Chapter 4. The Prison

“Yes Madame Lupita?”

“Do you understand everything I have said so far? Lady Getrude here will be teaching you how to be a lady and how to fit into the society as a respectable young woman. Most importantly she will be preparing you to be a mate……………”

“What?” My head shot up to look at her in shock. Prepare me to be…….to be a mate?

Madame Lupita seemed like she was struggling for words to reply me with and Lady Getrude spoke up.

“What your nanny is saying my dear is that this arrangement is to prepare you to be a wife. You are no longer a little girl anymore and so you must begin training to fit into the society as a………….”

“So this is it?” I cut in rudely and threw my nanny an ugly glare. “This is what you’ve been hiding from me? You actually want to send me off from here but you were just too much of a coward to say it………..”

“Don’t speak to you nanny in such tone Lovette………”

“You don’t get to tell me what to do!” I yelled at the scrawny being seated beside me. I turned back to my nanny, tears already brimming in my eyes. “My uncle is in on this isn’t he? That was what you both were talking about in the office that day that you didn’t want to tell me about. You want to send me off to be with a man……….”

“Lovette my darling……..” My nanny reached out to touch my face but I drew away from her touch and shook my head. She had a sad and remorseful look on her face but I didn’t care. “…………I promise you that this is for the best. You know I would never agree to this if it wasn’t……….”

“It’s for the best that you send me away to a man?” tears trickled down my face. “This isn’t the kind of life I want nanny. What……..what about my dad is he in on this too?”

Madame Lupita went silent and that was when it dawned on me that something was wrong. No one said anything again after I asked my question. I suddenly felt dizzy at the thought of something happening to

………..to my dad.

“Madame Lupita where is my dad?”

Present Day.

I lay still, eyes shut and arms folded underneath my breasts, in the cold, dark room cell. I wasn’t sure if I was kidnapped or I was here was questioning by someone familiar with me. I had been kidnapped before and I knew for a fact that people who meant to hurt you didn’t seize you and bring you to a cozy airy room and bring you food everyday, good food for that matter. Something was up.

I opened my eyes when I heard the sound of the gate ahead open and then the door to the room opened as well. There was an iron covering like a burglary gate around the place where my bed was placed as well, I found it hilarious that so many small gates were stationed just to ensure I didn’t get out. I didn’t mind chilling here for a while though, especially after everything I had been through. I was always on the run, constantly chasing and constantly being chased. This was luxury compared to everything I had been through.

A section of the gate just above the ground opened and the person at the other side slid in a tray. I got up and retrieved it from the ground then I came back to sit on the bed and eat. The room was poorly lit and there was just single tiny window at the other side of the room. There were no extra lights.

“When will you ask your master to come see me already?” I called out to the person on the other side of the gate. “Aren’t you tired of feeding me?”

As usual I got no response from him. He simply continued walking away without turning back and the next thing I heard was the gates shutting. I bit into the doughnut that was part of my tray and I closed my eyes to savor the taste. It was freshly made and a bit too hot. That meant the kitchens were not too far from this place were I was being kept. Also the walls were too tick, like they were made from large chunks of stone. Such buildings were located close to fields. Also every now and then I perceived the smell of dung. Animal dung. So it was definitely close to a field were animals were reared. Usually in pack houses these fields were at the back of the pack house, far from the main building were people lived. I wondered why this particular room in this building was furnished to this extent. Someone definitely lived here before. This wasn’t the cells.

It wasn’t possible that I was the only one being held hostage in the entire pack, whatever pack this was. Also the cells won’t be located in the fields were animals were reared. This was a special kind of room.

I couldn’t get across to the other side of the room where the window was located. The gates restrained my movements to just a little space around the bed. I couldn’t grab anything in the room too, everything I had access to was within the iron bars I had been locked within. I had tried stretching my hands already to see what I could grasp. All my hands picked up was sand and tiny stones and meat bones from when I had flicked the bones from the food I was given away.

I continued eating the food I was served until I popped in the last morsel into my mouth. I drank the water that I was given too. I got up and put the tray next to the small opening were the man had slid it through for me. That was when I noticed the tray I had been served with today wasn’t the usual tray I had been served with. The regular wooden tray.