Chapter 8: Reunited With Family
It was a long and awkward journey, not to mention lonely. Though it was something I was used to, the loneliness I mean but I thought everything would be different since I left the palace, it wasn't. I sat still, the book I was reading spread open on my laps. I was grateful I managed to at least grab a book from my palace with me to the house when I got married.
I never had access to the library here, it was no secret the Hawthorne do not trust me, especially with the library which was known to hold lot of history and knowledge. So I grabbed my books with me when I got married it was the only valuable property I owned and the only thing I needed to escape reality when it gets too much for me.
Heaving out a sigh, I turned to look at the shuttered windows. I reached out with a gloved hand and lightly pulled the shutters to the side. The evening sun bathed the landscape in molten gold, its rays spilling over the fires like liquid fire. The trays swayed gently, their leaves dancing in the glow, a stark contrast to the stillness inside of me.
For a moment, I let myself imagine that I was elsewhere, somewhere far from the weight of expectation, far from the Hawthorne name and it is suffocating walls. In another life I would be on a horse, racing through the forest feeling the evening wind on my face and in my hair as I race without any weight of responsibilities on my shoulders.
"You shouldn't open the shutters like that."
And just like that, I was yanked back into my harsh reality! Unable to hide it, I glared at the man riding beside me, sitting on his dark mare with an air of arrogance about him that seem to cling to him like a second skin.
"Is that so?" I asked and I saw Reagan's subtly turn to look at me, "I wasn't aware of the fact fresh air was forbidden."
Reagan heaved out an exasperated sigh as if I was nothing more than an annoyance to him. "Forbidden, no? Impossibly reckless, then yes." He said, "You never know who might be watching."
"Well good thing I have the bravest knight in the kingdom watching over me." I said in a breathy sigh as I bat my eyelash at him.