THE KING
~ Arabella's pov ~
Excruciating would not be the proper word to describe brunch with Lord Channings. He was a lovely gentleman, but I had another in my heart and it was not fair to him. He had ridden myself back home in a silent, awkward ride in his carriage and he knew I would not see him again.
I did not wish for it to become of this. I did not wish for any of it. And I especially did not wish to fall in love with Oden.
My mind was constantly wondering where he had gone or if he was truly leaving this time. I was rushing inside when I arrived back at home, thrusting through the front door in a panting mess. Mother gasps at the sight of me, sitting down her cup of tea. Serena sits alongside with her, throwing off an innocent facade.
"How was brunch?" Mother quickly asks, standing from her seat. "Will you be attending him again?"
"Where is Oden?" My words escape out of my lips and before I know it, I had both of the women's jaws falling open in shock.
Mother's confused gaze meets mine in the midst. "Why are you asking of him?"
"I told you, Mother. She has fallen for her servant." Amusement plays in Serena's word as she stands from the couch, nearing mother. Serena shares a smirk to me, crossing her arms. "That is too bad..."
Mother hushes her with her locked eyes, and Serena looks away. I panic. "What do you mean? What does that mean?"
"Is it true?" Mother asks. "Are you two more than friends?"
I stay quiet, guilt wrapping my vocal cords to keep them at bay from speaking such words. I think she already knows the answer to her answers after my silence and laughter fills the house.
It is Serena's.
"I told you..." Serena teases.
"Serena, please," she begs of her oldest to stop. Serena looks away from her stare, glaring at the floor. Mother focuses back to I. "Are you in love with him, Arabella?"
I am still quiet, almost bursting with emotions that I have kept in for so long. I am shaking, tearing up so much that I cannot see a soul around me.
"Are you?" She questions in a heated tone.
"Yes!" I yell. Yelling it to the world, to my mother, to my sister in hopes of them to leave me alone and leave me to pity myself. "I love him, I do. If you cannot accept, that is fine. It will not change my feelings."
Stunned is my mother and she stands, trying to comprehend it all.
"Mother, tell her," Serena commands of her and she stands frozen to the core.
"Tell me what?" I am back into madness again. What is it that I do not know?
"Oden has left," mother speaks in a soft spoken voice. She looks down in shame, and pitiful eyes stare back into mine when she looks up again. "He made his leave, he is going back home, Arabella."
No.
"No." My voice is hushed. Tears pool my eyes, streaming down my face like a waterfall and I cannot do anything about it. How long ago was this? Could I make haste to him? Could I make it in time to tell him that I loved him truly?
"He left about-" I am running towards the door and mother screams for me, but I cannot hear her through the wind that circles my ears and the panting of my breaths as I shoot for air. My dress flows through the wind and I do care if I am showing any skin to the village.
I have to get to him in time. He has to know.
He was a traveler, where do travelers find their way anywhere? The back roads that leads to the city. Up the hill, I run, the tree that spreads memories of Oden running after me in my time of need brings more tears to flow out of my soul and onto the ground. I stumble down the hill, finding that lone dirt road filled with the forest on each side, travelers make their way down this road during the day, but never at night so I assume he must be walking this path.
Thunder has striked the night, leaving me in a shuddering mess. The echoes of the cracking pulls a whimper out of me and I am fighting to breath as I keep pushing forward to find Oden. Droplets of water soon pass over me, hitting my skin but I continue on my journey.
He is what I hoped for in a man, he is my happiness, my knight in shining amor, my diamond.
But he will never know that if I do not find him before he is off.
A light. A light is shone far off down the dirt road and the wind picks up again, blowing my hair everywhere. Rain beats down upon my pale skin and I make haste towards the light. The light reflects off the person, a white shirt is all I can bring myself to see and dark hair is revealed.
"Oden!" I yell with all of my might. It was him. It had to be him.
