The Prince's Rose

Harry’s POV

“Are you crazy?” Liam hissed as we stood in my room while I packed the supplies I had gathered.

Shortly after the incident with my father I took Rosie back to my room and had a servant send for the boys. Of course I knew it would take some convincing for them to go along with my plan, but this was the only chance we had since my father refused to listen.

“I can't just let him take her, Liam. This is the only way.” I said.

“Are you sure about this? Your father won't be happy.” Niall added.

“I don't care what he thinks. He's wrong. That man kidnapped Rosalie and he's trying to get her back to do god knows what to her. He's already done unspeakable things and I'm not letting him take her again. And you all know it takes two weeks to reach Paris from here. I just sent the messenger a week ago. There is no way that he would have gotten there yet to tell the King and Queen that their daughter is alive so how did he know she was here? The only explanation is that he followed her or he intercepted the message himself.”

They were silent for a while, all of them knowing I was right. The pieces were falling into place now and it was our job to protect her… but we couldn't do that here.

“Okay. I'm in.” Louis said.

The other boys fell into place and we finished getting ready to leave. I looked over at Rosie who had just been sitting on a chair in the corner of the room watching, still pale and sick looking. I could tell she was scared and I wanted to take her pain away so badly.

“Rose… I promise you I'll get you away from him. We’re leaving tonight and I'm going to get you as far away from here as we can.” I promised her as I knelt in front of her and gently wiped a tear from her cheek.

She sniffled and nodded, leaning forwards to wrap her arms around my neck.

“Thank you.” She whispered.

I held her for a long while and kissed her head gently. I was going to protect her… even if it cost me my life.

~.:o:.~

“Where is Rosalie?” My mother asked as we all sat around the dinner table.

“She wasn’t feeling well. She's resting.” I said.

My eyes never left the man in front of me who was putting up the act of innocence that my parents were believing. It took everything in me not to lunge at him over the table and rip his throat out.

“Oh that's too bad. Poor thing has been through a lot recently.” She said.

“It's going to be a long road to recovery that's for sure. I can only imagine what she went through.” Isaac said.

“I'm sure you can see it pretty vividly can't you.” I growled, gripping onto the armrest of my chair.

“Harry.” My father warned.

“I have things to do. Excuse me.”

I stood up and stormed off before anyone could say anything else, heading up to my room to find the boys guarding the room like I asked them to so she would feel safer. As I stepped inside I found her curled up on the bed struggling to rest before the long night ahead of us. Since I needed the rest as well I laid down behind her, pressing my body against her back as I wrapped my arms around her.

“Sleep, love. It'll be a long night.” I murmured.

She sighed softly but nodded and grabbed hold of my hand, pulling it up to rest under her chin as she finally closed her eyes and allowed herself to sleep. I slept the best I could, but of course neither of us slept very well. When Louis came to wake us up we were exhausted, but we needed to get going otherwise we would never get out of here. Most of the people in the castle were asleep apart from some guards, but we knew how to get around them so it was easy for us to sneak out of the castle and get to our horses. Soon enough we were on our way out of the castle grounds and doing our best to put as much distance between us and the castle as possible.

Rosie sat behind me on my horse, holding onto me for warmth and I was definitely glad she decided to ride with me because it was much warmer than I would have been on my own. Plus I got to be close to her so it was a win win situation for me.

It was almost midday when we finally decided to stop at a village to rest the horses and get some food and rest ourselves. Liam got us a room at an inn then once we placed the horses in the stable we went inside. Of course Rosie and I kept our hoods up to avoid being noticed and thanks to the boys we had borrowed some commoner clothes so we were less noticeable. I opened the door to our room and stepped inside with Rosie, finally taking off the heavy cloak.

“You can have a bath first. I'll talk with the boys about getting us some food.” I told her.

She nodded and stepped into the bathroom to bathe in the hot water. I let out a deep sigh then stepped into the next room so I could speak with the boys. After a quick chat about the next move the food we ordered was delivered so I brought two plates over to our room. Rosie was still in the bath so I set the plates on the table and sat down on the bed to wait for her, feeling exhausted after the long night we had.

Rosie’s POV

The hot water soothed my sore muscles and it didn’t take long for the warmth to lull me to sleep. However, it didn’t take long for the nightmares to set in and the next thing I knew Harry was at my side, holding onto my wet body tightly as I finally stopped struggling.

“Shh. You're okay.” He said softly as he rubbed my back.

His shirt was getting wet but he didn’t seem to care as he just held me close until I calmed down. I sniffled slightly and stayed in his arms for a moment longer until I felt calm enough to pull back. He kept his gaze respectfully locked on my face as he wiped the tears from my cheeks.

“Are you ready to get out now?” He asked.

I nodded and watched him grab the towel before turning back to me as he held it open. He turned his head away so he didn’t see anything and I smiled softly, glad that he was so respectful towards me. I stepped out of the tub and wrapped the towel around my body then placed my hand on his cheek that faced away from me, then leaned in and placed a soft lingering kiss on the one closest to me.

“Thank you.” I said softly.

His cheeks turned pink and he smiled shyly, giving me a nod.

“I'll um. I'll be outside so you can get dressed. I brought food.” He said as he awkwardly stepped out of the room.

I laughed softly to myself and smiled then pulled on clean clothes to wear. Since we were basically on the run I was given male servant clothes because pants were easier to run in than long dresses. I pulled on my undergarments before the pants and shirt, finally stepping out to sit down with Harry so we could eat. After skipping dinner last night I was starving so I ate all of my food then laid down on the bed as Harry went in to the bathroom to bathe.

