Free Once Upon an Autumn Eve by Dennis L. McKiernan

see Luc gazing at her, and her heart leapt.
    Boldly, Liaze said, “And you, Luc, captured the queen right from the start.”
    Luc reached across the table and took Liaze’s left hand in his right, and she did not withdraw from him. Luc whispered, “My lady, you are so beautiful. Why hasn’t someone come and carried you away: a king, a prince, a duke, an earl?”
    Liaze put her right hand on top of his, there among the captured pieces. “Why not a knight, Sieur Luc?”
    Luc shook his head. “Princess, you are worthy of a true noble and not a common chevalier.”
    “You are no common chevalier, Luc.”
    Luc withdrew his hand and pushed both out in a gesture of denial. “Me? But I am just a poor woodcutter’s son.”
    “Luc,” said Liaze, taking his left hand—his heart hand—in both of hers. “You know not whose child you are, yet this I say: in these days you have been here, I have come to realize a nobler person I have never met. You are anything but common.”
    “But princesses do not companion with commoners, my lady,” said Luc.
    Liaze shook her head. “Then, by that rule, Camille, a so-called commoner from the mortal world, and Prince Alain should never have wed.” At mention of Alain, Luc glanced at the portrait of the Summerwood prince. “Ah, non, Luc,” continued Liaze, “Camille is a rare and uncommon person . . . just as are you.”
    Luc sat without speaking, and after long moments Liaze said, “Whatever happens between us, let it be.”
    Luc sighed and said, “Princess, you deserve someone much better than me, and that I truly believe. Even so, it will be difficult to keep a rein on my ardor.”
    Liaze’s pulse quickened, still she said, “Keep a rein?”
    Luc nodded. “My lady, some believe love at first sight is but a mad fancy, yet I tell you it is not, for at the first moment I saw you, you captured my heart.”
    Liaze’s soul filled with joy, and her laugh came silvery, and she said, “Luc, you had been hit in the head and had fallen off your horse when you first saw me.”
    Luc laughed along with her, but he quickly sobered and said, “Nevertheless, Princess . . .” His words died, and his eyes filled with an unfathomable expression. And then he said, “That was the very moment, though I didn’t know whether you were real or a dream.”
    “To fall in love with a dream would indeed be a mad fancy, for dreams are not real,” said Liaze. “Yet heed me, Luc, I am no dream.”
    “Non, my princess, you are not, and for that I give my most fervent thanks to almighty Mithras above.”

10
    Fulfillment
    O ver the next two weeks, in the evenings Luc and Liaze continued to play échecs, and on rainy nights they read before the fireplace in the manor’s library, oft quoting poems to one another, many of them concerning love—unrequited, consummated, lost, gained, and the like—as well as parts of sagas and bits of familiar tales. And during sunny days they flew arrows at targets, and in this Liaze proved the better. But in croquet, Luc had a keen eye and hand, and oft Liaze found her ball far from the next wicket, driven away by Luc. They dined together—breakfast, lunch, dinner—yet there were times Liaze had to attend to matters of the principality. During some of these, Luc sat high in the gallery that ran ’round three sides of the throne chamber, and he listened to judgments and arbitrations and settlements of quarrels. There were times of courtly functions, and these Luc did attend, such as when some of the Fey Folk came to pay respects: over three days Luc met five tattooed Lynx Riders, and a Gnome and three Kobolds who asked to have a mining dispute settled, and Brownies, Hobs, Pixies, Sprites, and one great shambling thing, and a Ghillie Dhu in his clothes made of leaves and moss.
    During this time, Luc’s bruises cleared, and the bandage came off his forehead. A small circular scar remained, but Margaux told him it would soon fade.
    And then Luc and Liaze began riding in