by Casey Lane
Colette hitched her satchel up her back and hurried to close the gate. “Yes, thank you!”
The farmer waved as Colette rushed to the stables and saddled one of the farm donkeys. It huffed at being dragged from its hay, but it carried Colette down the road and towards the village without much fuss.
The village was less than half an hour away at a brisk walk, so it didn’t take Colette long to reach the crusty inn and hitch the donkey outside.
She slipped inside, feeling a little self-conscious in her muddy and tattered dress as the innkeeper raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m here to see Sir Rainer,” she said.
“You’re Collie?” the innkeeper asked. He was dressed fastidiously, though his nose looked like he had broken it in a fight years ago.
“Yes.”
The innkeeper grunted and gestured for her to follow. He took her up the stairs and opened a door for her.
Colette poked her head inside, half-expecting to find Rainer pale and on his deathbed. Her heart stilled with fright, for he was splayed out across his bed. But he picked his head up with clear curiosity, then dropped it back onto the bed when he saw Colette.
“Oh, Collie, it is so kind of you to visit me when I feel so ill!” he said. He coughed pitifully and sighed with obvious over-acting.
Colette growled under her breath and was irritated she had worried about him. “You look fine.”
“Yes, but my heart is in such a tangle I cannot eat. I am wasting away!” Rainer said.
Colette narrowed her eyes. “You ate enough for two people yesterday at noon.”
“That was yesterday,” Rainer said smoothly. “It is today that is the problem. I will soon die from lack of nourishment.”
“It seems she does not believe you, son.”
Colette jumped when she realized Rainer was not alone. A graceful woman was seated on a rickety chair in the corner. She had Rainer’s dark hair—hers was streaked with silver—and pronounced smile lines that gave her an impish look. Though she wore a fine gown of silk brocade—the kind Colette’s mother wore—she smiled kindly at Colette. “She seems far too smart to fall for your antics. Hello, Collie. I must thank you for entertaining my young whelp this past week.” Her voice was just as lyrical and pleasant to listen to as Rainer’s.
“It was nothing, my lady.” Colette almost automatically curtsied, but cut it off at the last moment so she awkwardly wobbled.
“Mother,” Rainer squawked. “How can you be so cruel? I am starving—I have not eaten at all for this entire day.”
“This is the truth,” his mother admitted.
Colette sighed and adjusted her satchel. “What do you want, Rainer?”
Rainer smiled and sat up. “I want you to make bread for me.”
She didn’t even have to think about her reply. “No.”
Rainer’s smile turned into a caress. “Ahh, but Collie, I’m afraid I can’t eat anything if it isn’t made by your hands.”
“Then you’ll have to starve,” Colette said.
Rainer’s eyes glowed, and all signs of mirth were gone. “Please, Collie?”
Colette shut her eyes in defeat. “I can’t make normal bread—it needs time to rise and I need to return to the farm. But I can make a quick bread. Just this once.”
Rainer leaned back in his bed again. Though he didn’t smile, it was impossible to miss the triumphant tilt to his lips. “Of course. I will recover the instant I taste it. Innkeeper, would you be so kind as to lend Collie the use of your kitchens?”
The innkeeper bowed. “Of course, sir.” He again motioned for Colette to follow him.
She was given a small corner of a wooden table to make and knead her dough. She worked quietly, content to listen to the other women bustle around the hot kitchen, making dinner for the inn’s guests.
She made a small loaf barely bigger than a roll and helped scrub wooden dishes as her thanks to the innkeeper while she waited for the bread to bake.
When it was finished, she carried it up to Rainer’s room on a small wooden plate and thrust it into his lap. “Here. I hope this ends your illness.”
Rainer, his hands clasped together, gave Colette his half smile. “You are a hidden gem, Collie.”
“I thank you for your assistance,” Rainer’s mother said. “He becomes stubborn over the oddest of things.” She affectionately shook her head, then gestured to the chair beside her. “Won’t you sit with me for a moment?”
