White Rose by Gao Yang (best ebook reader for ubuntu .TXT) 📖

Who is this girl? She looks rather so familiar. Have I met her before? Why would there be such a young and beautiful maiden, living outside the palace? I have to know her. I just have to. Chapter 4

 

Back in the palace, all the servants were rushing back and forth to help with the Fall Festival set up while the King was busy, worrying about his son.

 

"Find everyone you can, and tell them to help everyone who isn't finished. We must have the Fall Festival tomorrow at dawn." The king said as he was sitting down on the chair in Prince Charles's room chamber.

 

"You can count on me." The guard said as he disappeared out of the King's sight.

 

Prince Charles was laying in his bed, sleeping. Could he be sleeping? The King thought to himself. He looked at the tall clock in Charles's room, it was already five after noon and half of the village are barely done setting up for the big day tomorrow.

 

"Henry," His Queen said as she entered the room.

 

"Janelle, my darling." He stood up from his chair and walked over to his Queen.

 

"How is he?" She asked, worried.

 

"I've asked one of the guards to go find the doctor and I've asked Percy to go to the Schmidt's residence to get some medications for the doctor to use." The Queen caresses her son's hand, worryingly. "My dear, please don't worry so much. He will be fine." He said as he rubbed her back, comforting her.

 

"I know, but did you order anyone to help with the setting?" She turned her head to look at him and he nodded.

 

"Yes." He replied as he smiled at her. They both turned and looked as their son was laying in his bed.

 

Few hours have passed by like the speed of a cheetah. It was already four, and getting dark outside. People in the village have finally finished with the setting for tomorrow.

 

Isabella was in the kitchen, helping with some of the things. "Isabella, could you fetch your brother to come here?" She heard her father say; she felt very unease as she heard her father's voice.

 

Every time she heard her father's voice, she'd flinch or tense up to the sound of him. So instead of getting herself in trouble like she's done before, she obeyed her father.

 

"Jack? Jack?" She went upstairs to find her brother, hoping to find him in his room. "Jack?"

 

Luckily he was in his room, but he was studying. She knocked on his door, and he opened it. "Father wants to see you, now." She said as she mimicked her her father's tone of words.

 

He nodded.

 

He followed his sister downstairs and their father was standing at the end of the stairs.

 

"Jack? I need to speak to you." Isabella looked at both of them. "Alone." She didn't want to get into any more trouble, so she had no choice but to obey.

 

She walked away until she was finally out of sight, but she kept her ears appealed of listening to them.

 

"Jack, tell me, son." He felt intimidated by his father's tone of voice he was having. "Your sister, did she do something behind my back again?"

 

I would never tell father anything that has happened so far and so for.

 

He promised his sister he wouldn't tell father anything, but he also couldn't lie to his father.

 

"So, has your sister done anything behind my back again?" He breathed in deeply and let it out.

 

"Father, you already know the answer to that question. So why ask me?" His father turned around and quickly pivoted around, about to hit him but he stopped himself.

 

He looked at his father's raised hand, above his head. He knew. "Were you about to hit me, father?" He asked his father and he slowly lowered his hand.

 

"I will ask you one more time, did your sister do anything behind my back?" He said lastly but angrily.

 

There was a pause. Tension was beginning to build in the room. Both of them could feel it, it was as if they were the only two in the house, but that wasn't true. They weren't alone.

 

Jack replied with a sigh. "No. No, she hasn't." He said it firmly, showing no lie in his voice.

 

His father's face softened and simply smiled, it was a fake smile, and Jack knew it. "Very well, then. You may go." Jack walked away and Isabella quickly backed away from her position.

 

Father must suspect something from me. Father doesn't trust me anymore. He doubts me. He doesn't believe a word I say anymore. I've done it. I've done it now. I need to get out of here.

 

"Isabella!" She flinched to the sound of her father's voice and cutting her off from her thoughts. "Come in here, right now!"

 

She walked into the room where her father was present. He glared at her, but she didn't meet her father's eyes. She kept her head lowered. "Yes, father?"

 

"Look at me when you're talking, I'm not the floor." Now she felt stupid for doing that, especially in front of her father. She raised her head, but still didn't meet his eyes. "I said, look at me!" He hollered.

 

She still didn't dare to look at him.

 

"I dare not to." She said as she kept her distance from her father.

 

"Why?"

