Hunted Queen

Chapter Fifty Eight • Queen Once More

Hello friends!

This will be this week's only chapter as I am celebrating my last days as a twenty-something! As of Friday I am entering my Dirty Thirties and I'm doing this on a little get away with friends! 

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this chapter and I will make it up to you later with an extra chapter!

*Cries in soon not twenty-something anymore*

-Jade- 

As Jade handed the scroll, meant for her husband, to the messenger she noticed Master Bergen in the corner of her right eye. Her husband's scheming royal advisor entered the great hall with haste but slowed down and composed himself the moment she came into his line of sight. He looked just as grim and serious as she remembered. 

"Do not stop on your way there." She told the messenger quietly. Trying her best to suppress the rising feeling of anger rising within her at the mere sight of Master Bergen. She kept her voice down to avoid the snake overhear her. "If anyone asks, you are no one." She instructed him further. 

"Understood, my queen." He said with a simple nod, then bowed his head before her. "I will not stop until this has been delivered to the king." He declared solemnly while tucking the scroll away on his person. Hidden under a cloak and a thin jacket. 

"Do not forget to tell him that I am alive before you give him that." Jade said gently and held her hand out towards him, pointing at the scroll's new home close to his chest. "Do not let him think that you bring news of my death or any of the sort..." She continued. 

Who knows what he would do if he thinks I died... 

"I will make sure he knows you are alive, your grace." The messenger smiled faintly at her. Clearly having heard of William's explosive temper, or even experienced it himself. She reciprocated the smile and lowered her hand, having faith in that he would do just fine with the task she had assigned him. 

"Thank you." She whispered. 

As Jade and the messenger parted, Master Bergen was just a few meters away from her. 

"Sending word to the king of your safe return?" He asked while his eyes made sure there was no one else around who could hear him.

 The way he uttered the words made it seem as if they tasted bad in his mouth. Like it would have suited him perfectly fine had she not returned. 

"He will be most pleased to hear this, I am sure." The absence of her title on his lips pleased her in a strange way. "I can only imagine his torment of being left unknowing for such a long time while having to fight a war." 

Jade turned her head slightly to see more of him as he approached her. Completely ignoring the words spilling out of him as they were all disgustingly laced with his displeasure of her being back. He kept his hands neatly pressed together, finger tips meeting but palms kept apart. 

Even though his walk had a calm and collected pace as he walked towards her, a visible stiffness in the way he carried himself conveyed that he was experiencing some sort of distress. A faint hint of resentment flickered in his eyes as well. 

Jade had yet to speak with anyone about what type of self-appointed leader Master Bergen had been while she was sleeping in woods under the night sky, running barefoot from Rowan's men and hounds and been hunted through two kingdoms. Mostly because the one she trusted most had left her the night before so she would have time to rest and eat. However, she planned to ask around for what she had left of the day. Determined to find out if someone had been wronged or if Eleonora's former advisor had tried to usurp William. In any form or manner.  There was not a soul she would not pull to the side in her quest to find out exactly what had happened here.