Moonlightdrifter asked how Daire was pronounced; in my head I say it like Dare, almost like Darien without the en. thanks for the reviews guys they make me very happy.

Chapter 11

Matt looked around he saw a short note on the table it read.

I am sorry to leave you like this, Matt, but I never meant for you to get involved in my problem. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Addi.

Matt threw the note on the table and cursed loudly.

He knew he could find her easily and he went to his cabinet to grab his herbs and make sure she wasn't in the castle. When he opened up the doors, he found out that the bottles were empty. He hung his head and cursed again. He should have known that she would have taken care of that. He started pacing thinking out loud, "What is she thinking? She is only going to get herself caught if she is out there by herself. She is easy game for Daire." He stopped pacing and remarked, "I currently have Daire under my guard. I wonder how long I can keep him like that? Long enough to have me find Addi and get her to safety."

As he mused this last thought, he heard a knock on the door, puzzled he called, "Come in."

There was Eliza with a breakfast tray, she must have read the confused expression on his face because she answered confidently, "I am your new servant."

He just stared at her and said, "I want you to go and get the Headwoman for me."

She looked surprised and asked, "Why?"

He glared at her, "I don't have to tell my reason to you, and I want you to go get Tana for me, now."

She set the tray down and walked out the door. Matt sat down and started to pick at his breakfast as he tried to get his jumbled thoughts together. It was odd that Eliza had known Lynn was gone, she had also assumed that he would just pick her and go on. Maybe Eliza had something to do with Daire finding out who Lynn really was? He had just completed the thought when Eliza and Tana walked in through the door. He sent Eliza out, shut the door, and activated his spell to prevent eavesdroppers. He turned around to look at Tana and asked, "Did you know that Lynn was really Lady Addi?"

Tana smiled and replied, "You finally figured it out."

"I'll take that as a yes then." Matt sighed.

"She didn't want you to get involved but I don't think she realized how involved she was getting with you." Tana remarked.

Matt looked up at her surprised, "What do you mean by that?"

Tana just shrugged, and didn't answer, instead asked, "What are you going to do now?"

He looked out the window and replied, "I need to get my father to agree to keep Daire under lock and key for a while and then I am going after her."

Tana smiled saying, "That sounds like a good course of action. You better get moving, she has a half day lead on you."

Matt smirked, "But she can't hide from me as long as I have this." And he held up a gold necklace. What he didn't say was he needed to grab more herbs before he could perform that little spell again. He escorted Tana out the door and went to go talk with his father.

Matt found his father in the library, "Father," He said, causing his father to look up quickly from the book he was reading. "I need to talk to you about something."

His father motioned for him to come and sit down. Matt started explaining everything that happened over the last day and how he had finally found Lady Addi.

"It took you long enough to figure it out son. She was right besides you the whole time."

Matt made a face and complained, "Did everyone know who she was but me?"

His father just laughed.

Matt continued on how he was going to go after and he wanted to make sure Daire was detained until he could catch up to her.

The King sighed, "If you want to make the charge that Daire assaulted your servant, I can only keep him locked up for four days tops. If you made it known that it was Lady Addi, I can detain him for longer."

Matt thought about that and shook his head, "No, I don't know if many people will believe that it was Lady Addi and I don't know if my plan will work so I will take as long as you can give me."

"Four days, starting today and then I have to let him go. But you cannot go off today, you have to attend tonight's ball. All the guild masters are here and they want to see you. There is also a guild meeting tomorrow morning, you can't not leave until tomorrow afternoon."

Matt looked at his father in panic, he knew that he needed to be there and start building a good relationship with them but he needed to go after Addi, she was getting farther and farther away as he dallied. His father shook his head and Matt knew he could not skip these meetings.

After he raided Twymn's stores to replace his missing herbs, he spent the day with a bland mask forced onto his face. He couldn't let people know that he was going off to chase Addi or that would ruin the whole secret.

The ball was spent with meeting this guild master and talking to that master. He hardly danced at all, (to his relief) he just spent the night talking away. After the ball, he was pulled into more decisions about guild matters and his opinions. As he went to bed, he was dreading a whole other meeting of the same things. But he was going to have to deal with these when he gained the crown might as well get used to them now.

The morning inched along, Matt found himself looking out the window frequently wondering when the meeting was going to be over so he could leave. He wasn't paying attention to any of the talking that was going on, and he could have sworn that his father kept looking at him on the verge of laughter.

