Chapter 14
Chapter
Fourteen
“Your brother is worried about you,” were the first words that Ned said upon finding Ashley in her room. He’d barely knocked before throwing the door open. Ashley was glad she’d made it back before anyone noticed she was gone, and before dinner was set to begin.
Ashley had never spent so much time away from her father, especially since becoming an adult. She often worked long shifts but wouldn’t go for days without seeing him. He would always be there waiting for her on the couch at night, ready to talk with her.
But now their relationship had changed, and something was strained between the two of them.
The iron collar that sat around Ned’s neck, which he made little to no effort to address, didn’t help matters.
Ashley found herself staring at it time and time again, thinking that if she were to leave the castle, then something might happen to Ned as a result.
She just wondered what he knew, if he knew anything at all.
But he wasn’t her only concern, not when so many of the servants hated her brother and for reasons that she could fully understand. Val deserved some of the hate he got, if his behavior towards her was anything to go by.
Her adoptive father showed up in her bedroom just as she was trying to decide whether to tell Val about her visit to the witch in the woods.
Even though she had rarely been annoyed with her father, Ashley was a little annoyed by how her father barged into her room, hardly saying anything as he invaded her space and sat down on her bed.
But another small part of Ashley couldn’t help but wonder if she was being petty and if there was something more to the fact that she didn’t want her father there.
Primarily because she couldn’t ignore or deny the fact that her bedroom was currently far more beautiful and grander than any room that she had ever had before.
Ashley was self-conscious as she took in the wide space, noting the towering ceilings and beautiful floor.
She wondered what her father thought of it as he sat on her bed, his thighs resting against a mattress that was probably worth more than her car.
Ashley had never been truly angry with or resentful towards her father while growing up.
She knew that Ned had done the best he could with money he made.
He had given her everything a girl could want, at least everything he could afford, and she was truly grateful.
While some of the other girls she had grown up with had Porsches and could trace their family lineage back through generations, she had been bullied time and time again for her hand-me-down thrift store clothes.
She felt a tingle of admiration for her father for the way that he fought to keep her in a somewhat comfortable lifestyle.
Which made it all the more awful that she was currently surrounded by all the things he never could have hoped to give her.
Ashley hated it that he was sitting amongst all those rich things and knew that he undoubtedly wished that he had been the one to give them to her.
She could tell that just from the motion of him picking up her white cotton duvet, rubbing it in between his fingers, and seeing that it was a far higher weave than he ever would have been able to afford.
Hell, Ashley saw the way he looked at the large, grand ball gown that was currently on her and knew he was wondering what life would have been like if he had been able to afford for her to go to prom.
Suddenly, she found herself once again wishing for the comfort of sweatpants and wishing that she wasn’t there, but back in her real bedroom.
Her brother knew how to keep her in style.
“Val is worried about you and how you’re settling in,” her dad said, not looking at her now.
“Fuck him,” Ashley spit out. “He was the one that dragged me here, that caused all of this, all because he wanted what Daddy wouldn’t give him. He didn’t care about me. All he cared about was how he could use me.”
There was nothing that Ashley wanted more than to hear her father say he was worried about her as well. But that seemed too big of an ask, especially since he wasn’t her actual father.
“Your brother is worried about you,” Ned repeated himself after a second, almost as if realizing that Ashley was lost to the world at that moment and could hardly process his words.
Of course, those words came out of him awkwardly, almost uncomfortably, and Ashley could see just a flicker of the Ned that she had known.
The one who wore flannel shirts and work boots rather than this knight that was currently walking around in a steel jumpsuit holding a sword like he knew what the fuck he was doing.
“He…asked that I come in and talk to you. He thought that it might be more comforting if I were the one to talk to you and make sure that you know everything that’s going to happen soon and that you’re ready for the nobles to start arriving tomorrow. ”
Ashley squinted at her father with a mix of confusion and anger.
at that moment. She didn’t know how to feel about what he’d said.
He just felt so distant from the man that she used to know.
She could only sigh and shake her head, knowing that all she was meant to do was to show that she was polite and respectable.
Oh, and she had to agree with everything people said.
The ones that said the right things, that is.
“I’m fine,” Ashley reassured her father as she slowly rose from the seat by the window she had been sitting in, the same seat where she had been slowly devouring all the books she had found in the house.
Reading was one of Ashley’s primary pastimes, mainly because it was free, and if you had a good library in town, then you were pretty much set.
Thankfully, the Opal Castle had an amazing library, which meant that Ashley could learn a little bit more about her world.
Not a ton. She wanted to complain about the fact that the library hardly had any fiction, but she was slowly starting to get an idea of what she was facing at that moment.
Which made the fact that tomorrow nobles from around this strange world would start arriving even more jarring.
Because really, she didn’t know how she was meant to act with any of them, what she was expected to say to them, or whether she was supposed to curtsy to them or something else that might cause a scene when she didn’t.
All she knew was that she was very likely a piece of meat to them, so all the dragon men would be eyeing her up and down, undoubtedly entranced by the idea of new blood… while the women sneered at her.
Wouldn’t they be surprised to see that it was white trash that her brother dragged to this world?
Ashley had promised herself that she would never really change her opinion of herself.
Although she might be considered white trash, she knew that slapping lipstick on a pig didn’t make it a princess.
Or at least, that was something that her father had said once upon a time.
But now that he was her knight, she was pretty sure he would say something different.
“You can tell him I’m not going to jump out of my bedroom window, if it will make you feel better,” she finally said, not wanting to see him go, but he also wasn’t the same man who changed her diapers, or gave her ginger ale when she had an upset stomach.
This was someone else, even if he looked the same.
Ned nodded obediently and wrung his hands at his daughter’s assurance that she was okay.
She sensed that he wanted to tell her more but was unsure what to say.
A hard line had been drawn between them, and they were no longer on equal footing.
At that point, he probably realized the same thing she did: he didn’t have the right to ask her questions.
After twenty years of being in the role of his daughter, Ashley was now the one with authority over him. The idea didn’t exactly sit well with her either.
“The other nobles and such are coming tomorrow, aren’t they?” Ashley said with a squint, hoping that her father would give her more information about the other kingdoms and what she could expect. He merely shrugged in response.
“As you already know, the Opal Kingdom nobility is here, so you’re meant to entertain them again tonight.
Many of them hope to gain a better stronghold in the Kingdom and solidify their place at the king’s right-hand side.
” Ned didn’t attempt to hide the less-than-romantic notions that the other men possessed.
Although she was sure that her father had more than a few words to say about it, a small part of Ashley longed for him to say them.
Another part of her knew he never would.
The fact that her father always understood the line between professionalism and everything else kind of sucked.
Ashley sighed as she crossed the room, shaking her head at the thought of meeting more nobles and trying to appease them.
She wasn’t sure whether she trusted them or anyone who had anything to do with her brother.
The reactions she had heard since her arrival made her wonder if this was the right place for her.
Maybe she wasn’t safe here either. That wasn’t something she could tell her father, whose main job was keeping her safe.
Rather, the only thing to do was to walk across the room, bracing herself on the windowsill, and, for a moment, will herself to transform into a dragon so she could take off.
Her father had been transformed into a wolf.
There was no way that a wolf could overcome a dragon.
Or at least, that’s what Ashley’s fantasies told her.
Although she was unsure if this was true, she was certain that her father would travel the world to find her if she left at that moment.
That wasn’t something she wanted to bother him with.