The Lady Knight

Chapter XV: Impossibilities and Insanities

I stood up. "Remarkable, Lady Olivia. I knew not that sailors' curses were part of your vocabulary," I drawled, "is that not against social etiquette?" I walked away from her to find another spot to sit.

She followed me, and rounded on me, towering over me.

"Listen to me when I am talking to you!" her furious blue eyes bore into mine, "dare not pretend that an inanimate book is of more significance than what I am telling you. You will listen to me. You will obey my every word. And whether you like it or not, I will marry the Crown Prince one day!"

"I have no need to pretend that your words are of no significance to me, my Lady," my voice was ice cold, "as you so eloquently put it, I do not give a damn about what you say."

Her sapphire eyes blazed, as she knocked off the beret on my head in a fit of rage.

"What the - " I began, furious that she would even dare to touch it.

It was my pride, my joy. I did not allow anyone touch it, with the exception of my former Commander General Laxier, who had passed it down to me after his term of office had ended and I had taken over.

In the short second that my eyes had darted to my fallen beret on the ground, Lady Olivia had grabbed hold of my bun to hold my head still, and raised her other hand, no doubt to deliver a stinging slap.

I caught her hand before it could strike me. "Big mistake, sweetheart."

Before her mind could process what I had said, I had elbowed the crook of her arm to loosen her hold on my hair. The moment her hold slackened, I had stepped closer to her, grabbed hold of her upper arm, slipped an arm under it, and flipped her to the ground.

She blinked up at the sky, gasping loudly for air.

Before she could react, I straddled her, raised my fist and brought it down to her cheek good and hard.

"Ow!" she howled in pain, her hands flying to her face to nurse her wounded cheek.

I tied my hair up into a tight bun once more, grabbed my beret and tucked my hair under it, as she continued to groan and howl, clutching her cheek.

She was already sporting a fine blue-black bruise where I had hit her. Pressing my lips into a thin line, I crouched down in front of her, taking special care to ensure that she can see and hear me well and clear.

"If you value your life, Lady Olivia," I murmured, staring straight into her defiant eyes, "you will never touch me again."

With a feral snarl, she tried to strike me again, but I caught her arm in time, and dug my nails into it.

"I am no longer that little girl you used to torment at your whim and pleasure," I hissed, "I am a Knight, a Commander General, and if I wish to, I can injure you beyond recovery this very moment. Am I understood?" I roared with an intensity that made her flinch.

From across the field, I could feel the Prince's intense, bewildered gaze trained on the both of us.

***

"Oh, my poor darling!" Lady Françoise cried the moment she set her eyes on Lady Olivia, hurrying towards her with all the grace of a lady of the society, "how did you get hurt?" She cupped her daughter's cheeks and ran a thumb over her bruises, distressed.

In the meanwhile, the Captains, the Prince and I strode into the receiving hall from our eventful trip to the fields, exhausted.

However, I, on the other hand, was not as happy as the rest, and I made no move to disguise it. I kept my distance from the Prince and his severe, probing gaze, which were demanding answers that I did not wish to divulge at the moment.