Innocent Lies

Emmy..........

Emmy:

After Stefan left the barn I finished brushing Starlight and closed her stall door. I was walking down the aisle way when someone said my name. I turned around to the familiar face of Sperling Jackswind.

"Well, if it isn't Emmeline Lancing," He crossed his arms. "How've you been, Emmy?" I smiled. I had had a little 'thing' with Sperling a few years ago. Once he signed with the army being apart from him proved too much for me and we went our separate ways. It was pretty awkward seeing him for the first time in a number of years, but he was still the same handsome boy he was before. He was well built with muscle, although not as much at Prince Stefan. Stefan had a decent muscle build, not too huge but not stick arms either.

"Good, and you?"

"I've been very good, as a matter of fact. I was recently promoted to chief commander." He smiled, obviously pleased with himself. I could have spit on him in disgust.

"The death of a good man is nothing to be proud of," I shot him a rude glare and began to walk away.

"I'm not proud of what happened to my officer!" He spat. "I'm proud of myself for working hard enough to be rewarded with this position!" I stopped turned around and continued to stare at him.

"Well you sure seemed pretty smug about it." I scoffed.

"No, quite the opposite actually. I hope they catch the bastard that did it and give him a slow painful death. Wait," He stopped as his face realized who everyone thought who did it was my father.

I marched up to him and got right in his face, making sure he wouldn't forget my words. "My father would never harm anyone! Let alone his best friend's cousin!"

"Really? That's not what I heard."

"Go to hell you filthy jackass!" I shouted marching off. He didn't follow me. I started to cry again. Everyone thought my father murdered Sir Erasmus! Everyone thought such terrible things about him without even getting to know him! If they could just see the kind heart my father has, they'd know he'd never hurt anyone! I tried wiping the tears away but instead I just cried harder. How could people think this, with out any actual proof?

I started running, in no where particular. I opened my eyes long enough to see I was heading to the garden. Oh well, I could always think better there. I shut my eyes again, trying to stop the endless tears when I ran into something hard. I looked up to see the back of Stefan's head.

I wiped my tears as best I could and tried to stop crying, I couldn't let him see me like this.

"Emmy what's wrong?" I tried to collect myself but I couldn't talk. I could barely think for that matter.

Stefan led me to the concrete bench in the middle of the garden and sat with me until I calmed down.

"Now, would you like to tell me what the matter is?" I looked up at him and bit my lower lip, wondering if I should tell him about my meeting with Sperling. He never did like him.

"I lost our bet," I said, my voice still shaky from crying. He let out a chuckle until I threw him an evil glare.

"Might I ask why?" He bit back his laughter.

"Well," I took a deep breath. "I kind told Sperling Jackswind to..." I fiddle with a loose thread on my dress.

"To..." He prompted.

"To go to hell," I looked at his face. A big smile broke out. "I know, now I have to muck the stalls." I looked at my feet.

"That and I just have a hard time believing that's all you said to him." Dang, he knows me too well.

"Okay, so I called him a filthy jackass," With that statement Stefan burst out laughing.

"It's about time someone put that boy in his place." He wiped a tear from his eye.

"I know, he called my dad a bastard too." Stefan quit laughing.

"Emmy, just ignore those types of people. Is that what really upset you?" I nodded, biting my lip again.

"It's okay, I'm over it." I said hopping up. Then I remembered my vision.

"You jerk," I held back a smile. "You weren't going to tell me were you?" He stood up and looked me straight in the eye.

"Tell you what?" He was a terrible liar.

"I saw you and your dad fighting in my vision, which means..." He scrunched his face up.

"Well..." He tried to weasel his way out of this one.

"Which means you lost before I did!" I crossed my arms in triumph.

"I guess I saw that coming," He said. "You psychics are hard to keep secrets from, aren't you?" I grabbed his cheeks with my right hand and shook his head from side to side talking to him in a baby voice.

"Aww, congratulations, you've finally figured it out!" I laughed as he rolled his eyes. He sat back down on the concrete bench, soon followed by me.

"Can I talk to you for a minute, Emmy?" He asked. "Like about something serious?" I looked over, already knowing what he wanted to talk about.

"It's about the marriage thing, right?" He nodded.

"Yeah," He let out a sigh. "I just don't know what to do about it. I mean, I don't think I can fall in love with someone in a month's time." He looked over at me. I didn't know what to say. The only real relationship I'd ever had was with Sperling, and that was a waste of my time.

"Okay," I said, choosing my words carefully. "Well I know I'd choose someone that makes you laugh, you can be yourself around, and seems like an overall fun person to be around." Stefan laughed. I must have sounded stupid. I blushed. Stefan and I had never talked about this type of stuff before. Sure when I was dating Sperling I had said a few things about our previous dates but that was it. Stefan usually distanced himself from the snobby girls that would smother him at parties.

Stefan let out another chuckle.

"Emmy," He said, looking me in the eyes. "That just described you."