Isn't It Enchanting? - Chapter 8
Picture of William :D
"It's fine," James replied.
"Did we ever bring in our things?" I asked as this occurred to me.
"No, I don't think so," He responded.
"I should probably do that soon," I said, but remained in the seat. I looked over to see James giving me a don't-be-so-lazy look. I smiled, sighed and hopped up, walking toward the door. I walked outside and up a small hill to the stables.
I quickly found Lady's saddle with multiple bags hanging off the sides. I took these bags along with the weapons James brought. I began finding my way back to the front door and ran into William while walking around the corner of the house.
"What are those?" He asked, looking at the bags I was carrying.
"Our supplies. Did you think we came here with nothing?" I responded.
"Well, no, I just" He began, but stopped when he noticed I was smiling.
"We should get inside," I said with a small chuckle.
He followed me inside. I returned to the chair I was sitting in and William brought the water to the kitchen. I placed everything between James and myself. James picked up his bag as I picked up my own.
I searched through it, reminding myself of all the things I brought along. As I came across my journal, I took it out and skimmed through a couple random pages. I found the next clean page in the journal and looked through my bag once again. I pulled out the small bottle of ink and my favorite feather pen.
Beside me, James had picked up his sword and was looking at it with much admiration and pride.
On the other side of me, William was taking a seat in his chair.
I turned back to the journal on my lap, opened the bottle of ink and dipped my pen into it. I then wrote:
The Twentieth of June, 1229.
We've done it. James and I are finally free. However, the past couple of days have been nothing but pandemonium. We were forced to run away earlier than expected due to inconveniences caused by several guards of the kingdom. We quickly made our way out of the kingdom and said goodbye to the lives we knew without looking back and without any regrets. We rode on James' beautiful horse, Lady, for miles and miles until we found a cave to rest in. However, we soon became greatly perturbed as we were attacked by a man by the name of William. He injured James' leg in a sword fight, but apologized without much hesitation. He confessed that he had thought we were animals and invited us to his small cottage for tea. We are now friends and have made arrangements to sleep in his home tonight. James' leg is doing better, but he must still rest as much as possible. I truly hope things begin smoothing out and settling down.
After I finished writing, I looked up from my journal to see James cleaning his sword with a small cloth on my left and William staring at my notebook with an expression of great interest and curiosity on my right.
"I never learned to read," William said quietly.
"Really? How come?" I asked with compassion in my voice.
"I'm not really sure. My parents just never taught me," he answered.
"I see. Well would you want me to teach you?" I asked.
"Would you? That would great! You see my parents read all the time and I kept all of their books. I mean it's really just scribbles to me, but I sometimes like to look through them and imagine what the stories are about. I've always wanted to be able to read them," William explained.
"Well I would love to help," I said, smiling. He smiled back at me, looking into my eyes and everything around me seemed to disappear. James, the cottage. Everything except him and me. I felt my stomach flip from the way he was looking at me. He made me feel wanted. I shook this feeling the second I realized I possessed it, however, and flipped to the very last page of my notebook.
I spent the next couple of hours or so teaching William the alphabet. I showed him all the letters and how you pronounce each one. I went through a short list of some easy words like "Book" and "Bed". He learned most things quickly, however when I began teaching him about the sounds like "Sh" and "Ch", he kept on wanting to read them like "Ss-heh" and "Keh-heh". He sounded very silly when he did this and I couldn't stop laughing. That's when I decided we should resume the lesson tomorrow.
It was beginning to get later and I was starting to get hungry. "Why don't I fix up something for dinner," William suggested as if he read my mind.
"Yeah, that'd be great, Thanks," I said happily. I noticed that James kept quiet and didn't respond. I looked at him to find him carving a small piece of wood with a small dagger. I knew instantly that he was completely ignoring us, but I had no clue whether or not it was on accident or on purpose.
I looked back at William. "Would you like help?" I asked.
"We both know you'll help me whether I want you to or not," he said, chuckling. He already completely understood me.
"True," I responded, smiling. I got up from the chair and walked to the kitchen.
The two of us prepared a stew with chicken, carrots, corn and cabbage. It took almost an hour to do so and by then I was the hungriest I've ever been in my life. I set the table for three while William took the cauldron off the fire and brought it carefully to the kitchen.
"James, dinner is ready. Do you need help getting to the table?" I asked. But James didn't answer. He simply got up without speaking and walked to the table.
While eating our dinner, William and I conversed about what it was like to be each other. I told him all about the kingdom and being a princess and he told me stories from growing up on his own.
James remained silent. It was beginning to irritate me. What was up with him? Did I say something wrong? I couldn't figure it out.
So we finished eating and William and I cleaned up the mess. James found his way to his bed. I found this quite odd considering it wasn't even completely dark out yet. The sun was still setting.
William went outside to feed the horses after we were finished cleaning. I walked over to James' bed and stood over it. I could tell James was avoiding eye contact. "Is everything alright?" I asked in worried tone.
"Yeah, everything's great," He answered in his usual voice, but the look I saw in his eyes tore my heart.
After a moment I asked, "How's your leg feel?"
"It's fine," He said quickly, obviously not wanting to have a discussion at the moment.
"Okay, well get some rest. Good night," I said. I leaned over the bed, intending to kiss James on the lips. However, when he turned to face the other direction, I was left with only his right cheek to kiss. I continued leaning over and pressed my lips gently against his warm, rough cheek.
I walked over to the fire and sat in front of it on the floor. I was so confused. 'We've been here a day. What is with him? Is he just grumpy? He seems almost jealous that I am spending time with William. I'm just trying to make sure we become good friends. Now is not the time to make new enemies. And besides, William is really sweet. It's like impossible to not want to be around him.' I wondered what James was thinking about.
William came back inside a couple of minutes later with a small lantern in hand. The sun had set now and I decided it was time for bed.
I stood up and walked toward the hay on the ground. William did the same and I was sound asleep within minutes as a result of that long day.
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Marie - Thank you! :D
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