A/N - terribly sorry this is late! I've been sooo busy! But fall break is coming up so i have plenty of time to write! Hope you enjoy and go check out my profile to learn about NaNoWriMo!
Chapter 8
Leopold let her cousins drag her down the hill towards the practice courts after breakfast so they could watch Luke in his training and remember the years they spent at the palace jabbing each other with swords and getting into fights. They also wanted to see if they could get Luke into some trouble.
"Just a little payback from all that little guy has done to us in the past" Xavier said winking at Leopold as they jogged down the hill. Leopold gave a small laugh and rolled her eyes at her cousins. All of which could be really immature at times. As they got closer to the enclosed pen where the pages were practicing with their lances, Leopold's cousins starting running towards the fence yelling and waving towards Luke who was taking his turn on the dummy. Leopold laughed as the training master turned his horse towards her cousins and glared angrily at them as they jumped up onto the fence and starting shouting insults and other things in order to mess up Luke's concentration. Leopold joined her cousins and climbed onto the fence, swinging her legs over and staring towards the pages that were starting to stare. She saw a smile on Luke's face as he tried not to laugh while he charged his horse down the lane to hit the target. Leopold closed her eyes and winced as she heard the thump of the dummy hitting her cousin, who was never the best at weapons of any sort, as he missed the center of the target.
Xavier and the others burst into laughter as they pointed towards Luke who lay on the ground dazed from his attack. Leopold was doing her best not to as she watched him slowly stand, humiliated in front of all of them. She punched Sebastien in the arm to stop him from embarrassing Luke further by calling out towards him. Grabbing the reins of his horse Luke slowly trudged back to the other pages with his lance weighing his arm down. He refused to look at his cousins for the rest of practice, but instead actually listened to the training master when his next turn came.
This time Luke was able to hit his lance somewhat near the center of the target. The dummy swung around to thump him on the back again but Luke gave his horse an extra kick before it hit and he was spared a second humiliation as his horse galloped towards the fence. Luke's cousins erupted in cheers as he rode towards them triumphantly his humiliation replaced with pride for accomplishing something for the first time in his life. Leopold laughed as she watched him ride back towards the others with his lance held high. She watched as he and his friends took a few more times on the targets before she started sliding into her own thoughts and forgot about watching the others.
She wondered how she was going to get along with her aunt the next few weeks before she can convince one of her other aunts to let her stay with them. She already had wonderful excuses lined up to tell her aunts that would make them have no choice but to allow her to live with them for the two years. Of course there are many excuses as to why she should be staying at the palace and Leopold definitely needed to come up with clever ways to sidestep those excuses. Her thoughts drifted from one thing to another, like what she was going to do to entertain herself and what the other girls staying at the palace were like, until she eventually landed on the thought of Aaron. It seemed like ages since she had seen him. Not that she was expecting to see him again or anything like that, but when she had met him she somehow knew that he was one of those boys who would show up again without you ever expecting him too. Somehow she just knew. While thinking about Aaron she started thinking about the boy she had run into earlier today which looked a lot like Aaron himself. But that was impossible because Aaron was a poor thief and the boy she had run into today was obviously noble bred. So there definitely wasn't anyway the two were the same person.
Leopold suddenly spun around on the fence and leaped to the ground, picking up her skirts and running towards the palace.
"Where are you going!" shouted Xavier as he and Darren watched her leave.
"I have to find somebody!" she shouted back not even stopping to give an explanation.
"Go after her!" Xavier scolded Darren pushing him off the fence and ushering him after her. Darren took off after Leopold in hopes of catching her before she got into any trouble which seemed to like following her around.
Leopold ran as fast as she could up the hill and ran towards the entrance to the pages wing which she had watched many of her cousins enter when they had first become pages. She burst into the hallway and ran down it, frantically searching for the door that leads to the regular hallways. Darren ran a few seconds behind her and shouted at her to slow down, but all she did was pick up speed and soon started to loose him as she found the door and ran through the hallways of the castle.
Suddenly a hand shot out and covered Leopold's face pulling her into the darkness of a small nook in the wall. Leopold tried screaming as she clawed and kicked at her attacker but all that happed was that he wrapped his free arm around her waist and pinned her arms at her side. She watched desperately as Darren passed the nook calling her name and chasing after her frantically out of breath.
"Shh!" her attacker whispered in her ear loosening his grip on her mouth a little. "Be quiet Leopold!"
Leopold stopped struggling and waited for the man to do loosen his grip on her arms so she could escape.
