Forever and Ever After (book1)

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

A week later Isobel’s secret remained a secret, even though her mind only kept recalling the moment Charming kissed her, the moment they danced, they laughed; the whole night seemed like a lovely dream to her. She avoided her Father as much as she could and when it couldn’t be helped she hid her limp as best as she could until she could look into her Father’s eyes and tell him what he wanted to hear from her not what she wanted to tell him.

But as the days grew on and she thought that the ball had been forgotten, Michael came running into the house that was shortly followed by Ash; it was lucky her Father was out or they would have got an ear full off him as well as Isobel.

“Isobel,” they cried as they ran through.

“You need to come with us right now,” Ash said in a rush and tried to pull Isobel along with him.

“There’s a royal carriage and knights and escorts and everything,” Michael explained as he grabbed her other arm and tried to pull her out the door.

“I don’t share with anyone,” Isobel snapped and pulled free of their grasp. “Besides, when did you become dependent on me?”

“We don’t want to rob them, they had stopped in the middle of the road and have asked for you,” Michael explained and rolled his eyes when Isobel didn’t move. “They said they would pay us 50 gold coins between us; that’s 25 each, it’s a lot of money we couldn’t pass up.”

“It’s quite a lot of money just to see you.”

“Did you talk to the royals in the carriage?” Isobel asked, now tempted to go along with them.

Ash snorted. “Course, she’s the one offering the money; quite the looker too, for a snobby princes.”

“I’m not talking to that snobby princess,” Isobel snapped and stepped back out of their reach.

Michael shook his head quickly and once more tried to pull her with them. “It’s not the princess who’s asking for you, it’s one of the knights.”

Isobel wanted to argue but felt she had no reason to, who knew why the knights and Lady Katrina wanted to see her. “Are they black or gold knights?” she asked and she shrugged on her jacket.

“Neither, I only recognised their swords so I’m guessing they are from our kingdom,” Ash said in frustration for Isobel being so slow and almost pushed her out the door.

“Alright, alright, I’m coming,” she snapped and shooed them out.

Ten minutes later, they arrived at the road, Ash and Michael went straight to the road while Isobel stayed cautious and stayed perched in the trees overlooking the road. Three knights sat on horses in front of a royal carriage and five more escorts were to the back.

“Well where is she?” Sir Hector asked and rode over to the two men.

“She’s here, like we said,” Ash said.

“And like I said, she’s staying hidden,” Michael sneered. “She can hear you if you start talking, she’ll come down when she wants to.”

A black pouch of money flew out of the carriage window towards Ash but it was Michael who caught in midair. “Thank you good men,” Lady Katrina said. “At least we know she is here even if we can’t see her.”

Ash and Michael ran off back into the forest, disappearing into the greenery in a blink of an eye.

After a moment of scanning the trees around them Hector rolled his shoulders and hollered “Isobel, can you come out now?”