The Princess and Her Rogue

by Sheritta Bitikofer

  So, Kiara followed behind Nate and Ashley for the rest of the afternoon, having the little girl do most of the picking for her. It certainly did make the process of harvesting run smoother, quicker and more enjoyable.

  The Forger family just seemed so peaceful, so happy. It reminded Kiara of her family back in Aleph, back when everyone got along and helped each other out. But, now, everyone was too grown up and obsessed with their own agendas to care about anyone else in the castle. It made Kiara wish she didn’t have to go back home. Life on a farm may have been hard, but it was better than what she had back home.

  After the harvesting was over for the day, Mr. Forger and Nate stored the crops in the barn for the night and planned to take a trip to the nearest town the following day. Kiara and Nate were welcome to come along and it was there that they all would say their goodbyes to the family.

  For the rest of the evening afterwards, Kiara and the women were set to doing their needle and spinning work. All the while, she thought about Nate and what he must have been thinking while doing all that blacksmithing. She wondered if he did have feelings for her or if it was just her girlish, romantic delusions.

  “So, I guess you and Nathan have spent a lot of time together on this journey,” Leanne said rather softly, looking down at her sewing project of patching up one of the boy’s pants pockets. She seemed sad, almost forlorn.

  “Well, it’s been about a week, I think. Or almost. So, yeah, I guess we have spent a lot of time together. But, I bet you’ve spent a lot more time with him before I came along.” Kiara didn’t like to see anyone sad, even if they had a right to be. She wanted to make Leanne feel better, but all the young woman did was look up to Kiara with a shrug of her shoulders.

  “Not really. He never liked playing with me when we were little. To tell you the truth, he hated being around us, but he never really had a choice. Miranda was too little to play with at the time and there was no way I was going to roll around in the mud with him like he wanted. He had to stick around as long as our fathers were working together.”

  Kiara set down her sewing in her lap and clenched her jaws together anxiously. “You knew Nate’s father?” she asked.

  “Of course. His father was a blacksmith, just like mine. They had their own business together in Aleph for many years. A lot of times, Nathan would sleep over at our house while our fathers were working on a big project. Back in those times our family was a lot more financially stable. Most of our living comes from our farming and ranching now, but my father still works with metal on the side to bring in a little extra every now and again. But, my father is getting older and isn’t able to work as much as he used to. Nathan coming along around was perfect because my father can deliver this project early and get paid more.”

  Leanne didn’t stop sticking her needle in and out of the cloth while she talked, but Kiara couldn’t concentrate anymore. As she watched Nate work outside with Mr. Forger, she couldn’t help but think about what Leanne just told her.

  “So… Nate and his father lived in Aleph?” Kiara asked.

  “Yes. Both Nathan and his father were born there in Aleph. Didn’t he tell you that?” Leanne answered curiously, glancing up from her work momentarily.

  “Yeah, but he told me that he didn’t stay there for very long. I figured he moved when he was a infant or something along those lines.” Kiara became even more puzzled.

  “No, no. He lived in Aleph until he was maybe eight years old. Then, he and his father were exiled to Deceiver’s territory. He ran away from home half a year later and nobody knew where he went. He’s shown up here a few times, but this is the first we’ve seen him in maybe four years.”

  Leanne seemed so calm about telling these personal details of Nate’s childhood, but Kiara was flabbergasted.

  “Exiled? What do you mean by exiled? He told me that him and his father simply moved.” Kiara tried to not raise her voice too loudly, knowing that Miranda and Mrs. Forger were having their own conversation not too far away.

  “Yeah, they were exiled, forced to move out of Malcolm’s territory. It’s a shame, too,” Leanne said with a sigh.

  “Why were they exiled?” Kiara asked eagerly, leaning over in her seat. Now, she felt this involved her directly. Her father never exiled anyone without a good reason.