When the meeting was finally over Matt made the quickest apologizes for having to take off so fast and he bolted down to the kitchens where Tana had promised him that she would have lunch ready for him so he could leave as soon as the meeting was over.

He hurried and ate his lunch while his horse was being brought around. He climbed into his horse and activated the locator spell he had ready. It pointed towards the forest, he followed it as fast as he dared make the horse go.

He followed the same path, Addi did. He also pressed on, just as Addi did. He traveled through the night, finally forced to stop at first light when he almost fell off the horse. He walked around for a few minutes and decided to take a quick nap before continuing. Matt fell into a light sleep quickly and seemed to wake up moments after he had put his head down. He looked up for the sun and found it almost overhead. He had slept most of the morning. He swung himself into the saddle and ate lunch on the way. He kept looking at his spell to make sure he was heading in the right direction. In the late afternoon, he heard somebody come up behind him. He looked around and saw four men on horses. The lead one smiled and commented, "I think this is the company that the boss warned us about."

Matt raised an eyebrow at him and asked, "Company, I didn't know I was going to be company for anybody."

The man spoke again, "The boss just wants to talk to you, so if you would please follow us." He motioned to a thin side trail that separated off the trail they were on.

Matt responded in a polite voice, "And if I don't want to talk to your boss, then what?"

The man sighed, "Then we would have to use force and you won't like that."

"You are just taking me to talk, right?" Matt asked.

"Yep, that is what we were told."

Matt motioned for him to take the lead and then followed him, the other three men following behind.

It was soon that they rode into a camp, Matt dismounted and followed his guide to a tent. He walked inside and saw a man about the same age as him with hazel eyes. Matt stood and watched his man as he smiled up at him from the cushion that he was sitting from.

"Please sit down, I have some questions for you." He said.

Matt remained standing and asked, "Who are you? And why do you wish to talk to me?"

The man sighed, "My name is Robert, Rob for short. And we have a common friend in a rather vexing young lady."

Matt sat down and asked, "What do you know of Addi?"

Robert looked at him sadly and responded, "She left this camp a couple of hours ago. Before she left she mentioned to my friend Jamal that she thought that she had someone following her from the castle. I never imagined that it would be the Prince himself."

Matt stood back up and asked, "She left here only a few hours ago, I need to catch up with her. I am sorry I have to go so soon."

"Please sit down, I want to talk to you and you will not be going anywhere until we have had that talk." Robert said with a voice edged with steel.

Matt looked at the two men who were by the entrance and decided to play his game for the moment. "Aright then what do you want to talk about?"

"Why are you following Addi?" Robert asked.

"Because the fool ran off before I could explain a plan that could get her out of this mess." Matt answered true fully.

"You're not going to throw her into some hiding place for her own protection?" Robert asked.

Matt laughed, "No that wouldn't go any good, she would just find some way to get out of it and then I wouldn't be able to find her again. We need to clear this mess up once and for all so we don't have to worry about where she is."

Robert nodded his expression pained, "I just tried to get her to stay in this camp where I could protect her and she would have none of it. You speak the truth. I wish I knew that before I tried to get her to stay."

Matt asked, "How do you know her?"

Robert looked away for a moment and then started, "I used to live in a village that as a child she would come by and help with the harvest every year. We would play at nights while the adults were resting. And let's say I developed a fondness for her as the years passed."

"She actually helped with the harvesting?" Matt asked.

Robert laughed, "She did. At first everyone thought she was just a young girl that would drop in for some work. She didn't tell anyone that she was the Lady Addi. After I think about four years of doing that, she was there working helping get lunch ready for the workers when her father came riding into town looking for her. You could imagine everyone's surprise when he found her. I watched from the shadows as Lord Artt tried to get Addi to come back and forget this foolishness. She wouldn't, she whispered something to him, he then left and let her stay. I don't know what she said but she came back every year after that until she disappeared running from that idiot Daire."

Matt sat still for a moment before shaking his head and smiled, "I knew that girl loved to help her people but I hadn't realized how much. It probably kills her not to be helping with the harvest right now."

Robert sighed as he looked at the young prince, "You need to go and catch up with her, she needs someone to keep her out of trouble." He stood up and held out his hand.

Matt stood up and clasped his hand, wondering why he felt like he was being passed a big responsibility.

Before he left the camp though, Robert came up to him and handed him a green summon stone, saying, "If you need any help protecting her, summon me please. I will be there as quick as I can."

