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

Chapter Four

Clementine's body shuddered as the shock started to wane. "He left me.  He left me."  Her heart squeezed painfully as she recalled the hurt that lanced across his face when those cruel words crept past her lips.  She knew he was only trying to call her bluff, but his condescending nature hit a nerve and forced her over the edge.

      No one dared speak to her the way he had.  She was a princess, and entitled to respect, he knew this and disregarded it completely.  Her stomach roiled and churned as the weight of her words crashed down onto her.  It was a horribly tacky thing to do, to throw ones less than stellar breeding in their face, it was never the fault of their own how they came to be.

     Pain shot through her back as she slid down against the bark of the pine that supported her weight.  Tears welled and spilled from her eyes and she ran a shaking hand through her snarled hair.

 

     "He'll be back. He is angry, but he'll be back, I know it," she tried to convince herself of this as she tucked her knees under her chin and rocked back and forth trying to stem the salty flow of tears.

     The silence in the forest was deafening now it seemed.  No birds chirping happily in the tree canopy above, no gentle sound of running water and no tell tale sign of hooves crunching across the forest trail.   She huddled there with nothing but the silence to keep her company.  Only when the high afternoon sun slowly shifted and sank in the western sky did she give up hope that Finn would cool his temper down and return for her.

     Eyes and lips swollen from her silent sobs, she slowly rose to her feet.  "Tis your own fault Clem, best not dawdle now.  Shelter, I need somewhere...less...exposed?"  she spied a decent sized stick and grabbed it, feeling it could offer her at least a small amount of protection.  With a heavy sigh she moved further into the heart of the forest.

     Clementine moved slowly over the forest floor, careful where she stepped as the ground was in constant shadow.  The canopy of trees was so thick the crescent moon that hung high in the sky barely emitted enough light for her to see a  hand in front of her face.   With every misstep, scratch or stumble, she cursed ever meeting the rougedly handsome cad, Finn Buchannon.  The fact that he could just steal her horse and abandon her in a forest, after gaining her trust,  proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that she should run, run as far away from ties with the Duke and his retched son.

     A pang of guilt hit her square in the chest at thinking such thoughts, because it was her fault, she had caused his reaction and truth be told she wanted him angry, she wanted distance from him, not abandonment.  His body pressing hers into that tree was doing things to her, scary things really.  Her blood felt lit by fire, burning her from the inside out, tingles radiated from her head to her toes and the liquid heat building in her lower belly was the most frightening sensation of them all. 

     Her thoughts were a jumbled mess when he was so near.  Proper rearing dictated that one did not act as she had with a complete stranger.  Hadn't she learned through Jacinda's fall from grace that one should only give themselves to their husband and not some random stable boy or the roguish son of the man who bartered for your hand with money?

     She realized  soon enough why Finn had wanted to return back to the castle before nightfall.  The forest was thick with trees and underbrush, but no real shelter was available, or at least none that she would feel safe enough to close her eyes for even one second.  Everything seemed too exposed to the creatures of the woods or worse the human scoundrels and gypsies that nightmares were made from. 

     Clementine found a  large spruce tree and decided to settle against the base.  The gentle breeze that caressed her exposed flesh had a slight chill causing her to curl into a ball to keep at least a bit of body heat from escaping. It could be worse, Winter could be upon me, she thought as her  eyes fluttered shut only moments after she sank to the ground, exhaustion weighing heavily on her mind and limbs. 

     The little sleep that she strived for was restless at best.  Sounds of animals scurrying about or thoughts of insects crawling on her chilled body, had her eyes popping open at regular intervals only to slide closed again under the weight of heavy lids.  The sounds of leaves crunching to her right caused her eyes to snap open one last time.  Hope filled her as she shot up looking for the trespasser.

     "Finn?  Finn is that you?"  Silence was the only response to her words.  Panic and fear were starting to claim her thoughts and her breath became labored.  She reached for her stick as the sound of leaves crunching again moved slowly in her direction. 

     "Who's there?  Show yourself."  This time it was not silence that answered back, but a low growl that was slowly building.  Suddenly two green orbs seemed to be hovering waist high in the darkness of the forest.  The growl became more menacing as a grey and black wolf stepped from the shadows. 

     I'm done for, one can reason with a man, but a wolf?  Not likely. Clementine thought as she stared down the approaching beast.  She wanted to search for the others she knew must be lurking, as wolves were not solitary creatures, but she was far too frightned to look away from the bearer of death staring her down.

     "Shoo! Scat!  Get out of here!  GO ON!  GET AWAY!"   She yelled at the beast as it crept ever closer.  The last thing that registered in her mind was the beast lunging forward and her earpiercing scream...