Treaty's Daughter (Book one of The Ranger and The Thief series)

Chapter 3

    Abby hated it at Castle Araluen. Cassandra showed sympathy towards her by buying her dresses and other useless objects in Abbys life. She had only been at the castle for two days when she finally met up with Maddie again. She hadn't seen Maddie in about two years, and last time they met, it was a disaster. Maddie didn't understand how Abby wasn't like her. And now they were older. Maddie was walking around the gardens with her maid, Rose-Jean, when she caught sight Abby. She called her over, and Abby reluctantly approached the princess.

"How are you, Abby?" Maddie asked sounding sincere. But Abby instantly knew it was fake. Maddie didn't care for anyone below her title, and Abby was a Courier in training, probably the lowest you could get before hitting farmer.

    "I'm doing better." Abby forced herself to say. She didn't understand how other people put up with Maddie. She just had a snotty feel too her.

     "My personal guard, Logan, is taking Rose-Jean and I to the beach tomorrow. Gilan said you can come if you want to." Maddie said. Abby considered it for a minute, stay at the castle, thinking about her family that had been broken apart, or go to the beach with Maddie?

   "Thank you, but no. I'm not a huge fan of the sea." She said. Maddie seemed to roll her eyes playfully.

"Your lose then." Then the two of them left Abby standing there.

    That evening, Gilan came to her quarters. She allowed him in and he sank into one of the arm chairs next to the roaring fire one of the maids had lit.

"Is something on your mind, Gil?" Abby asked sitting in the chair opposite of his. He gave her a small smile.

"I know you turned down Maddies offer today. I'd like for you to reconsider. It'll be good for you. You haven't been outside in a few days." He said. She glared at him.

"You are going to need better reasoning then that." She said smugly. He glared at her.

"Abby, I received a letter from your father yesterday. A week ago I gave him a mission, the letter was his refusal."Gilan said. Abby bit her lip and stared into the fire. Will wasn't suppose to do that.

"How does this pertain to me?" She asked. He let out a deep sigh.

"Abby, He also is out for revenge on Jory Ruhl, the man who killed your mother. He told me he can't stress about caring for you at the moment, and that he wants you to stay with me until he's caught Ruhl." He explained. She stared at him in horror. Her father couldn't stress about caring for her?!? She was extremely easy to care for. Her parents had often left her at the cabin while they were on missions, they just had Halt and Pauline check up on her occasionally. What's so different this time. "Abby, it could take months for him to track him down. I'm trying all I can to stop him, but until then, you must get used to living here. Cassandra wants you and Maddie to stick together more. For you to bond better. What's a better way to bond then playing on the shore of the sea?" She glared at him.

"I hate the sea. I prefer the forest." She said. He smiled a bit.

"I can't blame you there." He chuckled. "Please, just do this for me?"

***

Abby stared out at the grey sea the next morning. It smelled horrible to her, and she instantly missed the smell of the trees surrounding her familys little cabin at Redmont. Rose-Jean and Maddie ran around the beach like lunatics, while Abby made light conversation with Logan, Maddie's personal guard. She found out what fife he was from, and how he became the princess's personal guard. It was slightly boring, but it beat playing in the freezing cold water.

     By the time they had been there for two hours, Abby was utterly bored. She told Logan she was going to walk around for a bit. She walked along the shore, just staring at her bare feet as she walked through the sand. She had taken off her leather boots to avoid getting them wet. She had walked about two miles when she suddenly spotted something in the distance. A large mast, with a huge rectangular sail on it. She bit her lip and slipped on her boots, easing behind the tall grass a little bit off shore. She peered over at the sail and saw it was a huge ship. She tried to figure what kind of ship it was when she caught sight of the huge wolf's head on the bow.