The Locket (35 page)

The driver, not peeling his eyes away from Savannah’s wardrobe, inclined his head toward the passenger. “It appears to be a young girl, sir. Ran right in front of the carriage, she did.”

The man leaned out a bit to get a glimpse of the problem, but when he did, the entire carriage began to tip to one side. Quickly correcting himself, he leaned back and ducked his head behind the curtain. Seconds later he reemerged, this time opening the door and stepping out. Before he made his way onto the ground, the man accidently slipped on the single stair the carriage held and grabbed onto the wagon to regain his balance. “Whoops!”

The driver allowed his eyes to wander away from Savannah long enough to glance toward his passenger, making sure he was okay. “Sir, may I offer my assistance?”

“No, no. No need; I am perfectly fine. Ah, there we are,” he said, letting go of the wagon and standing to his full height. The man was a generous size, though he allowed his weight to work for him by coming off as powerful rather than obese. His stance was a regal one, leading Savannah to believe he must have been a king or prince or duke of some sort. He wore nothing but fine clothes, and not a stitch was out of place. His manner might have been clumsy, but his eyes were kind even if his expression was serious. “So, you are the cause of my delay, I see.”

Savannah, still a bit out of breath from her run, was too much in a hurry to care about personal space or proper etiquette. Sparing no time, she walked up beside him, ignoring the warning look of the driver. “I apologize, sir, but I am in a desperate hurry. I was wondering if you could tell me whether Prince Christian has already …” Even the thought of him being married made her stomach turn, let alone to say it. “If the wedding has already occurred.”

“Ha!” the man laughed, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes. “That disaster of a wedding?! Why do you want to know? And for goodness’ sake, girl, learn some manners, will you? Do you know who I am?”

Impatience bubbled in Savannah’s blood. Her temper was rising, that hot and impulsive Irish part of her that was always her weakness. “Listen, sir, I don’t have time for this! I don’t care who you are and I don’t care what rules of decorum I just broke. All I care about is whether I am too late for the wedding, and if you are not going to tell me, I will have to go find someone else who will.” Storming off with too much anger to so much as pause to see if he would respond, Savannah began to make her way toward the kingdom again.

“Hey, wait!” the man shouted from behind her. Again her impatience was hitting the surface, but this time, Savannah composed herself, knowing that was no way for her to get what she wanted. She turned around and waited as the man made his way behind the carriage to where she was. “I apologize for my brutish introduction, for I have had such an exhausting day! First, my prized dog ran loose outside and it took my servants two hours to catch her and by then she was so full of mud, I had to make them bathe her. Then my wife tripped on a loose stone on our floor for which I had to call the local doctor and take that time out of my busy day.” The man huffed an exaggerated breath, crossing his arms once more and holding his head high. “And now we were told that our invitation to the royal wedding has been declined and that we were never invited! How preposterous! No one disinvites the Duke and Duchess of Deltphine!”

Savannah dropped the hands that were moments ago glued to her hips and held her breath. Maybe this guy had some useful information after all. “Sir! Sir!” she called out over his obnoxious ranting. Finally catching his attention, her heart caught in her throat before she could get her next words out. “Did you say that you were just sent away from the wedding? As in the wedding is today?!”

“Yes,” the duke said indignantly, obviously still upset that he was sent away from a public event. “It is happening right now. My goodness, girl, are you ill?” He looked at her with pity, thinking she was either sick or insane. She couldn’t necessarily deny that she wasn’t either at the moment.

Not waiting any longer, Savannah had the information she needed and began sprinting as fast as her feet would carry her back toward the kingdom atop the hill. She rushed up and down steep ditches, crossed over endless fields, and sped past dozens of creatures and people alike, all of which whom gave her questioning looks.

At last she made it to the kingdom’s hill. With her heart pounding violently in her chest and her breath coming out in gasps, she didn’t want to waste any more time. Speeding up the meandering path, Savannah tried her best not to think about how long it would take her to reach the top by herself. She might have done her fair share of cardio during her workouts, but nothing could have prepared her for the steepness and length of this mountain.

With every new curve she turned, Savannah began to panic. What if she missed the wedding? What if he was kissing the bride right now and she was too late? Her legs were growing weary from the constant run. She didn’t know how much longer she could keep this up, especially knowing that she had already slowed her pace from exhaustion. Would keeping herself from slowing down for even a minute make a difference?

Her mind was reeling with questions and her body was swimming with nerves. It felt like stage fright by the way her heart thudded and her blood cooled, the anxiety flowing through her like water flows through a canal. Thankfully adrenaline and love were also making their way into her system, causing her to keep going and never want to stop. But was she quick enough to make it on time?

As if on cue with her thoughts, two figures suddenly came into her line of vision as she swung around another curve, one of a man, the other of a horse. The man was sitting against the side of the path, canteen in hand, taking a swig of his water. He seemed to be in about his late twenties, with a slight dark beard growing off his chin and filthy clothes. He looked no wealthier than a middle class citizen, and no poorer than a peasant.

It didn’t matter who he was, it just mattered that he had something she could use. “Excuse me, sir?!” Savannah called out, a mere few feet away. The man lifted his head, startled by her presence. “Sir, I need to borrow your horse—it’s an emergency!” Not waiting for a reply, Savannah hopped up onto the saddle, taking the reins in her hands.

“Now just a minute!” the man shouted, making his way to them. “What do you think you’re doing there, missy?”

Before he could reach them, Savannah had already kicked on the horse’s side and was off. “I’m sorry! I’ll return it!” she yelled out to him. “I just need to make it to the palace in time!”

The man stared after her, dumbfounded and aggravated. “In time for what?” he thought, scratching his head.

