[untitled]

 

The hallway down to the courtyard was as lavishly decorated as the entranceway to the castle itself. Paintings of past royals lined the hallway, and a blood red velvet carpet ran the length of the corridor. Christian dawdled down this hallway to the glass door at the end. From about halfway down, he could see the stone fountain in the center of the courtyard, the very same one that he and his sister used to splash each other from back when they were about seven years old. Good memories flashed through his mind for a moment, of warm summer days, back in the time that the sun actually shone, when his mother would watch he and his sister from a bench shaded by a large sycamore, while their father would be off doing business, as he always seemed to be. The breeze back in those days was often soft and sweet, caressing, like a mothers touch.

 

            His hand rested on the wooden frame of the door as he stepped outside into the slightly cool breeze. Above him, he could see a mass of charcoal grey clouds swirling and accumulating, stacking on top of each other in preparation for a horrific storm, or so it seemed. He looked around the courtyard, and began to walk toward the fountain. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, until he spied a woman sitting on the bench his mother used to sit on, under the sycamore. It was the woman that the chancellor had arranged for him to meet. He couldn’t see her very well from where he was standing, so he walked a little closer. He climbed up the stone steps, and walked along the twisting cobble path. He stopped within a few feet of her. She took notice of him, and raised her head to look at him more closely. She didn’t move for the moment, instead sat there, looking at Christian intently, as if she were studying him. After a moment or so, the woman stood up, and moved toward Christian, her crimson dress dragging against the ground behind her. He could see that her dress was low cut, exposing her cleavage, which drove him insane. It had been ages since he had felt a woman’s touch.

 

            Lightning flashed as the woman approached. She stopped directly in front of Christian and raised her hand slowly. She let the back of her hand run down his cheek, which was soft and smooth, and warm. Christian noticed her hand was like ice. Never had he felt anything as cold as the hands of this woman. He stared into her eyes. He had never seen a woman this beautiful, or more hypnotic. He could not bring himself to speak or to move, he felt frozen, perhaps from the chill of her fingertips.

 

            The woman left the courtyard and went into the castles grand entrance, the way in which Christian had entered, through this immense glass door, decorated in gold. Gold handles adorned the double panel door, and a gold paint ran along the edges of the glass. She was then escorted up the giant staircase, and down the hall, opposite Christian’s bedroom. Apparently someone had decided she was staying for awhile.

 

            Christian was still in the courtyard. The chancellor went to check on him after the woman was out of sight. He was standing near the fountain, frozen in place, becoming increasingly wet as the rain began to fall and pounded down heavier and harder. The wind picked up even stronger than before. The chancellor walked quickly into the courtyard and helped Christian back into the castle hallway. It was a feat indeed, as the legs of the Prince no longer seemed to be working at full capacity, so the chancellor really carried him more than anything. Once inside, Christian collapsed onto the crimson velvet carpet and fell into unconsciousness. The last thing he remembered was the softness of the velvet against his skin where the woman had gently touched his face.

 

            He awoke some hours later with the Chancellor sitting by his bed in one of the lavish chairs which adorned the master bedroom of the castle. Surgical tools were on the table next to him, and Christian briefly wondered and the purpose of them. He felt generally unwell, perhaps standing in the ice cold rain for even a short period of time was enough for him to catch a chill, bringing on a fever, which, in those times was a rather significant illness. The Chancellor sat on the edge of the bed and felt his forehead. It was rather warm he thought, and decided to dampen a towel and try to cool the Prince down a bit. Christian wanted the duvet covering his toned, muscular body, but the Chancellor wouldn’t hear of it. He tried explaining to the Prince that his fever was unusually high, and if it didn’t break soon, he would become very ill indeed. Every time the Chancellor turned his back, Christian would be covering himself up again. The fever had been so bad that all clothing had been removed, and the Prince was lying on his bed, burning on the outside, but shivering with chills on the inside, completely nude. By the third time the Chancellor had to come and remove the duvet from Christian’s body, he was becoming a tad irritated.

 

            There was a knock at the bedroom door, which almost echoed in the giant bedroom, resounding off the walls of exquisite decoration. The Chancellor had taken the duvet away from Christian at this point and placed it on the floor at the foot of the bed. He told whoever it was, through the door, to come inside. The door opened. It was the woman. She gasped and hid her eyes as she got a glimpse of Christian undressed. Her face burned red and she was incredibly embarrassed.

 

            “Oh dear, I am so sorry! I had no idea you were not prepared for visitors!”

            “Nonsense dear,” the Chancellor said. “Come in and make yourself comfortable.”

 

            She entered the room, and closed the door behind her. Today she was wearing a long cream coloured gown with gold trimming along the bottom and the breast, as well as on the edges of the sleeves. The sleeves were long and flowing, and they tightened towards the shoulders to show off her toned arms. She stood near the door for a moment before the Chancellor took her by the hand and led her to the bed, where the rather ill Christian had made some effort to cover himself up again. The Chancellor wouldn’t hear of it. It’s not like it mattered anyway what the woman saw, as she was at the castle for a very specific purpose.

 

            “Come now Sire, there’s no need to be covering up in front of Princess Aoife,” the Chancellor said in a matter of fact tone.

            “It’s not appropriate for a woman to see a man in this state. Not unless they are married.” The Prince weakly said.

            “That will happen soon enough, your majesty.”

            “What are you talking about?”

            “That is why the Princess is here. To be married to you.”

 

            Christian almost choked at this prospect. It was all so sudden and so unexpected. No one had even though to send a letter ahead of her arrival to the Prince to ask his opinion, or to warn him. It’s not that he didn’t want to be married, to Aoife or not, but he didn’t know her, and felt uneasy at the idea of being married to someone who he had only just met. She appeared to feel the same way. Her eyes seemed sad, and she hardly looked up from her lap while she was seated in the chair the Chancellor had been previously.

 

            “What do you mean?” the Prince asked, only slightly alarmed.

            “Well,” the Chancellor began. “When you were a child, your parents had made a sort of deal with the parents of Aoife from a nearby kingdom, that one day you two should be married to further strengthen the bond between their kingdom and this one.”

 

            Christian laid there a moment, taking it all in. He glanced over at the Princess, who now seemed to be less embarrassed about seeing him nude on his bed. She was looking around the room, absorbing the vibrant colours of the décor with her beautiful green eyes. Christian suddenly felt a lot better than he had before; perhaps his fever was now breaking. Perhaps he had just caught a case of the sniffles from the cold rain he had been soaked in. Either way, whatever it was, it was going away now, which he thought was an excellent sign.