The First Dance

Begginings

  As the sun set in the west and a golden hue encaptured the green hills, Delilah looked out through the window. Deep in thought she cuddled closer into her quilts. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" Delilah's head snapped to the direction of the deep voice. Her husband gave a chuckle to her startled reaction.

"I didn't hear you come in." Her cheeks red as she tried to explain herself.

"Should I knock next time?" An amused expression crossed his face. Delilah gave a soft smile and shook her head. He walked and sat by the window with her. "How was your day, love?"

She quietly looked out the window, "It was good, your majesty."

He gave her a bemused look. "You know you don't have to call me 'your majesty' love. We are married."

Delilah looked up at him, she was aware she didn't have to call him that. She knew his name. However, between the servants, the knights and essentially everyone else, she felt out of place not addressing him with a proper title. "I'm sorry," she gave a polite smile, "Tobias."

Tobias smiled back at her, "There, that wasn't so hard." he leaned in and kissed her forehead before heading out to another royal meeting. Delilah drifted off to sleep while the golden rays of the sun dimmed.

Delilah wiped the sleepiness from her eyes. The room once filled with light now flooded with darkness. She closed the curtains and hobbled tiredly to her bed.

As she began to lay down, Tobias came in. "Good evening love," his usually cheery demeanor was sullen "You missed dinner... again."

Delilah gave a weak smile. "I wasn't hungry."

Tobias dark brown eyes held concern. "Take care love." It was more of a demand than anything else. She nodded her head with an absent mind. Her main reason for not eating or even leaving their bedroom wasn't because she wasn't hungry. Even though she was self conscious about her weight, she was more worried about impressing her step daughters. Tobias' three daughters from his previous marriage despised her. Despite the fact they were young, impressing them gave Delilah much anxiety. Especially because they seemed so hard to please.

Filling their late mother's shoes was impossible. Delilah continuously attempted to avoid them, only coming out briefly for essential events. Her only options were: one, go talk to her step daughters or two, stay in her room with her thoughts. Despite it being unhealthy, she chose the latter.

Delilah tried talking and being friendly with her step daughters, but they didn't care for her. She "stole" their father and more importantly she wasn't their mother. So, she was labeled as evil. Eventually she gave up, to Tobias' discomfort. He'd always come to her between his meetings to see how she was doing and raise her spirits. Even though they were married mere months ago, her mood declined. Between his three judgemental daughters and the stress of becoming a new queen, Delilah couldn't cope.

Delilah became a queen essentially overnight. She was used to luxury of royalty, after all she was the only daughter of the richest merchant of her land. She knew about riches and power enough, but nothing could prepare her for becoming a queen. Delilah and Tobias' marriage was arranged; married to prevent a war outbreak.

Tobias was the king of a land named Emersyn, while she came from Leone. Leone was a troubled kingdom with little resources and was dependent on other lands. To avoid Leone pillaging other kingdoms for resources and eventually causing war, Emersyn, the richest kingdom, became jointed with Leone and shared resources. Since the king of Leone had no daughters for himself, Delilah was the next best thing. She was certainly rich enough to be a princess and her dad was associates with the King of Leone. Still, the natives of Emersyn, as her step daughters, could not stand her. The land Delilah once was proud of took a distorted view in Emersyn, as a greedy and warmongering kingdom. She felt alien to the new culture and all of its traditions. She also felt that she could never measure up to the belated Queen.

The people of Emersyn basically worshipped Queen Winter's image, she was always perfect and poised. Everyone missed her, her death devastated the citizens. The three people hit hardest by the queens death didn't even attempt to be affable with her. Tobias and Winter's daughters: Adelaide, Shawna and Meredith treated Delilah like a villain.

Delilah covered herself in the thick velvet of the bed, Tobias soon climbed in beside her. "I know this is all very new and hard for you," he began, "but you can't just shut everyone out. I worry about you." She could tell he was trying and felt bad for making his efforts seem useless. "Hey, how about you spend the day with the girls tomorrow?"

Once the words left his mouth, Delilah was instantly filled with dread. "Please?" there was a whine in his voice.

There was silence. Then Delilah let out exhaustedly "Yes, Your Highness." Tobias kissed the back of her neck and held her waist. "Thank you." He fell asleep, but Delilah felt restless more than ever.