Chapter Eight: In Which Prince Rupert Demostrates His Evilness.

Prince Rupert galloped along with Lady Ann hanging on tightly across his saddlebows for a long time. At least, it felt like a long time to Lady Ann, who was quite certain she would be covered in bruises the following day, if not already. It felt like a long time to Lord Rupert, who was certain she would suddenly struggle and fall to the ground at any moment. It certainly felt like a long time to the horse.

At length, however, they reached a run down inn in a suitably desolate spot, and Prince Rupert reined the horse in. He looked down at his captive with pride. She had flecks of dirt all over her and looked decidedly dishellevelled, and her clothes were torn, one sleeve had entirely disappeared, he noted. He did not recall that that had been torn off before she was kidnapped, because Prince Rupert was a very self absorbed sort of villian, and this moment he was feeling very proud of himself indeed. "Muwhahhahaha!" he chuckled evilly. "My plan is working!"

Lady Ann just shot him a dirty look - easily done because her face was specked with mud thrown up by the horse's hooves. "Prince Rupert!" she said as authoritatively as she could from her inelegant position across the front of his saddle. "I demand that you explain yourself immediately, sir!"

Prince Rupert simply laughed again in an evil manner. "Muwhahahaha hahahah hahahha!" He turned the scarred side of his face towards Lady Ann and drew his lip up in a deliberately sinister expression. At least, it was meant to look sinister. In the event, Prince Rupert merely looked like he had something in his teeth and was trying to subtly get rid of it without putting his fingers in his mouth.

"Prince Rupert!" said Lady Ann in a most exclamatory manner. "I repeat, I demand that you explain yourself immediately! What is the meaning of this?"

Prince Rupert threw back his head to laugh evilly again, recalled he had already down this twice and stopped in mid throw, looking rather silly. "You shall see in good time, Lady Antoinetta of Erd!" he tried to growl sinisterly, but just sounded a bit hoarse.

Lady Ann wasn't sure whether she was meant to be amused or afraid. Having never been in peril before, she wasn't sure of the etiquette of being a damsel in distress. She settled for looking at him funny.

Prince Rupert paid her no attention, but leapt from his horse and pulled her down after him. She wasn't quite prepared for this and fell over into a mud puddle, getting even more dirty than she already was. She set her lips grimly but said nothing. She had really liked this dress, and while she'd been annoyed about ripping the sleeve off, that had been her own silly fault. And it could have been fixed! Now the dress was torn in other places and was covered in dirt, and NOW it would have stains from the muddy water as well.

Prince Rupert, as befitted an evil villian, did not seem to care a straw for her dress and its ruin. He merely bent down and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her out of the puddle. He pulled her across the inn yard - not that the area really deserved the name, being merely a flat area of slightly shallower mud that the road leading up to it - and into the inn itself.

Lady Ann had never been in an inn before, but she judged that this was not a typical example of the species. Not that buildings had species, of course, but she couldn't think of the word. If this were a typical inn, she thought, no one would go to inns. And she knew for a fact that people went to inns. Some even went regularly. The Erds, naturally, had properties - ranging from castles to just really really big manor houses - scattered all over the country side, so whenever she journeyed anywhere with her family there was always some old family villa to stay in, or failing that they would stay with friends. But this lack of experience with inns did not stop Lady Ann from knowing about them.

She knew about them from books and from hearing snatches of servants conversation, and she knew that they were places where you went to rest from your journey, or to eat, or to drink beverages that would then make you dizzy and sleepy and want to start fights. It didn't make sense to her that people would want to do this, but the descriptions of inns were always of warm, inviting, cosy places with a beautiful carved sign over the door inscribed "The Cat and Pig" or "The Orange Fish". So it definitely made sense that people would want to stop there on their travels and refresh themselves.


This inn, however, did not look in the least bit warm and inviting. It looked like a strong gust of wind would blow it down. The yard was muddy and the building itself looked barely cleaner. An old, half rotted wooden sign hung over the door which Prince Rupert was pulling Lady Ann through - she could not make out the name, it was so weatherworn. The inside was no better, and if anything worse. The floor was filthy and - as Lady Ann discovered as she was pulled towards the bar - sticky. Her shoe caught in a patch of something nasty and stuck fast. She tried to bend down to pick it up, but Prince Rupert would not allow her to pause, hurrying her on.

She looked despairingly back at her shoe as she hopped after him. Lady Ann was not overly fastidious, she hoped, but she did not want to put her bare foot down on that floor one bit!

Prince Rupert leant over the bar and muttered something unintelligible to the barman, who nodded and came out from behind the bar and opened a door. Before Lady Ann realised what was happening, she was thrust forward into the room. Off balance already from standing on one foot, she fell headlong and measured her length on the dusty floorboards. She looked back over her shoulder in time to see the door swing shut and hear the muted laugh of Prince Rupert as he cackled evilly for effect. "Soon you will know why you are here, Lady Antoinetta of Erd!"


[Word Count: 8361]