“My lady, try to hold the sword like this in case it will not hurt you.”

It took every nerve of mine to not roll my eyes and scold this knight. He was treating me like a mother gave a wooden knife to play the kid in the kitchen, yet worried about her safety. It had been half an hour but what he was teaching me was how to hold a wooden sword.

My eyes roamed on others who were fencing in the pair of two.

“Lets try one more time, my lady.”

“Sir James, may i know where my brother is?” I asked as my last thread of patience also worn out.

“Ah, lord Nickolas had gone to meet his highness, my lady. Normally it would take an hour or two. Why, you don’t like the way i am training?” he asked and before i could say anything he added, “i can be slower if you want” and i sighed.

“Sir James, I was wondering when I would learn to wield the sword or a dagger. Archery will be fine too.” I tried to bargain but the man looked at me like I had asked for his chastity.

I sighed realising i had no way to move further from here.

“Ah,”

“What happened my lady?”

“I seemed to have injured my ankle Sir James. Ouch”

“Oh, my lady. Let me call a female attendant for you.” he looked around panicked and I smirked, but hid it before he looked at me again.

“Aah, it hurt a lot, Sir James”

“Oh, my, what shall i do now?” The knight was looking at the verge of crying, afraid that he had hurt the precious little daughter of duke and the head of the knights.

“I was wondering could i take a break of 2 hours, so that i can put ointment of the injury and it get proper time to heal”

“Oh, of course, my lady. Let me escort you to your room”

“That would not be needed, Beth would help me. I don’t want to affect your training anymore, sir James.”

“You are so kind my lady” he bowed slightly as Beth held me and I tried to walk limply, keeping my hand on her shoulder for support.

The moment we entered the palace I let Beth go who sighed. She must be thinking that i did this act so that i did not need to train, but in a way she was right. Sir James would have wasted my whole day!

“My lady, your lunch”

“I am not hungry for now, I will call you once I will need anything. Till then don’t disturb me.”

“But my lady,” I raised a hand before she could argue further, and decided to read about the techniques and then practice later instead of waiting for someone to teach me.

And I have no time to spare. I walked straight to the library and took out a book about war tactics as I had to learn about it anyway later.

I picked up one book that looked easy, and sat down. It’s not so thick, but as I’ve never read such a book before, I focused on it. It’s not as difficult as I thought. The basic tenet of the tactics was similar to politics and diplomacy. Maybe that’s why politics and diplomacy were called wars without weapons. I thought it was just a simple metaphor.

While I kept reading the book with delight, I forgot the sense of time and that I had asked for a 2 hour break only. When I closed the book, it was already evening and the sun was setting.

I stood up only to feel my knees were weak with all the sitting and my stomach grumbled, making me realise i had eaten nothing since morning.

“Beth” called to ask her to serve me food.

“My lady, his highness is calling you”

I nodded, as I realised that food was not the only thing I should be worried about. I walked towards his office, hoping that he would not be very angry.

“Come in”

“Daddy, did you call me”

“Yes, Abi. Come sit here”

I nodded as I walked in and sat on the chair.

“Abigail, how was your first day of training?” he asked as he looked at my face intently.

“It was okay, daddy.” i replied in a low voice, knowing well he knew i had not attended it.

“Sir James said that your ankle sprained, so you took the leave after practicing for 1 hour and then did not return back. How is your ankle now”

“It is better, daddy. Thank you, for worrying about me.”

“Abi, why are you doing this?” I did not know how to explain my condition to him. I could not, and even if I would , no one would believe that I came back here from the 21st century to take my 30 year old revenge.

“I did not understand your question, father.”

“Abigail, I can see you are worried. I know you do not like to talk to me, but I am still your father, you can share your problems with me” he encouraged and I could see he was putting genuine efforts.

He was not judging me like others, but giving me a chance to explain myself. It only made me further guilty, as I just shook my head.

He took an audible sigh as he looked at the other side. There was a big portrait of both of them, my mother and the father. They seemed to look blissful. There was love and happiness on their faces, and I always avoided looking at this portrait.

It reminded me that it was past and would never come back. I would never be in the arms of my mother again. But now just like him, I wanted to get lost in those green eyes. They were so peaceful that for a moment I felt light headed.

“Abigail, Abi, Abi” I heard someone shouting at the distance but the voice was too blurry for me to understand. Then I felt a touch of someone. Someone held me in his arms and then hugged me tightly as I felt the tears falling on my skin and the warmth of skin on my face.