Matt took it and nodded his head. He then headed off in the direction his spell told him Addi was. He had lost most of the remaining daylight with his odd talk with Robert, he was going to have to ask Addi what was going on between them. He continued going through the night, at the break of dawn he debuted about stopped for a quick rest. When he saw how bright the spell was getting he continued on. Four hours later he rode up to her horse but no Addi. He looked around the clearing and saw her tucked away at the back, asleep. He smiled to himself as he started to make a fire. Only when he had the fire going and had some stew warming over it, did he approach her.

He lightly touched her shoulder and quickly jumped back as she sat up with blinding speed. He let out a quite chuckle as she looked at him with sleepily eyes.

"You want some lunch, fair lady?" He asked.

She scowled at him and asked how he had caught up to her so fast. He pretended not to hear as he took a bowl out and scoped some stew for her. She got up and stretched, walked over to him and took the bowl. As she ate, he kept one eye on her watching her, trying to make sure she was alright. They both finished at the same time, as she handed him her empty bowl he saw a large bruise forming on her right forearm. He lightly grabbed her hand and looked at it, barely noticing her small attempts to reclaim her arm. He took one of his hands and lightly wrapped it around the bruise, noticing that it had been made by a gripping hand. He let go and asked her how she got the bruise. She shrugged and mumbled something about an argument.

He walked over to his bags and fished out a small cream bottle, she smiled at him and asked if his hands were chapped and he needed some lotion to help them get all soft again.

He rolled his eyes and held out his hand for her arm, when she hesitated he said, "It is a healer's cream. The castle healer makes it up for me. It is very good at helping bruises." Addi sighed and gave him her hand. He scoped up the cream out of the jar and gently started rubbing it on her arm. He heard Addi let out a breath of relief as the cream took effect. He watched her bruise start shrinking in size. Satisfied he let go of her arm and went to return the jar to his bags. Behind him he heard her whisper, "Thank you."

He stood up and walked over to her, when he was just in front of her he remarked, "Can you promise me something?"

Addi looked up at him and said, "It depends on what you ask."

He looked at her searching her face, "Can you promise me that you will never run away from me again?"

She looked at him in surprise and after seeing how earnest he was, she answered, "I can promise that. I'm sorry. I was trying not to get you involved."

He chuckled, "I believe I got myself involved when I started searching for the girl that was right beside me."

She smiled at him and shrugged.

"What is your plan?" Matt asked.

She paused and then answered, "I was going to go to the far end of the country and find some work over there."

"You're going to go hide again." She looked away when he said that.

"I have a better plan, it might be a little risky but I think it might work to end all of this."

She looked sharply up at him and asked, "What?"

"Daire's parents, Duke Samuel and Duchess Alia, are not happy what he doing to his people and on his search for you. I think I can help talk them over to passing his right to inherit to his little brother. Making him a common man that doesn't have a right to touch you."

"How are you going to convince my father?" She asked.

"I think I might have something to offer him instead of your marriage to that idiot."

Addi squared her shoulders and asked, "Tell me."

Matt shrugged his shoulders and went on, "So I would like you to come with me to talk with Duke Samuel and Duchess Alia, and help me convince them that they need to take some action. Will you come?"

"Will you tell me what you are going to tell my father?"

Matt shrugged again and said, "Maybe, but you have to come along to hear it."

Addi nodded and agreed to come with him to talk to Duke Samuel and Duchess Alia.

Matt put out the fire while Addi saddled her horse. They were then on the road, Matt explained to her how his father was going to keep Daire locked up in the castle for another day and then he had to release him. So they had to careful not to be caught by him until they had talked to both sets of parents.

Addi nodded and explained what had happened with her and Robert, how he had tried keeping her there so he could keep her safe.

Matt listened to that in confusion as he tried to figure out what he was feeling and asked, "So is there anything in-between you two?"

Addi looked over at him and smiled, "Not like that, we were friends when we were younger but now I'm not quite sure I would call it that. He has changed."

They rode in a comfortable silence until they came close to a town as the sun was setting, Matt stopped and looked over at her, "Is town is on your father's lands, right? Would they recognize you? Or can we sleep in a comfortable bed tonight?"

She looked at the town and answered, "This town is Browning, I haven't been here in maybe seven years. I doubt anybody would recognize me. Let's go and find the inn."

Author's note- the week has started and I have to go back to work, so I think my writing frenzy has been stopped momentarily but the weekends come fast. Thanks for the reviews Dayys and Moonlightdrifter.