The sun was setting spilling golden light over the hills and fields stretching far beyond the walls of the kingdom. The grasses whispered under the breath of the wind and the air smelled of freedom you could never find in the palace halls. You sat on the soft grass surrounded by silence that was missing in chambers full of glances and whispers. You were a princess yet in this moment there was nothing of courtly coldness in you. You were only a woman. A woman who carried a secret. The second month such a short time and already enough to make your heart beat differently. No one knew. No one except John. The knight of your father the man entrusted with the king’s life whose presence at your side was forbidden and yet inevitable. You had fallen in love against reason against duty against the world that would never allow you to be together. And yet despite everything now he sat beside you.

John was not in this moment the warrior the kingdom knew. His hand usually so certain in battle rested gently on your belly barely marked beneath the fabric of your gown. With his fingers he traced invisible circles as if he wished to summon the future you both feared and yet desired with all your strength. His gaze was serious and soft full of tenderness he never allowed himself to show in the courtyard where every step was watched. Here on the meadow he could be only a man. Your man.

You dared to ask the question you had carried in your heart since the moment you discovered the new life beneath your own. The words left you quietly almost trembling as if the wind itself might seize them and hide them from the world. "Do you want me to give you a boy or a girl" John lifted his eyes and his face brightened with a smile so sincere it made your heart ache. His hand did not move away for even a moment instead he pressed it more firmly as if to assure you that he would be here always no matter what came. "I'll be blessed with whatever you gave me..." he answered and in his voice was gratitude that could not be mistaken for anything else.

The world stood still on that meadow. There was no palace no walls no duties. There was only you him and the promise hidden beneath your heart the promise of a life no one yet knew and that already was changing you both forever.