Rose could not dwell on the missing man. She had more pressing matters. The blonde pulled her palm from the matted yellow-turned-crimson fabric and examined it.
While the shallow cuts on her fingers from the reverse side of the blade were barely noticeable, her palm was oozing generously. Time had not seemed to ebb the blood's flow. Rushing back into her room, the princess went to her vanity and found a long piece of linen that was used to tie her hair back at night. It was soft and thick.
'The perfect bandage.' She wrapped it gently around the wound. 'I will get Caitlyn to get some medicine for me in the morning. In the future, I will have to remember that the metal end is the sharp one,' she chided herself sarcastically. It was an incredibly foolish error, and she knew it.
It took a moment of tinkering to get the bandage wrapped properly. Doing things one-handed always made them twice as hard. At last the woman was able to finish tying the band with the help of her teeth into a suitable knot. 'It will do for now.'
Satisfied with her tourniquet, Rose entered the closet and searched through its contents. The room was big but not overly large, with a few trunks that were sitting open after the soldiers' search.
'At least they were gentle with my things,' she noted. Yet, she was frowning. The strange hooded figure was nowhere to be seen.
"You can come out," Rose said tentatively. "The men are gone."
'Did he vanish?'
When no answer came and no one materialized, Rose could only shrug. There was no other place for her to look. The soldiers had searched everywhere. The blonde exited the closet, disappointed.
'What's wrong with me? I should be relieved, pleased even! He's not my problem anymore, right?'
Yet, part of her was still sad. In a most unladylike fashion, the princess returned to her bed and flopped onto it with a grunt.
Her eyelids fluttered shut. 'I guess he's really gone…'
"Comfortable, Princess?" a voice asked quietly.
The blonde's eyes snapped open. Lifting her head, Rose peered toward her sitting room and saw a shadowy figure obstructing most of the doorway.
Though the darkness below his hood was impervious, she swore she could sense his wide grin of amusement.
Rose hid her surprise at his entrance with a mask of indifference. Inside she was elated, but the girl wondered if he had seen her unceremonious descent onto the bed. It was safe to assume he had.
Rose dropped her head back onto the pillow. With her right arm, she motioned in the air to the gaudy yellow dress she had been forced to wear in order to walk the castle grounds. It was very becoming, but also very cumbersome.
"How could anyone be comfortable in this dress, I ask you?" She grunted again as she sat up on the bed, all pretense of decorum gone in the action.
"I could help you change, but I fear that would be inappropriate." There was still humor in his voice, and Rose sensed the words were a jest and nothing more.
She looked at him at him again and the corners of her mouth turned upward. Silver was suddenly sitting back at her vanity. However, Rose hadn't seen him move to cross the distance.
"That would be very inappropriate indeed. I shall just have to suffer until my lady-in-waiting returns," she said ruefully.
The Guardian stroked his chin. "I heard you sent her away until morning."
Rose pressed her lips together. What he said was true. "Then I will have to be a long-suffering lady."
There was a long, awkward pause.
"Why didn't you tell me you were the princess?" Silver asked.
"How did you get into the sitting room from my closet?" Rose inquired. Their questions overlapped, and then both stopped and waited for an answer.
"You first." Rose pressed. "How did you get out of the closet without being seen?"
Silver chucked, "I would have thought you had already guessed." The intruder tilted his head meaningfully.
Recognition dawned on the princess's face. "You used the hidden door. I'm impressed you found it." She nodded her approval.
There was in fact a narrow passageway in the back corner of the closet. It led from the princess's quarters to her lady-in-waiting's chamber in case the two needed to traverse between rooms without being seen by the visitors in the sitting room.
The passageway also had a small bench if the ladies needed a place to hide during troubled times. When not in use, the entrance on each side was well hidden by the stonework on one side and a false back on Caitlyn's armoire on the other. Rose's admiration was genuine.
"When I heard your warning—thanks for that by the way—I was able to find the exit fairly quickly. I wasn't sure if the guards knew of your hidey hole, so I slipped on through the passage. I hope you don't object, Princess." He bowed his head slightly.
