Ever Ever After - Chapter 33

Clint immediately returned to the Outer Castle by hailing a carriage. When he jumped off the wagon and entered the Outer Castle he saw Ailea heading to the stables while holding carrots from a distance.

He had been thinking about Ailea on the ride back and had this sudden urge to call out to her, somehow. His heart thumped too. Odd. But he didn’t want her noticing that she was alone with a drunken man in the middle of the night, so he’d gone straight to the bedroom.

He ran out swiftly when he heard the screams outside.

The sound came from the stables and he rushed to the barn frantically, his face full of worries. He saw Ailea trying to feed the horse standing back in surprise.

This woman… She truly had a way of surprising people for nothing. Irritated, he turned back around but he heard Ailea’s sweet voice.

“I was just practicing… Let’s be friends. What do you say?” she spoke warmly to the horse.

Clint looked at Ailea again in the stable. She was trying to get close to the horse.

Today’s party was a gathering of the best high social-ranking women in the country and qualified to enter and leave the Imperial Castle at their own pleasure.

Ailea was the daughter of a war hero and a woman engaged to the Crown. Clint thought she’d have tremendous presence by her mere background alone, yet she wasn’t there, she was attempting to befriend a horse by calling it a wrong name. And… she was wearing a plain maid’s uniform. Even a plain maid fared better than her.

Ailea was living alone in this castle and in a state of disarray without protection from the man she was engaged to.

Just thinking about her current predicament, anger boiled from within.

Since he heard about Lawrence’s plan to throw Ailea to the side—not that Lawrence said it bluntly—Clint was concerned about Ailea and what would become of her. He was a good wandering playboy; a man who couldn’t be faithful to his family. He knew he’d only hurt his wife.

But maybe it’ll be different with Ailea.

Right?

Wouldn’t it be better to have him as her companion than to be left alone in this place without anyone to watch over her? But most of all, Clint worried about her. What would happen to her, to Ailea should he deny the emperor’s order to marry her? Death seemed plausible.

“Velvet?”

Ailea called the name of the horse, snapping Clint from his thoughts.

“It’s Julian,” Clint inadvertently corrected the name Ailea called freely, staggering slightly. Fuck. He was drunk. Still.

Ailea looked at him. She was startled and lost her wits. She thought no one would be here at this time of the hour. Why was Clint here…?

Clint staggered for the haystack and laid down on the hay; he made a hand gesture to Ailea.

“Come ‘ere,” he said in a drunken stupor.

“That’s impolite.”

Clint chuckled. “Please come here, my fair lady.”

When he fixed his words and laughed mischievously, Ailea sighed and moved towards him. When she neared closer, Clint grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards the hay, towards him. In consequence, her body fell on top of the hay.

“…Have you had much to drink?” Ailea asked not in the least bit surprised.

When alone and dragged by a drunken man… and laying beside him… she thought she’d be afraid, even for a little bit. It was not the case.

“What do you wanna do after befriending the horse?” Clint asked.

“Y-yes? Um…” Ailea stammered.

“You wanna steal him?”

“That’s…”

He was merely guessing, though. Looking at her shaking and quivering eyes, had she truly planned on running away with the horse? Clint smiled bemusingly. How bold of her to run away with a knight’s horse.

Though he did wonder her far she could escape with a horse with her slender body alone. Euliana Castle was far from here and it’d take two to three days for the best knight riders to ride their horses day and night. And the road was a dangerous path even for men. Clint didn’t want to imagine what’d happen to Ailea if she journeyed in the abode alone.

Didn’t she know the world was a scary place? Had she forgotten that she was a woman?

What a strange girl…

“Do you know what will happen if you steal a knight’s belongings?” worried, Clint asked with a grimace.