14. The old man.

"Would you rather we make love?" He asked. "I told you, I do want you, and if you want it, I'll have you right there on the floor where you're standing now." He said Bluntly. And Neriah was once again grateful for darkness. She would have died if he could see how much she flushed at his words. She knew nothing about the topic. Practically. Only what she'd been told in theory. And some parts seemed disgusting, some painful, and others, others gave her feelings her teachers couldn't quite explain.

"I have never had to force a woman to bed and I don't want to start now."

"Th_thank you." she quickly said. She was starting to think, maybe these barbarians weren't really so bad afterall. Maybe they could be really reasonable creatures if you got to know them. Decent barbarians.

She began toward the door. Warily glancing his way, and when she realized he really wasn't taking a step close to her, she held her breath and bolted for the door.

But she never reached it.

"I said I will not touch you. But I never said I will let you go out of this room." His smirk rose in the darkness, and Neriah felt hate, the kind of hate she had never felt for anyone or anything before in her eighteen years of life.

"You miserable cheat! You gave me your word! You lying conniving bastard!" Tears were starting to form in her eyes. Not because he deceived her, but because unintentionally, she had given him her trust. She had wanted to trust him, believing he was a man of his word. She had put her faith in him and he just betrayed her trust.

"Oh, shut up woman! And stop with the name calling. I am not trying to rape you or something! I'm not letting you go because you are still a spy, remember, you tried to climb over the walls! You are not going anywhere until I've sorted out your real reason for being here. So shut up and stop crying like I am trying to cut your throat."

Oh! Oh, that made a lot of sense.

"But, what more do you need to know?" Neriah asked, confused. She was tired, and dusty, and sweaty, and she felt smelly too. She didn't care a single bit about that disgusting old man she was to marry anymore. All she wished for now was to get back into the comfort of her room, sink into her rose-filled bath and just stay in the water for hours. Long long hours till her skin was pleasantly wrinkled.

"You already know I am the personal maid of the princess, my name is Ne… I mean, Riah. My name is Riah and I'm the personal maid of the princess. She sent me here to check on her chosen husband, Prince Barak. I was not going to harm him."

"Then what were you going to do when you saw him?" He asked lightly. He rested his back on the door and crossed his hand over his chest, like he was sincerely trying to listen to her.

"All I was supposed to do was deliver a message to him when I saw him."

"Where is the message?"

"It's not a written message! It's verbal. And I cannot tell it to you because it is for the ears of the old man only."

She didn't see it, but his brows cringed at her words. "Old man? The king?" He asked, confusion laced his voice.

"Are you dumb or pretending to be?"

"I already warned you, woman! Stop the name calling nonsense. Make your words clear. What old man?"

"Well, prince Barak of course! You think we do not know that he is an old, wrinkled, ugly man who is not worthy of our dear beautiful princess Neriah! And we also know that he already has wives, he just wants Princess Neriah as a trophy!"

Everything went silent again, she was waiting for a response. She was stupid. How could she forget that this man works for prince Barak! She wasn't supposed to be badmouthing him like this! Oh there was no bigger fool than herself. She was certain.

"Er, well, what I meant was…" what exactly did she mean? She didn't know. Yes! She meant what she said, there were no other words to explain how she felt. She did mean those words, but damn, why was he so silent. For the love of the goddess, say something!

And he did.

"Wow! I did not know I had grown old and wrinkled."