Heart's Desire

Chapter 25

Jesse waited on the top of Lightning.

"Good boy" said Jesse. "This shouldn't take long. Just a short trip around the fields and then back home."

"Where's my horse?" crooned a melodic voice behind him. He turned around to look at the woman. She was stunning in her red dress and high heal shoes. This was going to be no challenge at all. It would be so easy to loose her. He would have Lightning home to an extra carrot or two the first time this pretty little thing broke one of her heals and called it quits.

"You don't get a horse," replied one of the guards.

"I don't get a horse?" she repeated back. "He gets a horse and I don't? There are so many levels of unfair to that."

Jesse scoffed at her ignorance. He did not have to try to explain it to this woman. He would let one of the guards explain it.

"You see, my lady, you didn't specifically state that you wanted a horse. But the prince did. It matters not that it is unfair. Since he is the one being chased he has the right to request what he wants."

"Well, I'm requesting one now," she crooned back at the guard. Jesse had to stifle a laugh. Her voice was just too high and too pretty sounding for his ears.

"I'm sorry my lady. It is too late. Unless you want to call this whole thing off?" the guard asked earnestly. There was a little bit of a plea to his voice.

"No," the woman shot back automatically. "If I can't have a horse then I can't have a horse. I will just make due without one."

"So," she asked, "When does the chase begin?"

"It began when the King agreed to your terms I believe."

There was silence for a moment.

"So, I'm free to try and start the chase?" Their was another pause. The guard must be scratching his head.

"Yeah," he said, "That sound's about right to me."

The woman thanked the guard and then got very quiet. Slowly she walked across the gravel courtyard towards him. Jesse listened to the scraping of her heals to

Jesse realized that the woman did not know that he had heard her and the guards little speech. She also did not realize that he could sense her approach. Just as she sprung at him he, kick lightning in the flank and took off out the gate. He was all the way to the top of the first hill before he turned around. The poor girl was still spitting out gravel when he looked at her. Even from this distance, he could tell that she was covered in dust. Were those tears on her cheeks? There was no way of really knowing. Jesse smirked. This would be over very quickly indeed.

He waited at the top of the hill as she climbed. He could hear her muttering under her breath. They were not nice words. Not nice at all. He felt like letting her get close enough to tisk tisk her about her language but he thought better of it. He did not want to lead her on or anything. When she was half way up the hill, he turned his back to her and listened for her approach. When she was within jumping distance, he started counting. One, two three. She leaped, he moved to the left. She over shoot him by a mile. He watched as she rolled all the way down the hill. It was very hilarious. He let a few he hes escape his lips then he sobered up.

No, he told himself. Do not laugh at her pain. He saw it then. When she lay unmoving at the bottom of the hill. There was a tare down the side of her dress. This one was definitely not a part of the design. It showed off way to much of her upper thigh to be descent. There was also a nice big gash on that perfectly sculptured white thigh. Sad really. If she had not asked for the impossible then she would not be going through so much pain. The blood dripping down her leg reminded him of the color slashed on the walls of Bel's cavern. He shivered involuntarily. He looked back down at the woman. She still was not moving. Jesse sighed. Maybe he should go down there and see if she was ok. It would be the courteous thing to do. Something in the back of his brain was warning him that maybe this was not such a great idea, but he ignored it for the moment.

Jesse led Lightning slowly down to the valley floor. He watched her every minute to see if this was a trick. She remained completely motionless. Maybe she was not faking it. He got up right next to her. He was about to dismount when Lightning suddenly pulled away form her motionless form. Jesse looked back her form was not so motionless anymore. It had been a trap and Lightning had saved him yet again. He patted his horse's neck as they cantered up the hill. The woman was running behind them. He turned around to look at how close she was getting. It was a mistake. She was gaining. If he did not kick Lightning into high gear, she would soon catch up with them.

Jesse was close enough to see that the poor woman had broken her nose. Blood was dripping from her nostrils. It blended into the color of her red dress. She was not even taking the time to wipe it up she was running after him so hard.

Well, she sure had stamina; he had to give her that. Jesse leaned into his horse as both of them reached the summit of the next hill. She made another ill-fated leap and he dove off into the blinding sun. Down she went tumbling end over end as he galloped away up towards the next hill. She landed with an auditable thud. Jesse turned his horse to watch her this time. He did not want her to kill herself. Death was not worth it. He was not worth it. At the same time we was not just going to give himself over to some peasant girl he had never meet that wanted to play princess for the rest of her life.

What gives her the right to think that she should be my queen? thought Jesse. I mean, yeah ok she is good looking or at least she's was good looking after she had a dip in the Fountain of Life. But there is nothing special about her. Jesse looked down at her now. She was not so pretty now. Her hair had leaves and grass sticking out of it at odd angles. Her face was plastered with dried blood from her nose. Her dress was more brown than red. It had hole that exposed parts of her form that it was suppose to be covering. It was not completely indecent but it was heading that way. She still had her high heel shoes on. Those at least were mostly intact, but the rubies had been scraped off in places making them hard to look at. Put the whole picture together and she was far from the beauty she had been when they had started this chase.

He suddenly felt bad for her. Not that this was not all her fault, because it was. If it had not been for her and his dad's stupid quest, he could be enjoying a nice cold glass of water while watching the guard practice sword fighting. Instead, he was here being chased by a lunatic peasant woman that did not know when to quit while she was ahead. The tenacity of the woman boggled his mind.

He could see that she was badly hurt. The stones along the hill had been unkind to her newly made perfect flesh. When she did rise this time, she walked with a limp. Jesse thought at first that it might be another ruse but as she came closer, he could see the fresh blood on that leg. A stone must have reopened the wound. Jesse thought back to the crisscross scars that littered his own back from his time spent in the Forest of Eternal darkness. He winced. No, the woman before him was truly hurt. She was the cause of her own pain. Besides getting her to quit soon he had no other options. She would continue to suffer until she gave up. Jesse let her get close enough so that he could see here eyes. The burning intensity that he would there stunned him for a moment. He knew then that she would never give up. She would marry him or die trying.