Along with the note was a sign of the lord Vesille himself. She looked at the note, and then back at Quinn, then at the note again.
“I made a wager with him,” Quinn said, tilting his head. “You see, I made a nice wager with him. Bozo had a razor inside of his glove that he slashed anyone with to claim first blood victory, so I tricked him into accepting a bet. If I had lost I’d owe him a favor, if Bozo had lost, you would be freed, without any complications, from all of your debts.”
“B but..... you..... why?” Alicia asked, still in a dream-like state. She looked at him, right in the eyes. “Why did you ask for it, Sir Quinn? Why?”
“Because I can’t fathom the thought of leaving this place without you,” Quinn said, grabbing her shoulders. “Please, come with me, Alicia. Please. I don’t want to leave without you, I did this all for you. It's absolutely horrendous for someone like you to live like this. I just wanted to see you smile, all the time, show me what sort of a woman you were, show me what you were capable of and show me what you could do and what you couldn’t do. I want you in my life, please come with me.”
Alicia looked into his eyes, his pleading eyes. She gulped, the thought that she was free, after 5 years worth of the torture she had suffered she was finally free. She wasn’t a Servant anymore, and it was all because of this man. Without warning, she hugged him.
“Yes, oh gods yes.” She cried, hugging him tightly. “Thank you, thank you so much! I... I don’t know what I would have done without you, you definitely changed my life. P... Please, never leave me behind! Please! I’ll forever be your servant but I don’t want to leave you!”
“And as I said, you won’t have to,” Quinn muttered in her ears. “You’re coming with me now, to your new home.”
Alicia shuddered at the sound of ‘home’, but nodded, releasing him, and looking at his eyes directly. At that moment though, she realized that this was truly happening. Wiping the tears out of her eyes, she looked at him, her eyes firm this time around and waited for him to speak.
“When do we leave?” She asked. “I don’t have any possessions and all that I can take, is with me.”
“Well, first of all, you need some new clothes,” Quinn said, looking down at her clothes as if they had done him a personal offense. “And I have prepared them for you, they’re in my room.”
“You... You didn’t have to.” Embarrassed by the thought of him shopping for her clothes, she gulped and went to his room. Quinn looked at her in amusement and sat down on the couch. “Don’t peek!”
Quinn laughed at the words as she closed the doors, instead waited for both Azzie and Alicia to come out. The first one to come in was Azzie.
“I’ve got the carriage ready,” Azzie said, snorting. “The eight Kingly Horses... yeah right, more like about to die horses. All of them are either old or sick and haven’t given any treatment. It was only a show so he could earn more money and take out his garbage.”
“Can they be healed?” Quinn asked, raising an eyebrow. “Alicia’s getting ready to leave as well, as soon as she is out we’ll leave. I don’t want to be in this city for longer than necessary.”
“And neither do I,” Azzie agreed. “Neither do I. Now that we have 10 horses, though, our speed will be much greater. I have hired some people, horse riders from Lentan, that will come with us to get the Horses. You and Alicia will, of course, be in the carriage.”
“Good.” Quinn agreed, looking at his door. “She took it much greater than I expected her to.”
“She’s utterly broken and desperate to get out of here, of course, she will take it in stride,” Azzie said, looking around and then whispering. “What about Vesille?”
“He will have to face his loss. He was telling me how I’ll regret it, but I’ll be damned if I let her go right now.” Quinn muttered softly. The door to the former room of Quinn opened up and Alicia stepped out, wearing the clothes that had been given to her.
Her black colored gown was sweeping down to her knees, where instead of when there was nothing, now were black heels, going up till her ankles. She had cut off some of her hair so instead of her long black hair, which initially went till her hips, now only went till the middle of her back, and looked much cleaner than before. Alicia Sarzen was a changed woman, no longer a servant, she was a truly free soul. Much of her chest was on view but it was covered with a scarf that had gone along with her dress.
