The Perfect Kingdom

Chapter 5

Jessica spent the following week trying to keep herself busy, mainly by accompanying Shane for all his activities. He spent a day in the castle for combat training with the prince. They sparred multiple times with different weapons and armour in a small courtyard within the castle. There, she met Miles Bennett, the affable squire to the prince. His long blond hair reflected his bright spirit and emphasised his natural smile. She enjoyed speaking to him due to the many jokes and stories he told as they sat at a shaded corner with pitchers of water for their masters.

She noted that the prince would be huffing and covered in sweat after each bout, but Shane looked unflapped and emotionless as usual. However, the prince always won.

After their training, Shane, Shawn, and other nobles who were present went for dinner, leaving Jessica, Gwen, Miles, and other squires and slaves to pick up their weapons and armour. Gwen maintained Shane's weapons while Jessica cleaned his armour. She found the task similar to washing clothes for her family, albeit the armour was thicker and heavier. After they were done, Shane brought them back to the Bannered Mare and apologised for their boring day as he bought dinner for them.

In contrast, Shane also brought Gwen to the castle to train on a different day. They used wooden weapons that matched their normal swords and hatchets and their usual leather armour. With the familiar equipment, they stunned Jessica with the speed at which they fought at, unleashing flurry of strikes and deflected blows too fast for her to fully catch. However, each fight ended with Shane ruthlessly hitting Gwen to the ground. Jessica then had to do her best to ignore her friend as she served water to Shane. Up close, she recognised the emotions worn on his sweat-drenched face: sorrow, guilt, and regret. Once Shane was attended to, she could give some attention to Gwen, who would smile and say Shane targeted where she was most heavily armoured, and she also exaggerated her movement to make it appear a lot more painful than it really was.

At the end of all training sessions, Jessica also had to follow Shane into the dressing room under the pretence of helping him strip his armour, though Shane did everything on his own. This provided them a private opportunity to talk.

"I hate this," Shane quietly said.

"I can tell," she sympathised.

"Gwen is strong. She shouldn't have to endure this."

He undid the straps to his armour and angrily threw it on the bench. He ripped off his undershirt and Jessica gasped and turned away.

"Sorry."

"It's fine," she replied, blushing heavily.

She had never seen a naked man before, save for her family when they went swimming in the stream. She steeled her nerves and turned back. She had to be able to act as if she was comfortable with Shane. She did her best to look at him, but his muscular frame riddled with scars and old wounds pulled at her heartstrings. He looked strong, but also as though he was being slowly whittled and beaten down.

"The scars are old. They've long since healed," Shane said, knowing what she was thinking. "I was wilder in my younger days."

"Were you always a fighter?"

"Yes, I've always fought to protect, though for different reasons and different people. At first it was for myself, then for the royal family, and then now for you and Gwen and all who can't protect themselves."

"What's your background?" Jessica asked. She cleared her throat and looked away. "I mean, if you don't mind me asking."

"I was an orphan. I was living on the streets of Whiterun for as long as I can remember. I don't know if my parents were killed or if they left me and Zack to fend for ourselves – I don't care. We slept in the alleys that weren't patrolled by guards and ate by stealing or scrounging whatever was thrown out. Sometimes we were harassed by citizens, and sometimes we had to fight back. I remember we were beaten once, so badly that I felt like all my bones were broken and Zack thought he was blind due to all the blood on his face. We were then found by the old man who used to run the orphanage. He took us in and we met Mariah and Tyson. I lived there for a couple of years until I was noticed by the king and taken in to be the prince's protector."