It is our duty to wed one another, there was never any mention of love.
Her chambers were beautiful. Airy and light, the high windows caught the pale morning sun and sent fractured patterns dancing across the floor as the sun filtered through the intricate panes of glass. Katrina couldn't find fault with the rooms she was to occupy, though she couldn't help but wonder if they would still be hers to keep after this month of courtship had passed, or if she would be required to move into the Prince's chambers after they were wed.
Her possessions had been laid out in the dressing room attached to her bedchamber, beyond that there was the room she had bathed in when she had awoken, and through another door there was a small drawing room which she shared with Natasha. It was an opportunity for escape which she made note of, it could prove useful if she was able to find no other sanctuaries within the palace.
Of course, she was to be shown the sprawling extent of her new home that morning, so perhaps she would discover some other points of interest. She was, however, more concerned with uncovering further details about the man she was to marry.
She had tried to cautiously make enquiries with the ladies maids who arrived to assist her with dressing, between them helping her to choose one of her lighter gowns for the mild weather and watching her reflection as her hair was tamed into a soft knot at the nape of her neck. The questions she asked lacked gravity, though, for she didn't fully know what to ask.
She did note however, the subtle blushes and giggles the maids exchanged when she mentioned the Prince.
Katrina had tried not to agonise over it, all throughout breakfast with Natasha and on their walk down through the long corridors of the palace. She had been informed the night before that any official appointments had been postponed for the first few days after her arrival, so that she could begin to acclimatise to her new home. It meant her only duty that morning was to keep to the arrangement the Prince had made before he bade her goodnight, his promise to show her the grounds of the palace, and to speak with her about their first meeting.
"I noticed you hardly ate this morning, my lady." Natasha murmured as they descended the grand staircase that they had first glimpsed the prince upon the night before - or rather, where Katrina had been granted her second glimpse of him.
"We ate rather late last night." Kat waved aside the concerned comment of her friend, squeezing the arm hers was companionably linked through. She chose not to mention that her stomach was too knotted with anxiety to consider eating more than a few mouthfuls that morning. At least she had slept well, if for no other reason than the fact that sheer exhaustion had claimed her the second she laid her head on the downy pillows. Had they not spent the last few weeks traveling, she was sure her thoughts would have kept her awake long into the night.
"Are you looking forward to seeing the Prince again?"
Casting her friend a sideways glance as they ambled down a long corridor of polished marble, Katrina caught her lower lip between her teeth. "Considering the reason we are here, I suppose my answer ought to be yes?"
Her steps slowing, Natasha frowned at the words of her companion, "You found him displeasing, last night?"
"No- I..." Catching her stilted words as they passed a pair of guards stationed along the hallway, the Princess exhaled softly. "I don't know, Nat. He... I was tired, and confused, and..." She hadn't breathed a word of their first meeting, nor did she intend to. "He was perfectly charming, and gave me no true reason to dislike him-"
"Though he was late to meet you."
Biting back a small smile at the small critique, she nodded, "Save for erratic timekeeping, he seemed..." Shaking her head, once more she forced back any words that would betray the events of her ill-advised walk through the woods, swallowing back the doubts she had about the man who had so shamelessly sought to charm an unaccompanied, strange woman he found wandering his kingdom, on the very day he was to meet his betrothed.
"Perhaps you need time, Kat." Her friend counselled her softly, ensuring they were out of earshot of anyone who would hear the over-familiar name that she addressed her superior in rank by. "You barely had time to speak, not without being observed."
"Isn't that why I have you here? To observe me?" Kat reminded Natasha of her role with a fond smile. Custom dictated that until the day they were wed, she was not to be left unaccompanied with the Prince, or any man for that matter. Absently, Kat wondered if the over-eager young squire from the night before would also be there to accompany the Prince. She had seen Natasha intimidate bolder men with little more than a look, so watching their escorts may prove more entertaining than any conversation the Prince could offer.
"I will be most discreet, I assure you." Natasha hummed with an air of artificial innocence that had Kat stifling a small laugh behind her hand.
As the sound faded, she looked up at the sound of male voices conversing softly beyond the end of the corridor they walked upon, where a sharp corner fed their path out to the open walkway that the footman who had delivered the formal invitation from the Prince that morning had directed them to. He had done his utmost not to seem affronted by Kat's insistence that they could find it without accompaniment, but had said nothing. She was glad of her choice though, being able to converse freely with her friend had settled her nerves somewhat.
"Buck, settle yourself, you'll pace a trench in the floor if you don't."
"Good, bury me in it."
A soft bark of laughter echoed towards the two women as both unconsciously slowed their pace at the sound of the Prince's voice.
"Surely it wasn't that terrible-"
"She could barely look at me, Steve."
"Be reasonable, some days I can barely look at you."
