Royal Blood

Chapter Eight

"So are we supposed to just stay here until sundown?" I ask Jasper that following morning.

"An hour before sundown otherwise then it is too late." He tells me.

I shuffle around in my chair, hoping to finally get comfy at some point. "Basically the same thing. I wish we could go now though. Believe it or not, I actually had a better night's sleep in the forest than on your aunt's sofa. And speaking of your aunt, you still haven't explained the situation with her or with anything in your life." I say to him.

"And I'm still not going to tell you anything. You're not the only one with secrets princess." I sigh at him and he disappears upstairs.

It's true that I feel like I slept better in the forest than here. Even though when I was in the forest I knew that people would be searching for me, I didn't know that for sure. In one part of my mind I could pretend that nobody cared that I was gone and I would be able to live the life I wanted to without looking over my shoulder every minute of the day. Now it is completely different. I kept imagining that some of the palace guards would force themselves into this apartment ant take me away but not without killing Jasper and Anita beforehand. I was on edge all night.

Even now I don't feel like I can remain calm. I know the plan for tonight inside out; we leave one hour before sunset and while we are walking on the streets, we keep our heads down. The two of us then head south which leads to a field which then finally leads us to another forest where we should be safer. According to Jasper, our next stop point is in that forest but he won't say where. I can only hope that it isn't an animal's den.

Anyway, knowing this plan isn't helping me. My legs keep uncontrollably shaking beneath the coffee table that I am sat at. The coffee that I am drinking is probably not going to help either. My mind keeps imaging the worse case scenarios as well as well as what is probably happening at the palace.

I can't imagine my mother being the emotional, weeping kind of parent but I can imagine her bossing people around even more than usual. Making their lives a living hell when she really doesn't have to. I also think back to some of the people I have left behind, such as Crystal. I really hope she hasn't gotten into any trouble for all of this. It really isn't her fault. I also miss Louis and the stories he would tell me about his family. I hope his wife is doing okay. Sipping my coffee, I think about it all.

"Are you alright?" A voice asks me and I realise that it is Jasper. He stuns me out of my nightmares.

"Yeah, I'm fine. How come you went upstairs anyway?" I ask trying to make some kind of conversation.

"I guess I was trying to escape my own thoughts as well. It didn't help though." He must've been able to tell I that I was going to ask him that. "I saw a couple of guards pacing up and down the street. We'll have to hope that they have gone later on because I'm sure they'll have a list of permanent residents for the area. If we are not any of them, well then, bang bang to us." Jasper creates a gun with his hand and pretends to shoot himself.

"Is there a back way we can escape through?"

"I don't think so and even if there was, it would look really suspicious for us to leave that way, especially if we got caught. We'll just have to wait." He says and I know I have no choice but to agree with him.

There isn't much for us to do during the day other than to keep packing and unpacking our bag to double check that we have everything. We do have everything.

Anita is out, searching for work. According to Jasper, she lost her job a few years ago and has never been able to find another. He mumbled something to do with a tarnished family name but then never explained any further.