“Repeat that Ms. Kathleen.” Lord O’Farrell was a few inches shorter than Ms. Kathleen, and yet somehow, he still seemed to loom over her. His eyes were bright and sober, unlike the majority of his guests, who were all pretending not to care about the outburst that had happened earlier that evening. The Lord didn’t seem to bear any guilt over his outburst towards his fiancé down at the party, and Ms. Kathleen, despite not having been present to witness it, was struggling to keep her own ire in check.

“I said she wants us alone, to enter the chamber.” Ms. Kathleen eyed the 6 maids who were trying to hide their savage interest in the situation, and Lady Josephine who was standing beside the aisle of maids looking genuinely concerned.

“What a foolish-”

“My Lord one more word disparaging my ward, and I will box your ears as though you were a child throwing a tantrum.” Ms. Kathleen didn’t back down from him this time. She had seen what was inside Lady Agnes’ chamber, and she was in no mood to hear anymore of the man’s nonsense. He disregarded her threat as though she hadn’t said a word.

“Get out of my way Ms. Kathleen.” Lord O’Farrell ordered as he grabbed the handle to Agnes’ door, and threw it open. The governess rolled her eyes, and followed in after him quickly. She had to be sure no one saw what was actually in the room.

Lord O’Farrell saw the lump under the coverlet of the bed, and he didn’t hesitate in opening his mouth to speak. He was ready as he ever would be to-

“Lord O’Farrell, that isn’t her. She isn’t in this room at all.” Ms. Kathleen’s voice was a whisper, and that made the Duke grab the dagger at his belt. He had been ambushed by far less conniving people before.

The governess didn’t bat an eye when he whirled around to face her with his blade out. Instead, she held the letter she had found on the bed pillows. She slowly handed it to him, giving him an incredulous look as she did so.

Before he opened the letter, Sean O’Farrell stopped, and took a deep breath, then lifted his gaze to the woman who would’ve loved nothing more than to reeducate him on manners- preferably with some violent aid, if she had her way.

“She doesn’t need to be scared.” He said it more quietly, trying to look calmly at the woman.

“I was going to bring her back downstairs to publically apologize.” Ms. Kathleen’s jaw dropped, and her eyebrows shot up towards her black and white hairline. She recovered quickly form her surprise however, so she closed her mouth, and stared in the silence at the man more carefully. She wasn’t entirely sure she believed him. He certainly hadn’t given her any reason to believe he was capable of controlling himself.

“I’ll show you as soon as I read her letter, and retrieve her from your chambers.” He said it softly with a sigh, and lifted the already broken wax seal of the folded paper.

Ms. Kathleen did her best not to let her sharp intake of breath be heard. As smart as he was, he had sorely missed the mark on the location of his bride.

Sean O’Farrell read the letter, his weary eyes growing wider as he went, and when he’d finished, looked up at Ms. Kathleen in shock.

“You knew of this?!” His voice was raised in panic, which seemed odd to the governess. For once he had valid reason to be angry, and yet he seemed more worried than anything.

“I can swear to you, that I had nothing to do with it.” Lord O’Farrell stared like a stunned possum at her as he processed what he’d read.

“She… Wants me to pronounce her dead by suicide?!” He gaped for several more minutes, completely lost for words.

Eventually, he lowered himself down onto the hope chest that was at the foot of Aggie’s bed.

“My Lord, I don’t suggest we go along exactly with her plan, but-”

“But?! There is no ‘But’ to this Ms. Kathleen. That young Lady just ran away with her bloody Servicer into a world full of Beasts that will hurt her.”

“Won’t the Servicer protect her against such dangers?” Ms. Kathleen suggested in an oddly calm way. Lord O’Farrell went very still as he stared at the woman in front of him carefully, suddenly his attention was honed on to the governess, despite his panic only moments earlier.

“You say you knew nothing of this ploy?” He asked slowly, as he begun to rise back up from his seat. “Why are you so calm with your charge being left defenseless, in a wilderness she knows nothing about, alone with a male Servicer?”

“A Servicer is incapable of violating his Lady or allowing harm to befall her. If the Servicer took her away from here; that means the risks out there were better than in here. I think Lord O’Farrell, you should instead be asking; why that is.”

“For a woman who claimed to not know what a Servicer was, you seem to be well versed in their ways.” Sean’s eyes were narrowed.

“We both know I didn’t ask for my benefit at the time. Lord O’Farrell, I am a highly recommended educator, of course I know all about the Servicers.” She didn’t care to continue playing dumb. This was too important to waste time on hiding her cards from her opponent

“Why didn’t Agnes know of them?”

“Lady Agnes didn’t know, because quite frankly, she never tried to learn about anything that didn’t interest her.”

Lord O’Farrell pinched the bridge of his nose, and resumed sitting. Despite not having more than a glass of wine, he felt as though the room were spinning.

“What was Lady Agnes interested in?”

“You’ll have to ask her yourself. She has always been quite private, and quite good at keeping her emotions to herself.”

After a moment, Sean O’Farrell’s thoughts guided him to an interesting theory, and he sat up as it gradually dawned on him.

