Rebel |h.s au|

Chapter 11

  The next morning, Sophie woke up feeling guilty, her mind thought back to her argument with Harry last night, he was right, the were partners she should be by his side on these raids. She knows he wants to protect her but the princess also wanted to be there to protect him too . She glanced at the clock on the wall. 6:30 a.m.

Getting out of bed, Sophie padded out of the room ,knocked on Alice's door.

No answer.

"Al? Are you there?"

Still no answer.

Sophie slowly opened the door. The room was clean, the bed freshly made. No clothes on the floor. No clutter on the desk. No papers lying around. No Alice.

She walked over to Noah's room knocking on the wooden door.

No answer there, either.

Sophie opened the door and peeked her head in. It wasn't dirty, but it wasn't as clean as his partners room. It felt casual...Comfortable.

The covers on the bed were rumpled with a dent in the pillow. There was a hamper in the corner and a shirt lay discarded just beside the hamper. The desk was cluttered with papers and pens. There was a solitary cup on Noah;s bedside table.

Sophie took a deep breath and walked over to Harry's door. She didn't even bother knocking. She merely opened the door.

The bed gave no hint that it had even been slept in. No dent in the pillow. The bed was professionally made. The hamper was empty and the desk was organized with two stacks of papers on it.

Sophie walked in and crossed the room to stand in front of the desk.

She paused to make sure she had closed the door and then picked up a paper on the top of one of the stacks. She recognized her hand writing. It was the list she'd made for Harry.

Her eyes scanned down the list. Most of the places she'd written were crossed out. A few names were still there.

Then she saw the East and West villages. They were circled with a note written beside them.

Harry had written: Ask questions.

Sophie bit her lip and set the paper down exactly where she'd picked it up from, walked out of the room as if she never entered.

~~~**~~~

Harry, Alice, and Noah rode to the castle silently.

"I still think you should have asked again this morning" Alice spoke up quietly.

Harry let out a barely expelled breath.

"She said no, Alice. No means no," Harry spoke.

"Once she had the chance to sleep on it, maybe she would have agreed. Harry you've got to start treating her less like a normal rebel and more like a partner."

Harry turned to look at her. "She IS a rebel."

"But not a normal one," she snapped. "She didn't grow up bitter like the rest of us. She didn't grow up with a specific goal to overcome the king. She grew up in love and in wisdom."

Harry scoffed and turned away.

"And she grew up with her own choice. Her own opinion. You've got to start giving her choices and maybe she'll start choosing correctly," Alice tried reasoning with him .

"Maybe she should learn that we are a group of rebels. We do what we need to do. Not what we want to do." he grumbled.

"Maybe you should get over the fact that you're not alone any more," Alice said. "I get it, Harry. You're a loner. You grew up only trusting Noah and yourself. It's not like that anymore. Now you have me and Jake. And right now you have a partner. And that partner is Sophie."