Pure Blue Blood

Chapter ten

"Your horse ma'am." The stableman said. "I'm sure you'll find he's been taken care of while you were... er... away. Stephan has made sure he was train too." Julie smiled and petted the back of the red stallion.

"I assume mine is the black one." Damien said without releasing Julie's wrist.

"I'll never seize being impressed of your talent with horses, Princess. Not to complain, but your horse is a fury. I think he was heart broken, he let no man or woman ride him, I only know Stephan made a huge effort to train him because you loved your horse." The stableman looked at her expectant, and so did everyone in the stables. They were waiting to see if the red stallion remembered her. Slowly, Damien released her waist and she approached her horse.

He patted the ground, but didn't attack her when she walked to his left side. "Shhh Fergus shhh, it's me, I'm not going to hurt you. It's me." Reluctantly, Fergus approached his snout to Julie's open hand, and after sniffing it, he move so she could climb on top. Once she was on her place he stood on his back legs, racing the front ones and let out a joyful neigh.

Everyone clapped their lost princess, but she ignored them, following Zoe into the woods, closely followed by Damien. "I think we should get rid of our guard." Damien said trotting until he was next to Julie.

"It would be unwise to trie, thieve" Stephan voice came from behind them, since he didn't dare to violate the protocol laws to ride next to them, he was no more than her guard after all. In another time, Julie would have mocked the distance between them, but now he refused to look at him. Stephan knew there was something she wasn't telling him, but didn't ask, he knew better than that.

"Julie, why isn't my horse moving?" Zoe asked clearly worried, ignoring her horse had decided to stop in order to eat the green grass that marked the entry to the forest.

"Just kick him until he does, bug" Damien said in a mocking tone, sharing a mischievous smile with his princess. "You need to be the one in charge, not the other way around."

"But... I just wanted for him to talk and ride towards the horizon with me" Stephan rolled his eyes at Zoe's tone, the girl was clearly spoiled and was nothing but an excuse of a thieve, unlike her brother.

Damien hide his smile from the guard, he had to play his part for Zoe's act to be worth it. She hated to play this kind of parts, but her youth made her perfect for the roll. While they were horse ridding outside the castle, Archer was inspecting the castle, the guards and Julie's competition guided by Anne who had offered to in the brief moment Stephan turned to open the door and order one of the guards around.

Damien knew it was killing Julie not knowing what Archer had discover, if he had discover anything at all. So he made it his mission to keep her head out of it for as long as the ride lasted. He was grateful for Zoe's interruptions that reminded him not to smile like a dork every-time Julie laughed at one of his jokes.

"I never saw you as the joking type" Stephan said when hearing Julie laugh with the thief became unbearable.

"I don't know much about protocol and etiquette, but I know you're not here to chit-chat with us, but to play the part of the silent gargoyle." Damien said with out bothering to turn around to look at Stephan.