“It’s the only way to get Mike back to Tina” Kurt answered Rachel as he finished washing the grime off his face.

Rachel was Kurt’s best friend since he was a baby; their mothers were friends before they passed. She was petite with olive skin and long dark hair; she had big expressive eyes and a personality that left your head spinning.

“Do you know what the penalty for slaves dressing above their station, two days in the jail, two!” she said as she eyed the outfit that Kurt had lain out on her bed.

She continued to voice he opinion of Kurt’s plan as she paced around the room.

“Have you even been to court? Of course not, if you get caught you’re going to be in so much trouble, and I don’t mean with the guard, I mean the baroness.”

Kurt rolled his eyes at his nervous friend “I won’t be recognized, I am just there to pay for my slave, and I doubt there will be any issues” he went behind the partition and changed into the clothes.

When he stepped out Rachel eyes widen and clapped excitedly “Oh Kurt, you look wonderful!”

Kurt wore some tight black trousers with some knee high boots, he paired it with a simple white tunic, and a black petty coat with gold buttons. He wrapped a blue silk scarf around his neck to complete the ensemble.

Kurt looks into Rachel’s floor length mirror; the clothes were like nothing he had ever worn. Sure he had longed to, but only was able to wear his usual brown slacks and simple blue shirt.

“Even with all these fine clothes, I still feel naked” he said as he turned his gaze down to the floor.

Rachel came over to him and placed her hand under his chin and lifted it up to meet her eyes.

“First things first, if you are to play the part of a gentleman, you need to act like one”

“What do you mean?” Kurt asked confused.

Rachel smiled warmly at him “you look down to no one”

Kurt smiled as he felt tears threatening to fall. He wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to pull it off, but he knew he had to try his best.

Rachel pulled him toward her vanity and sat him down.
“Ok, not what to do about your hair” she asked him as she pulled out some scissors and a comb.

“What are you doing?”

She cocked her head to the side looking at Kurt through the mirror “cutting your hair”

“What! Why? There’s nothing wrong with it” he said as he covered his locks.

“Kurt it’s too long, we need to make you look more put together, and that mop does nothing for you”

Kurt frowned; he didn’t think there was anything wrong with his hair. Yeah it was a little long, on his shoulders and over his ears, but it was something Kurt felt he could hide behind. He guessed it was a little messy and he hadn’t had a haircut in ages, so he let out a heavy sigh as he removed his hand from his hair.

“Fine”

Rachel clapped excitedly “yay! I’m going to make you look
fabulous!”

Kurt rolled his eyes as she proceeded to cut his hair.

-----------------------------------------

“KURT! KURT!”

The baroness was not in a pleasant mood. They had to return from town, because Nick suddenly felt sick. She had told him to be a man and not complain, but as he decided to throw up in one of the streets, they had to come back home. Sebastian was less than pleased.

“KURT!!” she yelled for the boy again, she needed him to make something for Nick, before he threw up all over the manor.

“KURT! Where in hell is that boy!”

Mercedes came in from the kitchen “Madam Kurt is not here”
The baroness glared at the servant girl “what do you mean he’s not here?”

Mercedes twisted the cloth in her hands nervously “after he finished some chores, I sent him into town to get some things for dinner tonight”

The baroness calmed a bit “very good then, tell him to come see me when he gets back, in the meantime get Nick a tonic or something”

“Yes Madame” with that Mercedes retreated to the kitchen, letting a sigh of relief that Kurt had not been caught.

--------------------------------------------

Blaine, had managed to make it to the outskirts of the kingdom, he was relieved that the guard had not been able to catch him.

He was ecstatic also, because this was the farthest he had made it for as long as has tried to escape. If he rode until sundown, he was sure he was going to be able to be far enough to the castle that the royal guard would slow down their chase.

As he rode, he thought about the things he was going to do. Maybe he would ride until he found a small village where he could settle in, somewhere that nobody would ever know who he was. Maybe he could build a small house and then maybe he could find someone he could share it with. It was a happy fantasy he had in his mind, but it was cut short as he felt himself being pulled from his horse.

“What do we got here boys, it looks like the little rich boy is lost” Blaine felt his arm ache as he was pushed to the wet mossy forest ground.

He rolled over onto his back as his eyes landed on a tall and muscular man with a handsome face, with his sides shaved; there was only a strip of hair that ran through the middle of his head. He was wearing some simple trousers with a plain tunic. He had various amounts of gold jewelry around his neck and hands. The man looked menacing.

Blaine tried to get up, but the man pushed him hard to the ground again.

“I don’t think you’re going anywhere princess” Blaine looked around and saw there were other men circled around them all looking just as dangerous as the one in front of them, gypsy's he thought.

He felt like an idiot, he had let his guard down, now he wasn’t sure what would happen to him.

“See princess, you’re kind of in my woods and I don’t appreciate some little boy thinking he can take a nice stroll without paying some kind of price.”

Blaine looked up at the man “I have nothing sir” he now regretted throwing all the coins to the poor peasant he had scared earlier in the morning.

“well that pretty fancy clothing your wearing, and the horse is not too bad either” he said as he crossed his arms, showing off his rippling arms, arms he was sure he could probably kill Blaine with.

“Like I said good sir, I have nothing but these clothes and the horse, but if you let me go I promise I could pay you good amount of gold.”

The men all laughed “no, I think this will do” he started to pull Blaine from the ground, when he heard a man in the group yell.

“Puck! The royal guard!”

The man immediately let go of Blaine as the rest of the men ran onto the woods.