Running is all I can afford at this moment because if I give up, he will be gone forever. The figure stops, turning around and revealing those soft features that I have fallen for over the months I have known him. Once I bring myself to him, I am out of breath, soaked, but relieved I have found my soul.
"Oden." I release his name in a whisper.
Oden's face forms into a concerned look, catching me when I nearly fall into his arms. He cages me with one of his arms, wrapping around my waist and the other holds up a lantern.
"You musn't leave," I breathe out.
He shakes his head. "I must leave, it is my duty. I am needed back at home."
"Why are you leaving me?" My voice breaks, and he softly brushes the tears off my face, erasing my sadness.
"I am not trying to, I plan to come back for you, Bells," he says softly. "There is something I must do before I come back."
"What is it? To make peace with whoever you made angry?" I ask in a hurry, wanting to know what harm he has done to someone. "I shall come with you to make peace."
He shakes his head, dismissing me. "No, I must do this alone."
"Is it because you think I do not wish to marry you?" I cry out. "Ask me to marry you right now and I will say yes. I will say yes a million times over, Oden."
He sighs, closing his eyes in a pained look. Does he not want me to say it?
"I love you, Oden," I whisper. "I will love you forever until my heart no longer beats for you. I cannot love anyone else because my heart belongs to you and only you."
"Bells..."
"No." I shake my head. "I love you-"
"King!" A dark voice yells into the night. I jump in Oden's arms, frightened by the carriage and horse approaching us. Guards are standing on either side of the carriage, holding swords and cold stoned looks. A man leaps from the carriage, blowing out a relief of breath when sparing Oden a look. "My king, it is you! We have been searching all over for you. Your mother has been worried."
Oden freezes beside me, and I am left confused by it all. I am filled with laughter, ready to speak to the guard and tell him that he has Oden mistaken, but Oden ignores the man and turning to me to block my view of the guard.
"Arabella..." Oden starts, licking his lips with fear.
"King!" The man holds an umbrella over his head to keep himself from getting soaked.
"King?" I whisper in distress. I was nearly confused as to why they could be calling him the king when he was simply my servant.
That is why he was always hiding from the guards, seeking shelter whenever they were around. He wasn't a convict. He did not make anyone angry, because he was the king.
His eyes are filled with panic and he's looking back and forth at me and his own servants that are calling for him. Another guards steps out of the carriage, holding onto an umbrella, running towards him.
His brown hair is now jet black and sticking to his face, his heavy breathes are heard through the rain and if you could stand still almost, you could hear the slight tearing of my heart.
"Arabella, I shall explain to you-"
I cut him off, causing his servant to stop in his paces and panic arises in his eyes. "Shall explain what? Are you the king, Oden?"
His lips seal shut and his eyes are bearing the truth. I take a step back. "That's not even your name, is it?"
"Bells, please." He holds his hand out for me to take. He expects me to run away with him. To come to him as if he hadn't lied about everything we had.
Betrayal hit me in the face. I was staring at a man that I thought I loved, I fell in love with a lie and it was so embarrassing to watch it unfold in front of me. Especially in front of his servants. I ran all this way to confess my feelings and he could not even bare the truth to me?
I felt ill.
"Sir, your Mother awaits you," his servants whispers to him, causing Oden to send him off with a stiff nod.
He finds me again, and steps toward me once again. He holds his hand out, pleading with me. "Please, let me take you home and I can explain everything."
"Right in front of your men?" I retort. He shuts his mouth. "I'm not going anywhere with you. I don't even know your real name. I don't even know you!"
He was a stranger to me. I could barely reconize him with all of the guards around us. He was the lone king, the king everyone spoke of. The hushed whispers about how cruel he was, the man who would not show his face to the people, the man hidden behind walls from keep his identity.
It was all a lie.
"Don't." He shakes his head. "Don't say that. Don't speak of such things when you were just telling me you loved me."
"I loved Oden. I don't love this." I point to himself, watching his eyes fall in defeat.
