Bondage (formerly Escape from the Obstinate Prince)

“Might I congratulate the happy couple?”

Ami turned around to see Madison, pale and a hint of green, but standing on his own two feet, grinning like his usual self.

“Are you quite alright? First, we are just about anything but happy and second I don’t think you’re well enough to be out and about,” Ami frowned and shielded her eyes from the sinking sun.

Jack was currently absorbed in other tasks and was not by his wife’s side.

“I assure you that I am well enough to be standing before my future Queen. And,” Mad lowered his voice, “the King and Queen had the cup of wine inspected and it has indeed been poisoned. Your meal, however, was left untouched.”

Ami frowned. “What poison was it? Why would they leave my food alone, yet poison my wine? Who would try to poison me? And why would they do it? How am I to know if my cup isn’t poisoned?” she lifted her glass to Madison’s level.

“First, it had to have been someone with access to the kitchen and also they would have had to poisoned the single cup, as none of the other wines had been tampered with. Second, in my personal opinion, I think someone was trying to make it look like the Carenthian Royals killed the Princess of Rhone.”

Ami gasped.

“And I really don’t know if your cup right there is poisoned or not,” Mad said.

“What type of poison was it?” Ami’s eyes found Jack and stayed trained on him.

“The nectar from the colorless poppy, which, if you ingest enough of it, can be deadly,” Madison followed her gaze and he realized what she was thinking. “You don’t suspect Jack do you?”

Ami tore her eyes away from Jack, who was talking to the King and Queen, looking none too happy. “I don’t know Mad. Deep down, I know he isn’t capable of such, but - he hates me. What am I supposed to think? He had access to my wine cup. He could do anything, I -”

“Ami,” Madison’s eyebrows furrowed. “Jack, as cold as he pretends to be, is not capable of murder. Besides, he wouldn’t have had a chance to do it. You must banish the thought.”

Ami looked at Madison blankly, then sighed. “I suppose you’re right.”

“Trying to convince my wife to run away with you?” Jack approached the two. “Because if so, be my guest.”

Ami looked at Madison as if to say I told you so.

“Actually,” Jack sat down on his chair and scooted in. “Ami and I are going in a trip. Starting, say, in a few minutes.”

Madison raised an eyebrow. “You are going in a trip? I don’t believe you have been permitted to take trip. Not until after today’s events anyway.”

“Oh really? Watch us,” Jack raised an eyebrow. “Mother and Father won’t know until we’re gone.”

“Then it will be my responsibility to tell them.” Madison’s expression scared Ami. It was the most serious she had ever seen it, almost challenging. “If you don’t complete this day and finish the marriage, do you know how bad that would look on our part? Do you know how much trouble we could get in?”

“I won’t.”

Madison stood up suddenly and he glared at Jack. “Just because you’re a prince, does not give you the right to be a brat. Why don’t you man up and live with the life you’ve been given?”

Jack’s jaw tensed and he stood up as well.

Ami nervously looked around. Several people were murmuring at the stare down between the two men who were said to be like brothers.

“People are looking,” said Ami to them both.

Mad was the first to break away from the silent tension. “Fine. Do what you want. But I don’t see how you’ll be able to live with this on your conscience.”

Jack sat back down.

Please don’t snap at me, Ami cringed inwardly.

“Well,” Jack sighed, “are you ready for the cake ceremony?”

Ami glanced up at him. “If you wish me to be ready.”

“Might as well get it over with,” he mumbled.

He stood up and took her hand, leading her to the table where the cake sat.

“And what exactly is the point of kissing over the cake?” Ami said. As soon as she finished her question, she saw a familiar figure pass by - Portia.

Ami inhaled sharply. Portia. She works in the kitchen in the castle.

“Ami?” Jack snapped his fingers in front of her face.

“Sorry, what?”

“I said, that I’m going to take a Rhone tradition into consideration since my bride is of Rhone’s blood.”

Ami winced. The tradition in Rhone was to get a cake and crumble it over the bride’s head. “But my dear, we’ve been told to do it the Carenthian way.”

She observed the cake. It wasn’t terribly tall as it was merely stacked cakey buns. But she didn’t relish the thought of having fruit cake crumbled upon her head.

“I have had enough of being told what to do,” Jack crossed his arms.

Ami tilted her chin up and muttered. “Brat.”