The wind whipped through her hair as if she had never gone so fast in her life. Storms of sandy brown dirt swept up from the horse’s mad running when Savannah kicked its side. Holding tighter to the mare’s thick black neck, she tried to imagine the things she would say to win the prince back … and the things she would say to the rest of the royal family to convince them that she was just as suitable for him as any of the other women in their kingdom.

At long last, the drawbridge came into full view, and before she knew it, Savannah was calling up to the man she recognized on duty in his watchtower, “Steve!”

Steve, caught a bit off guard as he expected everyone to be inside for the wedding already, got off his makeshift seat on a raised rock and peered over the wall. Placing a hand to shield his eyes from the afternoon sun, he made out the figure of a young girl on an impressive stallion. “Who be down there?”

“It’s me, Steve! It’s Savannah!” she called desperately out to him. She knew it would take a minute to go through the process of greeting him and lowering the drawbridge, though that didn’t stop her hand from fidgeting with the horse’s reins. He was checking her over to make sure she wasn’t an imposter, and that made her even more restless. She had gotten this far, and the palace was only minutes away! This process needed to go faster. “Do you remember me? I came with Lance a few days ago?”

“Yes, yes, I remember you. What’re ye doin’ here? Word is you left town.”

“Yes, I know,” she replied impatiently. It was all she could do to stop herself from kicking her legs in frustration and making the horse run into the moat. “Steve, please! I need you to open the gate, it’s an emergency!”

From below she saw the outline of his head shaking. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, young miss! There’s a wedding taking place … the prince is gettn’ himself married, y’know!”

Savannah groaned. “That is my emergency!” The patience in her body was growing thin. Why couldn’t he just let her in? He knew she wasn’t going to hurt anyone.

Again, he shook his head. “I’m sorry, Ms. Morgan, but I can’t let you in!” he apologized, shifting the gun on his shoulder.

“Can’t you please just open it?” she begged edgily. “If the royal guards catch me, I’ll just tell them that I … hypnotized you or something! Please, I beg of you, let me in!” This was getting ridiculous, and she was a few seconds away from swimming through the moat and climbing up the tower.

This time, he smiled, considering that she had already hypnotized him for wanting to do what he could to help her. “Well, the king will have me neck for this, but …” With that, he began twisting the rope to open the gate. To his surprise, however, the gate was only about halfway open by the time he saw the clever black beast back up a few paces, race toward the bridge, and jump across to the inside of town.

Thanking God that she survived the landing all in one piece, Savannah regained her balance and turned them around. “Thanks, Steve!” she shouted to him. “I really owe you one!” He waved to her in response, but before she could start off, a thought occurred to her. “Steve!” Shockingly, he heard her over the loud creak of the drawbridge being pulled back up. Swiveling around, he gave her his full attention. “Where is the wedding?” All this time she just assumed it was taking place at the castle. It never occurred to her until now that it would be more likely to occur at a church somewhere in town.

He shifted his gun one last time, wondering if he had made the right decision in letting such a desperate maiden loose on the kingdom. Shaking the thought off as he remembered her mother fondly, he decided that such warm, considerate people as her parents couldn’t possibly have conceived a mad daughter. “Aye, it is at the church just around the corner!”

Smiling inside because it was so close, she yelled a quick “thank you,” as Steve finished pulling up the bridge.

***

The priest has already begun the vows, Christian thought with a twinge in his stomach. The ceremony had played out so much slower than he had expected. Then again, he thought it would. If he was going to suffer through this day, he wanted it to be as quick and painless as possible, preferably with his brain going on autopilot. He knew that he could never truly love or cherish the woman standing next to him. If his kingdom weren’t on the line, he would have found the nearest exit when everyone thought he was getting dressed in his bedchambers. Yet the fact remained that his kingdom was on the line and this marriage did have to happen.

He wasn’t a child any longer; he knew that he had responsibilities to attend to and jobs to fulfill. Did that stop him from dreading every moment of it? No, it didn’t. Did that stop him from panicking inside and wishing he could run out of those heavy oak doors and into the forest? Not at all.

Finally, it was time for the “I do’s.” Every nerve in his body was begging for him to shout “I don’t” at the top of his lungs, but that would only lead to the kingdom’s fate being put into the hands of Rupert. After all, disagreeing to the responsibility of marriage would show cowardice and the disagreement of the responsibility of the kingdom—or so his father said.

Taking a deep breath, Christian savored the last few seconds of his freedom as the priest looked at him in anticipation to say his part. Here it goes, he thought with a shudder. “I do,” he found himself saying. It was as if the words had come out all on their own. There was no feeling behind them, no meaning to them … they were just words.

Fear prickled up his spine when he brought his eyes to Princess Adelaide’s. Her part was next and he knew she was more than willing to say the words that made him cringe.

It was then that the small miracle happened. Just as Adelaide was opening her mouth, the doors to the church creaked obnoxiously open. “Stop!” A voice bellowed from the doorway. At this point, it didn’t matter who it was. Christian was just grateful that his prison sentence was postponed, and if he were lucky, avoided.

Wanting to get a good look at his savior, he was disappointed to see that the sun behind the person did not allow for such an action. The light outlined the figure enough for him to tell that it was a woman by the soft curves of her body and long hair. The woman stood in the entranceway for a moment and then began to make her way down the aisle in a careless stride. The doors behind her, already closing for lack of a pair of hands to hold them open, slowly started to shadow the light outside. Her features were finally coming into view; her long chestnut hair, her attractive slender figure, her unusual dress. And when her vivid hazel eyes met his, his heart skipped a beat. His Savannah had come back to him.