"I know what you're doing and it's not going to work on me. I'm too smart!" the man replied whispering in her ear. Leopold became frantic again and tried biting and pushing away from the man but he only tightened his grip. "Would you stop that girl. You weren't like this when we fought in the woods!"
Leopold realized who was holding her and she stopped struggling again and stood still waiting for the thief to make his move.
"I'm not going to hurt you!" the man said "I only want to talk." Leopold swallowed while she waited for the thief to finish. "I'm going to take my hand off of your mouth and let you go, but you have to promise not to scream or try and hurt me in any way, because I am armed and I don't want to have to hurt you further. Do you understand?"
Leopold nodded her head as much as she was allowed and waited for the thief to keep his word. He slowly lowered his hand from her mouth. She didn't scream because she knew it would do no good since he still had her arms pinned at her side, but waited until he had let those go as well before taking a step away and turning to face him. As she expected her attacker had been Aaron. He stood there smiling with his arms raised at his sides as if she were the one attacking him. She closed her lips and stared at him cruelly while swallowing and making fists of her hands.
"Now see," Aaron said taking a step closer to her "No harm done eh!"
Leopold's arm shot out so fast Aaron almost didn't catch it. Unfortunately his reflexes were better than hers and he was able to catch her fist before it hit his face, but he didn't catch her other one before it hit him in the stomach, or her foot before it again kicked him in the groin. Aaron let go of her hand and grabbed his stomach as he breathed in deeply. Leopold moved her fallen hair out of her eyes and stared at him before squatting down next to him and whispering in his ear.
"No harm done." she said with a smile as he looked up at her, his face red from the pain. Before she knew what happened Leopold had been pinned up against the wall with a dagger at her throat as Gawayn stood in front of her. Becoming aware of the man Gawayn had killed Leopold started hyperventilating and was about to scream.
"Don't say a word or your going to wish you hadn't!" Gawayn said pointing at her mouth as she opened it. Leopold quickly shut it again while glance at Aaron who was now standing up again and laughing.
"Let her go Gawayn. I deserved what I got if I was that trusting of her." Aaron replied laughing and pulling Gawayn away from Leopold. Leopold put her hand to her throat which was red from the pressure of the dagger. "It's not bleeding." Aaron informed her.
"Your such an idiot Aaron!" Gawayn informed him giving him a rather hard punch in the shoulder. "Haven't you learned to never trust a woman! Especially one this beautiful!" he said pointing his dagger at Leopold and smiling.
"The most dangerous ones are always beautiful." Aaron replied grinning towards Leopold who was scowling at him.
"What are you doing here?" she asked noticing for the first time that the two were dressed the same was they had been in the woods. Everyone in the palace would know automatically that they weren't noble or servants and would have them thrown out.
"Came to see you!" Aaron replied
"This dope has been talking about you non stop. Like a love sick puppy he's been. So since he was just dying to see you again, our 'father' let us have the day off to come and visit. Only genius here didn't go about it the right way." Gawayn said grinning at Aaron who had been staring at Leopold the entire time before replying.
"I was not a love sick puppy." Aaron said finally glancing away.
"Yeah you were!" Gawayn replied laughing. "You barely spoke at all last night or even thanked He-father after he congratulated you on a half decent st---"
Aaron suddenly started glaring at Gawayn who immediately shut his mouth and glanced nervously at Leopold. She became very confused and started wondering what the two were really up too.
"Why haven't any of the guards seen you and kicked you out yet?" Leopold asked "I mean you don't exactly look like nobles and you certainly aren't dressed like servants!"
"Well milady!" Aaron replied "I'm sorry you want us gone so quickly!"
"Doesn't matter either way," Gawayn said "we have some business to attend to back home."
"Your leaving so soon?" Leopold asked shocked
"Of course we are!" Gawayn replied "Like you said, we'll be noticed any moment now and kicked out. Best we do it without spending the night in prison! C'mon Aaron!"
Gawayn checked to make sure the coast was clear before slipping out of the nook and starting down the hall, calling for Aaron to follow.
"Goodbye Leopold!" Aaron replied winking at her as he left the nook and started running after Gawayn. Leopold left after them and watched the two leave as Darren turned the corner and found her.
"There you are!" he shouted startling her "I've been looking for you everywhere! Xavier would have killed me if I'd lost you!"
"Oh!" Leopold replied noticing he was there "I've been here all along. You must have missed me."
"Yeah" Darren replied hesitantly glancing down the hall and trying to figure out what she had been staring at. "Did you find who you were looking for?"
"No," Leopold said "But I'm not sure it matters anymore."
"Fine," Darren said taking her elbow and leading her towards the kitchen "Then lets go get something to eat!"