It was the second time Silver had called her that, but the obvious amusement in his voice caused the name not to rankle her as it usually did. In fact, she almost enjoyed the familiarity with which he said it. From his lips, it sounded like a term of endearment, not a title.
Rose was very glad he had returned so she could explore the mystery of these feelings. Maybe she would finally discover why her body and mind refused to betray the intruder.
Unbeknownst to the princess, Silver had actually tried to leave. He had hoped to slip out of Caitlyn's window unnoticed. While the sitting room and Rose's bedchamber both faced the garden, the lady-in-waiting had a view of the battlement and inner courtyard. The Guardian would leave the young woman in peace, as he should have long before.
However, his plan had been quickly thwarted. The ground below the other woman's room was so thick with guards that an anthill would have been less busy. The window in the sitting room had yielded similar results. Silver wondered if his eyes were deceiving him.
'There is no way there are this many soldiers in the castle,' he had thought. That is when he began to wonder if Hanna had trapped him herself. 'Sneaky Fate, I told you she was not my type…'
It was at that moment when he had returned to find the girl flopping on her bed like a fish. The action was so endearing that he had been unable to remain silent.
Coming back from his thoughts to the present, the Guardian hummed quietly.
"Now I have answered your question…" Silver let the words hang in the air. "Why didn't you tell me you were the princess?"
The Guardian pointed his index finger at her accusingly. Rose found his lack of awe and respect refreshing. No one dared to speak to her in such a manner if they wished to live.
The lady shook her head and gave a half smile. "Why didn't I tell my captor I was the princess? I don't know." She responded sarcastically as she tapped her finger to her chin. "Would it have made any difference?"
'No,' he thought. "Of course," he answered as if it were obvious.
The blonde dipped her head. "Well then, allow me to introduce myself. I am Rose, the adopted daughter of King Rhodri, and I do not consider myself a princess. It's everyone else who is the problem. They insist on using the title."
Silver's eyes flashed, and he could not shake the feeling something important had just been said. He needed time to think, but he would have to do that later. For now he was in the pleasant company of a beautiful lady.
Even if he was trapped here by a Fate, he could think of far worse places to be. The Guardian tipped his head also and spread his arms wide, "It is an honor to meet you, Not-Princess Rose. I am Silver."
"Silver? Like the Guardian? You aren't just saying that because the captain mentioned him, are you?" There was a slight hesitation in her voice.
Silver's eyes flashed. "Rabert mentioned me? I'm touched. That part of the conversation must have happened while I was moving through your tunnel. I knew my ears were burning!"
Rose's eyes grew wide and her heart beat faster. "Then, that means you are really…You are the Mighty Silver?!" she whisper-shouted.
Her voice was high pitched, and the Guardian had to refrain from covering his ears from the shriek, however quiet. He settled for scratching the back of his head through his hood, embarrassed.
'I knew it!' The blonde chirped inwardly.
As soon as she had heard Rabert utter the name, Rose had hoped that her visitor had been the mysterious figure. The Mighty Silver had done so many spectacular things. The princess had always fantasized about meeting the legendary figure, and here he was before her eyes! This was why she had felt safe. Silver was a mythical Guardian. They were supposed to protect people.
The cloaked figure was not as tall as she imagined and slimmer too. However, a giant would hardly have measured the picture in her mind. She could understand now why his face was hidden. There were rumors that his cape was magical. Her big eyes sparkled with interest until she noticed the shoulders of her companion slump.
"Did I say something wrong?" she asked with a concerned tilt of her head.
"You don't like 'princess'. I don't like 'mighty'." He responded honestly.
'Another person who does not want to live up to their title.' Rose nodded compassionately. 'It must be quite a burden.'
"Very well. It is a pleasure to meet you, Silver," she said, lowering her head and spreading her dress wide on the bed in a sitting curtsy.
That is when Silver spotted the crimson stain on her gown.