"Forgive me, I thought I had asked my friend and confidant to accompany me today, not the damn court jester." An impatient jibe was flung in the face of another male laugh.
"I haven't seen you this nervous in years."
"I'm not-" The words were cut off as Natasha tactically make her footfalls on the marble a little heavier as they approached the corner, heralding their arrival and giving the two men time to reign in their conversation before they came into view. By the time they had actually rounded the corner, Steven had composed himself into the same regimental stance Katrina had first seen him fall into the night before, his hands clasped behind his back and a barely-withheld grin struggling to spread across his lips as he watched the Prince attempt to subtly wipe his palms on the thighs of his breeches. Dressed less ornately than they had been the night before, both favoured dark military coats as their day wear, which served to highlight the upright frames of the pair. Kat couldn't help but note the littering of subtle details, stripes of embroidery that would indicate rank to those who knew the military systems of Brooklynne well, though she could only recall that of her own homeland in this moment.
"Princess Katrina." Prince James cleared his throat softly as he stepped forward, his eyes seemingly having traced her own appearance as carefully as she had marked his. The skin beneath his eyes was somewhat darker than it had been the night before, adding a heavier air to his already dark features, accentuating the angles of his bone structure in a way that was not entirely displeasing. Halting with a respectful step of distance between them, he looked for a moment as if he were about to reach for her hand, but seemed to remember himself. "I... Thank you for accepting my invitation, I feared you would still be weary from your journey."
"I slept well, your Highness." Katrina assured him softly, years of practiced composure not failing her now, even in the face of her nerves once again rising in her chest.
"Good. Good." He nodded at his own repetition, glancing back over his shoulder at his companion as if seeking guidance which he hadn't needed the night before. As if he had spent too long walking himself through what that first night ought to be like, but hadn't thought to consider what the day after should bring.
Seeing his friend's clear lack of direction, Steven let a little more of his smile escape, as if he were somewhat enjoying watching the Prince struggling to decide his next action. "The palace grounds, your Highness. You said they looked beautiful this morning, did you not?"
"Yes- yes of course." Nodding again as if only just remembering the reason they stood in this airy corridor, overlooking a grassy quadrant lined with carefully planted shrubs, he looked back to Katrina, "I would be delighted to show you, if you would care to join me?"
"Of course." Katrina let her arm slip from Natasha's, smiling as Steven immediately stepped forward to offer to take her place. It was a seamless and unspoken assurance that neither of the royals would be left alone. She suspected the Prince was as glad of it as she was, this morning. The bravado he had worn the night before had faded, and she wondered if it had anything to do with the terms on which they had parted, and her indication that she did not view their serendipitous encounter in the woods with the same rosy hue she initially had held.
"May I?" His question seemed unintentionally tender, and it took her a moment to realise that he was offering her his arm. Her mind had involuntarily travelled back to that moment beneath the trees, when he had so charmingly asked for her consent to help her.
Slipping her arm through his, she looked up into the questioning blue eyes that searched hers, that careful contact and connection already stirring a warmth in her cheeks. That blue, ringed with tired shadow. "Did you sleep well, your Highness?"
The question slipped out before she could consider it, overriding the caution that pulsed through her veins, the urge to feel her way carefully, to not give too much of herself away to a man she wasn't sure she could trust, not yet.
"Barely a wink." He confessed softly, his smile almost embarrassed as he settled her arm comfortably in his, a little of his awkwardness easing now that they were touching, as if somehow her presence by his since soothed or bolstered him. Guiding her to fall into step with him, he led their little party down into the quad and out the small archway on one side, to venture beyond the walls of the palace. "All I could think of was what a wretched fool you must think I am."
"I... I don't think you are a fool." She admitted quietly as she listened to Natasha and Steven's steps on the pathway discreetly fall further behind.
"You are being too gracious."
"Perhaps fool is simply not the word I am drawn towards."
A sudden, nervous laugh bubbled past his lips. "Then what title have you chosen? I fear I deserve many."
"I... In truth I do not know." She breathed, "We... It is unfair of you to ask me such things, when we know so little of one another."
"Yet once again, you seem to know me well enough to scold me."
"I- I am not..." Her words faltered at his bold comment, her cheeks heating with embarrassment as she realised she had already misstepped so early in the conversation.
"You think I am unfair?" He prodded softly, his words edged with something between sincerity and an attempt to sound teasing, as if he were trying to shield himself by treating her words as a joke.
"Your Highness..."
"You look lovely this morning." He diverted the course of the conversation lightly at her slightly flustered breath of his title. "Have your hands begun to heal?"
Nodding shyly, she glanced down at her palms, turning them to show him where the pink scrapes had started to fade overnight. "They have."
"And your chambers, are they to your liking? We have others if you would like to choose, but I always found the light in that wing of the castle more pleasing than any other."