“She meant for me to get angry tonight.” He stood up, and began pacing the floor, as he seemed to do quite often. “She meant to anger Lady Deborah, and alienate people. She also knew if she did it quickly enough at the party, her maids wouldn’t follow her back to her room…” Sean O’Farrell began laughing softly to himself. Bertha had been right… she’d made him a fool.

“How could she have escaped? Guests or my staff surround every door… Unless someone is keeping quiet on her behalf.”

“She doesn’t have many friends here.” Ms. Kathleen reminded him with a less than subtle bite to her tone.

“How far could she have gone?” He asked the question more to himself. “If I let people know now, I could catch her…”

“What will you do to her My Lord?”

The question hung heavily in the air, and Sean O’Farrell stopped pacing with his back turned towards Ms. Kathleen.

“I’ll look for her discreetly. Inform people that she has fallen very ill, near death’s door even, and that all festivities- including the wedding, are to be postponed until she is well. No one will come in here, except for a doctor, my Head Maid, and yourself. Once I find her, I plan on bringing her back here.”

“What will the punishment be for her actions?” Ms. Kathleen asked slowly, terrified of the answer. This time, even Sean O’Farrell seemed somewhat surprised when he turned around, and smiled ever so slightly with a mad glint in his eyes.

“I’m going to marry her.”

*

They had stopped running when the forest had become too thick and rough to do so safely, but they still moved hurriedly over rocks and roots, up and over small rises and hills in the forest. They hadn’t noted anything about their surroundings, other than a general direction they knew that they wanted to head. It was a willful act, to ignore any moving shadows, or the squeak of bats flying overhead; not wanting to truly see what terrors surrounded them. There was an unconscious awareness that if they were scared of more than Lord O’Farrell’s pursuit, they’d lose their ability to reason.

The night wore on, and though Aggie tripped several times over roots and rocks, they didn’t stop to rest, or speak.

They had to get to the other side of the forest.

They had to get to the North King’s land.

It wasn’t until dawn came, and they both began to feel a little deranged from lack of sleep, that Arlen grasped Aggie’s arm in the faint morning light. Both had had alternated between sweating, and becoming chilled for the entire night, and when he touched her skin, was surprised by how cold and clammy she was.

“My Lady we need to stop and sleep an hour. We cannot be sloppy from exhaustion.” Arlen urged, feeling a small amount of his own exhaustion tugging at his mind.

“We aren’t out of the woods yet, we have to keep going.” Aggie looked at him with frantic eyes, not fully seeing him in the haze of her fear.

“My Lady, we haven’t followed a direct path. A group won’t be here to search the area, and if we hide ourselves well, a lone rider wouldn’t find us.” He tightened his grip on her arm, and as she stared at him while panting, he noticed she began to tremble slightly. The adrenaline was taking its toll on her.

“Sleep for 1 hour, and then we will start running again.”

“30 minutes.” She challenged, already her eyes scanning their surroundings for a hiding spot. Arlen didn’t argue further-, any sleep was better than none.

The two began prodding around the trees, and after several long minutes, Aggie found a small concave area in the edge of a small hill, that was mostly hidden by thick tree roots casting a wide net over the space. They had to shimmy in through a narrow space between the roots after they covered their tracks, and Arlen found himself surprised to see that no animals had made a nest in their ideal hiding spot. Once they were both behind the cage made of roots, they shimmied as far from each other as was possible, which was only about 2 feet. They couldn’t even lie down properly, but they were able to lean back into the soft clay of the hill and close their eyes with their knees bent.

Aggie wasn’t sure she would be able to sleep at all, but somehow when she blinked, she found the next thing she knew was an hour had passed, and she was groggily opening her eyes again.

Arlen was already sitting up; calmly staring outside, and he turned his head briefly to stare at her as she slowly sat up away from the dirt wall.

“Did you sleep?” Aggie asked as she shifted forward with a wince. The ground was far from what she was used to, and she was already covered in bruises ,and cuts from running and falling through the woods.

“For 30 minutes. You wouldn’t wake up when I called your name, and I didn’t want to shout to rouse you.”

“You should’ve shaken me.” Aggie grumbled as she tried to dust dirt from her pants.

Arlen looked at her mildly offended.

“Regardless of the situation and your garb, my Lady, you are still a Lady.” He said it so seriously, but Aggie responded by snorting in a very unladylike manner.

“Hate to break it to you Arlen. I’m not really all that ladylike, and I don’t plan on behaving like one anymore.” Aggie stared directly at Arlen who looked at her quizzically.

“Since I have known you Lady Agnes; you’ve been all a lady should be. Strong, discreet, composed…”

“Arlen, if I got to be my actual self? I wouldn’t be any of those things. I pretended. I didn’t know what in the Fey fuck I was doing, and so I behaved very reservedly.”

After a quick scan outside, Aggie rose from their hiding place, and stepped into the light of the cloudy day. She had no idea what direction she was facing, and so she waited for Arlen to join her, but he seemed to be taking his time.

