They Sent a Knight to Fetch Me, I Kidnapped Him First novel · Chapter 2 of 24
Chapter 2: An Unwilling Accomplice
Caedrin declines ropes and gives her a choice of public paths; she asks him to stay for one day voluntarily.
Caedrin stopped her magnificent escape at the first road sign.
He pointed toward the town on their left.
"An inn, a bridge, and somewhere to buy bread," he said.
Then he pointed toward the forest on their right.
"Mud," he added.
Seravelle looked at the two roads with considerable disappointment.
"There must be a third route," she told him.
"Back to the palace," he said.
She chose the inn without allowing him the satisfaction of agreement.
Her mare took the easier road with more enthusiasm.
They reached a stone mounting block beside a drinking trough.
Seravelle dismounted onto it and spread out her escape equipment.
Caedrin held both horses while she unfastened her riding bag.
First she produced a silver ceremonial dagger with a pearl handle, still in its velvet case.
He watched her attempt to cut a piece of cheese.
The blade folded sideways against the rind.
"It only opens letters," he said.
"Important letters," she corrected him.
He lent her his ordinary knife without further comment.
Her second item was a compass from the royal display cabinet.
She turned it toward the forest and frowned.
Its needle remained pointed firmly at the pearl handle.
Caedrin lifted the dagger away from the compass.
The needle swung toward his sword instead.
"It is very loyal to metal," he observed.
She shut the compass and put it beneath the cheese.
"The third item is entirely practical," she assured him.
She unfolded a silk banner bearing her own royal crest.
It covered the mounting block, the trough, and one startled pigeon.
Caedrin lifted a corner before it reached the water.
"A discreet departure," he said.
"People will know whom to rescue," she told him.
"I thought you were the abductor."
She folded the banner without answering that objection.
A passing carter glanced at the royal crest, then at her dagger.
He guided his donkey around them at a considerable distance.
Caedrin laid his sandwiches on a clean cloth between them.
There were two, both made with dark bread.
He offered her the larger one and waited.
Seravelle accepted it with more care than the offering required.
She had left breakfast hungry rather than listen to Othriel.
Nobody at the table had noticed her untouched plate.
"Thank you," she said.
Caedrin sat on the lower step of the mounting block.
"You are welcome," he told her.
For a little while, they ate without an audience.
Then Seravelle took the crimson ribbon from her belt.
"We should establish the terms of your captivity," she said.
He finished swallowing before he looked up at her.
"I decline captivity," he replied.
She had expected a joke or a courteous objection.
His face offered neither, and she lowered the ribbon.
"I was not going to hurt you," she said.
"I know," he told her.
"I still decline."
A cart rattled past, carrying three empty chicken cages.
Seravelle watched it until the driver disappeared around the bend.
Her spectacular departure had become two people beside a trough.
One had every right to leave the other.
"Could you remain with me until this evening?" she asked.
Caedrin brushed a breadcrumb from his glove.
"As your escort," he said, "yes."
She tied the ribbon around her folded banner instead.
He saw her do it and stood to fetch the horses.
At the inn, a stable boy brought a little wooden stool.
"For His Highness," the boy said, offering it to Caedrin.
The knight looked down at his own long legs.
"I have not been promoted," he said.
"The gentleman in white ordered one at every stop."
Seravelle recognized Othriel's generous arrangements with a sinking feeling.
Even his imaginary rescue had acquired a royal advance party.
"We will not need it," she told the boy.
The boy set the stool by the inn door anyway.
"He paid for the whole day," he explained.
Before Seravelle could answer, a woman rode into the yard.
Ilysanne had a traveling bag strapped behind her saddle.
She looked at the ribbon, the knight, and the waiting stool.
"Excellent," her sister said to Caedrin.
"I came to rescue you."
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