"They are beautiful rooms." She assured him quietly, glancing around at the sprawling lawns that were beginning to stretch within the walled gardens they passed through. Beds of trimmed rose bushes sprouted elegantly before glass extensions of the castle. Hothouses and palm houses dedicated to plant life that would not survive in the air beyond their crystal walls.
"Do you enjoy flowers?" His question came as he seemed to notice her gaze, slowing his pace to allow her to look.
"I... I suppose, though I haven't given them much thought." She admitted. "My home- my kingdom did not have a climate as temperate as this, we couldn't grow anything... Delicate. My mother had a glass house when I was younger." Feeling his hand tightening lightly against the sleeve of her gown, she let him guide her to one of the rose bushes, watching as he reached to brush his fingertips over a tight bud. It was still too early in the season for the plant to bloom.
"Mother thinks they will bloom in time for our wedding day." He murmured softly, carefully tilting the stem in his left hand so he could examine the fresh green of the guard petals that held it closed. "I think she may be optimistic. It isn't warm enough yet." Thoughtfully, he drew back his hand and glanced down at her. "I hope you will like the gardens in the summer, though. If you wish to spend time here, of course."
Nodding, she drew her eyes away from the cloistered plant and glanced up at him, "Is this where you spend your time?"
"Not often." He confessed with a tight smile, turning her slightly to resume their walk. "One summer, yes, but usually I am training with the knights." Titling his head back towards the palace, "There is a courtyard on the West side, by the barracks and stables. You are welcome there too, if you wish."
"I don't think I would provide much challenge for the knights."
His soft bark of laughter unexpectedly warmed her cheeks, and sent a small flutter rising in her chest at the validating sound.
"More than you think, little doe. They are not accustomed to distracting presences."
Her free hand rose to touch the blush on her cheeks, as if she could cool her skin with her fingertips at his comment, and the fond murmur of his endearing name for her. "You are teasing me again."
"Do you dislike it?"
"I..." She exhaled and looked down at her feet, that familiar sensation of her stomach tightening with conflict as she considered the events of the day before. How charmed she had been by the stranger in the forest, yet what his behaviour truly meant for their future.
At her silence, he looked ahead, and then back to where Steven and Natasha lingered a short distance behind them, artfully out of earshot. "We are both biting back words, Princess. If you wish to address our first meeting yesterday, let us do it now. Otherwise I fear we will spend far too long walking on ice around one another, and I have no wish to begin our union this way."
Glancing down again to where their feet shifted from traversing a cobbled pathway to more rough-hewn gravel, marking a departure from the formal palace grounds, Katrina nodded. She knew she had to consider her words carefully, but as her eyes lifted she lost grasp of every coherent thought in her head. As their route followed the gentle slope of the hillside that the castle was set upon, the walls that had surrounded them dropped away to reveal the breathtaking vista of the mountains that surrounded them, bathed in the morning light. Set above those thick evergreen forests that had blanketed much of her journey, her new home almost seemed closer to the sky than the earth, in the way the few whisps of cloud seemed to touch upon the spires and turrets of the building behind them.
She didn't realise her steps had halted, nor that her lips had parted in an expression of utterly unexpected awe. She didn't realise that the man at her side was yet to cast his eye to the view that must be so familiar to him, instead keeping his gaze trained upon her features, to watch as she experienced it for the first time.
"This is your home." His low, gentle words broke her trance, reminding her to breathe, to blink in the face of such astounding natural beauty. "You can speak freely here, my Princess."
His words brought her back, more resolutely than he had likely intended to, with the unintentional reminder of the fact that she had never been permitted to speak freely to a man before in her life, and even with his permission, she was unlikely to still be granted that true freedom without consequence. She had seen women before at court, a heavy layer of powder upon their cheeks barely concealing angry shades of purple or blue. Often those with freer tongues or stronger opinions than most seemed to have husbands who were quick to remind them of their place, and they rarely did so with words. It was a phenomenon rarely spoken of, but every woman with eyes and a brain in her head knew the danger of speaking or behaving too freely.
It was another fear that had lingered in her mind at the prospect of this union. The most she could hope for was a marriage of peace. She would not be able to create that if she continued holding on to the uneasy feeling that had lingered in her gut since she had begun to consider that her betrothed was the type of man to pursue any girl who took his fancy, regardless of commitment. Though she could not resolve that feeling by putting it into words, lest she offend him - or be seen to be questioning his right to pursue whomever he wished. He was a Prince after all, marriage did little to hold back lesser men from following their urges, why should he be expected to? What right did she have to expect him to show loyalty to a stranger?