The man started to run and Blaine decided to tackle him so he wouldn’t escape, he was going to make him suffer for pulling him off his horse. While the other men escaped, Blaine had the man pinned to the ground, he looked over and saw the guard was closely approaching. The man, struggling underneath him.

“The guard will have you now”

The man tried to continue to get free, but with no success “please, I beg you, let me go!”

“I highly doubt you have any rights to make request” Blaine said simply as he continued to hold the man down.

“You don’t understand, I have a wife and a child, if they take me, there will be nobody to feed them” the man said desperately.

Blaine shut his eyes, he knew he should let the man go, he had plan to kill him, but he could never live with himself if he knew there was a woman and child suffering because he had taken their provider from them. He looked out into the trail and saw the guard quickly approaching.

“Please”

With one last sigh, he got up from the man and let him go. He stood up quickly and ran into the direction the others had gone.

He didn’t know if he made the right choice, he hoped he did.

He stared at the space the man disappeared to for a few moments before he heard the shuffling of hooves behind him.

“Blaine you promised”

Blaine turned around and locked eyes with the man behind him.

“I know, I know, but you have to admit Jeff, I did get a lot farther this time” he said as he jumped on back to his horse.

“You have to stop doing this, your parents are very upset” Jeff said as he pushed his golden hair off his eyes.

“There only upset because I haven’t accepted the Spaniards offer to marry their beloved princess” he said as he started to ride back into the trail.

“It’s not only that Blaine, you have a duty to your country, and you have responsibilities”

Blaine huffed in frustration “I don’t want all of that, I want to be left alone, I don’t want responsibilities, I don’t want to marry some girl I don’t even know, I don’t even like girls!”

“I know Blaine, but you cannot be selfish, you were born into privilege, you have your duty to your kingdom to lead them, and as far as the marriage, I’m sure you’ll find a way to dodge that one” Jeff said with a smirk.

“I guess I could…but it doesn’t mean I’m happy about it, they just need to accept that I won’t go through with it”
Blaine said as he thought of a plan to get out of the treaty with Spain.

They rode in silence until they arrived by the farms around the castle.

“Where did you get that horse, I know we don’t have any missing” Jeff asked him.

“Oh I took it from one of the stables in the countryside” he shrugged “I guess I should return it”

“Which stables?”

“The ones by the apple orchards, do you know who property is that?” Blaine asked as he led the horse to the road that lead to the stables.

“Baroness Camilla Smythe” Jeff said with amusement.

Blaine groaned, of all the stables in the kingdom he had to take on from her.

“This is not a good day, my dear Jeffrey, not at all”

Jeff laughed at his friend “no, it is not”

--------------------------------

Blaine waited outside the tasteful manor for the baroness to return her horse. A dark skinned woman had answered the door; she greeted them and then went to tell the baroness of their arrival.

The baroness came out as his notice two men following close behind her.

“Your majesty, how wonderful of you to call on us”

Blaine cleared his throat “yeas, well, baroness, how are you doing?”

“My lord, I’m doing quite alright” she lifted her hand towards the boys “you remember my sons; this is Sebastian, lord of the house of Smythe…” Sebastian smiled at Blaine as he bowed “…and that’s Nick” Nick bowed, but as he went down, he lost his balance and almost fell, earning a snicker from Jeff who was still on top of his horse.

Blaine looked over at Sebastian, of course he remembered him, and they had gone to boarding school together.

Blaine remembered the boy was insufferable. He never left Blaine alone, always making unwanted advances at him, he like the boy but was not interested in any way possible.

It had been a few years though, since he had seen him. The man in front of him looked very different from the boy he had once known.

He was tall and handsome; he had piercing green eyes that were staring right as his hazel ones.

“You’re looking well Sebastian” Blaine said.

Sebastian smirked at him “as do you your sire, time has been fantastic to you”

Well he guessed something never changed.

Blaine smiled at him “yes well…” They stared at each other for a few moments before the baroness cut in.

“Your majesty, would you like to come in for some tea?” the baroness asked in a sickly sweet voice.

“Actually, I just came by to return one of your horses” Blaine guided the horse toward the baroness.

“I didn’t know I had one missing” she said curiously.

“I took the liberty to take one this morning, actually I scared the wits out of one of your servants, a young man…” Blaine laughed “…with quite a good aim” he touched the bump on his head where the boy had hit him with the apple.

“He’s mute” the baroness stated.

Blaine raises an eyebrow at her “really, he spoke quite
forcefully”

“It comes and goes” she said with a flourish of her hand “but it’s always such an honor to see you, we can’t actually wait till your marriage with the Spanish princess”

Blaine frowned down to the baroness “well, things are not really cleared with that…”

“Is there something wrong your highness?” she said with dramatic concern.

“Nothing that’s not being taken care of…” he felt a little uncomfortable “…so it was nice to see you all, I have to get going” he looked down at Sebastian, who was still looking at him.

“It’s always nice to see you your highness, don’t be a stranger” he winked and headed inside Nick following behind him.

The ebony haired boy looked over his shoulder at Jeff; he smiled but tripped when he got near the threshold. He caught himself before he blush a bright red before he basically bolted inside. Blaine could hear Jeff laughing silently behind him.

“Good day baroness”

“And good day to you your majesty, it’s always an honor to see you” with that he curtsied and fled inside.

Blaine led the horses back to the road, still a little confused with his encounter with Sebastian Smythe.

“Well that was interesting” Jeff said as he rode next to Blaine.

“That’s an understatement” he scoffed.

Blaine rode as he thought about his next encounter, he had to face his parents and he was not looking forward to talking them.

But that was the least of his worries; he still had to figure out how to get out of his awful arranged marriage.

Things were never easy.