Bondage (formerly Escape from the Obstinate Prince)

“It’s stupid really.” Jack angrily watched his servants packing a few trunks. “I don’t see why I should have to pick her up when Father could just have easily sent some servants fetch her. “

“Maybe he wants you to try and get to know her.” Mad suggested and frowned at the way his mood had turned grumpy.

“I wouldn’t have gone unless Mother hadn’t threatened to find me another wife among the castle maids. “ Jack ignored what Mad said. “Which would be even worse since they’d only like me because I’m a prince, and the alliance wouldn’t have gotten anywhere with anything but I still don’t want to go and see her any earlier than I have to.”

“Don’t be such a prick.” Mad rolled his eyes. “You aren’t any better than her, so stop acting like it.”

Jack glared. “You are not the one marrying her and I’m the Prince. I will complain if I want to.”

Mad glared back. “She can’t be anything near as bad as you, and yes, you can complain, but it won’t help your situation at all.”

Jack said nothing in return but simply continued to glare. He turned around and slammed down the lid on his trunk. His servants jumped back in surprise.

Jack locked the top and dragged it off of his bed without a word, storming out of the room and slamming the door behind him.

Mad sighed and waved his hands at the servants. “You can leave.”

The two of them nodded and hastily left the tension filled room.

Mad put his head in his hands. What did I do? I get all grumpy and then take it out on Jack. But why am I in a foul mood? He felt like kicking something. Or maybe whacking a pillow. Or yelling at someone. Anything but acknowledge the fact that he had been in a somewhat grumpy mood when the King and Queen had started being so incredibly cheesy and made him realize how much he actually missed the delights of being so in love that he would make a fool of himself just for that one person.

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“Here, Your Majesty. The King said that everything you need to know is in there.” a servant handed Jack a parchment of sealed paper with the instructions and details concerning the Princess. The servant bowed and backed away, leaving Jack with the instructions.

“Thank you.” Jack replied dully to the retreating servant. “Well this is it. Off I go to capture the poor little princess.”

He mounted his horse and then the whole company of men started to move towards the Middle Sea.

The journey was fairly uneventful and routined: Jack would wake up to the sound of the cook’s clanging bell, he would get dressed, then get out of his tent and eat, they would start moving after Jack’s tent got taken down and everything had been put away, then they would ride until the sun was high in the sky, eat a quick meal then start riding again until the sun was on the horizon and they they would make camp for the night. That happened day after day for five days.

The journey to the Middle Sea took less than a week and the Princess’s ship wasn’t supposed to come into port until two days later, allowing Jack to investigate the city he was staying in.

Jack opened the letter his father sent along with him and his eyes ran over the details once again.

Jack,

I enclosed the letter that the King of Rhone sent me, it contains most of what you need to know.

He set aside his father’s letter and opened up the letter from the King of Rhone.

To the King of Carenthia, His Majesty,

Our daughter, Andromeda Aurora Amélia, is coming on our humble ship, The Valerie. She should be arriving a week after you receive this letter. We apologize deeply for the short notice. But we both know that it is critical that the alliance goes through as soon as possible and as soon as I heard that my wife’s sister had only a son, and that he was married, I started writing this letter.

As for my absence, and that of my wife, I regret to inform you that we will not be there for the wedding, as the Queen is carrying a child and our best physicians told her that she should not travel.

We hope that you can provide a lady-in-waiting for our dear Ami, as all of hers decided last minute that they would not sail on one of those “unstable things”. We will of course repay you.

We send our best wishes and hope for long happy days and many children.

His Majesty, the King of Rhone

Jack looked back at his father’s letter.

And please Jack, treat her well. If she decides that she hates you, she may very well go back to Rhone to her parents. And that would be worse than most anything. Try. Try your hardest to be nice to her. Be patient. As a husband, I can tell you, never comment on the way she looks unless it is a very nice comment, also, never comment on her mood. If she is decidedly grumpy, pretend you don’t notice. You know what I’ve had to put up with when I got involved with Katherine. But don’t tell her I said that.

