Never in her life did she imagine it would come to this. A few hours ago she was daydreaming about her prince charming and having all his charming kids.
Only to be bounced out of her own house like a sack of potatoes. And now, here she was, curled up in the carriage as its wheels bounced off the large, pebbled, muddy road. A disgusting man she now had to call husband and lord was sitting across from her, a perverted look in his eyes as they racked her body now in see-through wet clothes.
Tears streamed down her face as the rain poured on in heavy, loud patters. Lord Goring moved to sit beside her; his weight tipped the balance of the carriage, and he nearly fell as the carriage wobbled.
If the situation were different, she would have laughed. Emilia has never been one to enjoy carriage rides; they were always too bumpy. She preferred walking and the thrill of horse riding, being tossed in the air as the horse galloped on.
His repulsing hand found the base of her face, tracing down her collarbone. Emilia flinched, but he moved closer, closing the small space she managed. She moved again, and he did the same, till both their weights were on one side of the carriage and it tilted.
Fate or chance, but one of the wheels of the carriage unhinged from it, so they had to stop briefly under the rain while the horseman tried to fix the wheel. Lord Goring, a man of little patience, Emilia gathered, came out of the carriage frustratedly when they couldn't fix it ten minutes later. Emilia was also let out after hours of travelling when they decided to lessen the weight on the carriage to fix the wheel.
With heavy eyelashes, she looked around her to see only vast plain lands that seemed to stretch on forever. To her far right, she noticed a streak of smoke in the air, possibly coming from the chimney of a house, but it didn't seem to be for another couple of miles.
Her heart sank. She had only ever travelled this route once in her life; when they were moving uphill, she didn't quite remember how and when, but she knew they passed a village. She looked back to the smoke, thinking to herself that the village must be near.
Then a thought struck her. If she could get to the village, she could be free.
She bit on her quivering lip to stop her involuntary smile, discreetly planning her escape as the men chatted away angrily about the broken carriage.
Emilia began to weigh her options; if she ran, they had horses and would catch her in no time; if she took the horses, they would still be able to catch her. But she couldn't wait till they got to the Capitol, or she would never be free.
If she wanted freedom, it was now or never. All she needed was to buy herself more time to reach the village before they would catch up; that meant to make their horses immobile, at least till she reached safety, disguised herself, or found people who would conceal her.
She stealthily picked up the screwdriver and scissors; she knew they would need them to loosen the bolts on the front wheels. No one paid attention to her wandering self anyway; they were angrily discussing how to fix the broken parts of the carriage. Slowly, she went to the horses as if to pet them and began to tie knots in their reins, binding all but one, the one she intended to escape on. Growing up on a farm, where renting horses was one of their major sources of income for the last few years, she had picked up on how to control and ride them.
They made a terrible mistake of choosing a farm girl to marry.
For a split second when no one was watching, she climbed on the horse as fast as she could and let it loose. Before the guards could register what she had done, she was riding off in the rain in the direction of what she presumed was the village.
"Catch her!" Lord Goring's voice boomed behind her. She looked behind her to check if they were coming after her, only to see them tripping over her little farm tricks and cursing loudly.
Even though she was a good rider, the horse was definitely trained against hijacking. It was unruly, refusing to cooperate with her. Emilia, not looking ahead, didn't know when she ran into a cliff till she was tumbling down with the horse and into a river. Her last thought was that, for sure, her life had come to a premature end as consciousness slipped away from her.