You Found Me

6. The In-Between

"Stayed too -- what do you mean, they'll find you?" He demands, watching helplessly as she mounts and, after a moment's hesitation, reattaches her pack to the back of her saddle.

"I have to go. I'm sorry, Henry," she turns once more towards him, shortening her reigns and preparing to run. He sees real regret and remorse in her eyes, as the thundering hoofbeats grow ever louder. Her heels squeeze and Kaladian springs to life.

"How will I find you again?!" Henry shouts after her, his heart in his ears as she gallops away.

Ella looks over her shoulder as the wind whips through her and gives him a weighted, communicative look he can't begin to understand, and then she's gone.

He barely has time to process what had happened before the sound of muted footsteps belonging to more than one man reaches his ears. His body springs into action before his mind catches up to it, scuffing his boots over the matted grass where she had been laying and stomping on the last dying embers hidden deep in the black logs. Instinctively, he reaches to the small of his back where he keeps his dagger, but it's not there and his fingers close on empty air. His heart drops, mind flashing to the moment when Ella had "tripped" behind him while they searched for more firewood and her hand had brushed against his back, and how he'd laughed, and he'd been so taken with her --

No.

The next moment, four uniformed palace guards enter his field of vision. The one in front signals with his hand and they spread out, searching the clearing. Then, spotting him, they make their way towards him. His heart still racing, he crosses his arms in front of his chest and does his best to appear at ease.

"Can I help you, officers?" he jokes, trying to judge their expressions behind the shade cast from their helmets.

"You seen a woman around here today?"

Henry swallows, a chill running through his bloodstream. Surely he didn't mean..? He gives the guards a small, relaxed smile. "Woman? You might have to be a bit more specific, friend."

His smooth talking doesn't have the calming effect he'd hoped for either on himself or on the men in front of him. Stoney faced, the one who Henry assumes to be the commander steps closer to him and places a careful hand on the hilt of his sword. "We're talking about the runaway princess here. She's been on the run for years."

Henry's smile falters. "Runaway princess?"

"You're not from around here, are you? Cinderella. We've been trying to put her away since she ran off."  Henry feels himself blanch. "You okay there, mister?"

"Yeah, I - I'm not from here. I've never heard of her."

"Hey!" One of the guards calls near the place Kaladian had been grazing. "Horse has been here."

"You hear that?" The commander directs towards Henry, raising an eyebrow. "Fresh hoof prints. You sure you ain't see anyone?"

The guard who had noticed the evidence of Ella's horse steps towards his commander, holding a very familiar object. "Found this, too."

Henry's throat had gone dry during the last set of questions, but he finds his tongue when he notices what's in the guard's hand. "Hey, that's my dagger," he exhales in relief, sidestepping the commander's question and inspecting the knife. H.M. had been engraved in gold lettering on the handle, a going-away present from Mr. Gold that demonstrated the extent of his grandfather's thoughtfulness. "Those are my initials," he explains to them as they hand it back to him. "I thought I lost it."

The guards regard him with a new sort of respect, as if they can't imagine anyone who isn't important owning a personalized object. Henry bites his tongue to keep from smiling. At some point, she must have decided against stealing from him and left it for him to find--maybe they really had made a connection, and this was her way of communicating that to him. It's not exactly a glass slipper, but he'll take it.