Chapter 6

Eugene crossed to the window and looked down at the garden. He had a suspicion about Erin. He was sure she had been in the garden with someone but she had told him she was talking to herself when he had asked her.

Had she been telling the truth? Was she secretly seeing someone? If she was, it had to be one of the household staff. A servant. He would not let her drag the family’s name through the mud for her childish, immature impulses and crushes.

He decided to have her watched even as he thought he saw some movement down in the gardens in the shadows. As his eyes followed the shadow, he saw it separate from the other shadows in the garden and disappear behind the far corner of the castle. She had been with someone. He sighed as he changed into his pajamas and crawled into bed.

An idea hatched in his mind. He had heard of it a few years before and had discounted it then as just a legend but now it seemed that it would be a most appropriate course of action to take. He fell asleep with the beginnings of his plan firm in his mind.

“I must leave for a few days,” Eugene announced the next morning at breakfast.

“Why?” Erin asked.

“I have business I need to go and settle with merchants in the forest. I have left it much too long and it can wait no longer.”

“When will you be back dear?” Loren, Erin’s mother asked.

“A few days. Nothing more,” he said. “I will pack and leave after breakfast.”

“But it’s so sudden, Father,” Erin said.

“I know Erin. It completely slipped my mind and I remembered last night after I spoke with you. Thank goodness I did not forget the date. I agreed a while ago to meet them today. I almost forgot. You will be fine with mother and the servants here. There is nothing to worry about.”

“Okay, but please hurry back father,” Erin said. She did not like her father going away. He did not go away too often but when he did, she was always afraid he would not return.

“There is no need to worry child. I am taking soldiers with me this time. I fear the woods become more dangerous as the years pass and our dear king raises taxes as an answer to every problem.”

The family finished breakfast and Eugene disappeared to their room where he supervised the packing for the trip. When it was finished, he kissed Erin and Loren goodbye and headed out to the stables where his horse was waiting with a team of five soldiers who would accompany him.

He took the captain of the guard aside while the servants secured his belongings and fitted the saddle to his horse.

“I suspect that my daughter is seeing someone secretly because I do not approve of him. I believe she is seeing him in the gardens at night. He must be entering through a secret entrance. I want you to watch the gardens and find out where they enter the castle. Do not arrest them and do not be seen. When I return, you are to report to me.”

“Certainly my lord. It will be done.”

“Good man,” Eugene smiled and patted the captain on his back.

Erin watched her father in the courtyard from her window. She saw him pull the captain of the guard aside and speak with him briefly. As he did so he glanced up to her window. Erin quickly shrank back from the window hoping that her father had not seen her.

She wondered what her father had told the captain of the guard. She had a feeling it had to do with her and she couldn’t push away the feeling that something terrible was going to happen soon. Was her feeling a premonition about her father’s trip? She wondered if she should run downstairs and beg her father to stay. Perhaps the feeling she had was because she was still seeing Lark despite her father’s warning. Seeing him talking to the captain and looking up at her room was perhaps a warning she should heed. Was her father talking to the captain about her? Was he telling the captain to watch her? She felt goosebumps rise on her skin and she rubbed her arms to stave off the sudden chill she felt pass through her.

She stepped back to the window carefully and watched her father mount his horse. Then with instructions to the soldiers that would ride with them, they headed for the castle gate. Her mother stood in the courtyard waving goodbye to her father. She knew her mother hated her father’s trips as much as she did. They always both feared for his return. Their father was ambitious and had not been born into royalty. Yet he had worked hard for the king and been rewarded with the title for the castle and the surrounding lands. Erin sensed her father feared that it could be taken away as easily as it had been awarded which was why he expected only the best behavior from her. His efforts to marry her off to someone were an effort to ensure the continuation of his legacy when he died one day as well as strengthening Erin’s position in the world of royals and the game of politics. He wanted to ensure that these lands would remain in the family after he passed on.

But Erin was still young and headstrong, a trait she had inherited from her father and which frustrated him immensely. She did not want to marry yet and hated being told who she should marry. The men she had been introduced to so far were all boring and none of them interested her. Sometimes she wondered if she was being unreasonable but then she would convince herself otherwise. She knew too that if she agreed to be courted by any man her father arranged for her to meet, her life would be over. She would never be able to go back.

The fact that she had her heart set on Lark now did not help. Lark was so different. So much more the type of man she wanted to be with. He was hardly a man though and she was hardly a woman yet but he was everything she wanted.

Lark listened to her and heard her when she spoke. He saw her, looked at her, into her eyes and her soul. He wanted to know everything about her and would listen to her every word like a child listening to his teacher in class. He learned what she liked and didn’t like in almost every aspect of life she could imagine including the clothes she wore, books, drawings, painting, people and so much more.

Erin learned from Lark too. He was so uncomplicated. There wasn’t much that troubled him and he had an aura of freedom that followed him everywhere. He brightened the day wherever he went, and always made her laugh. When he held her hand, he held it firmly but softly. A true gentleman. His touch was gentle, caring, and kind and he always placed her first in everything.

She taught him about the castle too. She showed him secret passages they explored and got lost in together. She told him who he could trust, who he should avoid, and who he should be wary of.

Even though Lark now lived in the castle and she was able to see him more often, she felt as if a part of her was missing in every moment that she wasn’t with him. Sometimes they would pass each other in the castle and he would wink at her if he was sure no-one else would notice. Other times, if it was just the two of them he would pull her close for a kiss no matter how brief.

He excited her. He never bored her. She didn’t care that he wasn’t royalty. She didn’t care that he was not wealthy. She knew that they would survive somehow if they could marry and be together. But as much as Erin loved Lark, she realized there was only one way that she was going to be able to be together with Lark and that was if they eloped.