"Is food all you think about?" Leopold asked not really listening to his answer as she followed him down the hallway.
Chapter 8
Leopold let her cousins drag her down the hill towards the practice courts after breakfast so they could watch Luke in his training and remember the years they spent at the palace jabbing each other with swords and getting into fights. They also wanted to see if they could get Luke into some trouble.
"Just a little payback from all that little guy has done to us in the past" Xavier said winking at Leopold as they jogged down the hill. Leopold gave a small laugh and rolled her eyes at her cousins. All of which could be really immature at times. As they got closer to the enclosed pen where the pages were practicing with their lances, Leopold's cousins starting running towards the fence yelling and waving towards Luke who was taking his turn on the dummy. Leopold laughed as the training master turned his horse towards her cousins and glared angrily at them as they jumped up onto the fence and starting shouting insults and other things in order to mess up Luke's concentration. Leopold joined her cousins and climbed onto the fence, swinging her legs over and staring towards the pages that were starting to stare. She saw a smile on Luke's face as he tried not to laugh while he charged his horse down the lane to hit the target. Leopold closed her eyes and winced as she heard the thump of the dummy hitting her cousin, who was never the best at weapons of any sort, as he missed the center of the target.
Xavier and the others burst into laughter as they pointed towards Luke who lay on the ground dazed from his attack. Leopold was doing her best not to as she watched him slowly stand, humiliated in front of all of them. She punched Sebastien in the arm to stop him from embarrassing Luke further by calling out towards him. Grabbing the reins of his horse Luke slowly trudged back to the other pages with his lance weighing his arm down. He refused to look at his cousins for the rest of practice, but instead actually listened to the training master when his next turn came.
This time Luke was able to hit his lance somewhat near the center of the target. The dummy swung around to thump him on the back again but Luke gave his horse an extra kick before it hit and he was spared a second humiliation as his horse galloped towards the fence. Luke's cousins erupted in cheers as he rode towards them triumphantly his humiliation replaced with pride for accomplishing something for the first time in his life. Leopold laughed as she watched him ride back towards the others with his lance held high. She watched as he and his friends took a few more times on the targets before she started sliding into her own thoughts and forgot about watching the others.
She wondered how she was going to get along with her aunt the next few weeks before she can convince one of her other aunts to let her stay with them. She already had wonderful excuses lined up to tell her aunts that would make them have no choice but to allow her to live with them for the two years. Of course there are many excuses as to why she should be staying at the palace and Leopold definitely needed to come up with clever ways to sidestep those excuses. Her thoughts drifted from one thing to another, like what she was going to do to entertain herself and what the other girls staying at the palace were like, until she eventually landed on the thought of Aaron. It seemed like ages since she had seen him. Not that she was expecting to see him again or anything like that, but when she had met him she somehow knew that he was one of those boys who would show up again without you ever expecting him too. Somehow she just knew. While thinking about Aaron she started thinking about the boy she had run into earlier today which looked a lot like Aaron himself. But that was impossible because Aaron was a poor thief and the boy she had run into today was obviously noble bred. So there definitely wasn't anyway the two were the same person.
Leopold suddenly spun around on the fence and leaped to the ground, picking up her skirts and running towards the palace.
"Where are you going!" shouted Xavier as he and Darren watched her leave.
"I have to find somebody!" she shouted back not even stopping to give an explanation.
"Go after her!" Xavier scolded Darren pushing him off the fence and ushering him after her. Darren took off after Leopold in hopes of catching her before she got into any trouble which seemed to like following her around.
Leopold ran as fast as she could up the hill and ran towards the entrance to the pages wing which she had watched many of her cousins enter when they had first become pages. She burst into the hallway and ran down it, frantically searching for the door that leads to the regular hallways. Darren ran a few seconds behind her and shouted at her to slow down, but all she did was pick up speed and soon started to loose him as she found the door and ran through the hallways of the castle.
Suddenly a hand shot out and covered Leopold's face pulling her into the darkness of a small nook in the wall. Leopold tried screaming as she clawed and kicked at her attacker but all that happed was that he wrapped his free arm around her waist and pinned her arms at her side. She watched desperately as Darren passed the nook calling her name and chasing after her frantically out of breath.
"Shh!" her attacker whispered in her ear loosening his grip on her mouth a little. "Be quiet Leopold!"
Leopold stopped struggling and waited for the man to do loosen his grip on her arms so she could escape.
"I know what you're doing and it's not going to work on me. I'm too smart!" the man replied whispering in her ear. Leopold became frantic again and tried biting and pushing away from the man but he only tightened his grip. "Would you stop that girl. You weren't like this when we fought in the woods!"
