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Avelyn sighed heavily and leant back against the wood of her carriage. The journey so far had been long and unforgiving. The roads had been riddled with holes and bumps and as such her back ached from the strain of trying to stay strait. She had practically begged her grandfather to let her ride a horse along with the men accompanying her, however he had sternly refused and sent her to her doom. Although Avelyn understood her grandfathers reasons for not letting her ride- the journey was too long for a woman of her standing to be riding, a horse would make her smell unladylike, and if it happened to rain she would arrive at her destination wet- she had still attempted once out of sight of her grandfathers lands to switch with one of her guard. Avelyn knew that she should not have tried to talk one of the guard into switching places with her. The moment they arrived back in the de Beaumont territory she knew that one of her guard was going to gallop off back to the manor house and tell her grandfather all about her behaviour. She should probably expect another beating when she returned home.

Avelyn slid the green tight sleeve of her dress up her forearm and prodded the blue and red blemishes that were evidence of her last failing as a granddaughter and a young noble lady. Of course when she thought about it now, running off into the forest to practice her archery without asking her grandfathers permission and without an escort would definitely earn her a beating. But at the time a morning alone had been too much to resist.

When she thought about it, Avelyn didn’t think that her behaviour as a young noble woman was much different or worse than that of other noble women. Not that she had met that many other noble woman. But that was what this was about wasn’t it? The moment her grandfather had received this invitation he hadn’t stopped lecturing her about how he was going to send her to this gathering so that she could learn some manners from the other noble women there. But Avelyn did had manners, and she already knew how to act. Her grandfather just didn’t understand that things like sneezing accidentally during dinner and sometimes being a bit forthright were not bad things for a lady to do. Noble women were allowed at least some sort of personality. Most men she had met in Camelot actually preferred women with more personality that a spoon. Her grandfather was just the exception to that rule.

Tired with inspecting the grain of the wood in the carriage Avelyn went through her options. She could plead with another one of her escorts to see if they would give in and let her ride their horse. Alternatively she could ask the driver if she could sit with him, or she could just refuse to continue whilst sat inside the carriage at all. Whilst all those options were equally and fundamentally better than sitting inside this carriage for however much longer was required, Avelyn suspected that her grandfather would not enjoy hearing one of his men recounting any of these tales. The fourth and least dangerous option to her would be to slide the curtain aside and poke her head out so that she could at least see where she was going. Although she suspected that Lord De Beaumont would not look kindly on this act either Avelyn knew that if she sat still any longer she might possibly scream out of boredom. Tentatively she raised her hand and brushed the curtain to one side. She felt a sharp twinge in the bruise on her arm when she knocked it on the wood of the frame and drew in a sharp intake of breath.

‘Are you okay Lady de Beaumont?’, the soldiers voice showed concern for not only his mistress but also for himself. If she answered inappropriately he would have to report it to the Lord. Although he served under Lord de Beaumont and submitted to his every command, he did not approve of every one of his regimes and his way of treating and keenly watching his granddaughter was not one of the things that many of the guard actually approved of. ‘We are nearly in the courtyard’.

The courtyard? Avelyn could not help smiling at her gaoler. Just a couple more minutes and she would be able to descend from her own personal hell and escape into Princess Elna? Elena’s castle. Maybe once inside she could relax a little bit. It was very unlikely that her grandfather would have been able to place his personal spies in there.

Finally the carriage came to a halt. As was expected of her Avelyn waited the last couple of seconds for someone from her escort to open the carriage door so that she could step out. The last seconds were torture, she tapped her fingers impatiently. When the door was finally opened she was so eager to escape from her prison that she almost forgot how long she had been sitting. The soliders hand was just there for courtesy so the weight that Avelyn subjected on his arm as her legs for a moment refused to hold her caused him to roll his eyes and turn his head away. The sun was too bright and the air was too clean in comparison to the carriage, Avelyn felt like running around the whole of the yard and whooping in happiness at her freedom. Instead she remembered her duty, straitened herself up and smiled before walking as gracefully towards the two other noblewomen she could distinguish.

Avelyn breathed a sigh of relief and let out a singular laugh to herself. The morning breeze was cool on her skin, it tickled the tips of her hair away from her body and raised tiny goose bumps on her exposed skin. In a moment of spontaneity Avelyn lifted her hand and pulled out the pins and ribbon that held the heavy plait in place until a blonde waterfall curled to her waist. She would worry about the consequences when she returned home later. Another welt from her grandfathers belt was no consequence for the freedom she was feeling now.

The clearing she had been looking for was small and almost perfectly circular. Hannah the kitchen maid had assured her that it was very unlikely that someone would happen to come across her whilst she was there. Hannah had bragged that it was far enough away from the road that it was not visible or audible to travellers, but close enough to Lord de Beaumont’s lands so that outlaws would not venture there. Avelyn was sure that whilst Hannah’s wits were sound, her uses for the clearing may not have been so honourable. Although Avelyn suspected that Hannah may have used the clearing for trysting, Avelyn on the other hand had decided to escape her oppressive home for a morning alone to practice her archery without the watchful eyes of her grandfather following her. The only flaw in her perfect plan was that she had not decided to bring an escort with her. However she suspected that that would have been impossible since almost every member of staff working on her grandfathers lands would have stopped her from leaving and reported her unsightly individual behaviour to her Grandfather. The exceptions to this were the kitchen and stable staff, although her Grandfather would hardly expect her to be talking to those people of whom he deemed mattered so little.
No, it was a much better idea for her to have gone alone, if she had taken an escort from the kitchen or the stables they would have been fired.

At the opposite end of the clearing was a large oak tree which was perfect for her archery practice. Avelyn placed her arrow pack and bow on the ground so that she could pull on her forearm guard. Avelyn had planned this carefully, right down to the dress that she was going to wear. Her dress was made out of dark green cotton which she had chosen because it was less likely to show stains; the sleeves were tight to her wrists so that she could easily shoot without the traditional hanging sleeves that most of her dresses featured getting in the way. The dress was fitted- like all of her dresses at her grandfathers command- but at least it was manoeuvrable. In her haste to leave her grandfathers holding without being seen, Avelyn had forgotten her cape. However the day was slowly becoming warmer and Avelyn didn’t mind being without another layer of clothing.