Jack shot her a glare before facing the crowd that had gathered and Jack raised his voice. “My dear subjects, as you know, my wife was raised in Rhone and is accustomed to their traditions. Their tradition is that the groom crumbles the cake upon the bride’s head. In honor of my lovely wife, I am going to-”

Ami grabbed his neck and brought his face close. “If you do this, you are going to be dead meat.” She flashed a fake smile for the crowd.

Jack smiled too. “My little darling,” he chuckled condescendingly then faced the crowd, “she was just telling me how much she loves me for doing this.”

Ami’s noise flared. Her cheeks burned. She clenched her hands at her sides.

Jack took a bit of the fruit cake and crumbled it on top of Ami’s head.

She shrieked. Control yourself, Ami. Control yourself. She took a deep breath.

Jack snickered in her face before raining more cake on her.

The crowd cheered and threw different grains towards them both.

“Are you quite finished?” Ami said through gritted teeth.

He crumbled one last handful over her head before replying. “I think so. After this we’re leaving.”

Ami looked up at him. “Where?”

“I’m taking you on a romantic trip. Doesn’t it sound delightful?”

“We have to stay. Finish up here, before we go anywhere else,” Ami said.

Jack rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re a sorry sport too. Actually wait, I already knew that.”

Ami stood up straighter. “I am not.”

“Are too.”

“Am not.”

“Are too.”

“Being disobedient doesn’t make you more interesting, Prince Jacques.”

“I’ll have a servant put pellets into all the drinks, to make their minds muddled. So if we leave now, they’ll never know. Mother and Father can just say that we were here and no one will be the wiser,” he took hold of her hands and looked imploringly at her.

To be honest, she didn’t want to finish the day anymore than Jack did. And although running away with him scared her, she would much prefer that, than what was ahead.

“Please Ami.”

The crowd had lost interest and it was just the two of them, staring deeply into each other’s eyes.

Whunk

Icing and fruit cake ran down half of Jack’s face.

He dropped Ami’s hands and looked at the culprit.

Freya giggled while being held by Mad.

“Sorry I ruined such a touching moment but Freya insisted.” Mad shrugged indifferently.

Jack glared but turned back to Ami. “Please?”

“I can’t skip out on-”

Jack put a finger over her lips. “We have company.”

She glanced at Madison, then lowered her voice. “Jack, I-”

“I’ll come back for you in a half hour. I’ve got to deliver the pellets to the servant,” said Jack.

Ami nodded without thinking.

Mad approached Ami after Jack had left. “Let me guess, he convinced you to run away with him and he promised that he’d be nice to you forevermore if you did.”

Ami’s eyebrows rose. “How did you-”

“I know him well, Ami.” He moved Freya to his other hip.

“He didn’t actually promise to be nice forevermore but he did try to get me to run away with him. And succeeded, I suppose.”

Madison sighed. “There’s no stopping him, is there?”

Ami shrugged, slightly shaking her head. Jack was not tameable.

“Ami, there’s something I need to tell-” he stopped mid-sentence as if debating if he should warn her or not.

“What is it?”

“Jack, he - we, actually, we both um...”

Ami looked at him expectantly.

“Never mind,” he shook his head and walked away with Freya on his hip.

Ami stood there awkwardly for a moment.

“Time to go.” Jack came rushing towards Ami.

“What?” She stumbled along with him. “It hasn’t even been five minutes!”

“Emergency. Mother and Father may or may not have caught wind of our dealings and may or may not be after us.”

Ami raised an eyebrow. “Our dealings? And what about my packing? I haven’t any suitable clothing to wear.”

“You’ll just have to go in what you’re wearing,” he said without sympathy.

She frowned. “But this wasn’t made for traveling-”

“Too bad.”

They scurried past the people and backtracked towards the outside of the village where a horse was waiting.

“Why is there just one horse?” Ami asked.

“There wasn’t enough time to get another one. Mother and Father are already after us.” He swung up onto the horse and offered Ami his hand.

“How am I supposed to ride it?” She stood on the ground with her hands on her hips.

Jack took her hand and yanked her up in front of him. She sat sideways on the horse, without any saddle. “Like this,” he said.

He kicked the horse into action and they took off.

“Jacques! You get back here or so help me I’ll-” Neither one could decipher what the King yelled and Jack didn’t care.

Ami looked back and the King, who was fading from view.

“Are we going to get into a lot of trouble because of this?” Ami asked. “Maybe we should just go back…”

“You can’t chicken on me now, Princess.” Jack said.

They galloped for what seemed like hours, passing under the shaded forest, through masses of trees, over fallen and rotten logs, the horse stampeded over a few leaves that had fallen early.