She could not forget, that as beautiful as her new home might be. As open and free as these views appeared, she was still as trapped as she had ever been. By duty, by expectation, by fear, by her gender, by the very rank she held that dictated her entire life. She had already made too many mistakes, dared speak with him in a way that was too familiar, all because the way in which they had met had been so far from those barriers.
She had to return to what she must be, before she destroyed her only chance at living out the rest of her days with this man in relative comfort. She couldn't dare hope for anything more.
"Forgive me." She whispered, "I have been... Weary, and confused... I have not behaved as I should have. All of this travelling, being so far from home..." The weak excuses tumbled from her lips without effort, for she knew they were ones that women could safely shelter behind. "Please, if we could begin again, and forget yesterday, I would be grateful." Glancing up into the sapphire eyes which watched her so carefully, she saw his brow furrow slightly at her suddenly meek words.
"Little doe..."
Shaking her head at the concern in his whisper, she looked back to the safe realm of the mountains, where she couldn't see his softening blue gaze. "There is nothing more to speak of, your Highness."
"Please don't call me that." He insisted softly, his free hand rising to lay upon her other arm, drawing her to look at him fully. "I am no stranger to you, we are to be married after all. I have never once heard my parents refer to one they love by that title."
Starting slightly at his choice of words, her breath hitched softly. At the sudden fear they stirred in her. Fear of an emotion she didn't dare consider for herself. Love was a fickle, treacherous thing. Something that could so easily become a weakness or source of hurt if she let herself believe in it. "It is our duty to wed one another. There was never any mention of love in our father's plans."
The statement fell colder from her tongue than she had intended. She felt the sting of it even before the final word was out.
She also felt his arm that she still held stiffen slightly beneath her hand, as if the words had dealt him a physical blow. She couldn't bring herself to meet his eyes, nor could she insult him by turning away. Instead, she kept her gaze focused upon the broad chest where her natural eye level fell, noting her warped reflection in the polished silver buttons of his coat.
"Of course." The quiet utterance came cooler still. "How childish of me to talk of such things."
Childish. A fool. How quick he was to paint himself in such derogatory terms in response to her words. Perhaps he simply didn't view their union as realistically as she did.
"I can't imagine cattle when traded think of loving their new master. If anything it is safety they think of, comfort perhaps... Anything more is out of their reach, and the men who have traded them reap their own rewards." She voiced the comparison which had been lingering in her mind since her journey had begun. "Even then, they still may find themselves slaughtered."
"You feel you have been traded to me like an object?"
"I feel our fathers have been well served by the alliance created by our arrangement. We cannot pretend we have been thrown together for any other reason."
"You don't... You can't begin to understand..." He spoke as if he were about to launch into a tirade, be drew himself back, scrubbing his free hand over his jaw. "Fine. If that is how you insist upon viewing this union, let me assure you that you will be safe. You will never want for anything. If you fear the slaughter house then please believe I will never allow you to come to harm."
"I have offended you-"
"No. No, I am simply realising that I have been naïve." He cut her off with deceptive softness, as if veiling some deeper emotion. Anger. She was sure of it, she had angered him. "I believed we would both be approaching this union with the same viewpoint, but I see now you have a different one. Forgive my assumptions and over-familiarity, I will endeavour to make sure that I do not overstep as we continue to be thrown together, as you say."
She did her best not to flinch as her own words were flung back in her face, "What do you expect of me, your Highness? I am not of your kingdom, if young women here fall at your feet with a mere smile and that is what you desire of a bride then perhaps you should have chosen more carefully."
"I had as much choice as you in this matter and you know that, your Highness." He uttered back the very title he had found so distateful a moment ago.
"Then how can you not see that all we can do is simply survive with the hand we have been dealt?" She breathed, momentarily fearful that their companions would soon step within earshot of their conversation.
A quiet, bitter laugh passed his lips. Evidently her choice of words was amusing. "You would compare life at my side to an ordeal you must survive? Life as my Princess? My future Queen?" Shaking his head, he stepped back to let his arm slip from hers, taking a steadying breath to compose himself as his jaw tightened visibly. "I have taken enough of your time this morning." He stated, evenly and without emotion. "Please, explore the grounds at your leisure - or, survive them as you see fit." He couldn't seem to resist tacking on a snide remark as he half-turned back to the palace. "I... I think I will attend to the barracks." Stiffly offering her an abrupt bow, he turned on his heel and paced back towards where Natasha and Steven had carefully chosen to linger back at the entrance to the formal gardens. Gesturing to his friend, Katrina caught Steven casting her a curious look, before he bade farewell to Natasha and turned to hurry after the Prince who hadn't so much as broken his stride.
[A/N: Whelp, maybe we're all just too stubborn and firey and bad at communicating for our own good? Even a fairytale with these two can't be straightforward - hope you're enjoying the story, don't forget to vote and leave a comment! There are softer times on the horizon, don't worry! X]