To Stand Beside Her (5 page)

“Okay,”
Nalick
responded
,
taking the bait
,
“
a
re you the woman that I should marry?”

“
Probably, but
it is not going to happen
,”
Leila
responded.
Leila had reached marriageable age several years ago, but after Erich’s death, marriage held no interest to her.

“And why not
?
” he inquired.

“Because in order to have a real marriage, both people need to be willing to marry each other.”
Leila looked him up and down.
He was handsome, but he was also an arrogant jerk.
“I am not willing to marry you.”

She turned on her heals and walked back to the two men in the back of the room.
She could see the laughter in their eyes.
More than likely
, Leila thought,
Nalick has never been told no before
.
Well
, there
is a first time for everything.
She smiled nicely at the two men.

“Now if you could graciously escort me back to the jail
,
it would be appreciated.
I have something I need to pick up before I leave Lexia.
I would not want to get lost on the way,” she added
,
winking at the two grinning men
.

“I don’t think you understand,” Nalick said
harshly
,
coming up behind her.
“As king, I don’t need to ask.
And in the position you are in, I don’t think you can exactly refuse.”

“See
,
that’s the thing about people like you,”
Leila
turned to explain with
dis
d
ain
in her eyes.
She
did not back away from the angry man
twice her size
only feet away from her. “You
think you don’t need to ask, when a person in your position
,
more than anyone else
,
should be asking, especially a question like marriage.”

Leila walked to the door and opened it
herself
.
The two men quickly followed as
she
walked out of the room
,
leaving a stunned Nalick to watch her walk away.

“This way,” one of the men said.

“Where to now?”
Leila
asked.
They
were not
lead
ing
her to the jail.

“The jail is no place for a lady,”
the taller
of the
two
me
n explained.
He led her to a staircase and up three flights of stairs.
Leila was in a part of the
palace
she had never seen before.
The man walked
to
a door
and unlocked the room.
“By the way
,
I am Theo and this is Macarius,” he indicated to the man next to him.
“If you should n
eed anything, knock on the door
.
”

“Sorry
,
Miss,” the other man, Macarius
,
said as he began to wrap a chain around her
waist
.
He almost seemed to blush
,
wrapping his arms around her.
He then locked her wrists to the chain.
“The king’s orders,” he apologized.

“So he is not
as stupid as I thought,” she responded.
Both men smiled.
“I suppose if I asked to have these chains removed that would not be part of the
anything
you could do for me?”

“No,” Theo replied as he opened the door
,
“
y
our friend should be inside.”

“Thank you,”
Leila
smiled at the two men.
They were just following orders and not to blame for her situation.

Leila prepared to be thrown into a
windowless
single cell, but t
he
lavish suite
was not what she expected.
It was ornately decorated in hues of purple and gold.
In the middle of the room was a set of couches and chairs covered in silk.
Over in the left corner was a table with six chairs.
Fresh fruit and baked good
s
were on the center of the table.
On each side of the room there were doors.

The room to
the right was a bathing room with
,
of course
,
no windows.
She walked to the door on the left and it
was
a bedroom.
There
,
lying curled up
on the bed
,
was Kay
in a deep sleep
.
Leila walked over and pulled the blanket up around Kay.
Quietly, she began to rearrange the furniture
to pile
everything high enough to be able to see out the window.
Though the windows would make a good escape, Leila knew that Kay did not have the physical strength to scale the wall
and with chains neither could she
.
She would need another plan to get them out. Leila tested
the
chains while thinking as she sat up near the window.
The fresh air blew in and reminded her that she was now a caged bird.
Leila sat her head down on the window sill
and
gazed at
the stars
.
I will only close my eyes for a brief moment
, she thought to herself.

C
hapter 3

“Miss,” a voice called to Leila
,
as she felt a soft tug on her leg.

“Miss
!
” the voice called again.

Leila
slowly opened her eyes.
She
gazed
around
.
H
er head
was
on a window sill balanced on a chair on top of a table.
Gradually
,
everything came back to her.
It wasn’t a dream after all.
From the window she could see the whole north section of the city
of
Lexia
.
Beyond the
city’s
gates
was home.
As
Leila
looked out the window,
she could see the sun was part
way up in the sky already.
She looked down to see the man
,
Theo
,
from the night before staring up at her waiting for her
reply
.
Leila glanced to the bed
.
Kay was not there.
Quickly
,
Leila
hopped down and stood face to face with Theo
,
startling the young man
.

“Where is she?”
Leila
demanded.

“She is meeting with the priests
,
” Theo assured Leila
,
hands up at a surrender
.
“
S
he is safe. I
was sent here to wake you and also bring you to the priests.”

“Why?”
Leila
asked.

“I don’t know, my lady.”
Theo
shrugged his shoulders
,
“Nalick ordered it, and I am
generally obliged to follow my king’s
orders.”

“I am not,”
Leila
responded
,
walk
ing
into the next room.
Theo followed behind her.
“If you would be so kind to send my reply
to him
,” she smiled at Theo,
“it
is no.
I don’t take to
o
well to be given orders.
”

“Um, I am not quite in a position to be telling the king such things,” Theo began to turn red.

“Well
,
in that case, just send him her
e
to ask me himself
.
I have no problem telling him no.
Maybe if a few more people would tell him no, he would learn to be a nicer person
.
” Leila
walked over to the table and grabbed an apple
. Then she realized that her wrists were still locked to her
waist
.
She set the apple back down.
“This might a bit of a problem for me,” she said to Theo
,
indicating to the chains.
“Would you be so kind as to unlock these?” she asked sweetly.

“Well, I am not
supposed
to remove those
.
” Theo did not want to tell her no
either
.

“Theo, I am not going anywhere without Kay.
So
,
you really think a few chains would stop me from leaving if I so chose?
Please just unlock these so that I can eat and bath
e
.
After that
you can
lock me back up if you choose.
Besides, if you stay here with me, then technically I am not alone,
” Leila
bartered with him.

“Well,” Theo
stared
at her closely.
“You promise not to run away?
You will stay right here in this room?”
S
he nodded her head
yes
.

Leila
waited
as Theo knocked on the door
to open it
.
He stepped outside the room
momentarily
and then returned
with a key
to unlock
her wrists and the chain around her
waist
.
Leila
briefly stood and stretched her arms
before
walk
ing
over to the bathing room.
Theo looked like he didn’t know if he should follow.

“There are no windows in this room,”
Leila
reassured him, “But if you still don’t think it is safe to leave me alone, by all means, come on i
n
.”

Leila had never been shy.
In her line of work, one would use any way possible to accomplish an assignment, and the female body could be very persuasive.
The hint of watching her bath
e
turned Theo an even darker shade of red.

This poor man,
she thought to herself.
I hope I don’t get him into too much trouble.
Leila walked into the bathing room and started the bath water.
She
left the door
open
a crack as she began to undress.
She quietly slipped into the warm bath water.
After falling
asleep
, Leila
did not have a new plan to leave th
e
pal
a
ce
and the longer she stayed
,
the harder
it would be to get
her inexperienced friend free.