chapter 33

lord Zane had put off the lamb a second before the sword was pointed at him.

It was a guard who thrust his sword through the carriage window against lord Zane's throat. Cletus, prince Raymond most trusted guard. He couldn't see clearly because of the intense darkness inside the carriage. So he was not sure if another was physically present or it was only the princess talking to herself.

Patiently he sat on the horse and waited for a torched to be brought. He prayed silently that he was not pointing his sword at the princess or his head might be the ransom for his mistake.

He had heard voices even before prince Raymond ordered him to looked into the carriage because he was driving by it side. But he was not sure if it was possible for another to enter into the carriage half way into their journey without their knowledge. So he kept it to himself until he was ordered to act.

Eleanor panicked. She struggled when lord Zane attempted to take her with him to an unknown destination because she didn't want enmity to evolved between prince Raymond and lord Zane or maybe extend to her father. King Ephraim might be accused of it. That he had a hand in his daughter's disappearance.

The guards had surrounded the carriage on Prince Raymond's order. It was lord Zane that raised their curiosity. He roared his angered out after Eleanor told him to go away and never returned that she is married.

This made the prince called on Cletus to keep the person hostage while the coachmen halted the carriages.

lord Zane's roared was sent into the silent night. Piercing deeper than a blow.

Eleanor and lord Zane were still arguing over who she shall follow without realizing that their carriage was no longer moving. When Eleanor screamed for him to leave her alone. It only confirmed her husband's doubt who was almost at her door that someone was with her.

"Eleanor step down". Prince Raymond spoke with a commanding tone. He looked inside the carriage thoroughly but he saw no one other than Eleanor.

"who were you talking to?". He asked her.

"No one" she lied.

Prince Raymond closed the distance between them that the was no space behind her. She had to leaned on the carriage. If the was another space she would have drifted backward the more. She was still trying to figure out what he was doing.

"who were you talking to?". He asked her again with a stern look and hoarse voice.

Eleanor shut her eyes at their closeness. She began to shivered. The guards were looking around the place and in the nearby woods if the person had escaped there.

"I… wasn't.. talking.. to ..any… anyone". Eleanor said in a low shaky tone.

Prince Raymond was not ready to take that. He was certain she was talking to someone.

"Its either you are calling me a liar or my ears are not functioning". He was becoming angrier.

"I shall asked you for the very last time Mrs. Eleanor Raymond Edward Charles James".

Eleanor opened her eyes to look into his. The torches of burning light held by the guards granted her wished. She was confused who Mrs. Raymond was.

She shrugged her shoulders at the names. It sounded strange to her hearing. Her ignorance of those names was written all over her. "They earlier you know your new identity the better for you". The prince countered her feigned ignorance.

"I am still Eleanor Ephraim Alexander Wilson". A tiny voice said in her head. The latter names sounded like hers. She would respond to it even in her sleep.

Prince Raymond didn't have the patient with her. He held her hair and threw her on the ground. Kate ran out of the carriage she was peeking through. She covered Eleanor on the ground. Still on the position.

"My prince. Please whatever punishment who mean to give to her. I shall bear it for her. Please just don't hurt her. Let me take the punishment for my lady". She cried. Eleanor wept.

She never knew how loyal Kate was to her until now. She was grateful to her. "thank you" she whispered to Kate.

"So I am doomed in this prince's hand". Eleanor thought. She was weighing her thoughts whether or not to accept the offer of the demon and disappeared from here.

If the prince was like this. Then she shall surely die if she get to his kingdom where none would be there to save her from his hands. Queen Margaret had informed her that no magic can penetrate the prince's kingdom. She hissed.

She remembered she had told her father and queen Margaret that she was going to marry her husband. She wept the more. She must keep to her words.

"prince Raymond hurled Kate to a near distance. The guards held her in place. It was as if they didn't know their prince. Perhaps he had changed from what they knew him to be.

Duke Charles came and pleaded with the prince to let the princess be. He promised to get the information from her for him.

Prince Raymond ordered one of his guard to continue on the journey with the Duke. The Duke was displeased at his respond.

"Go Duke. This is not our kingdom. You don't ordered me to do nothing. I do what I wished, when I wished".

The Duke didn't want any further insult. The prince had insulted him twice already at the course of this journey back in their kingdom. Before they sailed on their trip. He didn't want more so he went with the guard into a carriage and they drove off. Only that he pitied the poor innocent girl who was at the receiving end of his aggression.

"If you don't start talking we shall stayed here all night" he turned to Eleanor who was dazed at his respond to the aged man. She didn't know who he was. She now resolved in her head that prince Raymond was a beast.

He dug his hands again into her hair and yanked her up from the floor. Eleanor was in pains. Deep pains. The physical pains and humiliation before their subjects was nothing compared to the pains in her heart.