Colette was trying to figure out how to politely decline while still sounding like a peasant, when a man with Rainer’s amber eyes leaned in the doorway. “So this is the girl you have been mooning over, Rainer?”
“Father! Come in and meet Collie,” Rainer invited.
Rainer’s father was broader than his son through the shoulders but perhaps was not quite as tall. He had a thick beard, and, like Rainer, his golden eyes were clear and kind.
He took Colette’s hand and bowed over it. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Collie. If even half of Rainer’s praises are not exaggerated, you are a lovely girl.”
Yep. They’re all nobles—although they’re the strangest nobles I’ve ever heard of. Why would they cavort with a shepherdess?
Colette cleared her throat and planned her escape. “Thank you. Beggin’ your pardon, but I should leave—”
She broke off when Rainer made a muffled noise.
His face wrinkled with confusion, Rainer—having just taken a bite of the bread—spat out something golden and glittering into his palm. He stared down at it, then looked to Colette. “Collie…it was you I saw that afternoon, wasn’t it?” he asked.
Colette took a step towards the door. “W-what?”
Solemnly, Rainer held up the gold ring he had almost swallowed.
Colette instantly recognized it. The band had little birds etched into it. It was a birthday gift from Arianna. It was the only piece she had brought with her that she hadn’t planned on selling, and it had come because of her fondness for it and her affection for her sister.
Before she could stop herself, she flipped her satchel open and peered inside. Sure enough, the ring was not there. Fleetingly, she recalled tripping and falling on Rainer, and the way he had fussed over her bag. Outraged, she tossed her satchel down. “You stole that!”
“I did not,” Rainer said. “It was baked into the bread.”
“I would never be stupid enough to wear jewelry while baking. Give it back!” She froze when she realized what her words confirmed. She peeked down at her feet where her gown and the rest of her jewelry spilled from her satchel.
It was suddenly hard to swallow as she looked from Rainer to his parents.
“Colette,” Rainer said with his playful expression. “You can’t think so little of my intelligence as to believe I didn’t know who you were?” He tossed the ring back to her.
Colette caught it with shaking hands. “But how could you know? You’re not from here.”
Rainer shot a triumphant look at his father. “I told you she was clever.”
“Rainer,” she growled.
Rainer popped out of his bed and bowed. “Please allow me the honor of introducing my parents, King Gunther and the fair Queen Ishield.”
The room seemed to cave in on Colette. These wonderfully pleasant people were the rulers her father so disdained?
“I was a little surprised you did not recognize my name, but then since you’ve been away from the capital for so long, I imagine you didn’t know to expect us,” Rainer continued.
Colette laughed nervously. “That is quite true,” she lied. She had never known the names of King Gunther and Queen Ishield’s children. She had, in fact, only ever heard Rainer referred to as “the prancing prat.” “What brings you to my father’s kingdom?”
“Indirectly, you,” Rainer said.
The doorframe creaked as King Gunther draped more of his weight against it. “Since your disappearance, your father became convinced we had you kidnapped. We were journeying to meet him and ass
ure him we had not seen you.”
Colette frowned. What foolishness are they speaking of? Father sent me from the palace himself!
Queen Ishield stood and smiled benevolently. “Fate seems to have intervened, so now we travel to meet him for a far more joyful reason.”
“Oh?” Colette politely enquired.
Rainer shifted his stance and pointedly watched his parents.
“Come, Gunther. I believe we are wanted downstairs.” Queen Ishield sailed from the room.
“Now? But the best part is coming,” King Gunther said.
“Yes, now.” The queen was the picture of elegance and serenity as she started down the stairs.
King Gunther sighed and joined her. “I wanted to watch her make him squirm.”
The queen’s voice was barely audible. “I’m sure you’ll have plenty of opportunities to witness such an occasion later.”
