Ugh! It seems like my posting schedule and my sleeping schedule have decided to collide. I'll try to make up for it later today.

Enjoy!

Linny

Two Worlds

Chapter Eighteen

Her hands were graceful as they moved in front of her. He stood there, in awe of the silent poetry that was her fingers as she communed with the young girl and the older man sitting beside her. Sign language. He'd heard of it, but had never witnessed it for himself and coming from Sue, it seemed like such a beautiful language.

Guilt washed over him as his feet remained planted underneath him, his gaze never wavering from her graceful image as she told a story. Everything was beginning to make sense, especially the angered look she'd given him before her fist had collided with his face. He didn't care what Bobby said. Sue could pack a wallop that no man should ever be on the business end of.

Sue was deaf. She must have thought her father had told him and assumed that had been why he'd run. He needed to quickly amend her thinking and tell her the truth. He started for her, but a strong hand on his arm stopped him.

"I wouldn't do that, mate. She isn't exactly the happiest with you."

Jack didn't even bother to turn to look at Bobby. His gaze was captivated by Sue as the other children of the camp joined in on the story and she began to speak as well as sign. "She doesn't understand what happened. I have to tell her."

"Look, if I've learned one thing since marrying Tara, it's to let her be right now. She'll come to you when she's ready to talk." Jack's mouth opened to protest, but Bobby managed to stop him from saying anything more. "Trust me. She'll come 'round."

Finally tearing his gaze away from the beautiful angel telling the children and Troy a story about a beautiful princess who'd had a curse put on her as a child, he turned to Bobby, his eyes showing the emotions storming around inside of him. "What did she tell you?"

A fire was burning in a nearby pit and a few chickens were roasting on the spit hanging above it. Both men took a seat beside that fire while Bobby turned the spit. "Just about everything. She met a handsome man at a party and he swept her off her feet—that'd be you, mate," he told him just in case Jack didn't get the picture. He was more than a little clueless in the ways of love, no matter how many gorgeous and eligible women threw themselves at his feet. This one seemed special, though and not just because she was deaf. She had a heart like no other and a tenacity to match the Hudson one Bobby had seen only too often in battle.

"She said what all women say when they find love—their heart flutters, theirs knees go weak; all that piffie." He couldn't help but notice the smile on his old friend's face. It was the same one Bobby wore when he thought about Tara. He had it bad for this Miss Thomas, and the Aussie couldn't blame him one bit. "But, her father took this guy aside, you see, to ask about his intensions with his daughter. And do you know what the drongo does? He high-tails it outta there like there's no tomorrow."

The smile on Jack's face fell, but there was a silver lining to the story. Sue had told them a half-truth. She hadn't told them about who she really was. They didn't know she was Princess Susan, heiress to the crown and that was the way it would stay for now. It wasn't that he didn't trust Bobby, but more than likely there were a few unsavory characters hanging about that didn't need to know their business. And if Bobby needed to know, then it would be Sue who did the telling, he would carry no part in divulging that secret.

"She told you about all that, huh?"

"Yeah, I had to hold Tara back from kicking your sorry, unconscious behind all the way back from where you came from." There was a smile on his face, but he highly doubted that Bobby was lying.

"And I suppose I should thank you for that?" Bobby only replied with a chuckle as Jack's attention roamed over again toward the deaf storyteller. "Do you understand what she's saying to them?" It was a bit difficult to catch her spoken words across the distance between them.

It wasn't Bobby who answered. It was Tara as she walked up to the dinner fire and added two more logs to the blaze. "She's telling them about a beautiful princess whom, as a child, had an evil curse put upon her. An evil witch despised the princess's beauty and knew the only way others would find her ugly was to place the most evil of curses upon her. She would take away her hearing, because no one could ever love a deaf princess." A chill ran down her spine and she gave an involuntary shiver despite the warm climate. She'd lost herself in her own telling of the story, wondering as the words crossed her lips how Sue must have been feeling when she told it to her.

She cleared her throat awkwardly and glanced down at the two men sitting before her whose expressions perfectly matched each other; their were jaws slack but their lips curled into smiles and a single eyebrow on each face raised in amusement.

"You've been learning sign behind my back, Luv?" Bobby teased to which she responded by sticking out her tongue at him.

"I can't help it if Amanda's a good teacher… besides Sue was telling me about it on our trip to meet you. It's a story she made up when she was a child." Probably because she felt like no one loved her since she was different, she thought, knowing exactly how her new friend felt.

"So, how does it end?" Jack asked not only surprising Bobby and Tara, but himself as well. There was something about the story that had instantly captivated him and he wanted, no he needed to know how it ended.

Tara inclined her head toward the storyteller with a knowing stare. "Perhaps you could ask Sue that," she said before leaving the two men alone once again.

Their talk had silenced once Jack's gaze was set upon Sue, even more of the small village crowded around her to hear her story. He couldn't bear to take a step toward her for fear of her running again. He would wait until he knew the time was right before approaching her again.