Jack almost laughed at his father’s description of his mother. Until he remembered that her fiancé’s ship was arriving in two days. Possibly less. And then the horrifying journey of marriage to a girl he barely knew would begin. But after we’re married I’ll make five hundred sovereigns, he smiled at the thought, then frowned, and then the horrible years of marriage will set in and I’ll be miserable.

“I’m going to go explore this quaint little town.” he informed his guards and stood up. They followed him out the door of his room in The Travelers Inn. The “quaint little town” was not actually quaint, nor little. It was a rather large town with many occupants and lots of things to see and do.

A young girl, maybe eighteen, stood at the counter of the inn, looking for someone. And as he soon realized, she was on the look out for him. Her gaze swept over him, widening in approval.

Jack had seen the look before in some of the younger castle maids. It boosted his opinion of himself by quite a lot, helping patch it from back in the day when he had a sorry little pug nose and a face that made him look like he was always constipated.

But there was a look to the girl’s eyes that he didn’t quite like. It looked almost like a vulture stalking its prey. She quickly masked the look and met his eyes. “Your Majesty.” she lowered down to the ground, but her eyes stayed locked with Jack’s.

“Rise, peasant.” Jack smiled inwardly. He had been dying to say that for ages and now he had finally gotten to. His happy moment ended when he saw the hurt look on the girl’s face and he felt obligated to amend his slight blunder. “What’s your name?”

“Portia, Your Majesty.” she answered hopefully.

“Why don’t you come show me around the city? I’m new here and I’ll need a guide.” he offered. It was a lie, as he did not need anyone to show him around, but he felt almost compelled to offer her something.

Her smile brightened and she nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, yes, of course, Your Majesty.”

“Come along then.” he nodded towards the door and started walking in that direction.

He could hear his guards murmuring among themselves. He scrunched his nose and turned around to face the two guards. “You may stay here. We’ll be fine.”

The guard who was in command let his eyes widen visibly. “But Your Majesty, it’s dangerous out there, and besides, The Valorie could be here any time and what if you aren’t here? Where will we find you?”

“You won’t.” he held out his arm to Portia and they left the Inn with the guards calling after him.

“Your Majesty, won’t-” Portia started speaking.

“No no, that won’t do.” Jack shook his head. “You can call me by my real name.”

“Oh. Well, Prince Jacques-” she tried again.

“No, not Jacques either. Call me Jack.” he smiled briefly.

She glanced at him nervously. Or at least she looked nervous. “Jack, are you supposed to be out without an escort? What if someone were to capture you?”

Jack laughed at her as if it were a silly suggestion. “I’m the Prince, they have to do as I say, and no one is going to capture me. Besides, I’m old enough and strong enough to take care of myself.”

“May I be so bold as to ask your age?” she looked up at him innocently.

“Twenty and one years old.” his eyes flicked across her small frame. “You can’t be any older than eight and ten.”

She smiled and the sides of her eyes crinkled when she did so. “I turned ten and eight years last month.”

He nodded. “Not a bad guess.” he inspected the route they were taking. “Where exactly are we going?”

Her hand around his arm tightened. “We’re heading towards the port. You’ll love it there. It has so many ships there and it smells fresh. People are everywhere, teeming like fish in the sea. It’s beautiful.”

Jack raised an eyebrow at the, “people are everywhere”. He was not particularly fond of people. Not one bit. But Portia was a girl who was very easy to talk to, laughing at most anything he said, smiling at the rest, and he found that he was rather fond of her company. “Tell me, do you work at the inn?”

“Me? No.” she smiled and shook her head. “I was just there to deliver some loaves of bread. My father works in the bakery and he sells them to the inn. Such luck that I happened to run into you! Imagine me, just a girl who lives with her father in their humble shack, meeting the prince of Carenthia! You should see my friends’ faces when they hear about this. They’ll likely not believe it when I tell them, but it’s worth a shot.”

“Do you have a beau, Portia?” Jack asked randomly. They were close to the docks and Jack could almost smell the salt and fish coming from the sea. The cool air had already hit him; in fact they had started to feel it’s effects three days after their journey. At night it was hard to see five feet in front of himself.

