Chapter 34: Chapter 34

34 Chapter 34 : Protect our baby sister

Queen Margret Burchard handed two gold coins to the horseman, “make sure you reach Meria without them knowing who you are and I’ll have two more coins waiting for you when you get back.”

“Understood your grace.” The man responded with a nod

The queen then turned to Julia and placed her hands on the green eyed woman’s shoulders, “are you sure about this?”

“I am your grace,” Julia responded with much determination, “I love Adam and I would do anything to get him out of harms way. I will infiltrate the Merian palace disguised as a maid, kill the little witch and return with the prince. Then after we can proceed with the plans of attacking that treacherous kingdom.”

Queen Margret smiled sweetly at the girl, Julia really did love her son with all her heart. The queen had always wondered why Adam never seemed interested in Julia Boleyn, she was very beautiful. She had long dark wavy hair, soft fair skin and beautiful green eyes. Even though the woman was a little smaller in size, she still outshined her taller counterparts by a landslide.

But now Margret knew that her son was under a spell, cast by that little redheaded witch. How long had she had a hold on her poor son? Did she do it through those dreams he’d been having? The queen could only guess, but now they would put an end to it, after the witch was killed and Meria defeated, they could all go back to their normal and happy lives.

“Thank you Julia,” the queen spoke, “I owe you so much.”

Julia curtsied and hopped into the carriage.

“Farewell Julia, and bring Adam home.”

.....

Julia waved at the queen as the carriage pulled away from the royal palace, her heart warmed up at the site of the beautiful woman wishing her luck. Ah yes, soon that would be her mother in law, and later on, the grandmother to her and Adam’s children, oh she couldn’t wait.

*

Louis Vandros was dusting his boots when William sat down next to him with two cups of ale in his hand. “Care to join me?” William asked the knight.

“Don’t worry I didn’t spit in it or anything,” he added on upon seeing Louis’ hesitation.

The knight accepted the cup and sat down on the grass next to William, “one hell of a long day today huh?” Louis spoke as he sipped his ale leisurely.

“Aye,” William responded, “training the new recruits is harder than I thought it would be. Were we this annoying when we first came?”

Louis chuckled, taking another gulp of his drink, “no, we were worse.”

A moment of silence settled between the two men before William turned to face Louis, a serious expression on his face, “enjoying the drink my friend?”

Louis downed the last of the beverage and placed the cup on the ground. “I am, I really needed that ol’ chap, thank you.”

William smirked at the man, “it’s poisoned you know.”

Louis furrowed his brows as his brain registered what William had just said “If that’s a joke William I’m not finding it funny.”

“Suit yourself,” William responded, a sinister smile painting his face, “let’s see if you’ll have that same attitude in the next thirty minutes, wolfsbane, a very potent poison. Just one drop is enough to kill a horse, and you just downed a whole cup.”

Louis’ eyes sunk deeper into their sockets as realization set in, “b- but why? Why would you do this?”

“Give me the information I need and I’ll give you the antidote.” William flushed a small vial containing a clear liquid, “nothing personal my friend.”

“What do you want?!” Louis spoke in a panic, the man was now sweating profusely, “I don’t know anything, I’m just a knight from Meria just like you!”

“Why did prince Nathan ask you to pose as price Adam?” William spoke sternly.

Louis swallowed, the prince had made him promise not to say a word of the events of that day to anyone, and he’d given his word.

“Tick tock Louis you don’t have much time,” William spoke while waving the little vial in front of him.

“Okay okay!” Louis relented, no amount of loyalty was worth dying for, “prince Nathan didn’t give me much details, all he told me was that lady Ella and the prince could not meet under any circumstances. But she kept asking to meet with prince Adam, so he asked me to pause as him.”

“Why couldn’t they meet?” William interrogated Louis further, “and why did my sister want to meet with the prince?”

Louis looked at the vial in William’s hand, his temperature rising by the minute, “I don’t know, but she kept referring to the prince as Jillian,” Louis explained, “that’s all I know I swear it!”

Jillian? Wasn’t that the name Ella kept mentioning some years ago, and also recently when she said Nathan couldn’t leave her the way Jillian had left her? So what was the connection between this Jillian fellow and prince Adam? Could Adam be Jillian, and somehow he and Ella had had a relationship of some sort before Nathaniel came into the picture? It was all so confusing, he had to confirm it with his sister first, something wasn’t right. Nathan was definitely up to something and William had a bad feeling about it.

“I see, alright thank you for the help Louis.” William stood up and started walking towards his horse.

“Wait!” Louis called out desperately, “what about the antidote?!”

“Oh yeah, the drink was never poisoned,” William responded as got onto his horse, “the only out of the ordinary thing that was in your cup was my spit.”

*

“Darling you’re home.”

Klaryssa walked to William and gave him a hug and soft kiss on the lips, “a letter from Ella came for you while you were out.”

The woman handed a small piece of parchment to William, when the man read the contents of the letter his face went white. He walked slowly as he reread the letter and settled down on the chair.

“No, this can’t be...” William mattered to himself.

Klaryssa became worried and rushed to William’s side, “what’s wrong? What does the letter say?”

“It’s Ella,” William responded in a shaky voice

“What about Ella? Is she sick?” The look on William’s face was making Klaryssa very anxious. She hoped nothing bad had happened to her fiancé’s little sister, she knew how much William adored her, he’d be absolutely devastated if anything happened to Ella.

“She’s getting married,” William continued, “to Nathan.”

Klaryssa’s shoulders slumped down in disappointment, seriously? Is that why he was acting up like that? The woman was afraid that there had been a death or something.

“William I know you’re overprotective of your sister but she’s a grown woman,” Klaryssa explained in an attempt to cox the man, “she’s free to marry whoever she wants, whenever she wants it.”

William stood up and walked passed Klaryssa without saying a word, he went to his desk and took out a bunch of papers and a pen.

“I need to inform my brothers about what’s going on before it’s too late,” William spoke as he scribbled on the papers.

“William are you serious?”

Klaryssa was absolutely dumbfounded, she’d seen overprotective brothers before but this was ridiculous. She actually now felt sorry for Ella, being the only female with overbearing big brothers who probably scared away any suitor who came her way.

The woman walked to her fiancé and gripped his shoulder tightly, “William don’t you think you’re overreacting? If Ella and Nathan are in love, why not let them be together?”

William put down his pen and rose from his seat, he gently placed his hands on the beautiful woman’s shoulders and looked her sternly in the eye, “Klaryssa, Nathan is lying to my sister.” He spoke, “I interrogated Louis today and he told me that the prince hired him to pretend to be prince Adam, so he could fool Ella when she wanted to meet with him.”

Klaryssa’s eyes went round, “but why?..”

“I don’t know,” William added on, “and now I hear the prince has left Gavaria in peruse of my sister. I have a feeling Nathan is hiding something big from Ella, and if she marries him, I’m afraid she’ll regret it later. I can’t let that happen Lyssa.”

All this information was so much for the woman to process, but what she did get out of William’s explanation was that Nathan was lying and hiding things from Ella, and no matter what the explanation, a relationship based on lies and deceit was not one anyone should go into blindly.

“What are you going to do?” Klaryssa asked William

“I’ll ride for Meria, I need to speak to Ella before the wedding,” William explained. The man sat down on the desk and continued scribbling away on the papers, “I know Nathan will try to stop me somehow, so I’ll need backup.”

“Backup? What backup?” Klaryssa was getting nervous, why was William speaking like he was going to war.

“I’ll need backup from my brothers,” William spoke as he signed the last letter, “we need to protect our baby sister.”