They Sent a Knight to Fetch Me, I Kidnapped Him First novel · Chapter 3 of 24
Chapter 3: A Rescue for One
Ilysanne extracts Caedrin from a staged captor scene; Seravelle learns her sister has packed a traveling bag.
Ilysanne offered the knight her spare horse before she greeted her sister.
Seravelle stepped in front of the animal's reins.
"I am standing here," she pointed out.
"Yes," Ilysanne replied, "and he has been very patient."
Caedrin bowed with his usual inconvenient composure.
"Your sister gave up abducting me after lunch," he told her.
Ilysanne looked almost disappointed by his competence.
She unstrapped a second cloak from the spare saddle.
"Then you will not need a disguise," she said.
Seravelle looked at the cloak's plain brown hood.
It was exactly the practical thing she had forgotten.
"You brought him clothing?" she asked her sister.
"You brought him a banner," Ilysanne replied.
The innkeeper had hung that banner over the courtyard rail.
Two customers were trying to discover which princess was visiting.
They kept bowing at Ilysanne, who wore no royal jewels.
Seravelle drew herself up beside the enormous embroidered crest.
The men asked her whether she could fetch their ale.
Caedrin took the banner down before she could answer.
"Your captivity is attracting business," he told her.
Ilysanne gave the knight a short approving nod.
Then she studied his horse with sudden concern.
"Has that girth been checked?" she asked.
"Twice," Caedrin said.
"Then I shall release your spare mount."
She untied the horse she had brought for him.
The animal immediately put its nose inside Seravelle's open bag.
It ate the corner of the velvet case belonging to her dagger.
Ilysanne retrieved the case and handed it to her sister.
"There," she said to the horse.
"You are out of danger."
Caedrin lowered his face toward his own horse's mane.
His shoulders moved once before he looked up again.
Seravelle preferred not to reward that observation.
"You may tell Mother I am safe," she said.
Ilysanne folded the spare cloak over her arm.
"She knows you are safe," she replied.
"She wanted your answer about tomorrow's family dinner."
Seravelle had expected soldiers, reproaches, or a locked carriage.
A question about dinner gave her nothing to resist.
"Is Othriel coming?" she asked.
"He invited himself," Ilysanne said.
"Mother removed his place."
Seravelle sat down on the mounting stool before her knees could disagree.
She had imagined a wedding being prepared behind her.
Instead, her mother had been moving a chair.
"She could have said that," Seravelle muttered.
"You could have stayed long enough to hear her."
Ilysanne's voice had lost its familiar patient softness.
Seravelle looked up, ready to defend her departure.
Her sister was rubbing a sore place beneath her thumb.
The reins had reddened skin usually protected by driving gloves.
"You came straight after me," Seravelle said.
"I came for my brown traveling cloak," Ilysanne replied.
She held it up between them, folded and ready.
"I thought you might need it," she added more quietly.
Seravelle reached for the edge, then stopped herself.
"Will you need it tonight?" she asked.
Her sister glanced at the bag behind her saddle.
"Perhaps," Ilysanne said.
Caedrin turned away to speak to the stable boy.
He gave the sisters privacy without pretending to leave them alone.
Seravelle noticed that kindness and had no joke for it.
"Keep it," she told Ilysanne.
"I shall buy something ordinary."
Ilysanne studied her face before she nodded.
A gust of wind lifted Seravelle's hat from the stool.
It rolled toward a puddle beneath the courtyard gate.
Ilysanne caught it with the toe of her boot.
She scooped it up and passed it to Caedrin.
"My third rescue," she said.
"This one had the least judgment."
Seravelle took her hat back from his careful hands.
"I should like to walk into town," she announced.
Her sister looked down at the crest on her riding bag.
Caedrin looked at the crest on her horse's saddlecloth.
The stable boy returned carrying a second royal mounting stool.
Seravelle reached for her purse with absolute determination.
"First," she said, "I am buying the brownest dress available."
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