If king Ephraim was not her father. She would have cursed him for putting her through this hell but she forgave him anyway.

"If my father had not granted you this opportunity, you would have regarded me like the princess that I am. You would have greeted me with a bow and with your hands behind your back. You humiliates me before your servants and my maid for what?".

Her words was calmed and questioning. Her eyes was looking into his eyes without blinking.

"What man is it that does not respect his wife?. That would not listen to her speak or asked her things nicely. That would intentionally raised his hands against her when he had never hit himself when he is wrong. Such man is cruel and a coward. He is worse than a beast".

Her words were opening up wounds in the prince's heart. He was gritting his teeth at her. Eleanor didn't give a damn. She shoved his hand from her hair. Her head was recovered with her hair still intact but her head was aching seriously.

Prince Raymond was mad at her arrogance. The guts she had to looked him in the eye and uttered such nonsense.

But the was an element of truth in what she said. He would have been lenient in his speech with her and awarded her with all the respect a woman deserves and even more that comes with her title. Even though the prince's kingdom was rich and powerful. It was nothing compared to Golden Hill. Golden Hill kingdom is richer than all the nearby kingdoms.

Sadly, princess Eleanor and prince Raymond met and spoke to themselves for the first time in their lives on the ground of marriage. To some this would have been a blessed alliance. It wasn't for this two blue bloods. He hated her. His father forced him to marry her or his place as a crown prince shall be given to his younger brother.

He heard her called him a beast. It touched him. It hurts him. He was not a beast. But she was the reason his happiness was compromised and his father forbade him to marry the love of his life until he marries her. For her he was ready to claimed the title. A beast.

"The earlier you start acknowledging that I'm your husband, the better for you. I wouldn't have you disrespect me like this again. Not now. Not ever".

"And you feel I don't deserved to be respected by you". Eleanor didn't wait for him to land.

"You shall hear nothing from me until you start treating me right. I deserved to be treated right. You are rude and mean…." Eleanor was not minding her words. She was angry. She was ready for anything that might happened next.

Queen Charlene and queen Daniella used to say things to her. Terrible words that made her cried out her eyes in her room and on her bed. That was all it ever was.

None had hurt her physically before. Only the enemies who wanted her head. Why would her husband treat her like a slave. Even slaves deserved better.

"You are not man enough and you are not yet ready for marriage". She blast her husband. The pains on her head was becoming over bearing. She dragged herself and lean against the carriage again.

She didn't know where that came from. The words. Even she was not ready. Three minutes to their marriage she didn't know she was going to get married. She would have run away. She knew she too was not ready.

Prince Raymond was boiling. He was not going to take that from her. He ordered that the guard should flogged her with a whip.

None of the guards had the mind to flogged his new wife for something he would have asked her nicely. Without having to dug his hands into her hair and throw on the floor not minding if she would hit her head on a rock.

He should have been understanding and gentle. The guards believed the lady was not rude. She has a good heart. Their prince would have gotten the information he wanted from her rather than treating her like she was a nobody when she herself was also a royalty with guards like them at her command. None of the guards could tell their prince that he was wrong in his approached.

They knelt before him. All of them determined to disobeyed him before the princess and her maid. The same way he disgraced the princess before them.

Prince Raymond stared daggers into his guards. They looked down into the earth on their kneeling positions. Some of them who was bearing the torched lights were still holding firm to it.

He snatched the whip from Cletus. He was disappointed that they refused to carry out his order. Then he shall do it himself.

Kate ran in on the first whipped. It wiped across Kate back. She screamed out loud and dropped on the floor.

Eleanor didn't move. She wasn't crying. She was still and pale. Prince Raymond lifted the robe again. Seeing how unshaken she was. He paused his hands in the air. She didn't voiced. She was staring into his eyes.

"Talk". He clenched his teeth and proceeded in whipping her. lord Zane appeared and held the whip. The guards flinched. Their heart beat increased. "Where did he come from". They questioned but only in their heads.

Lord Zane made the whip withered in the prince's hand. They were not anywhere near the Mistletoe kingdom so lord Zane's magic was hundred percentage viable against them.

He looked at Eleanor. She was pale and red from all the troubles. "All this is caused by this ill mannered prince" he concluded in his head.

"How dared you and.." he looked at lord Zane from his head down.

He was wearing all black. Only his platinum hair was dangling in the light coming from the torches. "who are you?". The prince didn't flinched. He shouldn't, he was the prince. He was brave and courageous.

"Who are you?". He asked the demon again determined to crushed him like an ant if the need arise. This time louder than the first.

The demon never said a word to him. Lord Zane's anger was giving him heartache. Eleanor was making him suppressed it.