  “Well, I doubt it’s true, but according to what my father has told me, the eldest of the king’s daughters was raped or molested by Nathan’s father. But, we all knew him well enough that he would never be so cruel as to do something like that. We all think it was some scandal played to get him out of Aleph. Right after he was exiled, another blacksmith came into town and took his place. He took all the king’s armor orders and left no work for my father. That’s when we had to move because there was no more business in Aleph to support us.”

  Kiara fell back into her chair and stared dumbly at Leanne, then out the window to Nate, who was too busy in the workshop to notice the shocked expression on her face. She remembered this very event in her childhood. Esther, her eldest sister, was the one who came crying to her father one morning about a man touching her. At the time, Kiara was too young to understand what was going on. All she could remember was feeling extremely sad about it and that she was sitting at her father’s feet when she heard the awful news. A year later, they did discover that Malcolm had punished the wrong man. Kiara wasn’t too informed about the situation, but she did recall that her father felt extremely guilty for the mistake he had made with this judgment. What was more disturbing was that she was so new to everyone that she couldn’t imagine why she felt sad about the man being exiled. She would only feel that way if she had known the man. If these two stories lined up correctly, that meant she would have known Nate’s father.

  “Nate mentioned to me about how he resents his father. Does he think his father really did rape a princess?” Kiara asked, trying to not seem too inquisitive about this. She still needed to maintain her fake identity, after all.

  “No, I wouldn’t think so. Nathan loved his father very much. But, after they were exiled, he was never the same. He acted as if he was bitter about the whole thing. He probably only hated his father because of the fact he had to move away from Aleph. I doubt it was because of the false accusation,” Leanne said thoughtfully, as if she was wondering a few things herself as she gazed out the window to the shop.

  “Why would he feel bitter about that?” Kiara asked as both of the girls studied the man they were speaking of.

  “I don’t know. That’s something only he knows.”

  A long pause of silence hung over the two as they watched Nate from their chairs. He looked happy, at ease. Kiara couldn’t imagine what he could be hiding.

  “You said before that it was a shame that they got exiled… Why would you say that?” Kiara asked, wishing she could put together all these puzzle pieces to make something that resembled sense.

  “For a few reasons. When Nathan and his father left that meant my father lost his closest friend and business partner, so we had to move out here. And when they did have to leave, Nathan was never the same. He was colder and more serious. He just wasn’t fun to be around anymore. And I think it was a real pain for King Malcolm as well because he lost his best armor maker.”

  Kiara snapped her head towards Leanne, her ears perking up and eyebrows rose. “Malcolm? Nathan’s father was Malcolm’s blacksmith and armor maker?” she asked incredulously.

  “Yeah. That’s where our fathers got all their orders. Nathan’s father has made armor for all of Malcolm’s royal knights, including for the crown prince. Him and Nathan even lived up in the castle for a year before they were exiled. I think it was really hard on the king because Nathan’s father was a close personal friend of his.”

  Kiara felt like fainting. They lived in the castle? It was all coming back to her now. She remembered when she was maybe five or six, wandering into the armory and blacksmith shop in the castle. A man, tall and handsome, would be pounding away at an anvil. He
was kind and affectionate. But, what she remembered the most was a boy that was there with the man. She would go and play with him in the stables or out in the field. They’d play pretend games where he would be the knight, rescuing her from a vicious dragon or they were both knights fighting for a grand prize. No matter what game they played, he always made a way for him to be the knight. She couldn’t remember the boy’s name, but every day she would come out and play with him while his father was busy working. Then, the man and boy left unexpectedly and Kiara was sad. That’s when she began to fill her hours up with reading instead of playing in the fields…

  “And maybe one reason he was upset for a while was because he had a really good friend back at the castle,” Leanne said amusedly, “I think she was one of the younger princesses. I was always so jealous of her because when he’d come to visit us, he wouldn’t stop talking about her and how much fun she was to be around. He could never have fun with me like he had with her. I’m sure he’s forgotten all about her by now, though.”

  Kiara stared in bewilderment. Now it all fit. They did know each other as kids, so that’s why he seemed so familiar. She tried to keep her heart from pounding, but it was impossible. Her breath was caught in her throat and she felt like crying, but didn’t know why. She looked around to the other girls and saw that they weren’t paying a bit of attention, so she excused herself and walked back up to her room so she could have a moment of privacy.

