Nell nodded in agreement. "I was thinking much the same thing." She moved over to Wilhelm and stared down at him thoughtful for a moment. Then she pulled off a torn scrap of her dress and balled it up to use as a gag. She knelt to stick it into Wilhelm's mouth, careful not to push it in far enough to choke him, and then stood back up. "Just in case he does wake up. We don't want him to sound the alarm when we are making good with our escape." She picked up the rogues legs. "Here, help me move him to the window then we can start lowering him down."

"One of us should climb out first to untie him once we lower him down, you're probably best for that since it will require a bit of grunt work to lift Wilhelm out the window. Unless you would like to get him out of here princess, I defer to your judgement in the matter." Serg grinned a little knowing what the answerer was likely to be before even hearing it.

Nell frowned slightly, a little reluctant to be standing outside alone in her torn up dress. Still, she knew Serg was right. She couldn't lift Wilhelm's limp body to lower him out the window. He was too heavy for her. She let out a small sigh and then nodded. "No, you are right. I'll go down first." She moved to the window and took hold off the makeshift rope. "Just try to be quick about getting him down. I don't want to be out there all alone for longer than necessary." Then she proceed to climb out the window to the ground.

"As you wish."

Her fears had been unfounded for shortly after her feet touched down the sheets were drawn up and tied around their captive who was lowered down to herm his body dangling above the ground until Nell untied Wilhelm then Serg made his way out of the window.

Once on the ground he instructed her that he would fetch their wagon and brought it around. So far so good. There had been no one outside and retrieving the horses out of the stables had been easy enough to do.

He got back with the wagon and under went the strenous activity of lifting Wilhelm off the ground and into the back of it. Once done Serg glance to her. "Home? And our extra clothing and such is in the back if you wanted to access any of it."

"Yes, home." She whispered then climbed into the back of the wagon and found a change of clothes. Once she was changed she rejoined Serg in the front seat. "How long do you think it'll take from here?"

Serg considered for a moment, spurring the horses on now that she was ready, manuevering them to get them and the wagon back on the road to get them under way. "From here? Not long, we're not far from the castle. A few hours maybe ... their bound to have guards on the main road though so bypassing them will be a problem when we get that far.

"Suggestions? Or are we just going to turn ourselves over to the guards along with our prisoner?"

Nell frowned slightly at the thought. "No... I am not sure if that is wise. Gunther is heading up the search, right? If we turn ourselves over to the first guards we encounter they might in turn us over to him first. I'm more than a little concerned he might hold a grudge against us. He might not hurt me but I think he would hurt you or worse." She was more than a little reluctant to let Serg accompany her to face Vek even but that she would worry about later. "No, I think we should stick to our cover. We are traveling merchants. At least until we get to the castle gates."

"As far as I know he is. Stick to the cover, got that. The guards may not recognize you as the princess and be fooled by the ruse. Gunther wouldn't of course, but I hardly doubt that he would be stationed along the road but rather actively looking for you, for us."

"Yes, I doubt the guards will be looking too closely at people closing into the city anyway. And if we should encounter Gunther then... Well, then I suppose then we can be honest but..." She couldn't disguise her look of concern. "If that does happen... I think you should run. Gunther has to take me back to Vek safely but not you. I'm afraid Gunther might hurt you and I couldn't bare to see you hurt for my sake."

"Nonsense, you can bring me up on insubornation or treason but I cannot in good conscious obey that command so it's best if we don't run across him at all. Though I suspect that he wouldn't expect us to come back to the castle and would have taken other steps to track us as the case may be.

"Fortunately we have seen no sign of him so that is good thus far, perhaps his searches for us have turned up nothing or rather nothing that he could coerce or intimidate out of the few that know anything worthwhile."

"I hope you are right and we don't have to run up against him..." Nell didn't want to think of what Gunther might do if he caught them. She felt a nervous flutter in her stomach now that they were on their way back home. The uncertainty of what would happen to them once they returned. Prince Vek had had almost two days to fume over her escape and she had only the small hope that Wilhelm's capture would save her from his wrath. At least he couldn't threaten her with deflowering her anymore but he could still rape her. She swallowed hard and her hand moved across the bench to find Serg's and squeeze it nervously. "Thank you, Serg. I wouldn't have been able to do all this without you."

"My pleasure, your highness."

When they were both on the wagon he spurred the horses into motion. They had only gotten a little ways into the main road when they were stopped by some of Vek's soldiers but their story as traveling merchants was believable at least they did not see the reason why the princess would return and not being residents of the nation had not recognized them for what she really was.

But they were nearing the castle when a group of soldiers hailed them from behind. A quick look determined that the soldiers had been Vek and riding in front of the small group was Gunther himself, returning to the castle without her, given up his pursuit of her it had seemed.

"Oh no, it's Gunther!" Nell quickly turned her head forward to stare ahead of them after peeking over her shoulder at the soldiers hailing them. "And we were almost there!" She could see the castle growing in the distance and a reckless thought came into her hear. "Do you... Do you suppose we might be able to make a run for it? Or will we be too slow with the wagon."

She knew the answer to that question. There was no way their horses could outrun several lone riders while pulling the heavy cart. Her heart sank in her chest. "No, Damn It All!" She swore, not the lady-like thing to do but given their circumstances she figured she was allowed. "We should stop, shouldn't we? Maybe... maybe if we are very lucky he won't look at us too closely..." That was doubtful but if she didn't tell herself this one little lie she might panic and do something truly crazy. Though what that thing might be she could hardly say.

"I don't think so," Serg answered doubtfully. Maybe in a short sprint given their lead but the others would over take them in time. How much varied by their speed but it seemed inevitable. Their horse we designed to pull heavy loads, theirs designed to be quicker and more manueverable, something Serg knew by swimply comparing the breeds given his occupation as a groom.

Running would instantly make them appear guilty so they slowed allowing the soldiers to catch up in a matter of moments when they eventually stopped. They surrounded the wagon in a ring as Gunther approached.

"Where are you ..." he began then stopped, recognizing the two, a grin coming over his features. "Princess, how fortous, I wouldn't have expected you to come back this way."

Nell fought to disguise her fear and held her chin high with the loathsome Gunther recognized them instantly. "I never intended to stay away long. This is my home after all and I won't spend my life on the run like some criminal. I only left because I did wanted to ensure the search efforts for finding Wilhelm were a success."