“Do I look good?” Alicia asked, making turning around once so Quinn could have a nice look at him. Quinn though was driven speechless by her beauty. He gulped and nodded, his eyes fixated on her form. “Stop staring Sir Quinn, it’s making me feel embarrassed.”
“You really look good,” Quinn admitted. He looked at Azzie, who was also looking at Alicia in appreciation, and then back at Alicia. “Yes, you truly look amazing. Now come on, it is time for us to move, the less we stay in this city the better.”
“I’ve gotten the carriage ready just outside of the house. No one is going to stop us.” Azzie said, going to his room to get his stuff. “Lord Quinn, have you packed your things?”
“Yes.” Quinn nodded, pointing at the 2 rucksacks just beside the couches in the main living room and a third smaller rucksack, which had all the possessions of Alicia. He then looked at Alicia and deadpanned. “With all due respect, you need to get some new clothes after this, we’re not taking any of your clothes with us.”
Alicia blushed and looked away in shame. There was no way she was going to comment on that, all of her clothes had been taken away when she had been enslaved by Vesille. Even before that it wasn’t as if she had a lot of money or possessions either, she was just a teenager that lived in the city and had gotten extremely bad luck.
“Let’s move into the carriage,” Quinn suggested, grabbing every single one of the rucksacks. He was still in his armor, hadn’t even taken out a single piece of it, and was insistent they leave immediately. “Azzie will join us soon enough.”
“Let me, Sir Quinn,” Alicia protested, grabbing one of the bags from his hands. “I need to help as well.”
“Please, as if this needs any help. As of right now, you are a guess of the House of Suthell.” Quinn declared, easily lifting the bags and into the two-horse carriage inside. For the first time, Alicia was looking inside of a carriage and she found it to be the most beautiful piece of invention she had ever seen in her life.
It was covered in velvety protection, of course for the people that would travel inside of it, in the case of a bumpy ride. The wheels of the entire thing looked ready to move and travel at a much faster pace then any human could hope to possess and even the driver’s seat was completely padded to perfection, making it a high-class travel equipment. Azzie didn’t take long, he only had one bag and instantly put it inside of the undercarriage carrier.
“The eight horseriders have already left, they’ll meet us at the port of Menkh, two days worth of travel towards the north. From there we’ll take a ship directly to Drenstan,” Azzie said as he locked the undercarriage. He looked at Quinn for directions, who nodded, undoubtedly not minding the time.
“As fast as possible,” Quinn said, giving Alicia his hand so she could climb into the carriage. Once she was inside of the carriage, Quinn walked inside and closed off the locks of the carriage and closed all the windows and the curtains to give them complete protection. They felt the carriage move and undoubtedly soon enough, they were rushing down the road towards the town of ‘Menkh’.
Alicia was silent, as they were leaving. Her thoughts were whirling on the previous five years of her life, how she found herself trapped by Vesille, her parents being killed and then her turning from a girl to a slave. She found herself unable to think of a situation that was better than this one, unable to even fathom that there would be one day that she would be finally freed from all of her nightmares and finally taken away from Nephlin. Most of all, she was unable to fathom that she was indeed out of the service of the Cyzen family, and there was nothing that Vesill
e could do about it because he had lost. He had lost against Quinn and in return, he had lost her. She gazed at her new Lord and found her face heating up.
‘I... what is happening to me?’ Alicia thought to herself. ‘What is going on? Why can’t I just think about anything else than him? He’s a noble, he won’t keep me around for long. Once he finds someone more enticing then me, I’ll be replaced. I don’t mind serving him but... why do I feel as if I want to do just more then to serve him? I... I want to be beside him, helping him out in every single one of his tournaments and having a say in his life. I don’t just want to be a servant... I... I love him!’