Portia looked down at the ground. “No, I don’t suppose I do.”

“Whyever not? You’re a pretty girl, surely you’d have more than just one by now.” he furrowed his eyebrows.

“Well you see, Jack, it’s like this; Father doesn’t have any money or anything to put in a dowry, and so no one really wants to marry me, and if they do want to marry me, they can’t because I won’t bring them or their family any profeit.”

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” Jack frowned. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t have any money or anything. Marriage should be about marrying the one you love and will always love until your dying day.”

Portia’s beaming face returned. “Who knew that the Prince of Carenthia was so good with words! And so romantic as well! I didn’t actually know that you existed until I heard you were staying at the inn. Everyone was talking about it, you should have heard them. Say, why hadn’t I heard of you? Do you keep to the shadows? Or do I just never hear the town crier?”

“You must never hear the town crier.” Jack’s eyes squinted when he smiled. “But to be completely honest with you, I don’t know why you haven’t heard of me.”

“Here we are.” they turned a corner and the majestic ships came into view. “Aren’t they spectacular?”

Jack nodded. “Quite. I must say, they’re bigger than I ever expected.”

Portia laughed. “I never imagined that you’d be saying that.”

“But then again, you never imagined meeting me.” Jack grinned back. “Say, what’s that over there? Is that a ship coming in?”

Portia stood on her tiptoes and then nodded. “I think it might be. It’ll probably be docked in a little while.”

“What’s that writing on the side? What’s the name of the ship?” a sinking feeling settled in his stomach.

“I think.” Portia strained her neck. “The, uh, The Veronica? No, maybe Valeria? I’m not sure but I think that’s what it says.”

Jack stomach turned. “The Valerie?”

“Oh yes! That’s it! I see it now.” Portia nodded. “How did you know?”

“That is the ship that our new Princess is on.” Jack smiled, but it was a forced and fake one.

“Oh how perfectly splendid!” Portia clapped her hands. “Do you think I’ll be able to see her?”

“It’s possible. Maybe you can even meet her. Although I must warn you, she’s rather snobbish.” Jack sighed and scrunched his nose.

“You’ve met her before?”she looked incredulously at him. “What’s she like?”

Jack nearly rolled his eyes. “Yes, back when I was a year older than ten, and she’s fairly bratty, but as for looks I suppose one could say she was pretty.”

“What did she look like?” Portia prodded.

“She had blonde curls, blue eyes, and one adorable dimple.” he told her then frowned. Where did adorable come from? “I prefer dark hair.”

Portia gave him a confused look but looked slightly pleased that he preferred the color of her hair over the Princess’s. “Do you think she’ll be even prettier than before?’

Jack scoffed. “Not likely. Bratty girls like her tend to grow up and be very ugly.”

“How old is she?” Portia asked.

“Sixteen I believe.” he shrugged. He scrunched his nose again. Sixteen. The girl was a mere sixteen. I can’t even call her a woman. She’s still just a girl. The girl I’m supposed to marry is sixteen! Imagine that! I’ll probably be forced to go to her afternoon tea and maybe dress up, looking ridiculous. Sixteen is hardly anything! And to think that I am five years older than her. This is going to be worse than I thought.

“Isn’t she a bit young to be marrying you?” Portia put his thoughts into words. “You are the Prince after all and shouldn’t be forced to marry a girl so young.”

It wasn’t actually that odd. In fact it was quite normal for him to be five years older than her, if not strange that he wasn’t older than that. But to Jack, the Princess was still a six year old.

“The alliance must go through as soon as possible. It’s been delayed long enough and it’s time we put Svenland in their place.” Jack repeated what he had been told.

Portia seemed to be satisfied with his answer and moved on to other subjects.

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Ami looked out at the land. The marvelous dry land. Soon she would be meeting the Royal family and would be marrying the Prince. She grimaced as she looked at Carenthia. The land was beautiful but her thoughts of marrying ruined the sight.