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"Rules?" I scoffed, "I think I understand them plainly. Nothing much has changed aside from my accommodations, I'm still a prisoner."

"Yes, however, now you're to be living in the castle, and so, you must follow my rules."

"Fine. What are they?" I rolled my eyes.

"First, you mustn't leave this castle without my permission, and a guard accompanying you. Second, you will obey my commands, and do as I tell you. Third, you will not try to escape, or the results will be unpleasant for you."

"Just as I suspected, nothing has changed." I scoffed, "Anyways, you said you would answer my questions, did you not?"

"I did indeed, dear. Ask away." he smirked.

"I'll just save us both the trouble of posing a hundred questions and ask only this; What happened that night?"

"Well, after our last meeting I left the castle to handle some business in a neighbouring town, however, due to unforeseen circumstances we had to cut our journey short. We were originally meant to be away for a month, but wound up returning the evening that Christian decided to go against my orders and interrogate you himself. I was headed to the prison that evening when I heard a scream coming from the room you were inside. I let myself in, found you, and took you back to your cell, end of story." he concluded.

"Why had you been going to the prison? And what happened to Christain?" I asked.

"It's no concern of yours why I was going to the prison. And as for Christian's fate, well, I had no weapons on me, and there were no guards in the vicinity to call for, so I told him to leave, and that should he return, he would be executed." he said matter-of-factly.

"You said you returned me to my cell after you'd found me?" I questioned.

"Yes."

"Then who sutured my wounds?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well I couldn't simply let you bleed out." he turned away.

My brows shot up. Had I for once made the King flustered? Was he trying to make it look as though he didn't care about me, when really, he did?

"Why didn't we see each other for such a long time afterwards?" I asked, opting to change the subject.

"Simple, dear, I was bored of you and had war matters to attend to." he answered, his arrogant aura returning.

"Did you? And those matters held off long enough for us to converse every day before?" I smirked.

"You're looking too deep into the matter, darling, what I said was the truth, you were boring me." he huffed.

"Was I? And so, what made you want to enlist me as a mistress?" I raised an eyebrow.

"I grew tired of people harming what was rightfully mine." he shrugged.

"Yours? I'm not yours."

"I'm afraid you're mistaken, my dear, you were mine the moment your regimen set foot in this castle." he smirked, brushing the back of his hand against my face.

"So, in other words, you were concerned for my wellbeing?" I said smugly, swatting his hand away.

"Simply put, my Rose, I don't take kindly to those that have the audacity to touch my possessions. Besides, if anyone is going to touch you it is going to be me" he retorted, letting his hands fall to my hips.

"Whatever you say..." I pushed him away, making for the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked, taking a step towards me.

"Out."

"But I've not yet dismissed you."

"Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I'm dismissing myself. " I said, turning to the door.

My eyes widened as I felt the King directly behind me, his arms wrapped around my waist. I tried to pull away but couldn't, tried to suppress the crimson rising to my cheeks, but couldn't.

"I think, you're escaping from me. Do I make you uncomfortable?" he smirked, his lips right by my ear.

"Exceedingly. But not in the way you seem to think."

"And what way is that?"

"Mon Dieu, arrête ça, tu sais ce que je veux dire!"

"I find it adorable that each time you get flustered you revert to French." he laughed, "You may go if you ask nicely."

"Let me go and I won't hit you with the first object I get my hands on."

"A valiant effort, but I'm afraid you must try harder." he taunted me.

"Connard." I spat, before inhaling deeply, "Please let me go."

"Please let me go..?" he trailed off waiting for me to fill in the blank.

"Please let me go, your majesty." I grunted, the words a toxin to my soul.

"Very good." he said, releasing me.

I ran from the room faster than lightning could strike. There was no way I would stay here, with the King, my enemy, a man I've despised since the beginning. I wasn't in a cell, there was no one watching me, and I wasn't restrained. To me, those were the perfect circumstances to escape. To hell with the rules, and to hell with the King. I made my way through hallway after hallway, until I at last came upon a door leading out. I opened it, to find myself in a garden, vacant of any people. Across the yard, was a tall brick wall, that I was confident I could scale. I looked about the garden, finding a shed. Inside, as I'd predicted, I found a rope. At the base of the wall, I tied a rock to one end of the rope, in order to counteract my weight, before throwing it over.

