Duke Rosenberg threw his head back and laughed. His laugh was warm and contagious, and his whole body seemed to participate in it.

But considering Maude was getting laughed at, this particular time, she didn’t feel the urge to join in the laughter at all with him.

“You are far more crafty than I expected, Lady Maude,” he said, meeting her eyes. “I granted you power in hopes of making your stay in the Aulbertian kingdom more comfortable, and you exploited that power in hopes of making your escape.

Who wouldn’t? Maude wondered.

“Perhaps you shouldn’t have given me so much freedom and power then,” Maude suggested. “Wouldn’t it be your fault if I did manage to escape?” she asked.

Duke Rosenberg smirked. “Sure it would,” he replied. “But no prisoner has ever managed to escape my manor,” he answered.

“Well maybe then I will be the first,” Maude suggested with a sniff. She was incredibly annoyed that she had been so close to making it out and still failing. She’d been able to taste freedom for only a brief moment. To have it taken away so quickly had heavily injured her pride.

Stupid dresses, she thought, picking at the skirt of the velvet rose colored one she now donned. Stupid shoes!

Duke Rosenberg laughed again. “The estate itself is quite vast. It could take you days of running to make it off my property.”

Maude swallowed hard. She’d had no idea that the Rosenberg estate was that large.

“And while several people have made it beyond the fence of the manor, days later we’d find them dead in the forest because the wildlife had gotten to them, or they’d managed to find poison berries.” Duke Rosenberg sighed and shook his head. “And I wouldn’t want one of the best swords women on the continent to have a fate like that.”

Maude shuddered. She hadn’t really thought through the time frame up to getting her cabin up and running, or that she’d need to run so far just to make it off the Rosenberg estate. Her father had kept her naive to a lot of the Holloway estate affairs, so she had no idea how comparable the size of Rosenberg was to the size of Holloway.

“I’m a sword saint, though,” she pointed out to him. “I’m probably more skilled than all of those people.”

Duke Rosenberg raised his right eyebrow at her. “You’re not incorrect,” he answered. “But as of this moment, you are without a sword,” he pointed out.

Maude’s tongue tasted bitter. She hated that he had a point.

“Why are you so eager to escape in the first place?” he asked. “What are you lacking in my manor?”

Maude was dumbfounded that he was even asking her the question. I dunno, she thought. Maybe that execution is all that awaits me here?

She cleared her throat. “I am just trying to get back to my duty.”

Duke Rosenberg threw his head back and laughed again. “What’s this about duty?” he asked. “If you were motivated by a sense of duty you’d have fought in the first place.”

Maude felt her skin prickle. He just had to keep bringing that up, didn’t he?

Maude crossed her arms. “I suggested it might be a ploy last time, didn’t I?” she asked. “Besides, it is my duty to defend the empire. Whether or not I successfully do so is a different question.”

Duke Rosenberg was laughing again “I’m sorry did you just say you’re defending the empire?” He laughed again. “Your naivete knows no bounds, Lady Maude.”

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

“Excuse me?” she asked.

“Do you really think our tiny Kingdom of Aulbert attacked the empire first?” Duke Rosenberg asked.

His words made Maude pause. Why would a small kingdom go after an empire? Greed, she supposed.

“What would the emperor gain by lying?” she asked Duke Rosenberg through gritted teeth.

He looked at her quizzically. “Do you know nothing of the theory of war, Lady Maude?” he asked. “Despite being Duke Holloway’s daughter and the sword saint?”

Maude felt her face burn. “My father felt it was unnecessary for me to learn such things,” she replied. “I have merely been trained in the art of the sword.”

It was Duke Rosenberg’s turn to look dumbfounded. “What a waste of your talent. You’d be an excellent tactician.”

Maude blushed again, but this time from being complimented. “My father knows me well enough to know if I would be good at it or not,” she protested, feeling a reflexive sting from the compliment. How many times in her life had compliments been coupled with insults?

