Game of Hearts | Arthur & Ophelia
Ever since her dear cousin Jon Valles had deigned to take up residence at Castle Fontaine, the frequency of Ophelia’s daily rides had increased tenfold. His presence was a constant nuisance and terror for her and her sisters, even as he talked incessantly of nothing but the beautiful Lady Lynessa he was meant to wed in a week’s time.
“Pompous ass. It’ll come back to bite him some day.” Ophelia muttered to herself as she saddled the tall white strider her mother had given her on her eighteenth name day. At least she could only hope such a man would get his comeuppance, for what justice could there be in this world if such terrible men never met terrible ends?
With a sigh and a shake of her head, the girl lifted herself up in the saddle, glancing about once more to make sure no one was watching her. Many of the stable boys had learned to look the other way when they saw her coming--thankfully most were more loyal to Ophelia that her devil of a sister. But any others would certainly raise the alarm, leading Elyzabeth to complain to her father, (who did not need such trivial matters brought to his death bed--which is certainly what he lay in now, anyone with eyes could tell) which would only lead to someone chasing her down and dragging her back kicking and screaming to the castle.
Lady or not, Ophelia knew what a prison looked like, and the four walls of Fontaine had been her golden cage for the entirety of her life.
“Come, let’s fly away from this place, Aurae.” She whispered in the horse’s ear, gently running her fingers through her mane before clicking her tongue--sending the two of them bursting out of the stables and galloping across the open fields away from Fontaine.
How long the two spent riding, exploring the woodlands about Fontaine, Ophelia could not tell you. Hours felt like minutes out in the freedom the open air provided her, breezes flowing through her long brown hair, the sun warming her face, the sounds of the woods playing her favorite melodies... It was paradise to be free of her family’s clutches, not to mention the cloying aura of the demands of being Lady Ophelia--second child or not.
Yet, even such blissful solitude never seemed to be gifted to her for very long, for as she nudged Aurae closer to a nearby stream for a drink, Ophelia came upon perhaps one of the last people she’d ever wish to see.
“Ser Arthur...” She said quietly, shock widening her eyes for just a moment before the narrowed and glanced away, wondering if it would be too far out of character for her already atrocious manners for her to simply ride away without saying much more. “I had not heard that you were travelling to our lands... Not that Elyzabethe would tell me if you were, but even then...”
Aurae shifted back and forth upon the riverbank with how the nervous energy radiating from every pore of her body washed over the horse. Ophelia tried to hold the reins a bit tighter, trying to calm both herself and the horse--yet how could she with how her heart still beat so fast at the sight of him?
“You should hurry if you wish to see her--Elyzabethe, I mean. She’s often quite cross if you do not appear when you say you will, no matter the reasoning. I know she never shows as much to you, but she...” Ophelia let out a small sigh and clenched her jaw. “She waits with baited breath for your coming every time.”
Much as she had herself... once.