Of course I stayed awake waiting for him since being close to him seemed to help keep the nightmares at bay. It wasn’t long until I felt the bed dip behind me and I inhaled his familiar scent, smiling softly as he wrapped his arms around me and kept me close.

“You should try to get back to sleep. We have to head out again in a few hours.” He said softly.

“You first.” I said, smiling softly as I felt his chuckle vibrate through his chest.

“If I fall asleep first then you'll never sleep.” He said.

He was right, but I was still a bit afraid of my nightmares. After seeing Isaac and putting a face to the monster he was all I saw when I closed my eyes. Thankfully he had only touched me like that a couple times from what I remember, but the last couple weeks I remembered fighting more and that lead to more beatings. It was exactly why I was so beat up and thin when Harry found me. He got so annoyed and decided not to bother with me anymore. I was thankful though because I would take a beating over the other any day.

“Harry?” I asked softly after a long moment.

“Hmm?” Came his sleepy response.

“Thank you… for saving me.. and doing this. I know how hard it was to leave your family.” I said softly as I turned to look back at him.

He was awake now looking at me and he brought his hand up to brush his thumb over my cheek.

“I would do anything for you…” He murmured.

My heart skipped a beat at his sweet words and I found myself staring down at his pink lips. The next thing I knew my lips were pressed to his in a soft kiss and he eagerly returned it. Our lips moved slowly in perfect sync and I could feel butterflies fluttering around in my stomach. Despite the hardships we had to go through to get to this point it still felt perfect and I knew right then that I was in love with him before I was taken… And even though I forgot most of what gave me that feeling in the past… being with him now made me fall for him all over again.

When our lips finally broke apart we just took a second to enjoy the moment before I finally opened my eyes and saw him smiling back at me. My cheeks turned pink and I smiled shyly, quickly turning back around to face away from him. His chuckle vibrated against my back and I felt him place a soft kiss on my shoulder.

“No need to hide from me, love… It’s adorable, don’t get me wrong, but you don’t have to feel embarrassed.” He said softly as he held me close to his chest.

“I know. It’s just… That was my first kiss.” I admitted as I played with his fingers.

“Second actually… You don’t remember it, but we actually already had our first kiss. It was the night of your eighteenth birthday, when I last saw you and also when we decided that we would marry each other instead of the ones our parents wanted us to. We ran away from the party and you just looked so beautiful that night. I just couldn’t resist myself so I kissed you and I told you that I loved you. I still do, Rosie… I’ve never stopped loving you.”

His words made my heart skip a beat and I felt my eyes water a bit. It’s no wonder I agreed to marry him. I was so hopelessly in love with him even now when I barely remembered him. I couldn’t imagine how I felt before I lost my memories.

“I know I don’t remember much… but even so I’ve fallen for you.. I know I loved you back then and now I’m starting to understand why.” I said softly.

We didn’t need to exchange any more words to know how we felt about each other, and we let that moment of peace and happiness lull us to sleep as we finally got some much needed rest.

~.:o:.~

I woke up to the sounds of distant screaming and as I turned to wake up Harry I found him to be missing which sent me into a panic. I quickly got out of bed and called out to him, only to get no response so I had no choice but to figure out what was going on myself. After pulling on my boots and cloak I grabbed the knife Harry gave me just in case and snuck out into the hallway of the inn. As I rounded the corner I was suddenly met by two of the maids and the owner’s wife as they rushed to me in a panic, pulling me into a room before blocking the door.

“What’s going on?” I asked one of the young girls.

“Bandits. They're burning the village and they just got here. T They were killing people.” She choked out and held onto the other girl who was equally afraid.

“Girls be quiet.” The older woman hissed as she stood by the door listening.

We all went silent, hearing heavy footsteps coming down the hall until there was a pause and a sudden pounding on the door. The three of them jumped back and I gripped onto my knife that I kept hidden under my cloak, feeling my heart pounding in my chest as there were a few more loud bangs against the door until it finally burst open and a man stepped in, smirking at the three girls.

“Well well well. What do we have here?” he asked with a sickening grin as he stepped closer.

“Leave them alone.” I said lowly, trying to keep my voice deeper so he didn't suspect me to be a woman as well.

The back of his hand slammed into my cheek with enough force to send me falling to the ground and I laid there in a daze for a moment, faintly hearing the youngest girl scream as he grabbed onto her.

“Come on, baby. You either take off your clothes or you can die.” He said with a laugh.

I looked over to see him touching her like Isaac had done to me and all I saw was red. The next thing I knew I was on my feet, running forwards and yelling as I stabbed my knife into his spine right between his shoulders. He gasped and let go of the girl so she could run back to the older woman who I now realized was her mother. The man turned to me and growled.

“You…bitch…”

He took a step towards me but dropped to his knees and finally fell over completely lifeless. I stared down at the man, suddenly realizing that I had just taken someone’s life and I felt sick to my stomach.

“It’s you… the missing princess…” The oldest girl said as they all looked at me, seeing my face after my attack had knocked my hood off.

“Rose!”

I turned to see Harry rush in, sighing in relief when he saw me. He grabbed my knife from the man’s back and placed it back in my hand.

“Rose. We have to go.” He said, making sure I heard him as I nodded and allowed him to pull me out of the building and towards the treeline where the boys were waiting with the horses. The five of us quickly mounted then took off into the woods and I couldn’t help but look back at the village, seeing an orange glow from the burning buildings. Tears formed in my eyes as I thought about all of the lives that were lost and it was all my fault…

Notes