20 In the Carriage

The Prince hit his boot hard on the carriage floor, next to Alexa's head. She squinted and rolled instinctively. The coachman understood this as a signal to begin the journey, and it caused the whole car to shake as the maiden fled from the Prince's large hands.

"A Greek mouse!" Although he had a falsely angry expression, his eyes betrayed his fun at the situation.

"It's an earnest conversation, and it needs to be discreet, Your Highness," she said, once again escaping deftly from his fingers, slipping under his arm to the other side, taking advantage of her small size in the narrow space. Her escape techniques were usually outstanding, even for a trained warrior like the Crown Prince, but having no real escape from the wagon was a problem. For now, she just wanted to keep away from the Prince's eager hands.

"Uhn, you really are a sweet little mouse… Besides the quick tongue. But if you came to share my wagon, did you finally decide to reveal yourself to me?" The Prince questioned as he finally used his body to corner the maiden, blocking her escape. "Shhhh… This game is exciting… The hunt… But couldn't you have picked a bigger place to make it even more titillating?"

Matching his words, the carriage went through a hole in the road, and Klaus hit his head on the carriage's ceiling. Alexa took the opportunity to make another escape move. Between the Prince's cursing, threatening the coachman, and Alexa's quick escape, the Prince hoisted her by the eyelets on the back of the maiden's dress with a victorious, wicked half-smile. Another hole in the road threw both against each other.

Klaus parried the maiden's fall by pulling her toward him, and so they fell together in the space between the two opposite benches. The First Prince laughed hard while still suspending her up by the cords of her outer corset. Alexa used both her hands and feet to keep away from the Prince's body. Klaus said,

"No, you are not a little mouse. You're a kitten with puffy mittens!"

When he tried to pull her harder against his body, the maiden plastered the paper over his face with a flat hand.

"I told you, Your Highness, that you should stop treating me like I'm a commoner!"

Klaus needed to remove the paper from his face, and Alexa used this moment to escape and sit on one of the benches, panting and angry. All the effort had made her hands hurt again. She looked at her palms to check if the bandages were blood-stained. This conversation with the First Prince was going to be more complicated than she had imagined.

Alexa caught a glimpse of him checking the paper with a glance out of the corner of her eye. Without wasting time reading the contents, the Prince just tossed it into a corner while sitting next to her.

"Don't you think the same? That this marriage is not good for either of us?" he asked and took her hands into his. "Don't pull them, or I'll crush your hands, I promise. I want to see those wounds of yours."

Klaus started to unroll the fabric around one of her hands, and the maiden protested,

"You don't have the right..."

"I'm a Prince, maiden. You slipped into my carriage. What did you want? Murder me? Rub a paper on my face? None of this will sound good, so act wisely and be cooperative."

"Nor will the news that a Royal groom humiliated his bride in such a cowardly way! By delivering her a note, a not signed note, by the way."

He snorted, exasperated, when he finally took off the long strip of bandage, seeing some bloody spots on it, and then the pitiful state of her palms. He made an expression of disgust and began to roll the fabric again, carefully,

"For God's sake, go see one of the doctors as we arr ... Oh, I forgot, you killed the doctors."

"I didn't kill anyone. The Sovereign Prince was the one issuing the order."

He laughed, actually laughed heartily, and Alexa almost chuckled too, but those deaths weren't funny at all.

"Well, new doctors will arrive. Just stop using your hands, and don't let them get infected. You don't have to be the next to die."

The maiden nodded to his words. After all, he couldn't possibly know she wouldn't die from this kind of injury derived from the use of her gift. People usually confused this with the stigmata some martyrs had, but it seemed the thought didn't even cross the Prince's mind.

"Why did Your Highness do something so cruel to your bride?" she asked, using the moment Klaus focused on the task of redoing the bandage.

"It would be better if Lady Cordelia and her vessels returned where they came from," he said cryptically, not bothering to deny that the note had been his own work.

Of course, Alexa understood the power of such a significant dowry.

"She's a good girl, can't you just take care of her? Her life will be over if she loses everything after coming this far. And it's not her fault, too..."

"Humpf, what are you talking about? What do you understand? Just be quiet; you can't be a maiden of a noble family with this crazy behavior," he grunted, finishing the bandage. "Look at me," he ordered, but his tone had a new, fun tone. Alexa looked suspiciously out of the corner of her eye, which only made him crack a bigger grin,

"What are you doing now?"

"Uhn?" Alexa couldn't wonder what he was thinking, but the Prince just nodded, saying,

"Right. You've been questioned once and done very well, but there are still a lot of questions unanswered. I'm not going to start this now, but I have a question you need to answer now."

"Which one?" she kept her defensive stance at his amused look.

"With my bride and family coming right behind us, how do you intend to justify your presence in my carriage?"

"Uh… Well, I don't need to justify; I just stay here where I am and come back as I came _ if it's not a trouble for Your Highness."

"It's hilarious how you remember the formalities and good manners when it suits you… So be it, you stay in the carriage, and keep your good-girl mask for everyone as I carry this wedding farce forward. Then we can continue our conversation on the way back.'

'Uhn, he really thinks he'll have his way with me. What an arrogant fool,' she only agreed, for as she knew, she could not be seen by Cordelia or others, as he couldn't justify her presence.

"Of course, Your Highness," though Alexa did not like the sardonic smile the Prince gave as he leaned back in his seat, still watching her intently.

Soon they arrived, and Alexa could only briefly see the palace's facade with a beautiful front garden, soon-to-be the official residence of Klaus and Cordelia, Prince and Princess of Kielstadt. But he jokingly smashed her head down on his way out of the carriage, reminding her to stay hidden. Turning to close the carriage door, he flashed a malicious wink, seeming to be having a great time with the whole situation.

Not quite how Alexa had envisioned the whole situation, but she would be more assertive and severe on the way back.

She heard the loud chatter of Cordelia's and the Prince's parents, moving away from the carriage, and sighed, thinking it would be long hours of waiting. She wrapped herself in the traveling cloak the Prince had left on the bench, as it was a cold and misty afternoon. The mantle had his scent, and it was good. She shifted as comfortably as she could on the bench.

The maiden's eyes began to weigh with boredom, and she thought it would be no problem to take a little nap, curling as her body was getting warmer.

"Shhh… Kitten Kitten, you weigh nothing…." Prince Klaus shushed when Alexa woke up in his arms as he carried her into the house. It was night.

"Uhn?!"