"Quite the view you have here, Your Majesty."
He smiled and came to stand next to her by the balcony.
"I'd like to think so but of course nothing ever quite beats sleeping under the open sky."
She smiled too. "I think not."
She kind of felt empty. The last weeks had been draining but they had been worth it.
He cautiously put a hand over hers on the railing.
"So what now?"
She looked from his hand that rested on hers to his face. His eyes were clouded with worry.
"Well, I did not wear this dress for nothing. So I'd hope you are going to go through with your coronation."
They both laughed briefly, forced.
"You know that's not what I mean."
She looked over the palace gardens. The beautiful array of flowers and the fountain that stood in the middle. It was breath-taking. Then beyond that to where the common people lived. The world that she had been born into, that she knew.
"There is a lot of unrest in the kingdom. People need to be reunited, they need something to believe in. You connect with them in a way I could only dream of. Imagine all the good we could do together."
She moved away from the balcony, back into the chambers.
"I cannot do this without you."
They faced each other. He came and took her slender hands in his.
"That's why I need you to take the post of the Grand Duchess?"
"Grand Duchess?"
"Yes, that way you will be able to be at my side and help me with governing the kingdom."
She stared at him blankly. And then he cracked into laughter.
"It is a joke!"
"A joke?" She was infuriated.
"Yes. You know some of those, don't you?"
She glared at him, shooting poisonous arrows out of her eyes, willing herself to get even more furious but in the end, she joined him in laughter.
"How long have you been holding onto that one?"
"Forever."
"I figured."
"You know, they are going to tell your story, right? They will sing songs about your bravery."
"Probably. But with pumpkins and mice."
"And magic."
They giggled.
"It can be our story. Make me the happiest king alive."
He got down on one knee.
"Will you do me the honour of being my queen?"
"Jas-"
"In a world of princes, I want to be that prince who makes you laugh, and smile and have your cheeks brighten like your hair when I kiss you. I love you, Amelia. Please do not refuse me."
"Well, you do come highly recommended." She teased him.
"Is that a yes?"
He got up, picked her up and swung her.
"It's a no."
"No?"
"Let me tell you a little story of my own."
They sat down on a couch and she continued.
"When I was born, my parents had been trying for so long to conceive. The physicians had said my mother was barren. My parents couldn't have been happier when I was born. But everyone said I was a bad omen, that I was cursed. My hair was a shade too red and my birth was too much of a miracle. But with them, I never felt any different, I felt loved. And then they died. I never got a chance to say goodbye. And when I lost everything, it only served to solidify what people had been saying about me all along. None of my kin would take me in and that is how I ended up on the streets."
"I hope you know I do not believe anything they said about you."
"Of course. I know that when my stepmother took me in, her intentions were not exactly noble."
"Training you to kill me?"
"Trained me to fight and defend myself. But she promised me a family. I think she needed love as much as I did but she never got it. Ultimately, how she turned out was not really her fault. I am not trying to justify her but what if someone had saved her. What could she have become?"
"We'll try to find her but I don't know how much we can do for her."
"And I realised I never really made peace with myself or my past. I just immersed myself in a cause that allowed me to focus on other people other than myself. Walking in the rain because no one can see me cry." She turned to face him now, tears brimming in her eyes as they were in his.
"I owe this to myself. To discover myself and to love me fully before I can love someone else."
"How long?"
"As long as it takes. I won't ask you to wait for me."
"Yet I will anyway."
She wiped the tears from his face then from her own. She tilted his chin up.
"Head up, my King, lest the crown slips."
He laughed and stood up. He held out his hand for her and she took it. They stood just before the door and faced each other. He fixed the rose that was attached to the front of her gown. It was cream and cascaded behind her. She adjusted his sash and ruffled his black hair. He kissed her forehead and took her arm again.
They open the doors and walked through the doorway into the new age that was nothing like the ones before it.
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