Chapter 2 - Meeting

Marianna awoke to the bright light that slowly crept through the curtains. She covered her face with her hands as the sunshine was piercingly bright.

 

Rolling over, she tried to hide from the morning she had to wake up to, “please a little longer..." she mumbled as she covered her face with the white pillow.

 

“Good morning my dear, it’s a beautiful day and I think your father would like to speak to you urgently, so we need to get you dressed and presentable.” said Rosie her personal maid.

 

“Mmhmm, what now, does my father have yet another suitor waiting for me to meet, because if he does, I’m not moving one inch.” and with that she turned over and shoved the pillow over her head.

Rosie was quiet as she tossed the clothes over the dressing frames. Marianna tossed aside the feather filled blanket and went to get dressed.

“So do you know what my father wants?" Marianna said from behind the dressing frames.

"Well, I guess you will have to dress quickly so you may find out, wont you" she said eagerly

“Oh, you know exactly what’s going on don’t you, you cheeky woman!" Marianna said teasingly.

Rosie chuckled, Rosie had been Marianna’s personal maid nearly all her life, she was almost a mother to her, and Marianna could share all her secrets with Rosie that she couldn’t share with anyone else.

 

Rosie fixed her hair in a loose curl layout with ribbons tying it at the top just the way she liked it. She always wore pearls because her mother used to wear pearls every day. Marianna touched the pearls, as she thought about her mother; she missed her dearly, and always thought of her.

She remembered how her mother and her had gone out together to pick wild flowers when she was little, and how her mother had told her about the elves and faeries that lived in the forest, of course now that she had grown the idea had seemed childish, but the dream of the memory was still there.

"Ah you look just like your mother" Rosie said as she pulled Marianna from her memory and fixed the ribbon into a bow.

"I miss her so much Rosie." she put her face into her hands. Rosie’s smile faded, she leaned down and whispered into Marianna’s ear.

“she’s still here you know, I know she is, and she always watching over you with a smile and a warm heart" As she said this, Marianna lifted her head and smiled as did Rosie.

 

Marianna pushed in her chair, and Rosie fixed the back of dress.

“Off you go so your father can introduce you-” she cut herself off realising she had said too much.

Marianna’s eyes widened.

"What was that?!" she said quickly "you said introduce didn’t you?" as Marianna said this, Rosie covered her mouth and shook her head in silence.

"Oh no no, no, no! NO! , I’m not meeting another pompes prince, lord or duke!" said Marianna as she covered her face, she gave a muffled groan from behind her hands.

Rosie uncovered her mouth and smiled.

“Now Marianna, I’m sure it’s not, I have seen the gentlemen waiting for you down there and I don’t think he is a suitor, he was wearing a guard uniform; He looks very interesting.”

Marianna started to walk from the room.

“Good luck my dear." Rosie said with a sympathetic smile.

"Mm, luck, yes I will need it won’t I" Marianna muttered as she left the room.

 

*          *          *

 

Garrath walked into the main hall where the king was waiting for him.

 

“Your majesty, it’s going to be an honour to protect your daughter. I will make sure to go to great lengths to make sure she is safe and secure at all times.”

“Yes I’m sure you will do just fine, you will meet her soon. Although I must warn you she is a bit hard to control sometimes as she likes to wander off a lot , she‘s just like her mother.” the king laughed a little, garrath knew he was thinking about his late wife the queen with the solemn look upon his face.

 

It had been weeks since garrath had heard about the bodyguard position and had trained for some time to become adequate.

 

The king knew he had found the right guard; garrath went through his combat tests with flying colours and was above the rest of the men who applied, he was also studied in English, science and some languages which was an added bonus.

 

Marianna left her room and started down the hallway to the staircase that extended to the great hall, the palace was unusually quiet as she descended down the staircase.

She saw two figures standing in the main hall. One was obviously her father with his short stance and white hair, the other was unfamiliar to her, they were talking to each other.

 The unfamiliar man stood heads above her father, was quite lean and wore a dark blue guard uniform with a white middle and gold buttons down the sides. He had short hair and it was the deepest red she had ever seen it was almost unnatural.

