to everyone that he was not what everybody thought he was. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Leave,” he answered without even looking at her direction.

That left Joanne speechless. There she was standing on their farm and yet she was the one being ordered to leave. In her mind, she was starting to think that maybe the others were right about what they were saying about the prince.

“A cold prince,” she muttered aloud.

It was when the prince looked at her questioningly that she realized that she had said the words aloud. She gasped and covered her mouth with her hands in embarrassment. But to her surprise, the corner of Liam’s lips twitched into a smile instead of anger.

Slowly, Liam walked closer to Joanne and stood right in front of her. “What is a child doing out here unaccompanied?”

Acting like she did not know what he was talking about, she looked around her and pretended to be searching for a child. “What child? Where?”