 

There was a long pause between her and her father. She didn't know how to say because it was only easier to say it inside her mind.

 

I don't want to be yelled at again, nor do I want to get punished again. I just don't like being treated like a little girl.

 

She still didn't respond and her father was getting impatient.

 

"Are you going to answer my question or not?" He said impatiently as he walked up to her.

 

She reluctantly backed away from her father.

 

"Isabella, are you scared of me?" It was as if he had read her mind or read her actions. He stopped in his tracks, seeing how she reacted to him.

 

"Yes, father. I am genuinely afraid of you because I don't want to be yelled again, nor do I want to be punished for my reckless actions." She said as she finally looked at her father. "I'd be lying if I told you that I've never thought about running away, from home, from here. I just want to be free." She waited for her father's reaction to her words, but he didn't do anything, he didn't say anything either. "For the past four years of my life, I've lived in fear and depressed. I'm tired of being pushed around." She said with a teary eye and left from her father's sight.

 

She walked outside to the porch, hoping she could clear her head from the stress she's been holding in for a very long time.

 

I just want to be freed. Is it too much to ask for?

 

She thought to herself repeatedly. She looked around the porch; it was getting dark out but also windy. She went back inside to grab her cloak and wrapped it around her shoulders.

 

She walked down the pathway from her house to the streets of the village. She turned around to look at her house one more time before she left.

 

She was walking along the streets of the village. During the night, there were always a group of men roaming the streets. She kept caution of herself very much distance, though the side streets were long and narrow and she didn't have much space to keep herself from, she did what she could.

 

She walked passed by the bar, where most of those men were. She kept her head lowered, not paying attention to any of them, but one of the men grabbed her by her arm and pulled her.

 

"Hey missy," the man's raspy, drunk voice uttered, so it sounded more like 'ay messy'. She struggled to get out of the grip of the man, but he held onto her arm real tight.

 

"Where you going missy?" The man pulled her back before she could get take one step away form the man.

 

"Please, just let me go." She whimpered as she raised her arm to release from him, but he didn't care or listen to her.

 

"Why don't we spend a little time in Lover's hotel for tonight?" She was disgusted by the man and how filthy he was. She backed away but there was a man already standing behind her.

 

She gasped in shock as she bumped into the man behind her.

 

"Why don't you stay for tonight? I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun together." The man behind her spoke as he wrapped his arms around her small fragile body.

 

"Come on boys, let's bring this mistress to a very special place." She struggled but no one payed any attention to her. "Stop struggling!" One of the men took out a small dagger and stroked her cheek and whispered to her.

 

She stopped as the dagger first stroked her cheek. She watched as the man slowly moved the dagger along her cheek and moving down to her neck, making her more vulnerable.

 

They took her into an alley, outside of the village. "No one can escape from a knife, no matter how big or how small." The man who had the dagger said and he pulled her body close to him.

 

"Let me go, please." She said, the words quivered her, intimidated her to the core.

 

"Oh I don't think I can do that, missy. Not after you and I are in bed together, and you spread your two legs for me to enter." His words made her wanted to dash away, but not with the dagger at her stake.

 

"No, let me go! Help, somebody! Anybody! He-" She screamed for help but the man held her and covered her mouth; she was still screaming but it was muffled.

 

"Shut up!" The man hissed into her ear but she didn't stop yelling for help. "You shut your mouth right now before I slash your throat right here and let you bleed to death." The man threatened harshly.

 

She felt she had no hope for herself now. She should've never left her house after nightfall. Then she heard a voice but she didn't see who it was. "I believe she asked you two gentlemen to let her go."

 

"And who might you, young gentlemen be?" She heard the other two say to the other. She tried her best to listen to their conversations, but her body was very exhausted. She was nearly about to pass out.

 

"I don't like to repeat myself more than once. Let her go." The person said with a firm and stem tone in his voice.

 

The man didn't let her go, instead he holds her even closer to his body. She felt like she was going to suffocate in his arms.

 

"No, I think this missy and I are going to spend a quality time together for tonight."

 

The man wasn't quite convinced that he knew the girl. "Really? Well, then what's her name? If you know her name, I'll let you two go. But if you don't, don't say that I'm a cruel person."

 

The man paused for a long time; he wanted to spend time with Isabella, but he didn't know her name.

 

"Well?" The man flinched at the sound of his voice. "Do you know her name or not?" He asked.

 

She started gaining her conscious and saw