Rough bark stamped ridges into her palm. Clutching the trunk, Keesa dared not breathe. There was a crackle of broken twigs earlier.
Have I been discovered? She fretted.
Cocking her head, she listened for telltale signs of movement. The shadowy woods concealed pursuers from her sight, but the thick underbrush would betray them. She worried the puckered wood with her fingertip. Satisfied that she heard no more, she pushed onwards, pausing frequently to listen.
It was a full moon tonight. It's bright glow had illuminated her way as she stole from her bedchamber, down the unlit servants' stairwell, and out the side door. But in the open field, it had threatened to expose her. With bated breath, she had dashed through the tall, silvered grass until slipping into the safety of the woods.
Now, deep in the woods, Keesa found herself longing for the moon's comforting light. She couldn't see herself, much less the trees she had to avoid walking headlong into. Tugging the hem of her dress from snaggle-toothed branches, she wondered if Alexei was struggling as much as she.
Unlikely, she huffed to herself.
He had spent his boyhood on the estate. The Baron, her wellborn father and his uncle, had often taken him hunting in these woods. So much so that, if it were not for the fact that he spent more time with his sister's son than with his own daughter, one would have thought he was training his nephew to be a common huntsman, rather than a nobleman.
And he is noble. The Baron had insisted upon it when he first brought him home, despite the blood only coming from his mother's side. He didn't need to though. Keesa hadn't really cared if his veins carried the blood of the king or the beggar at the town gates as long as it meant she would have a companion at the quiet estate. She hadn't said so though and had simply bobbed a demure curtsy to welcome her cousin.
He had not been a constant companion, as she had hoped, but he had been the only one. In her life hemmed in by maids, he brought a vein of spontaneity she had never known before. He sneaked her from the castle to play. Hiding in the rowan grove, they whispered their lives to each other - her endless lessons in etiquette punctuated by servant drama and his romps across the estate at her father's elbow. With colourful tales that would have stunned her nursemaid, he became her window to the world beyond the palace walls.
Suddenly pausing in her flight through the forest, Keesa looked furtively around her for Alexei, squinting at the darkness. They had agreed to meet at the grove tonight, but there had been no word from him for days.
Have we been found out?
A/N: Hold up. That's it? That's the end? Haha..no. This is actually a short story and was supposed to be a oneshot, but it's becoming quite long. So I'm posting it in segments. Keep checking back as I add on to it! Or if you're as impatient as me, check .com since I update that faster.