Hunted Queen

Chapter Forty Two • Not the time Nor the place

** Long Chapter **

Due to a massive headache I have not proofread this chapter to the extent I would have liked but will do later! Sorry for any errors!

-Jade- 

"I am alright." Jade said when she had returned from the innkeeper's personal quarters and rejoined Brother Richard in the dining hall. "I am fine..." She told him before he was able to pose the question. With a shrug of her shoulders, she tried to calm not only her companion's nerves, but also her own. 

Even though she had not bled, she in truth did not feel fine. No matter how much she tried to convince herself. How could she be when she had just experienced such excruciating pain? Something had to be wrong, but this was not the time nor the place to dwell on it. 

The monk had stood with his palms pressed together once he noticed her coming, appearing to be silently praying for good news. Hearing her words, he had lifted his palms skyward and held them there. Thanking his God for her child's wellbeing. 

"Praise the lord." He sighed and then signed a cross in front of himself. 

"Are you feeling better, miss?" The servant girl with the raven black curly hair asked, having dropped her current chore immediately upon seeing Jade. A nervous smile pasted on her lips, anxiousness hiding in her voice and a rattled look in her eyes. 

She was scolded after I left... What for? She did not do anything? If anyone did what I accused them of, it should have been the cook who would be to blame.

The girl's hands never stopped moving as she approached Jade. They constantly moved across her apron, wiping and wiping off whatever they had been covered in. "The cooks swears on his dear mother's grave that he tasted the food himself," She began, shaking her head as we spoke. "and he is just fi-"

"I feel much better now." Jade interrupted softly, holding her hand up to calm the girl. "Forgive me for the all the commotion, but I felt like I was dying." She chuckled warmly, while giving the servant a slightly embarrassed look. Her cheeks turned hot and red and the thought of the scene she had caused and the sounds she had made. 

"No worries, miss. None at all!" The girl gasped. Her nervous smile being instantly replaced with a warm and relieved one when hearing that Jade was alright and not at all cross with her. "Is there anything else I can do for you?" Her words expressed genuine care and did not at all seem attached to her profession, neither did they sound like they came from her employer. 

Jade sent a quick look in Brother Richard's direction, receiving a silent "yes" from him before nodding in answer to the girl's question. 

As she turned to face the servant girl again, she said. "Yes, there is something we need help with." She began, trying to her hardest to sound as soft as she could. "Do you know where we could find a stable with horses one could rent? Or... even better, do you know of someone who is travelling north?" Perplexity replaced the girl's relieved expression as Jade went on. "West would also help us, and the sooner the better." She added before stopping abruptly to let the girl know that these were their only "terms and needs". 

The girl's eyes darted upwards, to the left, her lips pursing as she fell into thoughts. Trying to remember if she did know of someone that was heading in Jade's directions. 

"Nay, miss." She finally answered in a sigh and tilted her head a bit to the right. "I am very sorry, but I do not. Our stable master does not rent his horses out. Only sells them now, I am afraid... He stopped renting them out after having some awful trouble with getting the coin he was owed, and in some cases his own bloody horses back. Lost at least two good mares and one very fine gelding." She babbled on, words endlessly spilling out of her as she seemed to recall details along the way.