"Miss Alcott?" I turned at the sound of a deep baritone voice, to find a tall and bulky man looming over me, his black eyes regarding my hazel ones pensively.

I turned back to the wall, trying to climb the rope before the man could catch me, however, I was too late. He grabbed me by the waist, pulling me down, before slinging me over his shoulder almost effortlessly.

"His Majesty warned me that you might try to escape through here. He ordered me to lock you in your room if I caught you doing so." the man explained, as we entered the castle, "And because I get the feeling this won't be the last time we meet, I'll introduce myself, my name is Anthony, I'm the gardener."

"Pleasure. I'm Rosalie." I said apathetically.

After a short time, Anthony stopped at my room, putting me down inside, and locking the door.

"Regrettably, I must tell the King what you've done now." he said from the other side of the door.

I sighed as his footsteps made their way down the hallway. I would have to try harder if I was to escape. If the gardener had been warned about me, then I can assume the entire palace would be on the lookout, making escape much more difficult. A few minutes passed, and the door to my room at last twisted open, to reveal the King, a disapproving look on his face.

"Your first day in the palace, and already you've broken rule number three. Tch, I expected better, my Rose." he said sarcastically.

"Is that all you've come to say?" I folded my arms.

"Seems you've forgotten that those who break rule are punished." he said slyly, stepping forward.

"W-What do you mean?" I asked, my eyes widened and my cheeks red.

"You'll spend the entire day locked in here. And the same goes for every day after this one that you try to escape." he stated.

"Oh." I said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Oh? Did you perhaps have a different punishment in mind?" he smirked.

"Non! Dieu, non!" I replied a touch louder then I'd meant to.

"Alright." the King teased, opening the door, "I hope you refrain from escaping tomorrow, my dear."

Only I did not. Nearly a month went by, and each day I tried again to escape, each time failing. No matter how well thought out my plan was, it always failed. Which, of course, led me to spend much of my time in my room. One such day, I found myself running through the halls of the castle, searching for any exit route I might find. Without warning, my body collided with someone else's, sending us both sprawling to the floor.

"I'm sorry, Miss." I apologized, my gaze meeting that of a frazzled woman, her black locks tied back in a ponytail, a bag of flour slung over her shoulder.

"No worries," she shook her head, "Forgive me for asking, but who are you?"

"Oh, I'm Rosalie, the King's... Uh..." I trailed off, embarrassed.

"No need to finish, I've heard of you." she said, with a sympathetic smile, "My name's Anne. I'm the baker."

"Nice to meet you. Are you ok?" I asked, noting her dishevelled appearance.

"Yeah, I'm just really busy with my children, and a new order that just came in from the King, and... Sorry, I don't mean to bother you with my problems." she blushed.

"No, no, that's alright. Do you need help? I'd be happy to lend my assistance." I asked, wanting to make amends.

"You bake?" she tilted her head.

"Oui. I learned from the best." I smiled.

"Well, if it's not any trouble, I'd love the help." she said, gratefully leading me to the kitchen.

"Alright, so just how bad is this new order?" I asked, tying on an apron and washing my hands.

"It's... Well, a ball, the King is hosting in two days. He needs just about a hundred of every baked good ever baked." she laughed nervously.

"And the King hasn't provided you with any help?" I frowned.

"He told me to enlist the maids, but, well, none of them have much experience and are tasked enough as it is, so I opted to take the work on myself."

"That's very kind."

"Well, maybe so, but now I'm overwhelmed. I fear I won't finish." she fretted.

"You will, with my help. Let's begin with a list." I said, finding a quill and paper sitting on the counter among a mountain of ingredients, "What do we need?"

I was baffled at the amount of things that had been left to Anne to prepare. I doubted we had enough flour in the country to bake everything the King demanded. Once we'd completed the list, we began to tow flour from the storage closet in the basement, to the kitchen on the first flour. After nearly a dozen trips, we were satisfied with what we'd collected, and began the task that was actually baking.

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