The fire crackled merrily in the grand library casting its golden light over the endless shelves of books. Queen Caroline lounged on a sofa, she had fallen asleep while a heavy tome lay with its open pages across her face.
King Casimir smiled a little as he approached the sleeping queen who lay undisturbed.
He gently tried to pick up the book from her face.
"Don't touch me!" Queen Caroline warned, aware of his presence.
"I'm sorry my lady I did not know you were awake. I only wanted to make you more comfortable."
He said lifting the book from her face, revealing a very red faced queen, who was feeling annoyed and embarrassed to be caught in such a position.
"I see you take your studying seriously," he commented trying to keep the humor out of his voice, but failing to do so.
"Haha, you may laugh all you want, Casimir," she replied trying to keep the smile from breaking out on her pretty face.
"So now we are on the first name basis my lady, I am pleased, at your progress." He replied trying to be seductive.
Only to earn a laugh from her.
"Yes, I suppose it is a good change since you are the one courting me." She replied smugly.
He gently lifted her feet then and sat down on the sofa next to her, placing her feet on top of his lap.
"You observe the fire as though it speaks to you," she observed her voice curious.
"In a way it does, fire has always been my companion. In the Summerlands it is the source of life, but here it is merely a guest."
"You feel out of place here then?"
"I do, as you would in my court I assume."
"Perhaps, but I have spent life preparing to leave home...."
"But never leaving it?" He asked.
"You leave your kingdom often?"
"Not often enough."
"But not to seek a wife?"
"Yes," he admitted. "This would be the first time I leave to seek a wife and a queen of another realm."
He reached for the poker and shifted the logs so the embers flared, sending shadows dancing across the walls. As a comfortable silence settled between them.
"What do you love most about the winter palace?"
"The silence, when the snow falls absorbing sound and leaving behind only stillness, here I can think, feel and act clearly. I am calm here and settled."
He nodded.
"Like a little bird still in its nest, you wish not to be disturbed."
"I shall tread lightly then, Caroline."
He said as his fingers gently placed a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
She looked up at him doubt in her eyes.
"A man like you does not tread lightly. You do everything with force."
"You wound me, it does not mean I incapable of being gentle when I need to be, love."
"Is that a love you give away so freely? It ceases to hold any real worth?" She countered gently.
"I have heard of the rumors, of previous lovers you have had," she explained.
"Please do not act like they do not matter."
She looked up at him then with a challenge in her eyes.
In that moment he felt like she had slapped him. A gentle slap across the face but a slap nevertheless.
"They did mean something to me, but they were not what I needed or what I was searching for."
"What makes you think I will fulfill that need or that I will be the end of your searching?"
She asked him again with a skeptical look.
"Believe me you will fulfill that need and you will be the end of my search. I have learnt a bitter lesson, I shall not repeat past mistakes, after we are married, Caroline."
He said gently almost pleading with her.
"What do you want from me Casimir?" She asked him pointedly.
"A loyal companion, a beloved wife and a mother to my children." He said simply.
"Once I may have said I was bound by duty to fulfill the vow I made to your father to marry you but now I am intrigued.
She arched a brow. "Intrigued? By what?"
"By a woman who sits close to me by the fire tonight, who carries the weight of her people and her kingdom on her shoulders, who has braved the foreign world even her enemy and still holds to hope for a brighter future for the Land of Promise."
Caroline's breath caught, but she recovered quickly, schooling her features to remain unmoved what he said.
"Flattery will get you no where, great king," she teased trying to make light of the serious moment that had descended upon them.
"But honesty will get me everywhere," he countered with a cheeky smile on his handsome face.
Which made her blush lightly beneath the glow of the firelight as he stared at her.
She studied him and searched for any form of deception in his words but found none.
The warmth from the fire enveloped her and she exhaled steadying her breath.
"Tread lightly with me, Casimir."
A slow smile spread across his lips, he gently took her hand and brushed a kiss across her fingers, his lips lingering longer than they should.
She stiffened for a moment but did not pull away, the shadows from the fire played across his face as he whispered, "I shall tread lightly love, but not light enough that you won't feel the heat of my love."
He finally released her hand, gently lifted her legs and placed them back on the sofa.
He left her alone then in the library.
Her mind continued to replay what had just happened.
No she thought I shall not melt so easily under the heat of love, because as she had come to understand love could be fleeting and easily replaced.