Conquest of the Victorian Era ( The Open Novella Contest)

Chapter Eight- Rose Buds and Royalty

"That's enough," Violet said pulling her horse to a stop, "She's tired... and thinks Charlie is carrying too much weight." Violet jumped off her horse, the glow along her hands subsiding.

"I beg your pardon?!" I glared back at her, jumping off of Charlie. "Is that the best you can do, take a dig at my weight?"

Violet rolled her eyes at me, "No. I meant the luggage he is carrying, Firecracker."

My flare of anger vanished as I realised she was talking about the bags I had strapped to him. "You can tell all that by touching her?" I asked leading Charlie towards the small stream we had stopped by.

"He is a draft horse," Aries said taking the straps off his horse. "He can carry a small load."

"I'm just saying, she's not impressed." Violet glanced up at me.

My flare of anger was returning. "I don't give Charlie anything he can't handle. If he looked tired I'd know and I'd do something about it," I stated firmly.

I had looked after him for over a year. I knew what he liked and what he didn't. Did they suddenly know him better than I did after spending less than a day with him?

"It's fine, Ivy," Aries came over stroking Charlie," He is very committed to you. And he's not tired because of the few bags you have. He's tired because we've been travelling non-stop for hours."

The sun was high over our heads now and we had been travelling south to get to London for long enough today. I wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to finally rest.

"Does he just tell you all this?" I asked, busying myself with Charlie's saddle straps, and feeling slightly envious of what they could do.

"No, not really." Aries said taking my food bag off Charlie. "It's the feeling we can sense. And in return they can sense ours."

I thought back to Charlie struggling through the mud when I had first met the three of them.

"So yesterday, when you were trying to get my horse up the embankment, you could have just... calmed him down yourself?"

"Well we weren't exactly about to show you what we could do," Aries said, taking anther bag and placing it on the ground. "Besides, you seemed to know what you were doing." He smiled at me before going to grab the bag with James's letters.

"I've got it!" I quickly pulled the bag from his reach.

They all looked at me.

"Sorry, I just... I don't want them... ruined." I turned away from them all, grabbing three apples from the food bag to feed the horses.

Rhys hopped off the horse he was on then walked over to the water's edge on shaky legs, taking off his shirt to clean out his bullet wound.

I noticed that although he looked like he had enough muscle to take on any enemy, he didn't have a single mark that would have suggested he had been fighting against anyone let alone Thadeus for the last eight years. The only scar I had seen on him was the small one on his forearm.

My thoughts were broken when I spotted Aries coming towards me holding a pouch of water. I dropped my attention and turned back around to feed Violet's horse an apple.

"Well, that's sure to get you on her good side now." Aries said holding out the water for me.

I gave him a small smile while patting the black horse but shook my head at his gesture of cordiality. I was quite capable of getting my own water thank-you.