Agony

33

It had been four days.

Four days since I'd last seen the boys.

Four days since I'd agreed to get married.

Four days of torture.

There was absolutely nothing for me to do. I wanted to explore the manor immediately but the burns on my legs and my arm prevented me from doing much of anything without someone to help me until the third day.

I spent most of the first two days in my room, which ended up being the place I was first dressed and bathed in. I ate food in there, watched the sunset in there, and stayed asleep in there.

The three ladies-in-waiting made no appearance, something I was thankful for, not wanting to be forced into any more ridiculous outfits.

The nurse with the auburn hair, who'd I'd come to learn was named Susan, came to my room twice a day to apply the aloe vera salve to my burns and to check for any infection in my arm. It seemed like the burns were on a smooth road to recovery. They'd stopped stinging at my touch, but itched like crazy.

Kyle had thankfully only shown up once, at a time where I was in the perfect position to pretend I was asleep. He'd kissed me and left the room.

On the third day, I left my room without anyone taking much notice. I walked around the manor, memorizing the doors, the halls, and the paths. I wanted to learn about Venom, to ask gossipy maids questions, but the manor was practically deserted.

I even walked outside to the stables, finding three horses. Beau was there, tending to one of them. He'd greeted me politely enough, asking me where my escort was. I didn't know I had an escort.

Kyle had appeared moments later and taken me back to my room.

He told me I was not to leave without a guard. I'd pretended to agree, pretended to like the idea of marrying him, hoping he'd leave me alone, that he'd trust me enough that I'd be able to escape.

After that, on the fourth day, there were two men in black outside my door at all times.

My exploration was over. But that didn't mean I wasn't going to escape.

Now, on the fifth day, the sun had just begun to set and I was ready to put my plan in action.

The plan was to head for the stables and ride a horse out of this place.

I had been working on making a make-shift rope using the pants in my closet all morning. My plan was to escape from the window. My room was on the second floor, and if my memory served me correctly, the room right below was the infirmary, so no one would be there at night.

I was going to climb down using my make-shift rope and the boots

Next, I would sneak into the stables, and using the apples I had slowly rationed in my room, I would take one of the horses and ride it off the property, into the forest, and hopefully escape.

All I had to do was let the sun set and move quickly.

* * *

I waited until the sun was gone and the only thing that provided light was the moon before I pushed open my window.

I'd fastened the end of my so-called rope to the handle of the washroom in my room, after locking the door. I'd tucked n few apples into a shirt that I had folded into a pouch and tied across my body.

Testing the rope, I sat on the edge of the window and put all my weight on it. I prepared to fall to my death, but the pants held strong and the knots between them didn't seem to be coming undone anytime soon.