Bondage (formerly Escape from the Obstinate Prince)

After the incident with Jack(and after Portia had left the room), Ami sat up in her bed, deciding that the day was not going to get anywhere if she simply lay in her bed all day, wallowing in her own pity and embarrassment.

The Queen had a servant send up her crutch, allowing her to go places without the escort and humbo-jumbo and Ami decided that she shouldn’t let the hurried work go to waste.

“Might as well go do something instead of just laying around all day.” she muttered to herself and shoved herself off the bed. As she was doing so, her eyes caught site of a writing table with parchment and an ink well.

“Or, I could write Father and Mother.” she smiled to herself.

She used the crutch to help her to the table. She sat down and picked up the pen, dipping it in the ink before sweeping across the paper with the feather pen.

Dear Mother and Father,

I have safely made it to Carenthia. Jack is still the same ignorant, cocky, stupid boy he has always been. He will probably make a terrible husband. I have a lady-in-waiting(Jack appointed her), she is cruel to me and is stupid, or else pretends to be stupid. (I would not lie to you about this.) She has not gone one day without poking fun at me. I find it hurtful and rather annoying. I will request a new lady-in-waiting as soon as possible. Maybe they will give me two or three.

The King and Queen are as nice as they were ten years ago. They now have a little girl named Freya. I’m assuming she is no older than two years and a half and she is very adorable. I fear she will be one of the only bright sides to this marriage.

Jack also has a friend, Madison. He is quite funny and very entertaining. Hopefully we will become friends.

As for the wedding plans, I am to be fitted for my dress sometime later this day.

How are you, Mother? How is the baby? I am very sad that you will not be here for me on my “special” day. Even if it is not a happy day, it is still a special one. I hope that I will be able to see my little sister sometime soon. (I will not stand for a brother.)

Your loving daughter,

Ami

She set the pen down, sighing. It was really a shame that her parents were not able to attend her wedding.

No less than an hour later after she had written the letter, a servant ushered her into a strange room near where the guards practiced sword fighting.

The servant told her nothing about why she was there or who was going to meet her but left her in an overly big brown chair to wait for whoever she was supposed to meet.

Before she had waited too long, the door opened and in came a tall man, maybe a little older than thirty years -she couldn’t really tell- with dark hair, much like Jack’s, and eyes to match. “Hello, my dear.” the man said with a bright smile. “I am Cedric, the younger brother of Queen Katherine, and I’ve been informed that I will be walking you down the aisle in the absence of your father.”

Ami stood and curtsied, hoping she wasn’t blushing. Cedric was not hard on the eyes and she certainly wouldn’t mind if she had to spend time with him. It’s really too bad that it had to be Jack I was marrying. Of all people! If my aunt had not run away, she could have had him as her husband. Granted he would have been a wee little thing, but certainly not lacking in good features. “Your Highness. It is a pleasure to meet you. May I ask you something?”

“Anything.” he smiled at her and she felt her heart flutter.

Stop acting like that, Ami, she scolded herself. “Why have I not seen you about the castle or in the dining hall?”

He laughed, taking no notice of her strange behavior. “I have been about some of the King’s business for the past month and only just got back. As soon as I heard you were here, I had a maid fetch you at once. Speaking of which, what happened to your leg?”

“I hurt it while traveling here.” she shrugged, trying to act as old as she could and made sure that she didn’t make a big deal out of it.

Cedric tsked. “We’ll have to make sure that you are better by your wedding.”

Ami nodded. “The physician told me that I’ll be better very shortly.”

Cedric snorted. “If I had to guess, I would say that that was part of Katherine’s doing.”

“You couldn’t be more correct.” she replied.

“So,” Cedric sat down in a chair across from her, “how has Jack been treating you?”

“Well enough.” she shrugged for a second time.

“I’ll take that as a ‘not very well’.”

“If he tried to be nice I’m sure we could get along quite well.” Ami elaborated. “But he has made sure that not a day goes by without him glaring at me, out making a snide comment.”

“Really.” Cedric tapped his fingers together thoughtfully. “Maybe I should have a talk with my young nephew.”

“That won’t be necessary.” Ami hastily assured, after realizing that she had sounded slightly bratty for complaining about Jack. “But I do have a request.”

“And what is that?” he raised an eyebrow quizzically.

“Are you good at riding?” she asked.

“Quite good.” he replied.

“Could you teach me how to ride a horse? I’ve only ridden sidesaddle, and I’m not very good at that. But I would like to learn how before I’m married.” she looked at him hopefully.

“I’m sure at the request of his future daughter, the King would not mind giving me leave to teach you how to ride.” he stood up. “I shall ask him now if you wish.”

“That would be splendid! But please do not let Jack know. If that’s possible.” she added quietly.

“Oh, I understand quite well.” Cedric winked at her before bowing and leaving her alone in the room to blush.

She willed herself not to be such a weak minded girl. First falling for Lars, then being infatuated with many others. Really, it’s shameful. He is probably at least twice my age. And also happens to be Jack’s uncle. Ami you are such a foolish girl, she shook her head and grabbed her crutch.

<><><>

“Hmm.” the Queen inspected the tailors’ work. “No, I don’t think that get dress should do that. I would prefer it if it was a bit tighter right there and maybe a little looser there. “ she synched some of the material that was over Ami’s body. “No, no, no, that looks horrid. Perhaps if you tighten it here-” she pulled on the material again, “-then it will look better. Ah yes. Perfect.”

Ami had started to tune out all of the conversations and stood silently where she was, letting them twist and turn her any way they wanted, sometimes hurting her ankle.

The day couldn’t end soon enough for her.