Coming to that sudden realization, she gazed at Quinn in a new, adoring light. 3 full weeks of conversations with him had made her realize this fact, that he was absolutely amazing. He was kind, caring and at the same time stern and strict. He didn’t like when people didn’t agree with his views, especially on women and children, and absolutely hated the dishonest ones, like that one time when he had asked her if she had eaten all day or not and tried to pass on by lying to him. He had been absolutely catatonic after deciphering the lie and made her promise to never lie to him again. She chuckled at that. At the time she thought she was only making a temporal promise, but now she guessed that all those rules applied to her as well.
“We’re outside of Nephlin now,” Azzie said from the driver's seat. “Everyone was staring at our carriage, as if wanting to peek inside but none of them could as we kept moving. I didn’t see Vesille anywhere, so undoubtedly he’s still reeling back from his shame and loss. I’ll be careful though. Soon enough we’ll be on the road that leads straight to Menkh and I’ll increase the pace at the time.”
“Good,” Quinn said, nodding in satisfaction. Azzie then fell silent and Alicia took a deep breath as she realized it had happened. She was officially out of Nephlin, she was outside of the one place where she never wanted to go again and she would never go again. “Good.”
He smiled at her, waiting patiently to let her catch her bearings and her breath as the girl’s utter outlook on life was destroyed the second Azzie said that. She wasn’t a slave. She wasn’t a servant. She was a person now.
“You know, it is time for you stop calling me ‘Sir’ now,” Quinn said, looking at her in amusement. “You did say to me if you were free you’ll call me by my name. Now that you are free, can you try to at least?”
“I I’ll try my best.” Alicia agreed. “When will we reach Drenston, and what will I do there? I don’t have a home and a place to stay.”
“As long as the Suthell Family has a member, you’ll always be welcomed as a guest and a friend,” Quinn said. “And right now, you’ll be staying with me for as long as you think you want to live. Once you think that you’ve got the right person to live with or the right job to carry out, then you can shift. Even if you don’t want to live with me, as a guest and not as a servant or slave or whatever you call them, I will make arrangements for you to be around me so I can come and check on you.”
“But.... I can’t just do nothing,” Alicia protested. “I need to do something to pass my time.”
The way her black eyes looked at him with sadness and concentration, Quinn sighed, rubbing his face at the look.
“You will do nothing for the first 3 to 4 months you reach Drenston. You’ll learn how to live first. By that I mean you’ll learn about the world, it’s history and geography, natural subjects and mathematics so you can survive. Then I’ll see what type of things you can do and not do, and if you still insist on ‘serving’ me, then I am in the need of a helper whenever I go out for tournaments which I think will fit you perfectly.” Quinn said, looking at her intensely. “But no matter what you chose, I won’t be able to stay away from you, especially now.”
Once again Alicia found herself blushing, she was doing that a lot with him around, and looked away from him, instead focusing on her fingers as their ride took onto a silent tone, her questions answered for now. For the entire day, they were traveling with the chatting kept to a minimum. Both Quinn and Alicia were in their own thoughts, regarding the other person in the carriage, but most importantly were Quinn’s thoughts.
‘Should I do it?’ Quinn asked himself, his eyes not leaving Alicia’s body as she seemed to be too deep into her thoughts, unfocused on anything. ‘She has all the needing abilities and qualities, she is kind, gentle and loving. Sure, she needs to learn a lot of things, but I am sure she can handle it. She’s beautiful and loyal and that is only helping in my decision and I for sure hold enough feelings for her to make the Lady Suthell.’
Shaking his head, he sighed, rubbing his hair to banish the thoughts. Like she would actually want him to do something like that. He gulped, his eyes traveling up her legs and towards her thighs, her plump thighs that were not exactly on view but traced her skirt enough for her to see. Forcefully moving his eyes from her thighs, instead, he found himself focusing on her bust, and shook his head. No, Quinn, don’t think all that, please!
