It seems that I could never keep on schedule, so thank you for your enduring patience. Medical training is soooooo hectic that I actually spend what wee little bit of free time I have writing this and treat it as a mini vacation. Anyway, here's another chapter. Yay for us! To everyone, who's still here despite my delinquency, thank you from the very, very bottom of my heart. Your support and kind words mean a lot to me. XOXO!


Chapter 7

It was yet another day in this complicated life, Malcolm thought.

Dawn had not yet fully broken when it had come to his attention that a faction of Blüdhaven's conservatives had set their sights upon Felicity. They thought Felicity too brash and too forward for their liking. Her riding astride a horse was said to affront their sensibilities; her style of dress, an affront to their culture. And they were worried that she might be an untoward influence.

To whom, he did not know. But one thing was certain: they were planning to move against her. And as cruel as Malcolm was, he could not bring himself to fathom what that really entailed.

He inwardly stewed and found himself in an almost impossible situation. A hasty retreat right then would undermine Tommy's precarious position within Blüdhaven's hierarchy but the failure to act would leave them, and especially Felicity, most vulnerable. They couldn't risk her and the continued peace in these lands. They've already given up too much. And he would die before letting his daughter fall into the hands of those savages. He would die before he allowed his House to be brought low.

And so he had assembled those whom he trusted the most: Robert and Tommy. Quentin was likewise in attendance, having been the one who had brought him the news. Trust him, Malcolm did not - not fully and not yet. But he knew Quentin was desperate for peace in this part of the Outlands. More than that, he knew how the Chieftain's own daughter had suffered in the hands of the conservative orthodoxy. Trying to subdue them was one of the things that had spurred the formation of this alliance.

Oliver was called in only insomuch as he was Felicity's erstwhile warden.

Felicity, Tommy reported, was still abed. Exhausted, she had fallen asleep even before she hit the cot in Tommy's tent.

"It might be better yet that she's not here," Malcolm muttered under his breath. When it came to his daughter, he would rather give an order instead of a suggestion. Felicity had a knack for disregarding suggestions and with this looming threat, he had neither the time nor the patience to deal with a stubbornness that rivaled his own.

xxxxXXXXxxxx

Felicity slowly opened her heavy eyes to a new dawn. She was nestled in bedding that was more luxurious than the modest pallet on which she had rested her tired body these past days.

She burrowed further into the comfort of her erstwhile bed. It had been a while since she'd had a good night's rest or a quiet morning's peace. All the responsibilities that had been foisted on her before this trip to the woods had run her ragged.

"Good, you're awake," a voice to her left said.

If it were anyone but Sara, she would've started. But as it was, she only raised a wretched eyebrow at Laurel's sister. Felicity and Sara may have become fast friends but she was not happy with the woman for interrupting what would have been her first real reprieve in a while.

"Don't look at me like that, sloomy head. There's no time to spuddle about. Lot's to do and fast," Sara said as she took Felicity's irritation with a smirk before throwing the supine princess her clothes.

Sara had been forced by circumstances into a change of sleeping quarters the night afore. Tommy, Laurel said, had left his sleeping sister on his own bed and as a consequence, had displaced them from what would have been their tent. Sara had relented and transferred to Tommy's tent while the couple commandeered hers. She clucked at that. She had wondered how a society as outwardly conservative as theirs could demand a pregnancy before a wedding. Her father explained to her that it was a way of securing the ruling family's bloodline and a way to prove the man's virility. Sara huffed. If only it were ever just that.

It had not even been daybreak when Laurel had barged into her temporary woodland abode. Sara had been startled into wakefulness by the noise and the unwelcome news her sister had brought. It was a testament to Felicity's weariness that the princess had not stirred one bit. Tommy had come in a minute later, and upon seeing his sister still abed, decided to let Felicity rest while he sent Laurel on an errand and he himself went to an audience with his father. Sara had volunteered to see to Felicity while they were gone. Apparently, the one they call Oliver, who was supposed to be Felicity's erstwhile keeper, was nowhere to be found.

Felicity, unaware of the chaos that surrounded her that morning, took to readying herself for the day with the aplomb of a lamb to slaughter.

"'Felicity! We haven't all day!" Sara insisted.

Felicity rolled her eyes at that but made haste anyway.

xxxxXXXXxxxx

Oliver felt his stomach roil as Malcolm apprised everyone of this most recent threat. It was more than the nagging worry that he felt when Felicity had not come back to the revels last night.

He had sought her out then, only to find her in Tommy's arms. He thought it best to leave the siblings alone. He knew that their time together will be few and far between after all this. But Tommy had heard his approach and beckoned him to come nearer.

That had Oliver studying the princess. It was only then that he found out that she was indeed asleep on her brother's chest.

"I've a problem," Tommy had muttered. His friend was nowhere near his usual strength to carry Felicity back to the tent.

So, Oliver being the good friend that he was, swooped in and put the sleeping princess in the cradle of his arms.

It was a short trek back to Tommy's tent, but it was enough to make his body miss the feel of her weight against him. Oliver might not have known it then, but her weight had felt right in his hands.

He laid her down on one of the more comfortable cots and bid Sir Diggle to stand guard before his duty demanded his return to the revels. The Council was beginning to feel the Princes' absence and that would not do. He had to stand by Tommy for the countless other useless things these kinds of celebrations entailed.

Oliver let out a deep breath.

His last glimpse of the sleeping Princess was the last good thing he remembered before finding himself engulfed in the night's unforgiving blackness.

The dark had not been kind to him. Without the distraction of keeping a close eye on Felicity, his mind had fallen into its old rhythms. The nightmares that had been kept at bay the last few nights had come back with a vengeance. He had been forced from his slumber, unknowingly at first - that is, not until he found himself running aimlessly deep into the forest.