Duke Rosenberg shook his head. “The emperor has a lot to gain by lying,” Duke Rosenberg said, switching back to the original conversation. “Many people are much more hesitant to send their loved ones to war when an attack is an unwarranted act of aggression, which in this case, it was. The kingdom of Aulbert has traded and had good relations with the empire for all of the empire’s existence. The attack on us came out of nowhere.” He paused and looked at Maude, as if to gauge her reaction to his words. She was trying to keep her face as impassive as possible.

“While it was unwarranted,” Duke Rosenberg continued, seemingly satisfied with what he’d read on her face, “It was not unforeseen. The empire has been slowly eating up other small kingdoms around it for the last thirty years.”

Maude felt her nose crinkle up. “All of those kingdoms aggressed against us, first. When we won, we were kind enough to let their people live in the empire.”

Duke Rosenberg scoffed. “All of those people are living as slaves in the empire, Lady Maude,” he said.

She felt her body flinch backward. “That’s not true,” she answered. “Have you considered that all the things you know about the empire may be propaganda?” she asked.

“Have you ever considered the same?” he shot back. He pulled a couple of newspapers out of his jacket. “I brought what was promised.” He handed her the newspapers, and pointed at one of the headlines.

Aulbertian Kingdom Holding Strong Against the Empire’s Advances, the headline blared. Maude flipped the newspaper around in her hands. “This isn’t what we agreed on,” Maude said. “I specifically said a newspaper from the empire.” She looked up at the Duke.

He shrugged. “It takes time to get a newspaper from the empire. The times aren’t exactly peaceful.” She nodded at him.

“You’re still going to get it though, right?”

“A promise is a promise,” he answered with a small nod.

Maude flipped to the other page of the newspaper. Ainsworth Empire Declares War on Aulbertia. Are we Next?! She shook her head. The headlines in the Empire and the ones in front of her told two different stories.

“Still don’t believe me?” he asked.

“Of course not,” Maude answered with a smirk.. “You are keeping me hostage after all.”

“Comfortably, so,” he replied.

“With the intent to have me executed? I am most certainly uncomfortable.”

Duke Rosenberg laughed again. “Where did you get the idea that you are to be executed?” he asked.

"You told me this. The first time we met,” she replied.

“Did I?” he asked. He looked up towards the ceiling. “I did,” he remembered shaking his finger. “That was a test,” he said. “I was just trying to gauge the risk to keep you here,” he said.

“What?” she asked. “You mean...?”

“There’s no guillotine awaiting your head,” he confirmed. “At least, not as of this moment.”

“But why?” she asked. I am the empire’s trump card and one of their strongest fighters.” She felt her stomach souring. She hated those words, but they were burned into her memory from the sheer number of times her father had told them to her.

“And you didn’t fight,” Duke Rosenberg pointed out.

“True,” she said, nodding. She paused. “I never wanted to be a sword saint,” she said. “My father always told me that my brother should have been the one to receive the powers. That the world would be a better place if he had.”

Duke Rosenberg looked at her quizzically. “Any person becoming a sword saint is a gift to the country they are from.”

Maude shook her head. “Not me.” She looked up at him. “So what are your plans for me then?” she asked.

A playful smile spread across his face. “Would you be willing to duel me?” he asked.

“Absolutely not,” she answered. “I told you that fighting goes against my morals.”

“What if we say if you beat me I’ll tell you all the things you want to know about the war and what the plans for you are?”

Maude chewed on her lip. She hated to admit it, but what he offered was a good deal. “And if you win?” she asked.

He smirked. “Though I feel it’s fairly unlikely that I’ll win, if I win you’ll have to go to a ball with me as my partner.”

Maude’s eyes widened and her eyebrows raised. “That’s it?” she asked.

“That’s it,” he replied.

She stood up off the sofa she’d been sitting on for their conversation, and stuck her right hand out in front of her. “Deal,” she said.

His calloused hand met her own, and they shook on it. “Deal,” he agreed.