"I'm still the man you love." He places his hand over his chest. He takes light steps to me, matching right toward me. "I-"
I point my finger at him, backing away. "Don't."
"Sir." His servant yells this time, catching both of our attention. He coughs awkwardly, a white glove fitted over his hands. "I'm terribly sorry to disturb, but your Mother truly insists on seeing you."
"I'll be right there, thank you."
"Leave," I tell him and he goes to say something, but I interrupt him. "I'm a lady in distress and you're causing it. Please leave."
"I don't-"
I pull up my dress, showing a bit of my shoes and rush away from the man in front of me who claims to now be the king.
He calls for me and another voice yells for me as well, but my feet are steadily leading me back to the village. The backroads were dark and muddy and I knew my Mother would have a fit over seeing my shoes all messy.
With my face covered in tears and blurry vision, I make it back to the village and find my cottage home. I slam the door open, causing all eyes upon my soul.
"Arabella, why on earth did you storm away from me?" Mother questions me, concern fills her eyes.
"I'll be in my room..." I tried to so hard to fight the raspiness in my throat, but I failed to do so which lead everyone in the room to know I was filled with sorrow.
"Arabella..." Mother calls for me once more but I ignore her and make haste to my room.
Shutting the door behind me once I reach inside, I am slumped against the wooden door, no longer attaining my body weight as it was dragging me along.
I could no longer fight the battle between my thoughts and I. It was a constant fight either fight my tears or swim in self pity.
I was going for option B.
I fell in love with a lie. I fell in love with the king. Whom I've disliked since they shared with everyone that he was becoming king.
Was this an experiment somehow? A joke perhaps?
I had let the king touch me in ways that I could not imagine. All of the days he comforted me about my sister, the nights we shared together, the laughter we gleamed with, was all of it ever true?
"Arabella..." Father's voice is behind the door, I then hear a slump as if he sat down, leaning against the door. "Your mother has told me of such."
I stay silent, covering my cries with my hands in front of my face. I hear him sigh. "Did you go see him?"
"Do not shut me out, Arabella. I am on your side, I am your father," he says. I cry out, standing from the door and opening it to reveal his back that was leaning against the door. He stands, meeting my mess form, blowing out a breath. He opens his comforting arms, giving me a soft smile. "Cry into me."
"He is not who I thought he is, father. He is so much more than we ever thought..." I mumble, crying into his shoulder when I bring myself near.
Was this heartbreak? Would I ever return from such?
~ Jaxson's pov ~
Arabella ran from me. Me. The one man who could destroy the earth just for her. I was vile to her, she did not see me as the gentleman that I was to her, disgust was written in those words of hers and she can never look at me the same.
I love you.
She had finally uttered those three little words that expressed so much joy within me. I wished to run after her, even moving to chase her through the winds, but a guard clutched me on my arm, stopping me from doing so.
"My king, there is something you shall know..." He states and I turn to him. "It is about Ugene."
"Where is he? Is he alright?" I panic. I had a tiny bit of hope that he was alright, but by his facial expression, it was telling me something entirely different.
"Your mother." He starts, hesitating to share the news. "She has put him in the dungeons. She believes he is the one that has to do with your disappearance. She is going mad throughout the palace and I am afraid you shall return, please."
He holds so much pleading in his voice, begging me to return back home. I turned to look down the path Arabella stormed off, in a left or right situation, I did not know what I should do.
"My king, she has been starving him, getting guards to come in and beat him until he has spoken." My heart drops to the pit of my stomach, I leave with no hesitation, leaving Arabella until I can come up with a plan on winning her back.
Ugene needed me. My palace needed me. My people also needed me.
The long awaited ride back home was dreadful. I was peering out the window in hopes of making it there sooner, until we have finally arrived and every guard from the palace is standing outside, waiting for me in case I go running for the hills again.
I step down from the carriage, guards bow down in my presence when I pass them. The guard that has shared this news with me stays behind and I turn my head as we walk together.
"Where is my mother?" I ask.
