The Bounty Hunter

Chapter Twenty Seven

Chapter Twenty Seven

Safita was walking in the park when she turned a corner and started; standing in front of her was Finred, the gleaming sun trapped in his blond hair shining as he turned around to face her. His lips quirked into a small smile as he moved towards her and said, “Safita!”

“Finred,” she said, taken aback, “how are you?”

“Well thank you,” he replied, “and you?”

“I too am well,” she said. “What are you doing here?”

“Just taking a walk, enjoying the summer,” he said cheerfully, laughing at Safita’s raised eyebrow. “It’s nice to get out of the palace grounds and into the city; the world seems too small after everything I saw with you.”

Safita chuckled darkly and said, “I didn’t exactly show you the wonders of the world.”

“You showed me a different one,” he replied as he came to stand next to her and began to walk with her down the path, “and opened my eyes. It wasn’t always as clean or as relaxing as some people’s lives but it was… exhilarating.”

She laughed once more and muttered, “I suppose that’s one way to look at it. People do argue that we should try and learn from everything that happens to us.”

“I certainly learnt a lot from you,” he chuckled. “It was… unlike anything else I’d ever experienced. I wanted to get away and escape and you showed me that there are worse things to be running from and always something worth running towards. I was furious at you for a while though,” he admitted wryly, “but perhaps it was meant to be.”

“What about your betrothal though?” she asked, suddenly remembering the main reason she had met Finred in the first place. His eyes clouded over again and his hand tightened on her arm. “Honestly… I don’t know. I’m just trying to enjoy it here. Truth be told I’m just biding my time until I can escape again,” he smirked, “but right now they practically have me under lock and key.”

“Oh really?” she asked. “Then why are you allowed to wander around the city?”

“I’m allowed around the city but not out of it,” he answered. “And I don’t know what they’d do if I tried to cross the wall. Kill me probably.” Safita felt his muscles tense through the fabric of his sleeve and her forehead knitted together worriedly. His blasé manner hid the true cruelty with which they were treating him but his involuntary movements told her more than he was willing to give away.

“It seems a little rich that you’ve been trapped here after you ran away in search of freedom,” she replied. “Why are you just accepting it? That’s not like you.”

“I’m accepting it because firstly I don’t have much of a choice and secondly if I go along with their wishes it’s more likely that they’ll let their guard down. I don’t mind being in the palace so much – if I did I would have fought far more when I first got back. Still, if they ask anything too… anything I don’t want to go along with of me I will fight them.” He frowned before running a hand through his hair. “I know it must be hard for you to understand – hell it’s hard for me to understand – especially with your… love of freedom and your stubbornness but I just… don’t think it’s worth fighting at the moment. Not everything in life has to be some enormous battle, sometimes it’s better to sit back, to wait and see how things turn out.”

“No I- I think I understand,” she replied as Finred grinned wryly at her. “Right,” he said, drawing the word out as he nodded. As they walked through the garden they both fell silent, lost in their own thoughts; where once it had been almost painful, where once it had been a sign of their dislike of each other, where once neither had wanted to hear the other speak now it was a sign of the comfort which existed between the pair of them. Each swore to themselves that they only enjoyed being in the other’s company because they were friends but the niggling doubt, the knowledge that their history and the things they had done together meant more to them than that, lingered in the back of their minds.