As she got closer and closer to them her father noticed her presence and turned around to face her. Marianna stopped in her tracks a few feet away from them, the tall man turned to see her; she was surprised when she saw his face.  His features were quite handsome and young for such a tall man, but nothing could compare to his eyes.

When she looked into his eyes she saw something dark and ominous lurking, like looking into the eyes of a fierce snake but at the same time they looked calm. All of sudden in that one moment Marianna starting sweating, her heartbeat accelerated, and she didn’t know why. She felt like she couldn’t face this man with his eyes of emerald.

 

Garrath turned to see the girl he would be protecting, he didn’t really know what to expect, but she was young and breathtakingly beautiful, i mean of course she was beautiful, usually a woman of good breeding was. She had dark brown hair that was quite long and wavy, she had large brown eyes with dark lashes that framed them, her lips were plump and were a delectable shade of pink, her dress flowed around her as she stepped, curving her figure quite nicely. She had a startled expression, like she was afraid, he couldn’t stop looking at her, in fact he was probably staring.

 

As Marianna started walking again to greet them, her father held out his hand to welcome her, she held his hand but was still looking at the tall man.

 

“My dear, this is Captain Garrath Matrona, he will be your new personal bodyguard.” Her father looked happy and confident with himself as he said this.

Marianna kept looking at the man known as Garrath; she felt her hand rise by itself.

Garrath bent down and suddenly kissed Marianna’s hand gently without her realising it.

“It is lovely to meet you your highness.” Said captain garrath in a low sultry voice, and bowed once more. That cheeky man, he must have grabbed her hand while she was lost in her father’s words. She pulled her hand away gently and also pulled a disapproving face with a bit of a pout on her lips.

Garrath already knew he was going to like this, he always loved a challenge.

“Captain Garrath is it?” said Marianna in a low feminine voice.

“Yes”

“I see, well it’s nice to meet you, but I don’t quite think you will be needed, as my father doesn’t particularly realise that I don't need constant looking after. I’m quite relatively safe, because my father is so overly suspicious that I can’t even leave the confines of the palace without the whole royal guard following me,” she said in a huff

“Marianna that’s quite enough, garrath is here for your protection and that’s final. Do you understand, this is for your own safety, no more running off on your own, garrath will be watching you twenty four seven, now if you’ll excuse me I have a meeting to attend, good luck captain.” the king said as he patted garrath’s back.

 

The king walked off and garrath gave a small bow as he left the great hall.

 

Marianna and Garrath were left there in silence. Marianna looked at him, with an awkward pout, then turned and started towards the gardens. As she walked she could hear very close echoes of footsteps behind her, so she walked a bit faster, and so did the echoing footsteps. Suddenly she stopped and spun around and he was standing there with a small relaxed smile on his face.

“Yes princess is there any I can do for you.” he said with a teasing smile.

“yes there is something, you can kindly wonder off, and leave me alone, just because my father ordered you to watch me doesn’t mean you have to follow me everywhere I go.”

“Actually princess that’s exactly what it means and your fathers orders are what I obey, so sorry but I can’t.” he said with a smug grin.

 

“Really, is that so, well Fine, but you‘ll have to keep up with me first.” Marianna turned on her heels and hurried through the gardens. She lifted up her dress as she picked up the pace to walk faster; of course losing him failed horribly as his legs were far longer and could easily keep up with her.

She stopped suddenly again and this time, on purpose, he bumped into her.

She turned around again with an angry pout upon her face, directly looking at his chest as he was three heads taller than her. Garrath’s smile went loose, he had already grown affection of her emotions, her cute pout and her angry eyes, it made him want to gently tickle her until she broke out in giggles. Dam! He thought, he had just met her and already he was like a love sick puppy, this was not him, he did not succumb easily. Garrath took a deep breath.

 

“I’m sorry princess I will stay a few metres behind, how does that sound?”

“Good and you had better do it!” she said a little less confident, as she was still embarrassed that he had bumped into her.

“Yes princess of course.”

Marianna turned back to keep walking, and as she did this the wind caught her hair and blew the sweet scent of perfume towards garrath, he breathed in deeply, smiling as he did. 'Well that’s certainly not good, I feel like the stalker who I should be protecting her from'; garrath thought to himself.

