The noontime sun was scorching the earth so badly and Knight definitely felt it burn his skin so blisteringly so that he felt like halting the journey to rest for a minute. The more he wanted to pull the reins to stop Adira; who was galloping at full speed as if she didn't feel the sun, the more he realized that time was no longer on his side, so he had to persevere even if the sun pricked wounds on his skin, and the wounds were bleeding profusely leaving him as pale as a ghost.
Adira's cloppings were audible in the whole neighborhood of the trail and on her back Knight wiped out the salty sweat which was getting into his left eye. He almost had entered the village which was home to Invicta and her family when he heard someone call his name. He looked around to ascertain if he just had heard the feminine voice he always had heard every time he visited this village. To his amazement, when he gazed back, a woman was merrily walking towards him on the same trail he had come. She was a woman of middle age, she still appeared very beautiful despite her age, just as beautiful as her daughter Invicta was.
"Good afternoon my son," the lady greeted him as she approached."How is there from whence you cometh?"
"Good afternoon mother, my greetings," Knight answered still awed by the sudden appearance of his in-law.
The woman realizing that she had awed him, she smiled warmly and said,
"I was coming from the garden when I saw you ride past me, I had to call you," she said.
"The sun is very hot mother, it's almost blinding people. How can it block me from seeing you," Knight lamented as he alighted to shake his mother-in-law's hand.
They chatted for a while while under the shade of an Ash tree which grew by the side of the trail then took off, this time Knight on foot while his mother-in-law on the back of Adira. He respected this woman so much and he took her just as his own mother and she too loved him as his own.
They had moved for a considerable distance when the woman spoke in a low tone,
"there's a problem here son."
"What's the problem mother?" Knight anxiously asked.
"Your father-in-law is the problem son,"said the woman softly. "He doesn't want Invicta to marry you. Today we have suitors from Clove town, that's why I had gone to the garden to get some spices for their meal."
Knight was caught unaware by those worrying news and he knew things were more complicated than he had priorly thought. He hastened his pace and so did the horse, he had to stop this meeting at all costs for it threatened to take away the one person he loved more than anything else in the world. Taking her out of his life would cause him unbearable sorrow and misery. They would better put him six feet under the ground before they could take her away.
These news created unimaginable turbulence in his body and a red mist descended upon him. He grit his teeth and lifted his mighty hand to strike his horse but then he took control of himself realizing that she had done nothing wrong to deserve it. He didn't want to frustrate himself in the presence of his in-law anyway. A moment later they were treading into the homestead.
***
Riker Earnesh was not an easy man to deal with in Agatonia. He dominated all the conversations he took part in and was a no nonsense man. In his own home, he was an absolute decision maker and nobody ever questioned his actions, this was the case with Invicta's betrothal. He had come home two weeks earlier and after taking his supper made the surprise annunciation that he had found a suitable husband to be for his daughter and the suitors would arrive in about a a week. Even when Invicta tried to dispute the decision of her father, he barked at her furiously and she fell back, so terrified she was that she didn't dare raise her voice at him again.
When Riker Earnesh saw an army clad horse enter his home he was at first astonished. He wondered what the heck had happened so that a soldier was sent to his home exactly at the same time when he was holding a special discussion with his would-be son-in-law people.
Side to side with the horse was an athletic figure dressed like a prince and behind him his wife. But on inspecting that plumed-cap clad head he clearly deciphered who it was, so he understood that his party would be spoiled in a blink of an eye if he allowed this worthless son of a bitch to make one more step into his homestead. The deeper he came in, the more the trouble doubled.
"Young man," he uttered wrathfuly, "you are not welcome here anymore, you better not make a step forward and leave instantly."
"What's wrong Old man," asked Knight."Can't you greet a decent young man with respect?"
"My daughter is already married, she wants nothing to do with you young man," he retorted angrily as he rose to counter the advancing knight.
Knight didn't want to be disrespectful to the old man so he halted, but their short altercation had caught the interest of the visitors and especially Troy Clover, the would be son-in-law, who recognized the voice of Knight and came out to great his superior,who happened to be Knight Pompey whom they served together in the army.
Troy had heard a voice he thought he knew and his curiosity led him outside the castle where he left his father and uncles. He had to make confirm with his two eyes and be sure that the voice he heard was from whom he thought it was.