By the time they made it to their destination, Ami’s rear-end was terribly sore and her legs felt like she had walked a millennium.

The “romantic trip” Jack described consisted of a brown shack in the middle of the woods, or so it seemed, made out of cedar wood with a slight red highlights. There were a good amount of windows, a chimney, and stairs leading up to the raised house.

“We’re here!” Jack didn’t bother to help Ami down. Not that she expected him to as he wasn’t that chivalrous and he didn’t seem to care about the Princess or manners or how to treat her; regardless she wished he would have taken the five seconds to do so.

“Rude boy,” she muttered and hopped off by herself. “Why are we here?”

Jack was already inside the wooden house. “Coming, wife? It’s much nicer inside. Not nearly so many bugs.”

Ami rolled her eyes and took care to step over patches of dirt and avoid the scratchy thistles. “I’m coming as fast as I can, husband...aren’t you supposed to carry me across the threshold?”

Jack stuck his head out the door and gave her a flat look. Ami smiled the sweetest smile she could muster.

“Is it necessary that I carry you? Or do you like being in my arms that much?” he smirked.

Ami huffed and crossed the rest of the greenery, stomping up the wooden steps. She pushed past Jack and entered the musty house. “It smells in here,” she pushed open the shutters on all of the cobweb-y windows.

She inspected the house. “It’s small.”

“Better than back at the castle,” Jack opened a cupboard and pulled out a corked jar and two chalices.

Ami sulked at the table, knowing that he spoke the truth.

“Care for a drink?” Jack filled a chalice and set a mug in front of Ami. He pulled out a chair and took a seat opposite of her.

“Not particularly,” she looked at the chalice with disdain.

Jack took a sip. “Are you sure? It’s quite good.”

“I’m quite sure, thank you,” she pursed her lips.

“Someone’s in a sour mood,” Jack swallowed more from his cup.

“At least I’m not a drunken dolt.”

“I am not drunken.”

Ami scrunched her face, tempted to stick out her tongue. “Give it time and you will be.”

“Will not.”

“I am not,” Jack frowned.

“I didn’t even say anything!” Ami threw her hands up in the air.

“Say that I’m not drunk,” he pouted.

“You’re not drunk, happy?” she drummed her fingers on the table.

Jack glugged a bit more of his mead.

Ami took a timid sip of the red wine. Her mouth puckered and she spit it back out before she swallowed.

“It’s honey wine. It tastes good,” Jack said upon seeing her face.

Ami face him a flat stare.

Jack’s lips turned up in boyish innocence and he put his drink under her nose. “Doesn’t it smell good?”

“No.”

“You’re no fun.”

“I’ve heard that before,” she twisted in her chair so she wasn’t facing him.

“You were never fun,” his smile had been replaced with a lower lip sticking out.

“I’m not doing this,” Ami stood up and flounced over towards the hard bed.

She heard the scraping of wood against wood and Jack’s warm, sticky hand took hold of her arm, forcing her to turn around.

“What do you want?” she brushed his hand off of her arm.

He didn’t answer; instead Jack slowly walked towards Ami and she kept backing up until finally she hit the solid wood.

“Why are you doing this?” she didn’t know what he was doing, but she didn’t like this Jack. She had seen his happy side, his sad side, his angry side but never this intoxicated state.“Doing what?” he had an arrogant smile on his face and he got closer to her. She plainly saw his long, dark eyelashes framing his stone colored eyes, which, as much as she hated herself for it, entranced her.“That,” she glanced at his hand delicately placed on her waist. What is he doing? “Is it wrong for me to want to hold my own wife?” he asked with an innocent shrug.“It is when you, just days before, resented the very fact that I was alive.” she tried her best not to shudder at his touch.

“Maybe I’ve had a change of heart,” he studied her eyes, seeming to like what he saw.She shook her head. “Jack? A change a heart? Hardly,” she was getting used to this component of Jack’s personality and gained confidence.“What if I said I loved you?” he whispered slowly, eyes flicking down to her lips.“I wouldn’t believe you.” her heart pounded in her ears and she tried ignore where Jack’s gaze was locked. She willed him to look back up at her eyes. Anywhere but here lips. “It’s a lie and we both know it, Jacques.” she tilted her chin up at him, knowing full well that calling him by his full name would annoy him.He glanced back up, his eyes betraying his frustration, pulled her against him tightly and his lips crashed onto hers.