Once Upon A Knight ✔

Chapter 3: Night of Contemplations

Author's Note:
Day 3 and you guys know the drill. Please don't forget to vote for the chapter if you like it. I enjoy reading the little comments I get, so please show your love in the comments section. 
Love,
MishtyBh

P.S. I have uploaded a video of "Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven". I find it so peaceful and there was a time when I would listen to it on repeat the whole night through. It sounds lovely when you listen to it at night, all cuddled up in your bed.

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Elyss was appalled by her own behavior. What had she been thinking? Didn't she know it better than to kiss a stranger is the middle of the woods and that too just a few days before her............

She had to forget this. She should forget it. But she feared her thoughts would haunt her for nights to come.

The horse she had tied to a tree near the clearing was now galloping towards the castle. In the dark of a young night, the castle loomed ahead of her, like her present and future. There were lights burning bright, welcoming weary travelers and guests who were coming in for the wedding which was in a fortnight. Her wedding!

She turned around the castle walls and came to the small gate where her trusted man-servant was on guard waiting for his lady to return. She sighed thinking about what she had said to Sir Torryn. When he had asked for her name, Elyss didn't know how to react. She had not been expecting to tell someone who she was. And she was definitely not expecting to interact with anyone, lest kiss them. She was Elyss, she thought to herself. She had not really lied to Sir Torryn. She had just not told him the entire truth. That she was Lady Elyssande De Durand, the daughter of Lord Durand and the bride who was getting married in a fortnight!

She quietly crept through the castle corridors and passageways, knowing them better than the back of her hand. She took an quiet breath of relief when she saw the door to her bedchamber thinking that it was almost over now. She quickly opened the door as it creaked and crept quietly into the bedchamber.

"Where have you been, and looking like that?" the middle-aged maid, Marion cried, coming from the shadows towards her mistress as Elyssande gave a yelp of surprise. She had forgotten about Marion still being awake and waiting for her. The kiss had muddled her wits. "Really, now, my lady, I dared not say anything but aren't you a little old for dressing like a peasant and running round in the village? Are you not thinking of your wedding in a se'ennight?"

"I just wanted to see the jugglers, Marion and see the village folk have their little amusements," Elyss replied as she gave her maidservant a contrite smile. "When I'm the wife of Sir Henry de Verley and chatelaine of his castle, I won't be able to go out among the villagers and enjoy their simple pleasures anymore. I'll have to act the lady then." Marion scrunched her nose in approval. "Aye, that is so. Thank the Lord for that," Marion said briskly as she poured water into the bronze ewer on the table near the curtained bed. "Then it will be your young'uns scampering off to climb trees, catch fish and generally get into mischief." 

Elyss blushed hard but in the light of a single, fat candle, it went unnoticed by Marion. As she went to wash, she doubted Marion would think that kiss she had shared with the dark and handsome, chivalrous Sir Torryn Roderick as mischief. It was a shameful and lustful sin, she would say it was and who was to say she wouldn't be right? But in her heart, Elyss couldn't muster up the feelings of shame. She was of course feeling shame but like a little child who had been caught sneaking sweets from the kitchen. She also knew she should be feeling apologetic to herself and ashamed, but she couldn't forget the incredible sensation of Sir Torryn's lips moving over hers, arousing such...