The Making of a Princess. by Lorrie Mae.

Finding a Lady. PART 1

Standing looking out of the windows of his mansions, Duke De Moreau,  who owned the beautiful mansion, watched as he saw as a small person who was covered from head to foot in a flowing Cape that covered their head as well.
The person was stumbling as they headed toward his forestry, that had magnificent trees standing tall and firm, he loved that area of his property.
He decided that he would head down and see what was going on with this person who was looking back as if very frightened of being caught.
The Duke called for his friend and butler Charles. ''Come and help me now, we need to hurry, so call the stableboys to come and help us also, I will explain it all on the way, and we really need to hurry, ask them to bring some blankets also." The Duke and his party of helpers hurried along behind each other, they were half way down to the forest when they saw someone coming along on horseback as fast as the horse would carry him, the rider was slapping and yelling at the horse as he drove it forward at a deadly pace, the person in the cloak turned and saw who was coming, and then started running again as fast as their body would allow them too, all of a sudden the horse collapsed and fell, throwing the rider onto the ground and seeing what was happening to the horse the small person took off as fast as possible until they too collapsed into a heap, then whoever it was began crawling over toward the grassy area on the side of the trees, once there, they pulled the cloak over their person in hopes of a disguise, they lay perfectly still and listened to what was going on.

As the Duke and his followers were gaining ground closer and closer to the rider and the person who was laying still on the ground, they could all hear the rasping sound from the horse as it took it's last breath. the rider had been thrown off to the grass near the path to, were the duke was heading for. He quickly hoped up and hurried to where the bundle in the forest area was crouched, he arrived there before the Duke and his friends, unfortunately.

The rider of the horse, pulled at the small person on the ground, he pulled off the material and all of a sudden a piercing scream came from the smaller person on the ground, the rider pulled the person up by the hair, it was a women who was begging for her life, "Please sir don't do it, I'm sorry, I won't do it anymore." 'I know you won't you little whore, you will be begging me for mercy before I am finished with you," and he started kicking the young person he kept kicking and hitting her with closed fists, all of a sudden a huge hand grabbed at the man and pulled him up by the scruff of his neck. 'What are you doing sir, no man should carry on like we have just witnessed you doing, Charles get some rope and tie this man up, take him back with two of the servants with you and lock him in one of the rooms downstairs until I arrive back."

Duke de Moreau walked over to where the person was lying and not moving, he gently turned the person over, and saw that it was a women who had long hair, her whole face was black and red with blood all over her face. "Please sir help me, help me," she whispered and hung onto his hand, she had passed out and so Callum de Moreau picked up the small person who weighed less than a small child, and he placed her gently onto his beautiful white horse that the stable boy had bought down, with the blankets on top of the horse, he climbed up behind the small person and wrapped her in one of the blankets, she was whimpering and shivering and so the Duke gently started the horse off in a slow trot.

He called to the rest of his help 'Can you please go back and ask the maids to set up a bath and find some clothes out of my sisters room to place this young lady in, and please prepare the bedroom next to mine so I can hear her if she needs help during the night, and please hurry, I can only go in a slow trot as she is badly injured, also could you call for the doctor, thank you all for your help.'

The Duke and his patient finally arrived at the house, his butler Charles was there along with the doctor and one of his best friend Anthony Speirs, in fact Callum held this man in great favour, he was like a brother to him, and so Callum handed his precious bundle to his best friend and he dismounted from his beautiful horse, ;Thank you Bella my friend, and he cave her a friendly hug, '' Please give her a good rub down and then a feed, please,' he asked one of the stable boys ,"And a big thank you to you for all of your help, we will see you all tomorrow.''

Anthony and Charles headed straight for the room where the maids were waiting to take the lady he held in his arms with them, "Don't you worry we will take great care with this poor baby" Brittany one of the older ladies said, and with that Anthony went looking for his friend. Charles told Anthony that he would organize something for the young lady to eat and also some tea etc for everyone, "That will be lovely thank you Charles, I will be with the Duke in his office area, okay" and with that they parted ways.

The Duke and Anthony sat drinking their tea, and started to talk about what had just happened. Anthony had arrived at the same time as the doctor who was waiting with them to go up and see his patient. Callum started by saying "It was just as the sun set, I was standing at the window looking out as I do every night, I spotted a figure of someone hurrying along the edge of the forest, they were covered by a cape from head to foot, whoever it was seemed to be looking behind them and when they spotted a horse with someone pushing it more than he should, she began running and kept watching as the rider came closer and closer, the damn fool was pushing his horse so hard and so the horse finally collapsed and died. The rider didn't care about his horse at all, he just headed towards the person on the ground who was trying so hard to hide, he just pulled the cape off the person and grabbed her hair and pulled her up as hard as he could, she was begging him to stop, and the foul things he was calling her, disgusted me as a man, how could someone treat another person like that, I cannot get my head around what I was seeing and hearing."

The doctor stated that he should go and check on his patient, and the Duke said that he would check with Brittany that she is ready for you. He was soon back and walked up with Anthony and the doctor to see the lady in question. When they both walked in and saw this small person lying in the big comfortable bed, with her face so swollen and still bleeding form small cuts on her face, you could not tell what she looked like as a person, the Duke's heart went out to her, he slowly headed toward the bed, Jenny the maid who was looking after her, was trying to coax the lady into eating some broth, but it hurt her so much to even try to swallow, the Duke gently asked Jenny to wait while the doctor had a look at the patient in a minute, but first, "Please let me introduce myself to you, I am Duke Callum de Moreau, and this is my house, so you have no fear here, we will protect you," This is my very best friend Anthony Speirs, we have known each other since we were boys, and this my dear is Doctor Redding, he will look after you and make sure you get yourself nice and healthy, so we will leave you now and will wait for the doctor's report, goodnight my dear, would you like Jenny to stay and look after you, you will be well protected her and there is nothing to worry about. just ask if there is anything you want", "Can I please have my cloak with me, a small trembling voice said, the Duke thought it a strange thing to be asking for, " Please, please ," and the small person began getting stressed, the doctor who was looking and attending the patient, turned and looked at the Duke, "Let her have it my lord, I will be down in a minute and we can talk, could you please have a pot of tea made for us all, thanking you" and with that the doctor turned back to treating the lady.

The doctor had finished looking after his patient, so he turned to Jenny and said, "This lady will be taking a long time to return to her normal self, so can you please keep a close eye on whoever she is, and once you get her settled please come and see us in the doctors rooms, I have given her something to make her sleep, and she will need plenty of that, and could you please ask Brittany to accompany you as well, don't be too long dear we need to get things going smoothly," and he turned nd headed toward the Dukes quarters ,as they entered the small person was trying to get out of bed, on seeing this they both ran toward her and Jenny in a soft voice gently held her and said, "Please I need my cloak, she could see it on the floor, I must have, my cloak please, please and she was crying,

Jenny had picked up the cloak and given it too the lady in the bed, who took it off her gently and held it in a bundle on the bed, a small voice whispered "Thank you kindly," and drifted off to sleep as the medicinal powers of whatever was given to her took over the small body. Jenny waited a few minutes and thought she would take the cloak away from her, but the lady started whimpering and Jenny stopped puzzled as to why would she want to hang onto it.