Chapter Twenty- Six: The Surprise Visit
“Ryan? Or would I say to Lord Ryan, “What are you doing here?” I asked as soon as I opened the door.
“Ryan would just be fine. And that is not a way to greet a friend.”
“A friend? I do not think we are friends. The last I checked you hated me and the feeling was and is still mutual. I presume you have some very important duties to attend to?”
“Oh yes I do and that includes you.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“What are you doing at the moment?”
“Why? What’s wrong? Have I been assigned for another tedious duty? Tell me, what is it? Maybe I can put on my work dress. Is it at the rice farm or the winery this time? Has Lady Ana finally let me work in the house?”
“Hey slow down. It’s not work. I just want to steal you for a while.”
He stared at my dress, it was like a colour wheel of paint.
“Steal me like an object I presume. What do you need?”
“Every week I go out for a stroll, a long one, so I go with my carriage. I would like you to come with me. It would be intriguing, you can finally get to see the rest of the town.”
“I cannot leave the house, what do I tell Lady Ana when she comes for the head count? I cannot risk making her anymore furious, at least she has not been entirely bad to me.”
“You can say, you went on a trip with the Lord.” He said and we both chuckled.
“Okay, let me make this clear. It is the time of the week when I would go out for a stroll to different parts of the town.”
“And why do you want to take me with you?”
“You know when I was all alone in that study room all through the night I had developed a troubled mind. I dipped the quail into the ink and wrote down my thoughts and wonders. I knew I was missing something. You were not beside that bed chained to the bunk.”
“I am glad I am not.”
“I don’t want you to be. It had been three days since I saw you, such intelligence that oozed around you. I wanted to see you again, to be able to share your knowledge in the arts beyond just the basics. I want to take you on this stroll with me because I want to be able to talk to you again. Aside from that you are such a wonderful company. Are you in? I do not want to be commanding but please say yes. It’s just one stroll.”
Ryan had suddenly grown war toes beside me. His gaze towards me had suddenly changed and he was wiser with his words. Being chained to that bunk had really caused a stir in us.
“Okay, fine, just one stroll. I sure hope Lady Ana will understand.”
We walked to the carriage. Joy thrived in me that amongst all things he had chosen to take this special outing with me. I looked at him to find him staring back but he did not look away. Instead, I hid my eyes, shying away from his stare.
“You do look like a curious one. You can ask whatever is bothering you.”
“I am not quite bothered. However…”
“Oh, there is the ‘however’, I was waiting for that. Go on.”
“How did you do it?”
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“Being the Alpha King, you look quite young for that. Perhaps I am missing something.”
“Well, my father always says, a man is what he wants to be. I became the Alpha King sixteen years after what happened.”
“Oh yeah that, I feel like I should be apologising everyday to you for what my parents did to you.”
“Having you around, seeing you wail in pain made me feel at ease at some point but then, I realised a lot of things when I saw you lying by the bed that night. But everything that happened wasn’t entirely your parents fault.”
“What do you mean?”
“My parents had made bad decisions in the past which they knew would lead to their deaths, it was only a matter of time. My father knew this and so he needed a successor to keep the pack, the lands and the estate. I only became the alpha king because I fought and conquered so many wars at such an age. The anger and rage that boiled in me only fuelled my strength.”
“I see.” I looked away from the carriage to the roads.
“So what about you? What were your parents doing in my territory when my men caught you?”
“It’s a really long story.”
“Well, I won’t say we have all day, but I would say that we have all evening.”
“I left my mate, Raymond, when I caught him in bed with my best friend.”
“Oh the betrayed mate,” he chuckled.
“Sounds quite funny now but it wasn’t so funny back then.”
“I’m really sorry about that, so what happened after that.”
“Turned out that he never loved me and only used me to get the pack Alpha’s position.”
“Such treachery, you could have had his head.”
“He occupies such a powerful position, how would I do that?”
“Yeah, right.”
“He took everything away from me, including the house my parents had gifted me. After the meeting with the werewolf council. He got furious and still seeing us as a threat, set us up. We were accused of killing a pack member and so we were banished from our pack and became wandering omegas in the woods until we found ourselves in your world. And surprisingly, your world is quite backwards.”
“I’m so sorry that you had to go through all of that. Now it explains the child, is he right?”
“Yes, but he does not know that. I found out weeks after I had left the pack.”
“And speaking of my world, I love to hear the gallops from the hoof of the horses, the smell of the dry hair and watch the workers till the soul of my farm land. I know it’s just a matter of time before I would get accustomed to the already made world out there. This is my little heaven.”
I watched him speak, his lips stuttering and his eyes flickered as he used certain words. I stared at her smiling at the dry sand and as the carriage trotted on, I saw an undefined hope, something so pure that I could not explain in a thousand years.
“You are so brave, you know.”
“Brave huh?”
“You have such courage I don’t think I would have in a long while.”
“Why do you say so?”
“You left your home to be in a strange land, such bravery I did not know if I possessed. I can’t even face the growing world and accept the fact that times are changing.”
“This is who you are and you love it. Why on earth do you need to change that?”
“Henry, can you drive the carriage towards that lath please,” he said to the driver.
“Sire?”
“You heard me the first time.”
“Alright, sire.” He moved closer to a new route.
“What do you fancy?”
“I have never been asked that question before.”
He beamed, the ray from the carriage window rested on his eyes, and for the first time they were peaceful and delicate. He had asked a question, something I did not think I would be asked at least for a longer while.
“I want to be a writer, write some of the famous books and poems as well. Do you write?”
“Not exactly but I read sometimes, when I get to be in fathers study room. It is a great experience, learning new words and knowing about the past as well.”
“Henry, can you stop the carriage please?” The carriage came to a complete halt.
“Why are we stopping?” I asked.
“We walk from here, come let me show you something.”