Tara's words echoed in his mind as his brown eyes traveled over the enraptured faces of her listeners, not a single one registering in his mind as they sought out the only face they longed to set upon. "An evil witch despised the princess's beauty and knew the only way others would find her ugly was to place the most evil of curses upon her…" Is that what she thought? Did she really think herself ugly when Jack and any other intelligent man could only find her beautiful?

"She would take away her hearing, because no one could ever love a deaf princess." No one but him, he sighed.

"Where do you think they would have taken her?" Lucy asked as her soft brown eyes scanned the vast terrain lying before them. There was so much ground to cover and so little time to locate the princess before moving on. They already had half a day's head start; who knows how far they could have gotten in that time?

Myles watched his female guard out of the corner of his eye, amazed at how her chocolate colored skin was highlighted by the sun's rays as they created a gold glow about her form. His heart gave an involuntary flutter, but he didn't bother to hide his reaction to her beauty. She knew where his heart lay and that meant there was no reason to hide. "There are thousands of places they could have taken her, places even unseen by human eye." He dared to bridge the seemingly cavernous gap between them, letting his fingers reach out to intertwine with hers. A jolt of energy surged through the both of them but neither pulled away. "It won't be easy."

"Do you think we'll be able to find her before something terrible happens?" Tears brimmed those expressive brown orbs as terrible thoughts raced through her mind. What would they tell the King if they were too late?

Myles wanted to pull her close and reassure her to the best of his abilities that they could find her, but the presence of Dimitrius beside him prevented him from doing so. For now, he would just enjoy the feeling of her hand in his. "I wish I could answer that," he sighed, his heart aching to see her so hurt by Lady Sue's disappearance.

D couldn't resist rolling his eyes at the exchange going on beside him. Leland was laying his emotions on thick for the woman beside him. It was pathetic and almost nauseating with the way he was trying to impress her with his "kind heart" and "concern". He couldn't help but wonder how much of it was sincere and how much was to make an impression in his love's eyes. Lord knows he'd used that tactic while courting Donna… and it worked every time. Hopefully Lucy wouldn't fall for it.

"Leland," he barked out unkindly, a growl rumbling from deep within his chest as he watched the young Lord bring his guard's hand up his lips and place kisses upon her knuckles before turning his gaze toward him. Surprise lace the lovelorn look in Myles's eyes and it almost made D believe that the man cared for the missing princess. Almost.

"Do you have a problem?" Myles asked, offended that a glorified servant like Dimitrius would address him so informally.

D couldn't resist letting a sly smirk curl to his lips. He'd ruffled the Lord's feathers. Good. He'd better get used to it. "As a matter of fact, something has been bothering me since we set out on this little journey. I wonder why you accepted the King's mission to find your future wife when—though in not so many words—he allowed you to go off with your lady love? What more is in it for you if you find Lady Sue?" He was surprised when Myles lunged at him in anger, but thanks to D's quick thinking and Lucy holding Myles at bay, a scuffle had been deterred for the moment.

"Myles!" Lucy chastised as he continued to go after D, but she held him steady and urged him to calm his temper. He did so but with a growl toward the other man, he raced off ahead.

They watched his retreating form shrink before their eyes as he continued to ride to the next hill before reining in his horse and waiting for his companion… and Dimitrius. She reached out and placed a gentle hand upon D's arm, catching his attention and a bit of anger still directed at the little rich boy. "You don't understand what it's been like for us," she began, her voice just as soft and gentle as her touch. "I was his sister's chambermaid before we fell in love. When his father discovered our relationship, he hired me as Myles's guard for spite. He doesn't approve of our feelings for one another. He says a Leland never marries beneath him and most certainly has nothing more than a… physical relationship with a servant, especially one like me. That's why I accompanied him here; not because I wanted to see the man I love marry another woman." She sighed and let a small smile sneak to her lips.

"Luckily, your princess caught on quickly that Myles could never love her, just as she could never love him." She couldn't help but feel selfish around Myles, but she knew that she held a very special place in his heart, no matter what type of propriety would be forced upon him. "We talked about it all last night. He wants to let her out of this marriage and let her choose her own husband."

Guilt washed over D when his head fell low and his gaze set upon the woman's left hand. A ring not made of metal, but the stem of a carnation, resting on her finger as a silent symbol of love. He felt like such a heel, now that he knew the truth. Leland was willing to give up his father's fortune and power to marry a simple servant girl. He didn't realize the pompous young man had it in him to renounce everything that accompanied his name. "He could have said something," he growled, his anger now directed at himself.

"Yes, but Myles is too proud a man to do it. Only Lady Sue was ever going to hear those words."

A soft chuckle escaped the dark man, his eyes sparkling with the usual humor and lightheartedness that he embraced. "Well, I don't know how much of his speech she'll hear, but she'll definitely understand it." His grin only grew wider when her brows came together and he was met with a look of confusion.

He said nothing more as he kicked at his horse's sides and raced on ahead. Puzzled, Lucy followed as she tried to comprehend what his statement had meant.