Destined Love by Marline (i can read book club txt) 📕

him in my underwear. I needed to keep my dress. I looked over my shoulder at the horse and knew that he had to come with me to the other side because I would be helpless without him. I made my dress as small as possible and then put it through one of the stirrups, then over the saddle and through the other stirrup. I hoped it would stay. Then, I took him by the reigns and together we descended into the freezing water. My horse disliked it just as much as I did because he whinnied in protest.
“Shhhh.” I said to him, with chattering teeth. When the river was too deep for me to walk, I started swimming and only the thought of big fish and piranhas in the water forced me to continue. I kept reminding myself that if I moved enough I would get warmer but I wasn’t really helping. I had let go of my horse’s reigns but to my surprise he did not turn around and swim back to the shore, but instead he followed me to the other end of the river. Even though I was freezing cold and extremely scared, I couldn’t help but smile at the loyalty of this animal.

I arrived at the other side of the river, got out and then just lay on the bank, too exhausted to move. My horse, I felt like by now I was able to call it mine, stepped out beside me and shook the water from his skin. He then stood there and observed me. The only good thing about crossing that river by swimming was that I was indeed warm now but I knew this warmth would not last long and soon I was shivering again. The best thing to do was probably to continue onwards and to find the army. Then realization struck me that this was Dardoland. This was home! I smiled broadly and walked over to my horse to get the dress off it’s back. I wrung it out, pulled it over my head and swung myself onto the saddle. I rode slowly because both my horse and I were tired and I needed time to think about how I was going to find the army.

It was dark and I was about to get off my horse when I heard a horse galloping in the distance. It was coming in my direction. I sat very quietly, wondering who it was and if I was in any possible danger when I saw a shadowy figure, on horseback, appear in the distance. I held my breath, and waited for him to approach. When he was close enough he slowed down to a walk and then stopped in front of me.
“You are in a restricted area. What are you doing here?” He asked.
“I just crossed the river.” I answered.
“A woman?” He sounded surprised. Apparently he had thought I was a man and I didn’t blame him because the moon did not shine very brightly tonight. “I’m sorry ma’am, but I will have to bring ou to my commander.”
“You’re in the army?” I asked and I couldn’t help the fact that excitement was in my voice.
“Yes ma’am.” He answered. I smiled from ear to ear but then forced myself to remain formal.
“I would like to speak to your commander please.” I said.
“Follow me.” The man said, and I gladly did so. I surely hoped that this man was indeed in the army and that this was not some trick to get me to follow him.

We rode for a good fifteen minutes before I saw a light appear between the trees.
“That is our camp.” The soldier said over his shoulder. When I came closer I realized that it was a campfire and I heard the chatter of men. The soldier rode into the clearing and I followed him. The men who were sitting around the campfire looked up and immediately noticed that there was a woman in their camp. Many of them were already quite drunk and that was why some of the remarks they made were not exactly very gentlemanly. If only they knew who I was. The soldier who had accompanied me to the camp dismounted and wanted to walk over to my horse to help me but I had dismounted even before he neared my horse. I followed him quietly, trying to avoid eye-contact with the men around the campfire and I sincerely hoped that the commander had not had alcohol tonight. I wasn’t sure what I would do if he had.