"She is in her room," he answers.
"I want every guard to keep where they are, I want you to free Ugene of his torment and make sure he has not brought on death because if he has... There will be hell to pay," I warn, causing him to gulp in fear. He nods to me, descending away from me and onto the dungeons.
I cannot believe my mother would do such a thing. My courtier. My friend.
Courting up the stairs, I am battling my mind, seeming to go mad at the fact that I have left my lady back in the village whilst I work on this mess my mother has created.
I cannot believe at one point she was named the queen of this country.
Her room is quiet, the halls filled with doom. I break through her door, not a single care that I have ruined her privacy.
My mother stands at the window, then twirls to face me thinking I was a guard who has come unannounced. She is stunned at the sight of my presence, she cannot believe I am standing in her room with anger seeping out of me.
"Jaxson." She starts for me, but I hold my hand up to stop her.
"What is this?" I ask in a sudden haze.
"What-"
"You have one of my loyal men in the dungeons because I chose to leave? I wrote you a letter explaining that I wished for freedom," I yelled in anger, cutting her off. My yell bounces off the wall, exiting the room and the guards do not come swarming in like any other times.
They can tell my anger is futile.
"Jaxson, I-I thought you had been kidnapped. Do not blame me for worrying about my son. You left, you left me with the palace-"
"Because you are infuriating, Mother!" My face was hot, I was seething with anger. Hurt is shown through my mother's features. "You push marriage upon me when I do not wish for it. I tried to tell you that I wanted to fall in love with a lady, you do not respect me. I came to you as a son to a mother."
"Jax-"
"The dungeons, really?" I interrupt once more. "Father wanted them gone, I want them gone."
"Jaxson, please." Her eyes hold pleadment.
"I am going to check on my courtier and make sure he has not caught something, if something has happened to him on your behalf, I will put you down there myself," I warn her wearily.
"We need to talk," she hurriedly says.
"I do not wish to speak with you right now." I turn away from her, walking towards the hall.
"Your father-" She goes to speak on her behalf, but I slam the door behind me, cutting her off. Taking my leave, my boots slap against the tiles leading toward the spare room.
A doctor is leaning over Ugene who is laying on the bed, hiding his face. My hands fist in a ball when the doctor faces me, holding a gentle smile and bows.
"Your highness," he greets.
"How is he?" I ask.
The doctor moves so I can face Ugene and my heart drops. Ugene's face is bruised, his lip is busted and a bruise is forming around his eye. Ugene meets my gaze, and he is filled with hope.
"Could we have a moment, doc?" I ask and he proceeds to leave the room, respecting my wishes.
I breathe out in sorrow. "Ugene, this- If I had known sooner."
"I did not tell her anything, you do not have to worry," he tells me.
I shake my head. "You should have. You took a beating because of me."
"You are my king, I am your courtier, that is what we do." He smiles, but it looks like he is in great pain. "You shall retrieve your queen, she must be worrying over your disappearance."
My smile flips back down, I frown, holding back emotions that could lead me to anger. Blowing out a breath, I hold my hips in a stance.
Ugene freezes, realizing. "She has found out, hasn't she?"
"Just before I arrived," I say in a light voice.
"Jaxson, I am terribly sorry. We must fix this." He tries to take a stand, wincing as he does. I stop him with a hand out.
"Do not risk anymore for me, I will figure a plan out. That is my doing, I brought it onto myself." I was the king, after all. I shall do my duty in fighting for Arabella.
"We should present a ball." He smiles eagerly.
"And what are you suggesting?" I cross my arms, listening in.
"A ball to show yourself to the people, but also win Miss Arabella back. Invite her family so she cannot refuse." A smirk rises upon his lips after he is done.
"You cheeky bastard, you." I could not help but utter a laugh. "I cannot wait to see you seize the day in finding a wife for yourself, you will be an honorable husband."
"I try." He smiles.
"We may have ourselves a plan. Heal quickly, Ugene, we are expecting a ball soon."