"Why did you destroyed my whip?. Where did you come from?. I am certain you were the one she was talking to in the carriage but she refused to say". He smiled a wicked smile and withdrew his sword from one of his guards who were now upstanding.

"You came and stayed in a closed carriage with another man's wife. My wife". He said spinning the sword in his hands.

"What were you thinking? What do you want?. Have you defiled her already?. She seems at peace with you. All this while, she had chosen to protect you by denying your presence with her in the carriage".

As the prince was ranting. lord Zane was busy looking at the head of Eleanor. Her scalp was bruised because of too much pressure exerted on her hair by prince Raymond.

Some how Eleanor felt relieved as lord Zane was rotating her head with tenderness to see the harm the prince had caused her.

The demon was fumed with anger. He was going to crippled the prince for being so inconsiderate. He understood the was no emotional attachment between them but that doesn't mean he should be unfair to her. His actions towards Eleanor was clearly inhumane.

Eleanor was pleading in her head on his behalf. Lord Zane was not understanding why. He was not going to have this rascal tortured his love in the name of marriage. lord Zane turned around and glare at the prince like a lion.

Prince Raymond laughed. "You were talking to a boy who is still sucking his mother's breast". He said that to angered the demon the most because he refused to say a word to him and was now glaring like he was a subject who knows too well than to challenged or speak vaguely to a royalty.

But then he remembered how he couldn't find him in the carriage earlier and how he appeared before them all of a sudden from nowhere. "You practice magic. That was why you were able to appeared and disappeared before us".

Prince Raymond was poking further. Expecting a fierce reaction from lord Zane. But lord Zane was more discipline. To the point of controlling his angered in time like this where his patience was being tried. Eleanor words was breaking him. Making him appeared weak and vulnerable. A mere human was pinching his ego.

Prince Raymond points the sword against the demon chest. The demon walked closer. The prince sword withered as he closed the distance between them just like the whip withered.

Lord Zane's eyes had turned red. He was clenching his fist. Prince Raymond stood up to him. He was not going to back down or let this strange Being intimidate him. Eleanor held lord Zane's hand from behind. It was as though she poured cool water on him.

When prince Raymond saw her hands on his, he became furious and jealous. He assumed they might have been in a romantic relationship before he came into the picture. He saw how lord Zane soften at her touch. A mere touch.

"Will you let your lover have his way with you before me". He asked Eleanor sternly. And raised his hand to slap the demon. Lord Zane held his hand.

Prince Raymond tried to loose free. But the demon held him still. His guards all drew their swords.

lord Zane gently pushed Eleanor into Kate's arm. Away from the reached of prince Raymond.

He fling prince Raymond. His guards took hold of him and prevented him from falling. He shook their hands off him and collected another sword from his guard.

He thrust at the demon. He dodged. Prince Raymond kept attacking him. lord Zane didn't fight back. He was avoiding instead.

"Let this be the first and the last time you shall hurt her" . lord Zane finally spoke. He voice was dreaded. Every other person there were affected by the voice. Even prince Raymond paused for some time.

"or what shall happen". Prince Raymond taunted when he recovered his voice.

Eleanor buried her face on Kate's shoulder. She started talking to lord Zane in her mind.

"please lord Zane go away. I can face whatever he shall throw at me. Don't hurt him I begged of you. This is my father 's wished that I stayed married to him".

"Eleanor looked at what he has done to you just now. I can't stand to see you in so much pains and not punished who put you through it". lord Zane spoke to the hearing of Eleanor only.

"I don't know why my father believed so much in him. Please leave us alone". Eleanor was having migraine from prince Raymond's cruelty and from having to keep a conversation with lord Zane in her head.

"I can't leave you here. I can't let you go with him. I might be a demon but he is the monster. I won't forgive myself if I leave you in the hands of this monster to suffer".

He went to where Eleanor was standing and held her hands. Eleanor told him to let go of her. Prince Raymond flung his sword at him. He waved his hands and the prince was seen on a near distance. The guards ran to their prince.

Eleanor was sharing gaze with lord Zane. His red eyes was gradually turning to the black opal she knew his eyes to be. She was lost in the cared and tenderness his eyes held for her.

The pains she was feeling flee away. "My saviour" . She voiced out subtly to him. He was always there to rescued her from the danger she might found herself.

She remembered when she told her father that nothing good can come out of a demon. She was sorry. Lord Zane was different in many different ways.

She placed her hand on his chest. Lord Zane gaze follow her hand there. Eleanor gulped and remove her hands when she felt all eyes where on her.

Her gaze shifted to prince Raymond whom his guards helped to his feet. Eleanor wanted to walked up to the prince and asked him to stop this already.

lord Zane blocked her path.