Rosella pg. 2

“Hold on a moment,” she said, running up to the loft, where the extra apartment was.  As she opened the door, she saw her father.  He stared at her in shock.  I must look a fright to him, she thought, with a bloody nose, several bruises, and dirt all over me...

     “Rosella!  Who did this to you?  Are you alright?”  he asked, looking genuinely worried.

     “Oh.  I ran into a door and fell – nothing a bath can’t fix – but right now, Ben and I are going for a ride.”  Rose had forgotten her manners in her haste to get downstairs.

     “Benjamin? You mean the young page?” the king asked.  Rose nodded.  “What are you doing with that boy?  You should be attending to your studies.  Look at you!  You look like a vagrant girl!  Are you sure that boy…” he trailed off. 

Rose whirled around.  Ben had come up the loft, carrying a metal bar.  He looked like he had just been caught robbing a bank.  Rose turned back to her father, and gasped, seeing the look on his face.  He thought Ben had hurt her, and was trying to once again!  The king ran at Ben, intending to kill him – or at least maim him.  Ben stopped cold, turned, and fled toward the other side of the loft.

“Coward!  How dare you touch my daughter!  Come face the consequences!  Coward!”  he bellowed, pulling out his sword.  Why is he overreacting so? Rose thought desperately, trying to get her father to stop.

“Father, stop!  He didn’t do anything!  Father, he’s unarmed!  FATHER, NO!”  Rose cried, to no avail.  She looked around, desperate to find something, anything, which would save Ben from her father’s unreasonable wrath.  She spotted the metal bar Ben had dropped. 

Crude, but do-able, she thought, rushing to pick it up.  She ran back to her father.  He had Ben backed up against a corner, about to strike.  As the sword came down, Rose jumped in front of Ben and thrust the metal bar up to stop the weapon.  The momentum pushed her back, forcing her to lose balance and land on Ben.  He let out a surprised “umph.”  The metal clashed.  The king stared at his daughter in shock. 

“He did nothing, Father.  I swear!” Tears were streaming down the princess’s cheeks.  She looked at her father and shifted her weight to get up.  She heard a grunt.  Rose had forgotten that Ben was underneath her, and had just accidentally elbowed him in the gut.  She quickly rolled into the hay, and stood to face her father, the bar still in her hand.

The king was dumbstruck. 

“He is innocent.  It was my fault.  I wasn’t paying attention, and ran into the door.”  The king regained his composure, and, with a somewhat hurt expression, said, “I forbid you to see him again.”  He then walked away.  Ben still lay in shock on the floor.

“You okay?” Rose asked him, helping him up. 

“Huh? Oh, yeah.  But what about your father?”

“What about him?” Rose asked.

“He said we couldn’t see each other.”

“Oh…. Um…”

“Rosella! Get down here!”  the king called.