DRIVEN || Completed✔ (Second Edition)

3.

Chapter 3:

Even before the cock crows for dawn, Augustus wakes, and as discrete as he tries to be, Agnes is still awakened by his movements.

"Are you leaving?"

"I did not want to disturb you," he says and leans in to peck her forehead.

She breathes deeply and tries to keep her eyes opened.

"You looked peaceful," he says as he tucks stray curls behind her ear.

"That's because you were here." She smiles.

Ever since her father died, she keeps having the same nightmare. It's the memory of how she watched that man thrust his blade through her father's chest. The nightmare comes when she's angry, confused or disappointed in herself - or even all of the above.

Augustus leaves after planting a kiss on her lips and Agnes rolls to her back to stare at the thatched ceiling as she touches the spot he kissed, tingles spreading across her skin.

Agnes is madly in love with Augustus and is ready to ask him to marry her, if it isn't for the fear of stepping on his ego.

Countless times, she has asked him why he hasn't met with her kinsmen to declare his intentions, and all those times he'll reply that he isn't half the man she is, so he can't claim her as his yet.

She knows he means this in terms of wealth and status, but that doesn't matter to her. She tried to explain this to him, but his male-ego is larger than her plea, so she decides to wait until he's ready.

"Your Highness," she hears the voice of one of her guards behind the curtain.

"Yes."

"You have a visitor."

Her eyes dart at the curtain. "This early? Who is it?"

"Your Uncle, Elder Charles."

She sits up. "Tell him I will be out soon."

Elder Charles is her father's brother and the only man who remains loyal to her family. He used to be her father's adviser and was stripped of his title when her father died. Elder Charles is like a second father and the only man in the Royal counterpart she and her mother can trust.

However, she cannot decipher why he is in their house before the crack of dawn.

She hurries to her bathroom at the back, baths and combs out the tangled mess her hair is in and finds a clean set of clothing - two green wrappers having red oval-shaped patterns all over - which she wraps around her chest and her waist (the material stopping above her knee). After taking a look at her reflection in the small cracked mirror - one of the spoils her late father brought home from war and gifted her - she collects her horsetail and leaves her hut.

The sky is clear and cloudless with the moon still awake.

The singing of the morning birds accompanies the rumble that is Elder Charles' guffaw and the mixture makes a nice rhythm, she thinks with a small smile.

Elder Charles is sitting on a bench, having a conversation with her mother, who sits on another bench adjacent his and fans herself with a straw hand fan.

"To what do I owe this surprise visit?" she announces her presence as she nears them.

When he hears her voice, he turns and smiles at her, getting up from the bench to open his arms for her.

"My daughter."

She moves closer and he wraps her in a warm, sweet-scented, fatherly hug, which she has always found comforting.