He was so out of it that it took him until the first rays of dawn to find his way back to camp. He was an excellent hunter. He could see better than most others in the dark, but not then.

He was lucky no one saw him. Or better yet, he was luckier that Tommy had assumed that he had come from a wench's bed as his friend caught him strolling back into camp.

But all of those seemed to be minute and distant concerns compared to the threat against Felicity. It wasn't his place to settle the affairs of others - at least, not yet - not while his father reigns and not while The Four Kings stand. But he knew just how dangerous this place was and he wasn't sure just how King Malcolm would come down on this situation.

And that had him speaking, yet again, against his better judgment. "I'll take Felicity away. I'll see to her removal immediately."

xxxxXXXXxxxx

"Why the haste?" Felicity asked as she finally caught up to Sara's furious pace. Felicity was a soldier in her own right but damn if she could catch up to the battle-hardened female without so much as panting. She could never fathom just how her friend could move so swiftly.

"There's been a development. I promised Tommy to get you to The Kings' Tent as soon as you're able."

"What development?" came Felicity's bewildered reply even as they both stepped in unannounced into the very place Sara had promised to bring her. "What development, Sara?"

But before the blonde had time to answer, Oliver's voice cut through the air.

"I'll take Felicity away. I'll see to her removal immediately."

Sara saw her friend stiffen. No, she thought, the brute did not just say that.

But the hard glint in Felicity's eyes confirmed what she had heard.

No good was going to come from this, Sara thought to herself.

xxxxXXXXxxxx

Betrayal.

She did not know how Oliver could have hurt her as much as she hurt then but his words had cut her right to the quick. Until a few days ago, the good for nothing Prince was the bane of her existence - from pawning off all his supposed responsibilities on to her to dominating her brother's time. She should have known better.

"My removal to where, exactly?" Felicity retorted.

Oliver whipped his head around at her voice. A sense of relief flooded him. But the fire in her eyes had him holding his next breath.

Ever the peacemaker, Tommy cut in as he sensed her sister's oncoming tirade. "Felicity, good, you're here. Something has come up and I'm afraid that it involves you."

The pointed arch of a single eyebrow told him that his tepid words were not proof against her anger. "Involves me? By the looks of it, I certainly would not have guessed it."

Silence.

At that point, nothing could have halted her ire, so everybody just tacitly agreed to let her go off.

To Felicity though, it served to be the final straw. They wanted her gone, then she'll remove herself at once. She knew that they could not leave the Outlands just yet, but she could. It was a three-day ride to Arkham. She could manage that in less if she left that instant. It was easy to fool men with her garb anyway. So, she made her decision.

"Go discuss me then. Go on. If it's all the same to you, I shall take my leave."

"Felicity, come on!" Tommy pleaded. "Don't be like this."

"Like what, Tommy? Like what? Like a woman who would, for once, let men decide her fate?"

"Felicity!" Malcolm warned.

"What now, Father? It's what you've wanted for the longest time, have you not? A daughter who would just meekly do whatever it is you decide for her?"

"That's not fair, Felicity, and you know it," Malcolm said with deadly calm. That's the thing with him. He was calmest when he was angriest.

"Oh, do I now?" Did she really? All her life she had done whatever it was that she thought would please him but it was never enough. Burdened with a daughter whom he did not know how to raise, he had sent her away to the Nippon Widow at a very young age. At the time she needed a mother, all she had was a strict taskmaster. At a time when she needed a father, all she had was a military commander. She had not once been able to sit at her father's knee - not like the way Tommy had. For once, she would like her father to acknowledge his shortcomings and her brother to realize that she did not have the father he had and remembered. Her father had always treated her like a burden at worst, an inconvenience at best - and that brought all of her prior fears and misgivings to the fore of her mind. She had had it. Enough was enough.

"Do, I, father? Fine! Being the vexing burden that I am to you, I shall remove myself this instant. You can wash your hands off me forever, then. Good bye, good riddance and damn you all to hell!" she shouted as she turned her back and stalked away from Sara and the men she had trusted but who had betrayed her yet again.

"Felicity!" Tommy called out but it was Oliver who went after her. Her hysterics had set him off.

She would risk her neck for her stubborn pride, Oliver thought. Well, he was having none of it. His ground-eating strides had him catching up to her as she stepped outside of the Kings' Tent.

"Hey!" he spat as he spun her around by the arm.

"Unhand me!" Felicity demanded.

Oliver very rarely raised his voice but this was one of those occasions. "I do not understand you. You have been given a wider latitude than most women and yet you throw it all back to our faces as if you have been given none!"

"Well, 'tis my life and 'tis my choice!" Felicity shouted back.

"Gods, Felicity!" Oliver screamed in exasperated disbelief. "For all your intelligence, did it ever occur to that big brain of yours that we are all so worried sick about you that we'd rather address this at the soonest possible instant?"

His outburst rendered Felicity speechless for once and it was only in the silence that followed that he realized the strength of his grip on her arm. He promptly let her go.

He took a few measured breaths before he spoke again, this time, in what he hoped was a calmer, quieter voice. "The way I see it, you do have a choice: would you rather tempt the fates and put yourself and our Realm in harm's way or would you just please go back inside and help us neutralize this threat against you?"

At her continued silence, he prompted, "What will it be, Princess?"


Notes:

orthodoxy n. sing.: the quality of conforming to authorized or generally accepted theories, doctrines or practices

sloomy adj.: sleepy or sluggish

spuddle v.: to assume an air of importance without reason; or to make trifles seem important.


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