Let it Snow!

❄Thirty-Six❄

As if he could feel Nora's presence, Martin turned around and smiled at her the next moment, the two women following his gaze.

Despite the insufficient light and the cold courtyard separating them, she could see the joy and... affection filling his green orbs, and it sufficed to scatter her despairing thoughts and smile back at him, her own heart overflowing with happiness because she was close to him again, and earlier than she had expected. She didn't care what he was, how much he still had to tell her about his life, she loved... being with him, and that was enough.

Taking another deep breath, she walked towards him on shaky legs, even as he crossed the courtyard to meet her halfway, pulling her in for a kiss the instant he could reach her.

That kiss earned her a couple of disappointed looks from the two women as they walked past them towards the hotel, wishing them a good night hastily.

"Friends?" Nora asked once they were beyond the glass door.

"Guests," he replied, taking her hand in his. "They lingered behind after the last tour to ask a few questions about the castle."

"Right," she said, smiling. To her, they seemed more interested in their guide than the castle. Well, she couldn't blame them, she mused, looking up to observe his profile as he led her back towards the door where she had seen him before. He looked dashing with his hair tied back with a leather thong, swathed in the floor-length coat with the Count's coat of arms embroidered on his chest billowing around him in the wind-- like a character from a Victorian novel. "So... the Count makes you work as a guide, too? He doesn't have a heart!"

Suddenly, somehow, she was absolutely sure that the Count stood in front of her, like that time when she understood that Daniel belonged to him. It was as if another piece slid smoothly into her mental puzzle of this man. But she would wait for him to tell her that himself; it wasn't important. It would change nothing about her feelings for him, just like his being Daniel's father changed nothing; it only made her admire him more.

He gave her a speculative sideway glance, gauging how much she had already put together, most likely, before he replied. "This was an exception. A guide called in sick at the last moment, and there was no one else available. But I was coming here to interview you anyway, Miss Princ."

They stopped by the door and he turned to her now, grinning, as he pulled a silver ring the size of a bracelet with a multitude of huge iron keys attached to it like charms, from the pocket of his coat.

"It was supposed to be a surprise, the interview. I mean, I meant to tell you about it if I got the place..." she muttered, feeling her panic rise as he pushed the heavy door open and stepped inside. How was she to do this with him? He was her... almost boyfriend of sorts, and her temporary employer, let alone the fact that he was almost certainly the Count, the owner of the castle she loved...

He simply smiled in reply, beckoning her in, but she felt too nervous to keep silent.

"Are you sure you are interviewing me? How, oh why... I can't! How can you interview me?!" she blabbered, letting him take her hand in his again and pull her inside, shutting the door behind them, switching on the light at the same moment.

While Nora breathed in the castle to calm down, noticing how the scent of centuries old wood, stone, and the ancient dust hiding in the carpets and tapestries replaced the scent of snow, frost, and moat-water which filled the courtyard, he pulled her closer and brought their joined hands to his lips before he said, "I promise I'll be as professional as... as I can. I want you to relax, Nora, we're only going to walk through the castle and I want you to tell me how you feel, tell me anything that comes to your mind, without thinking about it."