Having been raised in the army —from the days of his youth—he knew nothing of etiquette or respecting the elders. All he knew was just one thing that all was fair in love and war. Even though his age was drifting by so quick, he didn't care to get himself a wife, a family or anything. All he knew was fighting and fighting and fighting.
He caught the two men who were confronting each other in the yard and seeing that one was the man he had prior guess about, he sprung forward like a dear to greet his friend and In a warrior salute then extended his masculine arm to shake Knight Pompey's hand.
"It's good to see you again Pompey," he said with a smile.
"Good to see you again my friend," knight answered.
knight was caught up between telling his friend that he was the man that Invicta loved but chose to wait. Never in his life had he seen such a thing happen; that a man could allow two men to court one woman. On the other hand Troy didn't know whether the woman he intended to take as his wife was in love to his friend and Invicta herself had locked herself in her room and was tearfully praying that fate be merciful to her and not to lead her life into marrying a man he didn't love. For the little human growing in her would never forgive her or Knight for that. Only She didn't know that his man had come to her just when she needed him the most in her life.
Just as she was lost in her sorrow, the door to her room was knocked thrice but feebly.
'who could this be,' she asked herself.
Could it be her father? had the cruel man come to grab her and give her away to the men he claimed to be his friends and colleagues?
'Over my dead body will go with those strange bastards,' she hissed seething with contempt for her father.
Or could it be Knight who had come to save her?she bit her chest to make sure she wasn't dreaming but just in her confusion the door was knocked again and louder. She swore by the gods that she was never going to open that door. She wasn't that weak to just die without putting up a fight. So she chose to remain inside her room until the so called suitors were long gone. But her mother's voice changed her all over a sudden.
"Invicta my daughter,"she said."get out and see the love of your life.
"He finally has come," Said Invicta joyfully.
She then unbolted the door and dashed out of the castle. That's was the happiest day of her life for she resolved to go away with Knight if his dad was still bend to seeing her marry any other son of a bitch.
The three men were in the yard when Invicta came out with a wail of victory which made her father gaze at her contemptuously. She assumed she didn't see him and proceeded to where Knight stood and hugged him so tight. Knight felt the tender and sweet lips search for his'. He surrendered to her and she kissed him so passionately untill their lips were red with intimacy. She refused to let go when Knight tried severing his arm which she held tight and there they stood— bossom to bossom—as she sobbed deeply in joy and furry. In joy that her salvation had come and in furry that the cause of her pain was the person she had called her father all her life.
You would wonder how much this woman loved Knight by how she clung to him like a vine on the trellis. The most mesmerized of all people precent was Troy who refused to believe that somebody could cry because of love, he saw the whole scene as a staged drama he had been used to watching in the theatre. He actually didn't believe a thing from the passionate kissing to the deep sobbing and the tight hugging of the two.
"This is too good to be true," Troy said at last, gazing at the two, quite perplexed by their actions.
"Do you say so?" Knight asked him."Just because you have never experienced love doesn't mean others who have are insane."
Troy didn't say a thing but seemed to be taken away in thought. He lazily gazed at the two lovers and surely envied Knight for a reason he couldn't tell, for how on earth did he win this woman's love? How gorgeous she was, her seductive figure just left him itchy and lewd, her figure was a semblance of the metaphorical number 8 and her face 'OMG!" he sighed, her aquiline nose had a gold ring which made her even more of an angel than the human she was. A glare at you with her innocent eyes would trance you, she was really young and flowing with beauty.
Troy now realized that he had no business in Riker Earnesh's house, for the woman he had come for had onother lover and it was not his business to destroy other people's happiness. Even though he had a little experience on matters regarding to love, he was no so stupid and naive to take a woman by force. He was thinking about getting into the castle to call off his his uncle but just before he could the three middle aged men got out. They too heard the altercation between Knight and Riker, they also heard the wail that Invicta had made.
"My dear uncle's we got to go," Troy urged with a low tone.
"Go ? where without the woman son?" one of his uncles asked."Do you want to die alone and leave no name for yourself?
Just then a middle aged woman emerged from the castle with a whip on her right hand. She walked towards the men boldly and poi
nted it at them and put on a loathful face.