The Dark King's Bride (5 page)

             
“Is something wrong, Daniel?”

             
Daniel snapped himself out of his thoughts and focused upon her from where he was nestled. Her noticed, fairly quickly, that her angel-like face had a look on her face to match his conflicting feelings. Inhaling a soft breath, Daniel released it shortly thereafter before speaking up.

             
“Nothing is wrong, Lily.” Daniel replied. His deep voice had a twinge of curiosity still lingering on the surface of it from all she told him. “I just find something a little confusing. Perhaps you can help me with it.”

             
“Very well,” Lily answered, “I will do my best…What has you feeling unsure at the moment?”

             
“It is what you told me a little while ago that has me feeling a little unsure.”

             
“What do you mean?”

             
“I am referring to you telling me about who your parents are.”

             
“You mean Marigold and Radcliff?”

             
“Yes…”

             
“What is so confusing about that, Daniel?”

             
“It is just…In all the times your parents have come to see me at my home…They have never mentioned about having a daughter to me.”

             
Keeping his gaze focused on her, he noticed a brief look of shock form on her face before it softened to a more somber expression. His eyes watched her head start to bow a bit while she spoke up.

             
“That doesn’t surprise me at all, Daniel.” Lily’s tone in her voice drastically changed from being calm to being more disheartened. “My father and mother have always kept me close by to them, never straying far, but it was when I turned twelve that things got even more severe.”

             
“What do you mean?”

             
“For the last eight years…My parents have not permitted me to be outside of the house once the sun would start to descent behind the mountains that are beyond our home.”

             
Slowly, his frustration started to boil over inside once he heard the beautiful woman at his side inform him that Radcliff had been locking her inside of their home once it got dark out from the time she was a young child. He drew in a breath of air in order to calm his emotions, but found it not working at all as his voice revealed them out into the open at the fullest extent.

             
“Radcliff has been locking you up in the same way that a horse in a stall is, keeping you from getting out and running free…Is this correct?”

             
“Yes…That is correct.”

             
That bastard…
His mind flooded with thoughts of anger and resentment towards the very mortal farmer that had been inside his castle, and talked with him in a friendly manner.
He has been treating this poor lady like his personal property, and having her to do exactly what he tells her to.

             
Not only that, Daniel,
The passionate side of his conscience said, interrupting his train of thought, in a coy and serious tone,
but he has had her kept away from you since you started looking for your bride for the last two years. All this time…She has been at his home, hidden and kept away from you.

             
It was that statement that made him realize something very important. This whole time he had been looking for her…Radcliff had been keeping her locked up and away from his sights for the past two years that he had spent looking for his future bride and queen. He could have been married to her at this point and, possibly, had an heir to his throne by this point.

             
Radcliff has done a very grave error to me…He has kept his daughter from anyone marrying her and removing her from his home. I will admit that he has done a great job in keeping her a hidden secret…However…This time…he will not keep her away from me, and what I wish of her: To make her my wife and queen.

             
The faint sound of the wooden doors on the gates to the front of his castle opening up outside of the carriage brought him out of his thoughts, and focused upon the attractive woman sitting beside him. He found her to still have her head down, and possessing an aura of sadness to her due to mentioning about how she had been treated like a caged animal. Becoming overwhelmed with a need to ease this from her, his hand gave hers a gentle yet firm grip, and slipped his fingers amongst hers better.

             
“Lily…” Daniel spoke to her in a caring, gentle way with his deep voice that would ease her conflictions far from her mind while hiding his true emotions that were running through his own. “We are at my home now…Why don’t you take a look out the window, and see it for yourself?”

Chapter Six

             
Catching what her companion had mentioned to her, Lily eased herself towards the edge of the cushioned seat that she was sitting on. One of her hands reached towards the drape that was closest to her, and pulled it to the side.

             
Stretching out before, a massive castle made out of black and dark gray stones stretched to the heavens with fearsome looking gargoyles on each corner of the structure.

             
Oh my…goodness. I never expected the castle to be this large…I imagined it to be a lot less the height that it really is.

             
Lily’s eyes widened with awe at the sight of the place she had been brought to in comparison to the very home that she had left behind in a huff. From her bedroom window back at her parents’ home, she had looked upon the castle on several different occasions when she was able to take in the night sky without her father finding out about it. The sight of it up so close to her though at that very moment made what she once thought of it to completely vanish from the thoughts of her mind.

