My Angel of Mercy

Ch.13: God Gave Me You

My eyes felt heavy as I tried to open them.
For some reason I still expected to be laying there on the ground in the woods bleeding to death.
But to my surprise I was in a soft canopy bed, with silk sheets, in a room I didn't recognize.
I began to get super scared and confused as I tried to sit up in bed. But as I did pain shot up my arm causing me to lay back down.
As I laid there panting and trying to ignore every ounce of pain my body was feeling. The door to the room began to open.
I slowly turned my head to see who it was.
There stood Frollo..he looked very serious as always but also very concerned.
"Liliana, how are you feeling dear?" He asked as he approached me and sat on the edge of the bed next to me.
"It..it hurts" I said trying to sit up and be respectful.
Frollo shushed me and gently pushed me against the pillows.
"Stay down, you're hurt my dear.Do you remember anything that happened to you?" He asked.
"I remember trying to ride away from those gypsy men. But when I did..I fell off of....Sophia! Oh my God Sophia! Is she okay? She ran off!"
Frollo looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "Liliana, you're laying here in pain, last night you could have possibly died, and you're worried about...wait who's Sophia?"
"My horse, I was trying to ride her out of the woods and I fell off of her."
"Wait a second dear, is she a grey horse with a black Maine?" Frollo asked.
I immediately nodded, "Yes that's her!"
"Well I can assure you my dear, that your beloved horse is in the stables of the palace as we speak.
"May I see her?" I asked.
I could see that he wanted to debate with me, but for some odd reason he didn't say no. Probably because he could see how much she meant to me.
"Alright, but allow me to take you there myself" as he said that he pulled back the covers and began to lift me into his arms.
Until now I didn't even notice how bandaged I was.
My knee was patched up, and some dry blood was visible on the top of the bandage.
My arm was bandaged all the way up to my shoulder. I even had a bandage on my face, and another on my neck that I wouldn't have noticed until I reached up to scratch it. But in the process Frollo stopped me by saying "Don't!" In a strict voice.
I just nodded and allowed him to lift me into his arms.
I could feel my face begin to blush as he held me and walked down a long flight of stairs.
"..I'm sorry if I'm..heavy" I said knowing I was making the situation more awkward than it needed to be.
"You're not heavy Liliana, believe it or not I'm a lot stronger than I look."
I just nodded and remained silent the rest of the walk there.
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Once we got there I could feel excitement racing throughout my body.
There she was, my beautiful horse. Happily eating oats and hay along with Frollo's horse right beside her.
"Sophia!" I cried out as Frollo gently placed me on my feet.
Once she saw me she let out happy grunts and neighs.
"Oh my God, thank god you're safe" I said as I wrapped my arms around her neck. And kissed her nose with happy tears in my eyes.
"You may find this hard to believe my dear, but Sophia is the whole reason I found you last night. You could say..she saved your life" Frollo said as he approached her and strokes her mane with me.
"I don't understand" I said wiping away my tears.
"Well, last night after I left your cottage. I had some matters to attend to before I finally began to head home. And just when snowball and I were arriving at the palace of justice. I see this young mare roaming the streets. Frantically panting, as if she was begging for help. Luckily for me, I fallowd her while riding snowball and she lead me right to you."
I stared at him in amazement. I couldn't believe what he just told me.
"Like I've said before, our Lord works in mysterious ways Liliana. He has blessed you with a truly magnificent creature.
With more tears of joy streaming down my face, I nuzzled Sophia's nose and placed a small kiss on it.
"Thank you Sophia, thank you so much."
"You must truly love her... you're more concerned about her than your own health" Frollo said as he began to pet Snowball.
"I love her very much, I have 3 more back at the cottage. Pat taught me to care for them. I have to care for them or else I'd be letting Pat down" I explained.
"Well that's very sweet, but dear girl what made you go out in the middle of the night?" Frollo asked with a frown on his face.
"Well..I.." I said trying to explain, but Frollo cut me off.
"What if I hadn't come that night?! What if those sick gypsy bastards had their way with you?! You could've died!" He snapped getting closer and closer to me till we were inches apart.
"I.. I'm sorry, I couldn't sleep that night..so I thought If I went out for a ride with Sophia I'd eventually feel better. I had no intention of running into those men...it's actually all coming back to me now..they said they were coming after me because of that gypsy man who assaulted me and broke my necklace. They blamed me for his arrest, and the man who..who held the knife to my neck said the man you arrested was his brother."
Frollo's face eventually became calm again as he listened to what I had to say. And he even reached out and wiped away the tears that just kept coming.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to hurt anyone, or get myself involved with Gypsys. Please forgive me for getting you involved Frollo."
He shook his head and shushed me, "You have nothing to apologize for Liliana. I'm more involved with those vermin than you think. I just thank god that you're still alive."
"Yeah, thanks to you" I said before making the bold move of leaning in and kissing his cheek.