Colette self-consciously tugged on a sleeve of her dress. “What are they talking about?”
“Us,” Rainer crossed the room, closed the door, and then leaned up against it. The playfulness in his eyes was gone as he dropped to one knee. “They know I’m going to ask you to marry me.”
She gawked down at him. “You cannot be serious.”
“But I am.”
“You are not in love with me!”
He shook his head with a small smile. “Absolutely head over heels.”
Colette scowled. Years of her father’s complaints and troubles nipped at her heels, making her remember King Gunther’s many successful military campaigns and the probable quest to extend their lands. “This is a political move, isn’t it? You must not know: I’m the second princess. Marrying me won’t open up any opportunities.”
“I don’t care about opportunities. I care about you.” His eyes glittered, and there wasn’t even a hint of a smile on his lips.
“But you can’t!” Colette’s legs gave out from underneath her, and she plopped down on the ground next to him. “I’m annoying and opinionated. I say things without thinking them through. I read too much, and I’m too cursed curious. I will make a horrible wife for a prince!”
Now Rainer did smile, but it wasn’t his playful grin. It was a heavier gesture weighed down with passion. “You’re wrong. I know you Colette.”
“How can you? It’s only been a week,” Colette snarled.
“A day would have been enough.” Rainer, still kneeling, leaned towards her. “You are kind and thoughtful. You are meticulous in carrying out your duties—no matter how small they may be—and though you might grumble, you will do everything in your power to aid those who are placed in your care, whether they are sheep or human. But most of all, Colette, you are dazzlingly clever. I adore your intelligent mind and your witty comebacks! In short, I love you.”
He scooted closer and, in spite of the dirt on Colette’s face and her dress that smelled strongly of sheep, enfolded her in his arms and scooped her against his chest. “Say yes, please. Say you’ll marry me.”
Colette’s self-control escaped her, and she set her head on his shoulder.
Rainer tugged her hair free from the bun it was shoved in. “If you don’t say yes, I intend to stay here and wile my days away wooing you while my parents move on,” he added.
A choked laugh gurgled out of her throat. “I love you as well.” She shocked herself with her own daring, and was even further startled to realize it was true. Not long ago she had wondered if she could truly be herself anywhere. She now knew she could be…with Rainer.
“So you’ll marry me?”
“It is impulsive and brash of us; we haven’t known each other very long.”
“Yes, but will you marry me?”
Colette pulled back so she could peer into his amber eyes. “Yes.”
With a grin and a glitter in his eyes, Rainer kissed her.
It was a soul-searing kiss that nearly overwhelmed Colette with its passion. But it had an amazingly sweet flavor to it as well, for Colette had found someone who understood her and treasured her.
So while embracing her future husband on the floor of a dusty room in a backwater inn was most assuredly not what a normal princess would desire, Colette couldn’t help thinking that it was perfect for them.
Colette smiled and waved to the subjects that recognized her as she—riding side-by-side with Rainer—wound through the streets. Together they, with King Gunther and Queen Ishield in front of them and a retinue of soldiers behind them, were slowly making their way through the capital of Colette’s kingdom, ambling towards the palace.
A week had passed since Colette agreed to marry Rainer. While she was anxious to see Rainer’s kingdom, she knew she couldn’t leave her homeland yet. She needed to make amends with her father and, hopefully, obtain his blessing for her marriage.
Her stay in the countryside had opened her eyes to a new world, but it had also helped Colette see that even if her father squinted at her when she tried to say something witty and occasionally was cranky when she pushed him too far…he was still her father. And she still loved him very much.
It had taken several days to prepare for the journey to King Louis’ capital. She had to explain the situation to the farmer and his family—he was surprised; his wife was not—and for the first time since she left the palace, she took a bath, donned her fancy dress, and wore some of the jewelry she had packed.