“Commander, there is a woman here who was riding in the forest.” The soldier said. We were standing outside a tent and I saw the shadow of a man walk over to the entrance of the tent. He then pulled the tent flap aside and observed me.
“Let her in.” He said and held the tent flap open. I walked past him and entered the tent in which there was a corner where a few blankets had been laid on the ground as an improvised bed and an oil lamp stood in the middle of the tent with a large map lying next to it. It wasn’t until I was in the tent and the light from the oil lamp shone on the commander’s face when I noticed that I had seen this man before. He had attended a ball once, at the palace, and he had flirted outrageously with me. The only reason I still remembered him was because he had threatened to fight another man over a dance with me. I smiled slightly and wondered if he would recognize me. Probably not. My hair was loose and I absentmindedly took a strand of it between my fingers and started playing with it. When I looked at it I saw that it was a mixture of blond and black, the river water hadn’t completely washed the black away. The back of my dress was probably streaked with black as well.
“Sir.” I addressed the commander. “I am Princess Cleopatra and I need your help.” The commander looked at me and narrowed his eyes.
“Do you really expect me to believe that you are the Princess?” He asked. “No, the Princess has been taken prisoner by the new ruler of Tokito.”
“You are wrong.” I said. “My family has been taken prisoner but I have managed to escape. I know where they are and I need the Dardoland army to free them. The Tokitian Royal Family is with them and they need to be freed restored to the crown.
The commander started laughing and I got extremely annoyed.
“Wipe that grin off your face and do as I say or you will regret it.” I hissed. He stopped laughing and looked at me with an amused expression on his face. He was around thirty years old and I didn’t understand how such a young man could have such a short-term memory that he had forgotten what I looked like already.
“Look at me.” I snapped. “Observe me closely and you will see that I truly am Princess Cleopatra.” The man walked over to me and turned my face towards the light. He looked at the left side of my face, then the right and I knew exactly when he recognized me.
“Your highness!” He stuttered.
“Finally.” I rolled my eyes. “My parents are on Yirdo and are being guarded by several men who are under the new ruler’s command. They need to be freed as soon as possible.”

The boat came closer and closer and I grew more excited every minute. When they had neared the shore I couldn’t control myself anymore and ran down the steep slope towards the river.
“Father! Mother!” I exclaimed, before they were even close enough to hear me. I felt like jumping in the water and swimming towards them but the memory of the freezing cold water withheld me from doing that. Why were the men pedaling so slowly? Finally, after what seemed like forever, the boat neared the shore. My mother jumped off the boat into the mud and she didn’t care that the whole bottom of her dress and her shoes were now completely dirty. She ran towards me, hugged me and refused to let me go for the next few minutes.
“Oh darling, I’m so happy you’re not hurt. I was so scared! I didn’t want to leave you in that palace but I couldn’t warn you in time. I’m so sorry!”
“It’s fine, mother.” I assured her. “It’s not your fault and I learned quite in the past few months.” My father then walked up to me and hugged me as well.
“I am so proud of you.” He said. “I knew you would get us off that island.” Nathan’s mother hugged me and his father shook my hand. And then I stood face to face with Nathan. I had to remind myself to breathe and the mere sight of him caused my heart to beat faster. He held out his hand towards me and waited for me to shake it. I didn’t.
“A handshake?” I asked him. “I save you from an island and this is what I get?” Nathan smiled and hugged me too.
“Better.” I said, as I hugged him back. When he pulled away and our eyes met I realized that I had never wanted to kiss somebody as bad as I wanted to kiss Nathan now. But this was impossible, my parents and his parents were both standing only a few meters away and it would be much too humiliating if I kissed him. Besides, it was possible that he wasn’t interested in me at all and then kissing him would be a huge mistake.
“Cleo, tell us what happened while we were stuck on that dreadful island.” My mother said.
“Let’s go to the carriage first and I’ll tell you all about it on the way to the palace.” Everybody thought this was a very good idea and so we walked over to the large carriage and climbed in.
On the way to the palace I told my parents, Nathan’s parents and Nathan everything that had happened while they were away. I told them that I had been a maid in the palace, that I ran away and managed to get out of the palace.
“Wait,” Nathan suddenly said, “what did you say the man’s name was? James?”
“Yes.” I answered and wondered how this was important.
“Oh no,” Nathan groaned.
“What’s wrong?” His father asked him.
“James was the person who’s father you sentenced to a lifetime in jail. James came over to me and told me to get his father out of jail but I refused. He then threatened that one day he would take over the palace. And he did.” We were all staring at Nathan in disbelief.
“Well, there’s one positive thing you can say about this man, he is certainly determined.” Nathan’s mother commented and I laughed at her down-to-earthness.
“He certainly is.” My mother agreed. “But Cleo, how did you get out of the palace? I thought you said James did not allow you to leave.”
“He didn’t,” I said, and wondered if I should tell them how I really got out of the palace. It was going to be quite embarrassing. “I flirted with a guard.” I admitted. I saw Nathan’s eyes narrow and this caused immediate butterflies in my stomach. Was Nathan jealous, or just protective? The rest of the ride we spent exchanging experiences and it wasn’t long before we arrived at the palace. We rode through the large metal