The Horse in the Prince's Stables

Chp. 33

          Why...

          I felt him stir next to me. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed he lifted his head.

          "Kaelyn?" I turned and gave him a small smile.

          "Hi," I said quietly. My mind was still reeling from shock. His grin widened as he gazed adoringly at me. My cheeks reddened slightly at his attention. I didn't know if I would ever get used to it. Coughing nervously to break the silence, I asked him a question.

          "How long have I been asleep?"

          He glanced at the window, estimating the time.

          "Oh, perhaps no more than a few hours I'd say," he replied, gently squeezing my hand. Despite the happy jitters that I was feeling, I couldn't help but worry about Henry. I didn't want him to be all alone right now.

          "Have you seen Henry at all?" Philip looked a little confused to my random change of the subject. He ran a hand through his messy hair, his gaze wandering to something beyond me.

          "Erm, no can't say that I have," he met my eyes again. "I've been here with you ever since I brought you in." Then he suddenly tensed, and quickly stood up. "Makus! I forgot..." Glancing down at me apologetically he said, "sorry Kaelyn, I forgot about my uncle. Drake said that he hired him to kill me."

          I nodded vigorously.

          "It's true. He confessed everything to me. You better catch him. I'll explain later," I added the last bit noticing the confused look in his eye. His smile turned a little grim as he leaned over to kiss my forehead. Before he could walk out the door, I stopped him.

          "Make sure you check on Henry, ok?" He nodded, and then disappeared out into the hallway.

          I wasn't quite sure what happened out there. The details weren't something that I had to know. According to Philip, he alerted king James about his uncle and his plot. I heard that when they went to confront lord Markus, they found him scrambling around his room trying to pack some bags. I heard there was a brief struggle, before the king was forced to kill his own brother.

          It seemed that no ending could truly be happy.

          Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see Philip much over the next several days. His parents were mourning over the loss of Markus. It grieved them that their own family would conspire something as terrible as hiring an assassin to murder his nephew. During this time, it wouldn't be right for me to take him away from them.

                                                                          ~~~

          Matilda was told of my recovery, and she quickly came to visit me. In fact, she was slightly out of breath the first time she came to the door and poked her head in. Tears trickled down her cheeks as she wrapped her arms around me. After our heartwarming reunion, I had the time to tell her everything about what happened to Philip and I once we were captured. Although, I left out the extremely awful portions of the story, such as when Drake beat me, or the time when I almost died from a snake bite. However, I did tell her about the time when I first saw Philip naked. We both had a laugh at that.

          When I told her about our first kiss, her eyes softened as she gazed at me. She reached out and patted my hand.

          "You really care about him, don't you?" Matilda asked quietly. 

          "I do," I said with a sigh. "I do, except I feel like I shouldn't. He has Maria. They're betrothed. It's not my place to interfere with that," to my disappointment, Matilda nodded.