  She felt relieved, but at the same time, perplexed. To know that Nate was one of her first childhood friends was like a slap in the face. She wondered why she hadn’t remembered any of this sooner. Kiara couldn’t believe the truth, but why Nate had been lying to her this whole time. Wouldn’t a reunion with an old friend be a moment of happiness for him? What was holding him back from revealing this truth? Kiara burst into sobs and cried tears of joy and tears of pain into her pillow. She hardly knew why she cried, but it was a release to.

  Nate glanced off towards the house one more time to see if Kiara was looking in his direction, but to his surprise, she wasn’t there. Her seat was empty. Quickly he scanned all of the other front windows of the house and peered through in an attempt to maybe see her walking around, but he saw nothing.

  The smile that lingered on his face slowly turned into a frown and he became worried. Where was she?

  Mr. Forger noticed Nate’s behavior and frantic searching gaze.

  “You know, you’re not going to get anywhere with Kiara unless you tell her the truth,” he said in a very fatherly tone.

  Nate looked to him quickly and scrunched his eyebrows suspiciously. “… You called her Kiara. Her name’s Kyra, remember?”

  “Nathan, do you really think I’m that stupid?” Mr. Forger asked, setting down his hammer and tongs on the anvil, staring at the boy, clearly annoyed. Nate let his lips part minutely as he looked at the man, both scared and guilty.

  “How long have you known?” Nate asked shakily.

  “Well,” he began, gathering up the metal pieces that would become a horse’s harness, “I had a vague idea this morning that you two knew each other from before this little misadventure. But, I didn’t realize who she really was until probably around lunch time.” Mr. Forger placed the pieces on a table and began fitting the leather strips that would go with the harness.

  Nate sat up on an anvil and sighed, looking down at his feet ashamedly. “Have you told anyone?”

  “Nope. Not a soul. And I don’t intend to. I know if I told my wife, she’d go blabbing it to the girls and I know how you wouldn’t like that. Kiara would get far too much attention from my daughters than she would want.”

  Nate nodded and tightened his jaw. “What will you do, then?”

  “I’m not going to do anything but provide you two with safe passage to Samek. It may be in Deceiver’s territory, but there’s a road that leads straight from there to Resh Pass. I suggest you get her back to Aleph as quickly as possible without Deceiver finding out. Because, if he does, then you both will be at his mercy.” Mr. Forger didn’t even bother to look up to Nate as he was speaking.

  Silence fell over the two for a moment, with only the sound of the farmer tinkering filling the shop.

  “Well, aren’t you going to give me some wise old advice about all of this?” Nate asked sarcastically, feeling mad for getting himself into this complicated mess in the first place.

  “That’s not my job, Nathan. If you want that, then you’ll have to go see your real father.”

  “There’s no way I’m ever talking to him again,” Nate retorted bitterly.

  Mr. Forger only chuckled and shook his head. “We’ll see about that… The only advice I would give is for you to follow your heart, but let common sense guide your path. You know who she is and you know who you are.”

  “I know. She’s a princess and I’m a no-good, dirty, vagabond… I know.”

  “No, that’s not who you are, Nathan.” Mr. Forger turned around and faced him with a stern look, pointing a sharp spike tool at the boy. “You have much better qualities than that. You have a sense of chivalry. You have honor and valor, more than most. You are still loyal to the king after what he did to you and your father and you want to see justice done against the Deceiver. You can’t say half that much for men in these parts.”

  Nate looked up to him, but he was still unconvinced. If only this man knew the kind of evil Nate had done in his life. If only he knew the trouble and chaos that followed him all the time.