When Aggie turned around, she saw him staring at her looking quite pale. She wondered if she should’ve let him rest for longer, it wouldn’t do them any good if he fell ill.

“My Lady, what is it you want for your life? We have spoken only in an abstract manner before now, of freedom.” He said it slowly, as though trying not to offend her.

“Admittedly, we could not speak more specifically back at the keep, but I would like to know very much.” Arlen was approaching her now as he would a beast that would snap at any moment.

Aggie stared at him, and smiled.

Genuinely smiled for the first time, in what she guessed, was months.

“To swear like a commoner, to read like a noble, and to breed with whomever I damn well choose.” Arlen’s eyebrows shot up. He wondered if he had maybe gotten ahead of himself with excitement when he had first met Aggie. The woman might be more unhinged than he initially realized.

“Arlen do you know why I was, or am, so important to Lord O’Farrell?” She watched as he finally joined her side, and began to walk more leisurely in the direction he pointed them in.

“You came with a sizable dowry.”

“Wrong. It’s because I’m from one of the few pureblooded, noble, human families. He wants me because the old bastard is going to die without an heir for everything he built, and he believes, like most nobles, that any mixing of Beast Awares, or Fey blood with humans, makes for some unstable dangerous characters. They lack drive, or logical ambition, willpower, control, and more. They are solely guided by their animalistic needs, and are devoid of intelligence to be useful in higher positions.” Arlen opened his mouth as though to object.

“That is what he believes. Not what I believe.”

Arlen stepped alongside her, and stole a few cursory looks at his Lady. She looked awkward in the black cap he had shoved on her head, but there was a light in her eyes and face, that transformed her from the woman he had seen the previous night, standing in a pure white gown.

“You seem to know a lot for a woman who was supposed to be too dense to read.” Arlen said it so honestly, that Aggie couldn’t help but laugh.

“It’s true that I was an atrocious student.” Arlen hadn’t noticed, but he was smiling too at hearing her speak so candidly.

“I know about my value here, because I begged to not be wed to him, and demanded why I had to be. I had it explained to me with no shortage of detail.” She recounted the brief conversation with her parents grimly in her mind.

Nothing was said for a time as they trudged along, gradually picking up their pace as they went. It was almost an hour after she had spoken that Arlen tried again, slightly breathless from their expedient walking.

“You have yet to answer my earlier question more specifically.” Arlen offered his hand to help Aggie down off a rocky ledge. She took it, but jumped down easily enough. There seemed to be rougher terrain the way they were traveling.

“What is it you plan for yourself? Do you want to take on a trade? Own land? A farm?” Arlen tried again.

Aggie was silent as she thought about his question. She had never been asked, or been given the luxury of thinking about it. Yet, somehow, it came to her as easily as if it had been sitting at the front of her mind for years.

“To live in a valley in the mountains, surrounded by forest, and with the ocean nearby. A respectable village within half a day’s ride so that I might buy books and supplies, but spend the days exploring, and living in peace.”

Arlen said nothing, and instead looked at the wet leaves they plodded over in deep thought.

“I’m sorry Arlen. In seeking my place and purpose, I’ve taken you from yours. Is there any way I might release you…?” She offered quietly, feeling guilty to make him suffer the stress of running and hiding with her, and then having to endure a quiet unremarkable life.

Arlen stopped suddenly, and turned himself to face her with surprising speed.

“Your purpose is mine. That is that. My job is to serve you, and help you become everything you should be.”

“Who’s to say what I should be?” Aggie challenged, a small smile still on her lips.

“You are. You are the one to tell me where you need me, and how to serve you.”

“You aren’t a dog.” She waved her hand dismissively, trying to hide the awkwardness she was feeling.

“No I am not. I help you obtain dreams, and goals, that are beyond normal beings through my extensive knowledge in various fields, and unwavering loyalty.” He sounded genuinely offended at her earlier comments.

Aggie was about to apologize for upsetting him, when Arlen suddenly covered her mouth and stared further into the trees wide eyed; like a rabbit caught in the sights of a hunter.

“People. Hide.” He hissed the two words, and they scrambled over to a large fallen log that had a gap between the stump, the trunk, and the ground, where they both lay under on their bellies. Arlen grabbed leaves and quickly spread them over both of them.

Aggie hadn’t seen or heard anything, but after a few minutes of tense silence, all of a sudden distant voices could be heard.

“-Bloody washed away half of our homes!”

“I know! Then they don’t let any of us stay behind to be part of the rebuild. All for a stupid wedding that we would be useless being present for.”

“This April definitely seems worse than the others.”

The two voices were both male, and as they drew closer Aggie could hear the clink of armor. Knights.

“So do you think our Lord should go through the forest or around?”

“Are you blind? No carriage is getting through here, let’s head back and tell them to go around the wood instead of through it. They’ll still arrive on time.” Aggie glimpsed a flash of an orange tunic. What house had an orange tunic…?

The two soldiers turned and retreated back the way they came, but regardless, Arlen and Aggie remained hidden for close to 30 minutes after their voices had disappeared. The two regarded each other for a moment under their leaf camouflage, before each nodding.

They needed to run again.