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I heaved a sigh of relief as I filled out the last page on the very long form.

Stephanie and Olivia stifled chuckles at my eagerness to leave. It had been a long day at the palace. I was in the very private section of the royal family’s private hospital.

This week, the king had announced that I would have to complete some medical exams. Apparently the royal family had to do them, and suddenly I wasn’t an exception to that rule anymore.

So I’d spent the day being poked and prodded, measured and weighed, injected and x-rayed, swabbed and studied. The doctors bustled around all day taking all kinds of samples from me.

It was very overwhelming. Stephanie was assigned as my personal doctor and Olivia was her assistant. They tried their best to make me feel comfortable with everything going on around me.

I wanted to be a doctor, and as embarrassing as it was to admit, I was afraid of needles. I could handle them as long as they weren’t being used on me.

They ran full DNA tests, and I even had to do a pregnancy test. By the end of the morning, it felt as if every cell of my body had been probed and analyzed. They could probably clone me now if they wanted to.

Stephanie asked me a few more questions after that and then I was free to go.

“Freedom,” I breathed as the chauffeur dropped me of at the palace.

Well, it wasn’t really what I’d call freedom, but it was a step closer to getting home and I’d be able to see Ashton. I smiled at the thought.

Sure enough, Ashton was there to greet me when I arrived. All my exhaustion melted away as he came over to me.

“Hey, you,” I smiled.

“How was your morning?”

“About as fun as a medical exam can get. Do you guys really have to do all of that?”

He chuckled and led me away from the palace as we talked.

“I got used to it. We have to do it every three months.”

“Whaaat?” I groaned. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”

“I wish. It used to be twice a year, but after they identified Cav’s condition the king’s been more extreme with the testing.”

“I see.”

He stopped walking as we came to a wide, open field. It spread out for acres, farther than I could see.

“I’ll show you something cool,” he said, motioning for me to follow him.

We came up to a large building that read, ‘The Royal Stables'.

He flashed me a grin and we went inside. It took a lot of turns and walking before we managed to even get close to where the horses were. They were kept under tight security, as was expected.

“Do you still want to ride a horse?” he queried as we walked through aisles of horses.

“When did I ever say wanted to?” I asked, jumping into him when one of the horses sneezed suddenly.

“A long time ago,” he chuckled. He stopped at the gate of a beautiful, large white horse. “This is Midnight.”

Midnight stared at me defiantly as if expecting an introduction.

“Hi Midnight, I’m Elizabeth,” I whispered.

“You can touch her,” Ashton said, reaching over to rub Midnight’s nose and forehead. She nuzzled into his hand.

“I’m not so sure about that,” I quaked.

I didn’t know much about horses, but I knew that rubbing one the wrong way could cost fingers.

“Here,” Ashton said, taking my hand. “Let her get familiar with your scent first. See the way her ears are sticking up and pointed? That’s a good sign. She’s interested in you. Don’t worry, I’m right here. She won’t bite.”

I slowly placed my hand near Midnight’s nose. She leaned down and sniffed my hand. It took all my willpower not to pull my hand away as her hot breath fanned my palm. Ever so lightly, she touched my palm with her nose.

I grinned at Ashton, who smiled back and reached for two carrots. He fed one to Midnight and handed me the other one. I copied his movements and Midnight carefully took the carrot from my hand.

“Good girl,” Ashton praised her, scratching her neck.

“So you’re a horse whisperer too?” I asked as he greeted another brown horse nearby.

“It takes practice,” he said, offering that horse an apple. “I used to come here a lot when I was younger.”

We spent some time getting me and Midnight used to each other. I was still very much scared of going too close to her, but Ashton was an expert at handling her. She seemed to trust him completely.

After a week of visiting the stables, Midnight and I had more or less come to some mutual agreement. I was allowed to pet her and in return, she would get treats. Ashton had been teaching me a lot about horses too.

He'd introduced me to his horse, a pure bred, brown Andalusian horse named Victor. Victor was a lot moodier than Midnight and only seemed to respond well to Ashton. Even the stable hands admitted to having a difficult time with him.

“Let’s have you try riding her now,” Ashton suggested on Thursday after un-mounting Victor.

“Uh...” I bit my nails. Midnight was still a pretty intimidating creature to me.

His eyes twinkled with mischief and I knew something was up. He brandished a key from his pocket and waved it in front of my face.

“Is that…?”

“Yep,” he grinned, unlocking Midnight’s stall.

“Where did you even get the key from?”

“I have my ways. Don’t freak out.”

