Nicholas woke up to shouting and someone shaking him roughly.
"She's gone," the man said, and Nicholas shot up, turning to face him and pulling on his boots.
"What? What happened?"
"She was going for a midnight ride and Gordian told her to take someone with her and she ran. It's absolute chaos out there."
"When?" Nicholas demanded, already pulling on his clothes.
"Not ten minutes ago. She's still close."
He ran. Other knights sprinted alongside him, but he veered off down a hall toward the stables, and threw himself on the nearest horse. If Mary was on horseback, the only way he'd be able to catch her was if he was on horseback as well.
The fleets of guards moved aside as he rode through and as he reached the edge of the forest, he heard the hooves of other horses hitting the ground as others caught on. But they were too far back. They'd bothered with saddles and reins and equipment. He was the only one with a chance at finding her.
He tried to follow the hoof prints on the ground, but really, he was just careening through the forest, hoping to hear her or catch some glimpse of her or –
His horse jerked to the side and whinnied at the sound of a girl screaming, and Nicholas yanked them both in that direction.
He followed the sound until he saw her, Roan streaming through the forest like a lightning bolt, Mary barely hanging on, and, gritting his teeth, he shot toward her, and when he was close enough, grabbed the horse's reins and dragged him to a halt, jumping off his horse when he had slowed enough and stepping in front of Roan to calm him down.
"Oh, thanks." Nicholas's head snapped up and Roan snorted impatiently. "Thanks so much," the girl who was not at all Mary gushed. "He was going so fast, I couldn't stop him. Is he yours?"
Nicholas, furious because he had lost her, he had lost his one chance at finding her, walked around Roan and grabbed the girl's hand, helping her down roughly and taking hold of her arm. She looked up at him warily.
"I really wasn't stealing him. I saw him over there-" She pointed off in some general direction. "-and he looked so nervous and he was alone, so I tried to calm him down. I was going to ride him, try to find his owner, but I guess that would be-"
Nicholas fisted the material of Mary's coat in his hand and glared at her. "Where did you get this?"
"It was on the horse," she said slowly, reaching for the clasp with her other hand, the one he didn't have a death grip on. "I was a little cold. I'm really very sorry. I didn't mean to cause any trouble."
Her eyes were dark and fringed with a layer of thick lashes that she fluttered at him innocently.
Nicholas threw the cloak on the ground and his hand went instantly for the hilt of his sword, which was tucked under his belt. The girl saw, and she flinched.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm really sorry. Please don't."
Nicholas glared at her for another couple seconds, which he could afford to waste because he'd already lost her. He'd lost Mary. She was out there somewhere, on foot no less, and whether or not this girl was lying made no difference because she was gone.
He released her arm slowly and stepped back. "A girl has gone missing and this was her cloak and her horse. I'm very worried about her. She's not prepared and she's alone and she has nothing with her now that she's abandoned her horse. I-"
"You love her, don't you?" the girl asked, a slight smile on her lips, her head cocked to the left, and Nicholas blinked, stepping back.
"Excuse me?"
"You love her." Her smile grew and she shook her head. "Well, I'm awfully sorry, and I really do wish I could help, but I haven't seen her. I hope you find her."
"I don't-" He choked on the words though and as the girl turned to leave, she shot one last impish grin at him, and his whole face flushed with heat.
Nicholas quickly dismissed it, however, because what did it matter? She was gone. Mary was gone, and he had lost her.
He took both horses and lead them slowly back to the castle on foot, Mary's cape draped over his arm.
Sir Gordian saw him first, and he ran up to him breathlessly. "Sir Nicholas, please-"
"She left her horse and cape somewhere out there. She's on foot now and it's been too long. We should keep looking, but I don't think our chances of finding her are very high at all."
Gordian cursed under his breath, and then took the horses from Nicholas, leading them back to the stable. Nicholas clutched her cloak in his hands and wondered why he hadn't done more yesterday. He had known and he had thought saying something that stupid, that little and insignificant, would mean something to her. And then he had just trusted her to stay. This was his fault, this whole thing. And he couldn't even do anything to fix it.
