Adventures of Jessa

65

Dhiren races out of Mistress Silvermoon's house. Kallen is outside waiting with the horses. He holds Jessa as they mount the horses.

They race to the end of the street and find it blocked. Then Mistress Frosnak comes to the fore. "Mel told me to come, that Jessa is ill. These are my men and they will make sure that we get to Alaric's house without trouble." Frosnak tells them as she looks at the over white princess in Dhiren's arms.

Frosnak manages to hide her worry at the sight before her and just has her men open the path to Alaric's place.

Alaric is waiting for them when they come. "Prince, I thought I made it clear that she needed to come as soon as possible?" Alaric is less than pleased at the state Jessa is in.

"She refused to come here until after dealing with Master Silvermoon's caravan goods. You will be happy to know that Mistress Silvermoon will be taking over the teaching of Jasper and housing him. You, Frosnak will need to go to her house or have Jasper go to a different location." Frosnak nods absently. 

"I'll also make sure that no one robs her blind. She has been well taught and, although, is no dragon, she'll be able to do quite well for herself. I think marrying her to Master Silvermoon was a mistake on her father's part, but it wasn't any of my business. She'll do very well for herself once she gets established."

"Thank you, I had hoped you would be willing to help her like that." Dhiren says and gives her a mischievous smile.

"You already told her I would do that, didn't you, Prince?" Frosnak demands in exasperation.

"I did."

"If you weren't my best customer and Jessa's fiancée I would tell you where to take your account and shove it."

"Ah, but Frosnak, you know you love me." Dhiren teases but he never fully takes his attention off of Jessa. The banter continues as they go into the house and up the stairs.

"You may stay, Dhiren, because it will help to calm and ease her, but you will need to be quiet now." Alaric glares at the two as they enter Jessa's room.

Frosnak bows her head and retreats since she wasn't mentioned as being allowed. Dhiren takes himself to a corner where he can watch Alaric work on Jessa, but is out of the way.

Alaric works on her for some time before putting the bandage back on. "Stay with her, it will help with her healing. I'll send for some of the elvish food that is in the market. Kallen knows the cook and approves. I highly doubt any of your elves will appreciate the food I'll be making for myself and Jessa."

Dhiren nods as he climbs on the bed and lies down next to Jessa. He holds her gently not caring if Alaric has one of the elves bring him dinner or not. All he cares about is Jessa. He curses himself for staying as long as they did at Mistress Silvermoon's and wishes that he'd paid closer attention to how quiet Jessa had been and how white she'd gotten.

He doesn't even notice the passing of time as the shadows lengthen in the room.

Alaric comes bustling in with dinner. "Get out and work out those muscles. She won't be waking any time soon. I'll have to force feed her this and you won't like watching. Go get you something to eat, your people have already eaten and gone about their duties.

"I told Sorsha to come in here. She isn't to be on her feet longer than thirty minutes at a time. The rest of the time she's to sit, no less than ten minutes before standing once more. She'll need to move about instead of standing still as well."

"This because of her pregnancy?" Dhiren asks yawning. He'd not gotten a great deal of sleep the night before. He'd been too worried about Jessa to sleep much.