“It’s kind of hard not to,” I murmured, instinctively taking a step back as he led Midnight out. She felt a lot more intimidating without the gate. “She’s taller than I am.”

“So am I,” he countered.

I rolled my eyes at his dull point. “But you don’t weigh a thousand pounds, now do you?”

“Relax,” he grinned, brushing a hand down her neck. “She is your horse after all.”

“My horse?” I asked, looking over at him in shock.

“Yeah.”

“I have a horse?” I repeated, still not understanding when or how I ended up becoming Midnight’s owner.

“Well, technically she’s the daughter of the horse that was supposed to be yours. It’s a long story,” he mumbled, turning his attention back to Midnight. “Anyways, she’s been expecting you.”

Midnight snorted and seemed to size me up with her eyes. She was probably wondering how she ended up being owned by someone so ignorant of horses like me.

Ashton saddled her while explaining everything he was doing to me. I’d found out from Madame Lucille that I was supposed to learn horseback riding a few months from now, but it looked like I’d get a head start since Ashton was such a good teacher.

He checked the girth to ensure that it was secure and tight. He brought the reins over her head and onto her neck, then helped me into the saddle, which took a good couple of minutes.

After finally managing to swing my leg over the other side of Midnight, I was already tired but somewhat excited.

Midnight moved a bit and that kind of scared me, but it was reassuring knowing that Ashton was right by my side. He taught me how to sit in the canter position and demonstrated on Victor.

Midnight seemed eager to finally go for a run and in a few minutes, we were cantering along the fields. It was exhilarating feeling the wind rustle through my hair while Midnight explored the fields. Ashton and Victor were right beside us every step of the way.

“Look at you go,” the wind carried Ashton’s laugh to me and I grinned back.

We stopped a little distance from the stables and Ashton un-mounted his steed to come over to us. Midnight whinnied in what seemed like happiness and I leaned forward to brush her mane. She was such a good girl. A second later, I was regretting my choice.

Midnight took that as her golden opportunity and dashed off. I managed to get a good grip of the reigns before my mind even processed what was happening.

“AAAHHHHH!” I screamed as she broke off into a full gallop to freedom, taking me with her.

“Sh*t!” Ashton hissed behind us as Midnight took off from beside Victor.

I didn’t even have the strength to look behind me to see where Ashton was. Trees and grass were nothing but green and brown blurs on either side of me. I tried to keep my eyes open, but the wind stung and was whipping my hair all over my face.

“Midnight, slow down!” I yelled, but she refused to yield.

It felt like minutes that we were like that and I was starting to feel like the main character in one of those Western movies my grandpa liked to watch. There was nothing fun about this now. My heart felt like it was going to be pounded into liquid by the time Ashton managed to catch up to us.

After a while, Midnight slowed to a halt. I managed to crack an eye open and made out Ashton’s figure. He quickly jumped down from Victor and came over to me.

“It’s okay, princess. I’ve got you.”

I let out a shaky breath and tried to pry my fingers free of the reins, but I was shaking too much to even do that. Ashton took control and lifted me down from off Midnight. My legs felt like jelly while Midnight trotted in place impatiently.

“That was wild,” I whispered, doubling over and resting my hands on my knees. The fact that I’d had lunch a few minutes ago didn’t make it any better either.

“It was,” he murmured, rubbing my back. “I was so worried.”

We stayed like that for a minute until the sky became overcast. Great. Now it was probably going to rain.

“We should head back,” he suggested and I couldn’t help the look of dismay that overshadowed my countenance.

“I’d rather walk back. I think I’ve had enough of horseback riding for today.”

“Don’t tell me you’re scared of Midnight,” he teased and I glared at him.

“Okay, okay. I get it. You can ride with me.”

“Huh?”

“We can ride double on Victor while I pony Midnight back.”

I glanced at Victor, who seemed even more unreliable than Midnight and weighed my options. How long would it take me to walk back to the stables?

“Won’t that affect Victor?” I asked.

“It’s a short ride, so he’ll be okay.”

I ended up riding Victor with Ashton. He expertly maneuvered Victor while leading Midnight by the reins. He sat behind me and that helped me to relax considerably.

I leaned into him, relishing his warmth as a chilly breeze blew. I could feel his muscles tensing beneath his shirt. A rosy hue painted my cheeks as I tried to shake the image out of my head.

“Are you feeling any better?” he asked. His voice was a hot whisper in my ear and I shivered at the sound.

“Mhmm,” I smiled, resting my head against his chest.

Maybe Midnight running off with me wasn’t such a bad thing after all. I giggled at the thought and he glanced down at me.

“Are you sure?”

“I’ve never been better.”

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