  “She’s too good for me. It’s as simple as that. I’m not worthy to even be her guide. Sometimes, I feel like abandoning her out in the middle of no where. I may be strong, but I don’t know if I can take this kind of pain. I had to deal with it once and I’ve had to carry that pain all my life… And now, coming back to the same situation, only to find that nothing has changed, makes me want to kill myself… I thought at first that I could just hide the truth or ignore it somehow by treating her like crap or hating her, but it hasn’t worked… She’s bewitched me all over again.” Nate folded his arms over his chest and kicked a piece of metal he had to break off earlier, keeping his eyes cast down to the dirt floor of the shop.

  Mr. Forger felt bad for the boy. He couldn’t imagine what he was going through. “Why does it hurt so much?” he asked calmly.

  “Because I’m in love with a princess, Malcolm’s favorite daughter… and I’m not worthy of the honor of having her as my own... She belongs to someone else,” Nate replied as a small tear rolled down his cheek.

  Chapter 12

  The next morning, bright and early, Kiara and Nate were well on their way to Samek with the Forger family. The evening before, while Kiara was crying over discovering the truth about Nate, Mrs. Forger had pieced together a very lovely blue dress tunic. It was very plain, but similar to the one she was loaned the day before. It was mostly a medium shade of blue with a lighter hue for the trim. Kiara gave the woman a hug in return for the precious gift, but she wished that she could have given more. It was a lot better than walking around in those horrid boy clothes.

  After breakfast, the whole family gathered up their bundles of crops, loaded up the wagon and set out for town. Even little Ashley tagged along and sat in the front seat between her father and Owen. As the men were in charge of leading the horse team, she was the navigator. Obviously, Mr. Forger needed no help in finding his way to Samek, but he enjoyed his youngest daughter’s company too much to order her to sit with the other women. Their relationship reminded Kiara of her own father and it made her miss home even more.

  Mrs. Forger, Leanne, Miranda, Hunter, Jeremy, Nate and Kiara were all fighting for elbowroom in the back of the wagon. The twin boys were small enough to sit on top of the baskets and barrels of goods, but Mrs. Forger and Leanne took up the only other available bench room in the wagon. So, this left Kiara, Nate and Miranda to sit on the quaking floor. Kiara’s rump was exceedingly sore from all the rough terrain they were traveling over, but she tried not to show her discomfort sh
e was more than grateful for the ride.

  However, Kiara was far more distracted by Nate’s very presence to care about the journey’s difficulties. She spent most of her time staring at him, trying to pick out which features she remembered from her childhood. The rest of the time was wasted avoiding eye contact with him when he happened to look in her direction - which, regretfully, happened often.

  She wondered why he would be so secretive about their past relationship. Was there something about it that he was ashamed of? Maybe due to the awful injustice done to his father, Nate would think that Kiara would have some kind of prejudice against him and refuse his help.

  Or perhaps, it was because he didn’t want their journey to be like a corny friendship reunion. Nate possibly thought that being strangers would make the trip simpler. But, then again, why would Nate even want to go on the journey if he thought Kiara would remember him? Or worse: if Malcolm would remember him.

  Kiara was exceedingly glad and relieved to finally figure out where she knew Nate from, but at the same time, this knowledge placed a huge burden on her. This little piece of truth, along with the realization of the fact that she loved him, was becoming too much for her little mind to handle. No amount of reading or studying could have prepared her for this kind of complicated situation.

  After half a dozen stops along the way to relieve the wagon riders of their aching backs, they arrived in Samek close to noontime. The town was rather small, much like Peh in the south. There was only one, maybe two dirt roads that were lined with wooden buildings and houses, with peasants walking around in the makeshift market place, buying and selling wares.

  Kiara thought this town was rather decent, considering it was just a few miles into Deceiver’s territory. Nate helped her down from the wagon, as he did with all the other women, which made her feel both jealous and regretfully unimportant.

  “Well, I guess this is where we say goodbye. You two better get moving pretty quick if you want to make it back to Aleph soon,” Mr. Forger said tiredly, approaching Nate as if there was something he needed to tell him in secret. “Take as many side roads as you can and keep going east at all costs. Don’t stop anywhere, if you can help it and get her home safe, ya hear?” he told Nate in a very fatherly-like manner, handing Nate his backpack.