Dalliance

Chapter Thirty One

"You wanted to see me?" Dawson asked as she closed the door behind him and Holly looked to him with her full attention. Her ivory dress flowed gracefully with her as she danced from one side of her room to the other. The bed that had been stained with alchemic potions and herbal remedies was now cleansed to appear perfect. There had not been a single medicinal object within the entire contents of her room. He had soon realized, she was no longer ill.

"You are better?"

"Much! It appears the poison that was within me has now diluted into nothing but the past."

"You also seem very..."

"Curious...I am anxious to know why I remind you of this woman you love...and lost."

He realized then by looking in her eyes that she had not known who she was. She had a childlike curiosity for the stories of the woman she supposedly was. Her hands clawed at Dawson, begging for him to begin the story.

"Please tell me, Dawson!" It was painful for him as she spoke his name. For his entire life, that angelic voice was a calming high that he always found easing. But now, he felt as though he was in love with a stranger...

"What do you wish to know?"

"How you met her..."

"We met..." He saw the frustration in her eyes before correcting his format of telling the story. "Her and I met in the woods actually. She had lost a necklace while running-one her mother had given her...and I was hunting rabbits for my father. I took her for a savage and held her up against a tree. It was a humorous sight I bet...she stood with wide eyes....so beautiful-even at five years old..."

"How much older are you then her."

"Five. Give or take a few phases of the moon."

"Did you spend each day together?" She asked with a hopeful smile.

"Actually, she hated me. I had scared her so horribly that she went to her mother and she then went to my father. They arranged an apology and I handed her this flower and when it, she blamed me for it. I then spent three days building her a garden so she would always have beautiful flowers whenever she wanted."

"When you were so young?"

He nodded.

"I knew from the moment I met her that she had taken my heart captive. She could look at me and we could speak to one another just through glances. We did this quite often when Eleana would serve dinner..."

"You truly loved her?"

"From the moment I met her...." He paused, the memories of what fell next-plaguing him with sadness, guilt, and shame.

"What happened after that?"

"We were inseparable...creating our own games to pass the time while our families grew closer and closer. At the time, being children, we did not understand what they always spoke of. But one night I awoke to find my father packing his satchel with weapons and maps. He hugged me tightly and told me that he would not return for some time. I later discovered he had been scanning the castle perimeters as he tried to free the prisoners."

"Why?"

"They were only guilty of trying to feed their family's. Each one, born worse than the rest. Plagued with sickness and poverty...they did not stand a chance in society. But he was caught and kept for years. It was this time that Holly and I grew close. I believe we bonded over missing our fathers. Hers was a knight-close to the King. But...he was never with her. Always fighting another war and gone for months on end without word."

"Did he survive?"

"The wars, he did...but not now..."

"What happened to him?"

He paused. "Are you sure you want to know?"

She nodded. "More than anything...I love stories...especially ones of romance and adventure...keep going..."

"When I was just a young lad, my father had taken me into the woods to teach me to properly skin an elk. But he appeared skittish...continuously looking behind him and fiddling with his knife. While we were going step-by-step filleting, he was pulled away from me and beaten until his face was completely swollen. The only thing I knew at the time was that he had done something. I ran as fast as I could to warn Holly...but...I saw the same fate with her father. He had only been home a few weeks by this time..." He relived the moment in his head as he paced in front of the amnesiac Holly in present time.

"What had they done?"

"When they became friends all those years ago, they decided to infiltrate the crown. At this time, the royals were ruling everything with selfishness and greed. So much so, that the Festival of the People, which was usually thriving with food and music and happiness...grew into a war. Any food that was there was hunted by those present-it was horrific. Brother against sister...father against son...." He continued before she could comment. "But it was this moment that made them decide to strike. They turned the closest allies to the King against him, plotting his assassination...but the King discovered this...He then had them publicly executed-in front of their families."

"Oh my..." She placed her hand over her mouth. "I have never heard anything more dreadful."

"Each night for years, I would walk five miles a day to hold her as she cried. She would confess in the guilt she felt for the arguments with her father. When she grew older, she became a joke to many. They had believed she had not escaped her family's curse of poverty and reputation. I had wanted her happy."

"What did you do?"

"I saw how she adored the things I could never give her. We would walk down the stones and she would gawk at the diamonds and gold. She would comment how one day she would wear something so dashing." He looked ahead and noticed her wearing something of that very description. "By luck, I had met Nicholas while he was hunting in the woods. He expressed how he was lost and in need of directions to the city to meet a woman. I promised him a beautiful girl-but I never planned for him to marry her. But before I could stop it, she ran off and married him. He was cruel to her-and I was invited to stay-as torture. He knew my feelings for her and wanted to throw them against me." She glared.

"Nicholas? The prisoner that-"

"Yes, your majesty..."

"Why is he here?"

"I am guessing because your husband is petrified of any loose ends."

She glared in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I know you will not believe me...but you are Holly. The woman I spent each day of the last twenty years of my life falling in love with-more each day then the one before. I cannot sit here and act as though you are anything else...but I can also see that you do not remember...."

"Dawson..." She pulled his arm as he went to leave. "I cannot promise to give you the girl you loved. But I can promise a friendship...if you will accept it."

He smiled. "I would be honored."

"Would you tell me more of the story tomorrow?"

"Of course, your majesty."

"Please do not call me that...I do not like the sound of it...never have..."

"Of course...Holly." As he spoke her name, he let out a deep exhale and departed from her room. He saw that her amnesia was indeed in effect. But he also saw a hope that she could possibly remember someday. And until that day came, he would do everything in his power to make her remember.