Finally, when they were done poking her with pins and jotting down her measurements, she was let go and they allowed her some time to herself - although before she had time to go to her room to collapse, Cedric had found her and told her that the King was quite happy to let him off of his duties so that he could teach Ami to ride.

So he took her to the horses and showed her the basics: how to saddle a horse, first of all, and after she had learned that, he made her practice it many times until she had mastered it(even though she complained that putting on a saddle was not horse riding at all.)

Then they both went to the dining hall to eat their supper. An idea that Ami found quite brilliant.

The days at the castle became a routine of sorts, she would wake up, break the fast with the Royal family(and sometimes Madison), then she would try to write her parents, sometimes the Queen would invite her to stitch with her, and her ladies-in-waiting, other times she would take Freya out and practice sword fighting(that was not actually true fighting), she would eat the noon meal, after that Cedric would take her to the stables to get better at horse riding, then she would go to her room to freshen up before eating the last meal of the day and retiring to bed.

About a week after she had been there and a week before the wedding, she sound herself stitching with the Queen.

“Your Majesty, may I ask you a question?” Ami looked up from her stitching.

“It’s Katherine my dear, and yes of course you may.” the Queen replied without looking up.

“Might I request a new lady-in-waiting?” Ami hoped she wasn’t asking too much.

“Why of course darling!” the Queen paused her stitching to give Ami an incredulous look. “Need you even ask? Just tell me who you would like to have in her stead and I’ll arrange it immediately.”

“I was thinking of Heather and if you have any other suggestions.” Ami smiled nervously.

“Not Violet.” Freya, who had been poking her canvas, commented. “She’s bad.”

Ami raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

After they were all done stitching (Portia hadn’t been there coming up with the excuse that she had a headache) Ami walked outside the castle towards where the knights would practice fighting.

“Hello, my fine lady!” Madison waved when he saw Ami approach. Jack just shot her a glare.

Ami thought after Jack had carried her to her room, that he would open up and be more friendly, but quite the opposite, he had become more and more reserved and cold. It was as if in apologizing, Ami had pushed him in the wrong direction.

Needles to say, they had long since abandoned the idea of putting on the façade of “being in love”.

“She is not yours,” Jack muttered and swung his sword at Mad, “and she is definitely not fine.”

Madison raised an eyebrow at Jack before turning back to Ami. “How are you, Ami?”

“Quite well, thank you, Mad.” she rested her arms on a fence that separated herself from the rest of the men.

“Since when does she call you ‘Mad’?” Jack frowned and tried to hit Madison once again.

“Since I told her she should.” Mad blocked Jack’s swing.

“May I fight you?” Ami asked hopefully.

Jack snorted. “You? Fight us?”

“Well obviously not both of you. I was rather thinking of just fighting Mad.”

“What’s the matter with me? Shouldn’t you prefer to fight your future husband?” he smirked at her mercilessly.

“Not if he is intent on killing me.” she countered and opened the gate leading into the courtyard. She grabbed a sword off of a rack and stood in front of Madison.

“You won’t best him.” Jack called as he walked off to the side.

“Why don’t you be quiet, Jack?” Ami called and took her stance.

Jack said nothing more.

“Ready?” Mad grinned.

“As always.”

Mad took the offense and swung first, taking her a bit by surprise, although not enough to make her lose her balance.

She quickly regained her footing, using the agility she had been taught in Rhone and the strength she had gotten from her training with Lars to fight Mad. She struggled against Madison, discovering that he had layers of muscle built up beneath his tunic, not just soft flesh.

Ami grunted, not liking the idea of losing. She could feel her forehead glistening even though she hadn’t been fighting very long.

Madison seemed to have no trouble keeping up with her barrage of sword attacks.

All at once, a stream of pain shot through her ankle and she fell to the ground, letting out a cry and her sword clambered to the ground.

“Ami, are you alright?” she saw Jack rush forward and he gingerly took hold of her ankle.

Mad set his sword down and hurried to her side. “Did I hurt you, Ami?”

She winced, trying to sit up.

Jack pushed her back to the ground. “Don’t try to sit up, you’ll only make it worse. Who told you that you could be walking on this? It’s still swollen!”

“Not that badly.” Ami tried to sit up again and Jack didn’t try to stop her.

“Who told you it was alright?” he asked again, looking at her straight in the eye.

She mumbled something under her breath.

“What was that?” Jack prodded.

“Your mother and the physician might have said something about it being alright to walk on it.” she said a bit louder.

“Of course they would.” he muttered under his breath. “Madison, go tell Mother that Ami has hurt her ankle again. I’ll take her to her room.”

“Alright.” Mad hurried out the gate and back into the keep.

Jack had one knee on the ground and he scooped Ami up into his arms.

Ami mumbled something under her breath.

Jack raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“You could have someone else take me to my room you know.” she said quietly.

Jack starting walking up a case of stairs leading to her room and he didn’t reply for a minute - well, he never replied at all and Ami just waited, wondering if he had even heard her at all.

He reached her doorway and kicked the door with his foot instead of knocking.

Ami just reached down and opened the door herself. “You could have just asked me to open the door.”

He let out an incoherent string of words and walked to her bed where he set her down. “What was that?” she raised an eyebrow.

“Nothing.” he said, turning to go.

“Wait, Jack.” she sat up and he turned around, looking much less formidable than before. “Just so you know I didn’t necessarily enjoy having you carry me and I certainly did not fake my injury, just so you would would carry me”

“If I thought you were faking it I wouldn’t have bothered to carry you.” he sighed, almost glaring. “Although if you were faking it, that would make it twice in one week or so that I’ve carried you. I shouldn’t be surprised if you soon fall again. All the girls do.”

She took off her shoe and threw it at Jack.

He smirked - at least he wasn’t glaring - and quickly closed the heavy door behind himself.