A Royal Ransom

XIII

Baby, I'm never gonna leave you,
Say that you wanna be with me too
Cuz I'ma stay through it all so jump then fall

-Jump Then Fall, Taylor Swift

♛

"Did you find anything?" I asked Ryder, referring to when he'd disappeared to look for more evidence.

He shook his head, "No. By the time I thought I'd seen something I heard you running and thought I'd come see what was going on."

I nodded, sighing. We'd made it back to the station and were waiting for the train to come.

"You got any more money left to pay for our tickets?" Ryder asked.

I nodded, "One more bill. After that we're broke."

"I think we should head back to my home. Your father probably won't be expecting it at all and I'll try talking to my father."

I nodded in agreement. "Maybe we'll get a moment to sleep and not run."

Ryder searched my eyes, before his gaze landed onto my lips. I felt my face heating up, I didn't like being stared at. "What? Want to take a picture of me?"

"What happened to your lip?" Ryder asked, shifting his eyes back to mine.

I ran the pad of my index against my bottom lip. "Oh, I ran into a tree branch whilst running away from Francis."

He snorted, "Of course you did."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked raising a brow.

Before he could answer, the train stopped at our station. It was time to board.

Once again, Ryder and I found ourselves a separate train car. Although it was now midday, there still weren't many people on the train.

The village was about an hour away.  I missed my car. Poor Babe. I hadn't gotten the chance to mourn her death. I hoped she found car heaven, she'd done a great deal of good for me. I was surprised that the train stopped at so many places, but was grateful for the convenience.

My eyelids weighed down, but I didn't want to fall asleep. I was too frightened. Francis. The message we'd stumbled upon. Heading back to the village. There were so many things that could go wrong. Too many.

"Hey, Diana?"

I turned to Ryder. "Yeah?"

"If you want to go to sleep, which I can see that you do, go for it. I'll wake you up when we get to our stop."

"What about you?" I asked.

Ryder sent me a playful smirk, "Trust me, you really need the beauty sleep. See, unlike you, I don't need much to stay attractive."

He wasn't lying. Wait what?

Before I could argue, I felt myself drifting off into a blissful sleep.

♛

"ATTENTION ALL PASSENGERS. WE HAVE REASON TO BELIEVE THAT THE TWO CRIMINALS ARE ON OUR TRAIN. REMAIN CALM AND PLEASE STANDBY. BLOCK OF ALL EXISTS AND IMMEDIATELY REPORT ANY SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY. WE ARE BRIEFLY STOPPING THE TRAIN."

What horrible nightmare was this?

I felt someone shake my shoulder. "One more minute, Mum."

"I'm not your mother, god forbid." I heard someone laugh.

My eyes flew open when I realized where I was. I sat up immediately. "Wha- What's going on?"

My gaze met with Ryder's, his eyes filled with alarm. "Diana, we need to get off of the train right now."