A Rogue's Revenge (Reworking...possibly 😜)

Chapter Two

Her frustration mounted as she watched him move effortlessly over the forest floor. She held tight to Klondie's reins as a lifeline, for fear she would lose her trusted pet in the dense wood. She hadn't thought that the forest would be a less convenient way of travel and the heavy underbrush made it difficult to move forward. How the man before her navigated it so swiftly was a mystery to her.

As she rambled after him, fuming about his lack of manners, her foot caught in some vines causing her ankle to twist at an odd angle, a whimper of pain and muttered curse escaped her lips as she fell to the ground. While she sat there clutching her ankle she failed to register the approaching thuds of heavy footsteps. An annoyed sigh drew her eyes upward and there gazing down at her were the warm chocolate eyes that sent her heart racing.

He ran his hand through his hair, brushing it out of his eyes, sucked his teeth, shook his head and mumbled to himself, on yet another annoyed sigh, before finally reaching some resolution to an internal argument. Clementine watched him cautiously as he squatted down before her and reached for her leg. She tried to scramble back out of his reach but he was quicker than her, gently clasping his warm hand around her ankle as he snapped at her, "Oh just calm down, if I had wanted to hurt you I would've done so by now."

He twisted her ankle from side to side examining it from every angle. "It doesn't appear to be broken, so my guess is you just twisted it. You should be able to walk on it in a little while, once the initial pain dies down." His tone was one of annoyance as if her mishap was the last thing he wanted to deal with. 'Note to self, he is not the heroic damsel in distress saving kind of guy.' She thought as she eyed him silently.

He started to rise and Clementine panicked. Her hand jutted out lightning quick and grabbed hold of his, "Please don't leave me here alone," she pleaded.

The man eyed her for a moment before he dropped down to a seated position with an unceremonious thud and continued to stare intently at her as if trying to place the pieces of a puzzle together. Minutes passed and not a word was uttered between them. Finally he broke the silence, "You got a name little dove?"

"Clem," She replied slightly breathless. "May I ask your name?"

He nodded and narrowed his eyes at her, "I'm Finn, Finn Buchannon. Clem, you say? What is your full name?"

Clementine tried to mask the shock that came with hearing his name. The men in the woods mentioned an outlaw that needed to be brought to justice with the surname of Buchannon. 'Could it be him? Surely there were dozens of Buchannon's about, the Duke Cornelius himself was a Buchannon, it cannot be an uncommon name, right?' She wondered as she looked away, fearing that this could end up being a far more horrible fate than being married to a heartless swine.

"Finn Buchannon? Any relation to the Duke Cornelius Buchannon?" She hesitantly asked silently praying his answer would be no. 'Please be no, please be no! I can't go back there.'

Finn let out a humorous laugh as he seemed to mull over his response. "Relation to the Duke? I guess you could say I am related to him. I am his first born son, 'Princess'."

The way he said that last word had her head whipping back towards him, but he only gazed back, a knowing smirk tugging at his lips, and she swallowed hard. He leaned forward, the barest of centimeters separating his face from hers, eyes alight with recognition. Warm breath swept across her face intoxicatingly as he spoke.

"Princess Clementine, youngest daughter of King Bocephus, why are you so far away from the safety of your castle walls?" He reached up and twirled a golden lock and her heart raced as if it was trying to burst free from her chest. She leaned away from him, trying to calm her racing heart.