His attention was mercifully grabbed when their carriage stopped. The day had turned from the late evening when they had set out of Nephil, after the tournament was over tonight. It was way past dinnertime, but none of them were even remotely close to being hungry. All of them needed to rest after the physically and emotionally draining day, especially Alicia and Quinn, so when they crossed out of the borders of Marqueis and were further inland, Azzie had chosen a small town where he could see a nice inn as their resting place for the night.
So Azzie had hired the last of the room, and he himself chose to sleep in the bar below in the inn so he could have some ‘celebration’ of his own. Considering that it was late at night after the entire tournament was over, and they had nothing to do, Alicia and Quinn decided to spoil themselves a little, or at least Quinn did. Alicia had simply asked for a pair of some casual clothes so she could go to sleep, she really needed the rest.
So at exactly 10:20 PM in the evening, Quinn, after having a nice, grilled chicken for dinner, walked into the room, and looked around. Luckily, he could hear the water in the attached bathroom running and decided to be quick and change his clothes. Just as he was about to remove his pants, the door to the bathroom opened up and Alicia walked out. Their eyes crossed for the littlest of the seconds.
Alicia had taken a nice long bath before coming out, washing away all of her worries and problems. She didn’t expect Quinn to be standing there, neither did she expect him to be removing the last of his pants and stand there in just his underwear, shorts of sorts, with his upper body and much of his body out for a view. And goodness, was it something to look at. Perfectly sculpted muscles, the perfect pectorals, the perfect abs and the perfect broadness, everything was mixed in his body as he looked on dumbly at her.
Similarly, Quinn was focusing more on his new charge’s body and her face. Now that she was out of the outfit of the servant that she had been given, he could get a good, perfect look at her and she was beautiful, perfectly doing good to the number of times he’d called her that. Her pale skin shone slightly in the moonlight, with her body covered by just a towel, hiding her larger than a handful breasts from him. It was perfectly curved, a result of the amount of work she did every day and he wondered if she really ate only 1 time a day. She was amazingly lithe, and smelled great, from a distance.
Now normally Quinn would have turned around, or Alicia would have squeaked and slammed the door to the bathroom shut, but none of them could do anything because they were too immersed in staring at each other to care. Finally, Quinn got up his courage and walked up to Alicia. Her heart thumped with every step he took until he was standing right in front of her, slowly raising his hand to trace her cheek.
Her eyes never left his, black meeting golden brown. Quinn smiled softly, his eyes filled with emotions and glinting with something akin to happiness.
“You know, I might consider myself a noble and honorable man, but you are simply too much for me to just ignore,” Quinn said softly.
Alicia’s face was so warm especially with his fingers tracing down her cheek.
“It is strange.” Alicia’s voice was also soft as her hand came up to rest on his bare chest. “I.... find myself with a mutual feeling of sorts.”
It was as if a mutual force and dragged the 2 of them closer, that made their lips meet. First, it was just a soft, simple kiss, a lip lock sharing their mutual feelings for each other, and nothing more, until it did start to turn just more than a liplock.
It started first as a gentle prodding from Quinn, his tongue tracing out of his mouth and along her full lips. Her naturally thick lips were slowly massing his, and they opened up to let his tongue access. It wasn’t just a kiss, Alicia and Quinn both thought, as their arms tightened around each other. Alicia let go of her towel, letting it fall down and reveal her naked body to him which he still didn’t have the pleasure to see, as he was much more interested in just kissing her for now. Her unclothed bust pressed up against his chest, rubbing against his own chest, firm and hardened buds that were on her breasts tracing across his body.
Quinn slowly turned around with her in his arms, so he could lead her towards the bed for a situation such as this only deserved to be completed inside of the bed. On the other hand, he never stopped kissing her, rolling his tongue around her mouth and softly embracing her own sweet appendage. Learning from his actions, Alicia was quick to respond, letting herself being carried and led by Quinn, towards the bed. When the back of her knees hit the bed, she finally parted, her eyes pooled with glittering emotions, her face extremely close to his.
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