             
I am actually fixing to leave this carriage on the arm of King Daniel Willows, and enter a world that no many women of my rank get to witness first hand. This seems to be too good to be true.

             
Your mother is one of those women, Lily.
Her conscience interrupted her train of thought with its two cents.
And I am pretty sure that you will be seeing her within the walls of his home in just a matter of time.

             
Why do you believe that?

             
I am sure that you are an intelligent woman that knows what I am saying, and trying to get across to you.

             
Just spit out what you are trying to insinuate to me.

             
Once your father gets home and your mother tells him about you running off, as well as the argument you had with your mother…They will be out here looking for you, and, more than likely, will end up coming here to ask for the king’s assistance in locating where you are.

             
Lily took her rational side’s statement to heart. Her father would indeed be looking for her the moment he found out that she ran off once issuing the statement to her mother she would be spending her first night away from the house, and take part in the village’s festival. She never once thought he wouldn’t come for her when she left the home. Even if she was at the night event that was going to be taking place, Lily knew there was a high chance of her father coming there, and taking her home, kicking and screaming.

             
I suggest that you prepare yourself for what is to come your way, Lily. Your father is coming, and there will be a battle between the man that just took you out of the storm to bring you to a world that, like you said, not many young peasant women have had the pleasure and privilege of and the man that gave you life and has kept you from the night since you were a child.

             
Lily was fixing to retort back to her conscience when one of the front wheels of the carriage hit a bump in the stone path it was traveling on, and her body went to fall to the floor of the carriage. A soft gasp of air left her mouth just as her eyes found herself hovering over the floor of the vehicle. She lifted her eyes up, and found the strong yet caring face of Daniel looking down at her from where she was.

             
“Are you all right, Lily?” Daniel asked, using his strong arms to lift her back up from being so close hitting the hard floor of his buggy and place her beside him on the cushioned seats. “Did you hurt yourself at all?”

             
“N-No,” Lily replied, nervous and softly, “I didn’t hurt myself at all, Daniel.”

             
“I do apologize for not having warned you.”

             
“Not warning me about what, Daniel?”

             
“About the cobble road to my castle home…There is a spot in it where one of the stones sticks out more than the rest, and it causes any vehicle, carriage or cart, which is traveling to or from my home to bounce a little harder than it normally would.”

             
“It is perfectly fine, Daniel.”

             
“Are you sure?”

             
“I am absolutely fine about it.” Lily flashed him a warm, gentle smile from where she was nestled at his side in his luxurious carriage while her voice took on a tone to match the sound in his. “Nothing was hurt or broken…Everything is just fine as it is.”

             
“I must agree with you on that.”

             
“On that everything is fine?”

             
“Everything is fine…now that you are here with me.”

             
The compliment he had made to her caused her cheeks to warm up once more, and cause them to have a light red color dance across her normally really fair complexion. Every time he made a suggestion to her that was based on how she pleased him, physically, in her appearance, it seemed to make her insides melt right on the spot. Lily managed to flash him one more smile before she moved her eyes to the door that was closest to her. She watched it open up, and the hand of Richard to be extended in her direction with the rain coming down around him.

             
“Allow me, Lady Lily.”

             
Finding Richard’s soft command to be gentle and polite, she gave him a nod of her head prior to slipping her hand within his, and removing herself from the dry vehicle and into the pouring rain.

*                            *                            *

              Daniel waited until Lily had eased herself out of the carriage before he stepped out, and rushed underneath the arched entranceway of his home. He leaned his back against the rock wall closest to him, and closed his eyes while a smile started to move across his face.

             
Finally…I am home.
Daniel felt relieved to finally arrive behind the gates of his castle home with his future queen by his side, and just moments away from stepping behind the double, dark oak doors to the side of him that would lead him into his grand foyer.
It is so good to be out of the rain, and have the ability to get dry by the fireside in my own home.

             
I don’t believe that is the only reason why you are so happy to be home, Daniel.

             
Before he could retort back at his conscience, his ears picked up on a sound that caught his full attention: Lily’s angelic voice giggling, happily. Daniel eased his eyes opened, and looked across from him to find the beautiful sight of her smiling from ear to ear, and watching the rain pouring down with the carefree nature of a child.

             
You know what…You are completely right.
A faint smile danced across his face from behind several strands of his long, thick, black hair hanging down in front of his face.
Just the sight of her looking like that after having the rain poured down on her warms my heart and soul.

             
Lily does possess the kind of purity and innocence that only exists once in a mortal’s lifetime. There are not many like her that has existed in the past.