 

 

Garrath followed Marianna down a little stone path and through the trees to an opened sunlit Field covered in wild flowers, which overlooked many other farms and fields.  Marianna turned around when they got to the end of the path. “Alright it’s the end of the line for you; you shall not pass this point!”

Garrath just stared at her like he was bored, like he could give a dam. Wherever she would go he must follow, as her royal and personal guard it was his duty by order of the king.

 

“Princess, I’m sorry but I must stay with you at all times it is what the king has ordered me to do, and I must obey, besides the meadow is probably the one place an intruder could easily snatch you off, especially when you are all alone.”

Marianna just scowled and folded her arms. Garrath realised he liked her more when she was angry, her big brown eyes could tell him a story, words flowed through his head as he read her face, ‘I am a grumpy and I want you to do as I say‘, but there was also other words that flowed through his mind, like warmth, innocence, youth, soft, yes he liked that one soft, so very soft. Being grumpy at him didn’t affect him at all, in fact it did the opposite, it made him feel even more affection for her, all he could think of when he saw her, was a grumpy angel. He needed to stop thinking this, it was becoming ridiculous.

 

“Fine but you must stand or sit at least a few metres away from me so at least I feel like I am alone, understood?” ordered Marianna nervously. She never had a personal guard before, it felt very different. She didn’t really know how to act or behave around this man, he had a certain demanding presence.

 

“Yes, as you wish, princess, but haven’t we gone over this?” questioned Garrath

"Yes, but I just wanted to make it clear that I want to be alone."

"Ah I see, of course princess."

“Why do you call me that?”

“But you are the princess, aren’t you?”

“Yes of course I am! I mean, why not highness or your majesty,”

“I think it more suiting for you”

Marianna just glared at him then turned and started walking. Garrath smiled even more.

 

 

They began to walk through the trees and eventually stood on the edge of the meadow.

Marianna was bathed in the sun light making her look even more beautiful. Garrath chose to sit at the base of a nearby oak tree, a few metres away as instructed. he looked beyond the hills to see if anyone was lurking around, but no ,no one, nothing in fact, for miles, no wonder she came here, for her it was a place of peace and solitude.

After a few minutes she came over to garrath suddenly smiling and skipping. It was clear that she was relaxed in her place of solitude. She grabbed a flower from her hand and stuck it behind his ear. She had only just met him but it already seemed like she felt comfortable enough to be herself.

“There you go, it really brightens up your scowl. “She said this as she smirked.

Scowl? He thought. He didn’t realise it, because his mind was somewhere else, but he suddenly realised he was scowling. He loosened his face with a relaxed smile.

garrath was very surprised, a few minutes ago she was grumpy and didn't want him anywhere near her, but now she had actually gotten so close as to pin a flower behind his ear, slightly touching his skin, he could still feel the warmth softness of her fingers.

he could also smell her perfume scent as it lingered there mixed in with the summer air on her neck, and could see the warm pink that enveloped her cheeks, the light specs of brown and gold in her eyes, he started to go red. He looked to the ground hoping she didn’t see the faint red on his cheeks. She sat next to him and started looking at the flowers she had picked.

What was wrong with him, usually he wasn’t so childish, he didn’t easily give in to a woman, his life had been a tragic one, and maybe now and then a woman would be with him but not like this.

 

“You know, my mother used to take me here, that’s why I’m happy, and that’s also why I was upset at the idea of you entering this place, because its special for me.” she said as she looked to the ground, fiddling with a few daisies.

“I see, and for this, I am sorry, I heard about your mother I’m sure you loved her dearly, but that is exactly the reason why I must be here, you never know when someone will hurt you.” he said solemnly. Garrath looked out to the meadow thinking of his own mother, he hadn't thought about her in ages.

“Mmhmm, so are you going to be following me everywhere?” Marianna questioned suddenly with a change of tone in her voice.

Garrath turned to her and smiled.

“yes I have to , of course not every single place you go I will follow, like your bedroom or anything like that, just places that would be obvious like here for example” garrath lightened his expression, he didn't like the scowl comment.

Marianna looked at garrath and saw the sunlight in his eyes making the green even brighter than before. Surely this man couldn’t be human it was too unnatural.

Author's Note

alot more dialogue in this one i dont have a big vocabulary so just bear with me