Leopold realized who was holding her and she stopped struggling again and stood still waiting for the thief to make his move.
"I'm not going to hurt you!" the man said "I only want to talk." Leopold swallowed while she waited for the thief to finish. "I'm going to take my hand off of your mouth and let you go, but you have to promise not to scream or try and hurt me in any way, because I am armed and I don't want to have to hurt you further. Do you understand?"
Leopold nodded her head as much as she was allowed and waited for the thief to keep his word. He slowly lowered his hand from her mouth. She didn't scream because she knew it would do no good since he still had her arms pinned at her side, but waited until he had let those go as well before taking a step away and turning to face him. As she expected her attacker had been Aaron. He stood there smiling with his arms raised at his sides as if she were the one attacking him. She closed her lips and stared at him cruelly while swallowing and making fists of her hands.
"Now see," Aaron said taking a step closer to her "No harm done eh!"
Leopold's arm shot out so fast Aaron almost didn't catch it. Unfortunately his reflexes were better than hers and he was able to catch her fist before it hit his face, but he didn't catch her other one before it hit him in the stomach, or her foot before it again kicked him in the groin. Aaron let go of her hand and grabbed his stomach as he breathed in deeply. Leopold moved her fallen hair out of her eyes and stared at him before squatting down next to him and whispering in his ear.
"No harm done." she said with a smile as he looked up at her, his face red from the pain. Before she knew what happened Leopold had been pinned up against the wall with a dagger at her throat as Gawayn stood in front of her. Becoming aware of the man Gawayn had killed Leopold started hyperventilating and was about to scream.
"Don't say a word or your going to wish you hadn't!" Gawayn said pointing at her mouth as she opened it. Leopold quickly shut it again while glance at Aaron who was now standing up again and laughing.
"Let her go Gawayn. I deserved what I got if I was that trusting of her." Aaron replied laughing and pulling Gawayn away from Leopold. Leopold put her hand to her throat which was red from the pressure of the dagger. "It's not bleeding." Aaron informed her.
"Your such an idiot Aaron!" Gawayn informed him giving him a rather hard punch in the shoulder. "Haven't you learned to never trust a woman! Especially one this beautiful!" he said pointing his dagger at Leopold and smiling.
"The most dangerous ones are always beautiful." Aaron replied grinning towards Leopold who was scowling at him.
"What are you doing here?" she asked noticing for the first time that the two were dressed the same was they had been in the woods. Everyone in the palace would know automatically that they weren't noble or servants and would have them thrown out.
"Came to see you!" Aaron replied
"This dope has been talking about you non stop. Like a love sick puppy he's been. So since he was just dying to see you again, our 'father' let us have the day off to come and visit. Only genius here didn't go about it the right way." Gawayn said grinning at Aaron who had been staring at Leopold the entire time before replying.
"I was not a love sick puppy." Aaron said finally glancing away.
"Yeah you were!" Gawayn replied laughing. "You barely spoke at all last night or even thanked He-father after he congratulated you on a half decent st---"
Aaron suddenly started glaring at Gawayn who immediately shut his mouth and glanced nervously at Leopold. She became very confused and started wondering what the two were really up too.
"Why haven't any of the guards seen you and kicked you out yet?" Leopold asked "I mean you don't exactly look like nobles and you certainly aren't dressed like servants!"
"Well milady!" Aaron replied "I'm sorry you want us gone so quickly!"
"Doesn't matter either way," Gawayn said "we have some business to attend to back home."
"Your leaving so soon?" Leopold asked shocked
"Of course we are!" Gawayn replied "Like you said, we'll be noticed any moment now and kicked out. Best we do it without spending the night in prison! C'mon Aaron!"
Gawayn checked to make sure the coast was clear before slipping out of the nook and starting down the hall, calling for Aaron to follow.
"Goodbye Leopold!" Aaron replied winking at her as he left the nook and started running after Gawayn. Leopold left after them and watched the two leave as Darren turned the corner and found her.
"There you are!" he shouted startling her "I've been looking for you everywhere! Xavier would have killed me if I'd lost you!"
"Oh!" Leopold replied noticing he was there "I've been here all along. You must have missed me."
"Yeah" Darren replied hesitantly glancing down the hall and trying to figure out what she had been staring at. "Did you find who you were looking for?"
"No," Leopold said "But I'm not sure it matters anymore."
"Fine," Darren said taking her elbow and leading her towards the kitchen "Then lets go get something to eat!"
"Is food all you think about?" Leopold asked not really listening to his answer as she followed him down the hallway.