The Lady Of The General's House

Chapter 10

Kylo stayed at the manor that night. He was drinking wine in his room when Poe finally raised the alarm. By that point Rose and Rey had been missing for some time. Kylo felt a mixture of emotions at hearing Rey had escaped. Anger, guilt, and a strange sense of emptiness. He followed his second in command to the empty cell.

"How long have they been missing?" He snapped.

"We have no way of knowing for sure, Sir. This lock was supposed to be impenetrable. We thought no one could break it so we didn't keep a guard on duty. I take full responsibility. This is my mistake."

"We underestimated her again," Kylo muttered. "Call Finn and Armitage. We have to go after them."

"Yes, Sir," Poe called out as he ran from the room.

Kylo gripped the cell's bars. He shouldn't care. They were both spies. What did it matter if they were murdered by bandits or mauled by wild animals? He growled at the thought and slammed his fist into the bars causing it to bleed. But it did matter. It mattered too much. His heart was already tortured by the thought of her spending the night in jail instead of beside him, now he had to deal with the remorse of wondering if he would find her dead. That was...too difficult to even contemplate.

"Sir?" Poe appeared behind him with Hux and Finn.

"Let's go," Kylo said as he swept out of the room. His men following closely behind.

**********

Rey and Rose rubbed their arms in the cold night air. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea," Rey admitted.

"They didn't give us much of a choice, Rey," Rose replied.

There was a sound behind them and they both stilled. Why hadn't she thought to grab a weapon before they escaped? Foolish.

"What do we have here?" Said a deep male voice as a figure stepped out of the shadows and stood before them.

Rey decided to try the nice approach first. She stood in front of Rose and smiled sweetly. "We were walking and we seem to have gotten lost. Could you direct us to the nearest village please?"

The man laughed and pulled out a knife. "You two are not from around here and I'm willing to assume you are running from something. I don't think anyone will miss you if I just take you with me."

"Try it," Rose said, glaring at him.

The man laughed again and then whistled. Five other men emerged from the darkness and dropped out of the trees. Rey and Rose looked at each other. They were out-numbered and unarmed. The situation did not look good.

"It's been some time since we've had some female company," the man said with a grin as he walked towards Rey. "We'll try not to be too rough with you, but I can't make any guarantees."

"Can't say the same," Rey said as he grabbed her wrist and she tried to tug herself free.

"Oooh this one's got spirit," the man said. "I'm looking forward to breaking you."

The sound of horses approaching filled Rey with both hope and dread in equal amounts. Kylo, Finn, Armitage and Poe rode up to them and quickly dismounted in unison. They drew their swords and surrounded the men. It didn't take long before all of the bandits were dead, apart from the leader who still held Rey's wrist and now also held a knife to her neck.

Kylo stalked towards them with a thunderous look. "Get your hands off my wife," he growled.

Rey looked at him in surprise. Did he think of her as his wife? Her heart squeezed in her chest. A foolish moment of sentimentality. She shrugged it off. The bandit laughed. "You kill me, I kill her."