They traveled at a sedate pace, giving Colette a chance to speak with Rainer and her future in-laws. Though she still had some reservations over her future homeland, she was surprised to learn that further expanding his kingdom was the farthest thing from King Gunther’s mind. (“I have more than enough problems and work the way it is. Why would I want to increase my workload even more so? A good commander knows his limits!”)
These revelations greatly buoyed her spirits, for she had feared her father may very well die of heart palpitations when she sashayed up to him and announced her engagement to the “prancing prat.”
With her fears substantially calmed, Colette was all smiles as they approached her family’s palace. After all, what could go wrong?
Colette’s dainty mare snorted as they rode up the open lane that led to the palace gate. “I apologize beforehand if my father is…displeased with my return home,” Colette said. (It had, after all, been less than three months since he had kicked her out, and he had warned her not to return for a year.)
“I am certain he will be very happy to see you,” Queen Ishield said.
“He better be,” King Gunther complained. “He raised a big enough stink about her disappearance!”
The royal procession stopped at the palace gates—massive gaudy things that were, at the moment, shut up tight. The area was as quiet as a tomb. Only the flapping of a city banner broke the silence.
Colette frowned. “Hello?”
A knight strode down the battlement—the walkway on top of the palace wall. “You are late.”
Colette glanced worriedly at Rainer and shifted in her sidesaddle. “I beg your pardon?”
“Are you not the party of King Gunther and Queen Ishield?” The knight pointedly stared at King Gunther’s banner, carried by one of the guards.
King Gunther bowed atop his horse. “Indeed, I am King Gunther.”
“You were supposed to arrive several days ago. You are late,” the knight repeated.
King Gunther’s soldiers discreetly shifted until several of them stood in front of Colette and Rainer, and a few more shifted past King Gunther and Queen Ishield.
Colette’s mare swished her tail as a dragonfly buzzed nearby. “It’s my fault they were delayed,” Colette said. “If Father is angered, please make sure he understands it was not their doing, but mine.”
The knight almost lurched over the side of the wall. “Princess Colette?”
Colette smiled. “I’m afraid so. Could you let us in, now?”
The knight whirled around, not hearing her. “They have the princess! Princess Colette travels with them!”
“But—the gate! And he’s gone.” Colette sighed as they were once again left alone at the closed gate. Slightly embarrassed, she cleared her throat. “I apologize. Usually Father is meticulously well organized.”
“No harm done,” Rainer said cheerfully. “If you had run off and left me alone, I would be more than just a bit disorganized.”
Colette turned to her handsome fiancé and smiled. But she pressed her lips together and squinted up at the battlement as the footfalls of many feet thudded down it. Most of them were guards and soldiers, but she spotted one handsome head that sported a gold crown.
“Daughter?” King Louis shouted down to her.
“Hello, Father,” Colette said.
“So it is as I feared,” King Louis said. “Did these villainous rogues capture you after my foolish decree against you?”
“What?” Colette owlishly blinked. “No, they didn’t capture me.”
“Why else would you ride with them?” King Louis asked.
“It’s because I…we…”
“We’re engaged,” Rainer helpfully chimed in.
Colette nudged her mare over a step so she and Rainer could discreetly clasp hands.
The men on the battlement were silent.
“So it has come to this,” King Louis said.
“I beg your pardon?” King Gunther said.
“You have forced my daughter into a marriage with your offspring!” King Louis thundered.
“No—Father, I love Rainer!” Colette shouted.
“Worry not, daughter. I can see how the soldiers surround you—I know you are being forced to say lies,” King Louis said.
“But I’m not,” Colette said.
“If you villains do not hand over the princess,” the unhelpful knight from before yelled, “we will take aim!”
At least twenty archers lined up on the battlements, their bows creaking as they nocked arrows and pulled back on their bowstrings.
King Gunther murmured to his men, who were already lifting their shields up.
“Wait! Father, I’m telling the truth. I swear so on Arianna’s beauty!” Colette swung her mare in front of Rainer’s mount, trying to block him.
