Cassandra stood behind the pub, fidgeting her fingers nervously. She could smell the food from inside the kitchen next to the back alley. The back alley was muddy and she could feel the dampness soaking into her shoes. She waited in worry that Thomas may be caught and killed. She wanted him to show up. She wanted to thank him for saving her life and helping her the night before. She wanted to kiss him most of all, but she couldn’t do that. She hardly knew him, and surely he felt nothing like she did. She fiddled with the lacing on her dress and sighed heavily.

Just then she looked away from the ground and saw the most handsome man. “Thomas,” she said in slight shock.

“Hello Cassandra.” He replied to her interesting greeting with a smile.

“You came.”

“Of course I did. Did you think that I wouldn’t?”

“Well, sort of.”

“Why would you think that?”

“I don’t know. I’m just glad that you are here.”

Thomas walked closer slowly and said, “Me too.” By then he was just a few inches away from Cassandra.

Cassandra breathed in heavily and said, “I just wanted to thank you for-,” and she was stopped by the feeling of Thomas’ lips upon hers. He kissed her slowly and Cassandra didn’t resist.

A few moments after Thomas released his lips, Cassandra spoke. “What was that?”

“A kiss.”

“Well, I know that. What I meant was, what was that for?”

“Because I felt like kissing you. I felt like kissing the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.” Cassandra blushed when Thomas said this, though you could not notice because of the darkness of the night.

“But there are so many other girls that you could see, and girls who aren’t from Rendel.”

“How could I see other girls not from here?”

“Because you are not from here,” she remembered what Talley had told her and deep down inside, she knew that he was the boy who was seen the night before. She was a little upset, but she didn’t really think twice about it.

“And what makes you say that?”

“Because I’ve heard people saying things about a boy who came into our gates of Rendel and I knew I had never seen you here before.” She was lying a little just to get the truth out of him, because she had never seen any of the people she saw last night. “It was you wasn’t it?”

“Yes, it was. I hope that you aren’t angry with me.”

“No, I’m not. I just wanted to get the truth out of you. You do know that if you are caught, they will kill you?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I don’t want that to happen because…” Her hands were now running up the middle of his chest towards his neck slowly. “Because…” Her hands made their way to his neck and around. “I think I’m falling in love with you.” She pulled his face towards hers and pressed her lips against his. Oh my Lord. What did I do? She thought as she kissed Thomas. She couldn’t believe what she had just told him.

Their lips parted, although they were still touching as Thomas spoke these words, “Good, because I’m falling in love with you.” Cassandra could feel his lips move against hers as he said this.

“Now I know what real love feels like,” Cassandra said.

Thomas smiled and kissed Cassandra yet again. He then spoke, “The pub is also an inn, correct?”

“Yes. Why do you ask?” She asked a little startled that he changed the subject so fast.

“I was just wondering. Do you have to be home early tomorrow like you did this morning?”

“No. Do you?”

“No.” Both of their servants had the next day free, so they would be out and about, and not at the castle. The only thing that Cassandra had to worry about was seeing Talley in the market and village area.

“Why do you ask such questions?”

“Would you like to get a room at the inn and stay there over night?”

Cassandra hesitated. Stay at the inn? Stay over night? What was she to say? She wanted to, but then she didn’t know what he would do with them both alone in a closed room, and this time she wouldn’t have a concussion.

But she wanted to. She was falling in love with him, and he had admitted the same thing to her. “Yes. I’d like that very much.”

“Okay, come along.” Thomas grabbed Cassandra’s hand and pulled her around the side of the building.

“Wait,” Cassandra said as she stopped.

“What is it?” Thomas asked, thinking that something was wrong with her.

“I don’t have any money.”

“Don’t worry about it. I have plenty of money.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Thomas continued to pull Cassandra and she finally caught up to his pace. She held his left arm with her right hand as her left hand was intertwined with Thomas’. They entered the pub and the woman who had helped Thomas the evening before came up to both of them and asked, “May I help you? Oh, you’re that young man who was in here last night. Are you here for something to eat?”

“No, actually we were wondering if you had any rooms left here. We wanted to pay for just the night.”

“You’re wondering if we have any rooms? We always have rooms. Come over here,” she said as she gestured towards a desk. “It’ll be twelve shillings for a small bedroom, and thirteen shillings for a larger bedroom. Surprisingly the larger bedroom is the least chosen one. Even for you two I would suggest the smaller bedroom.”

“We’ll take the smaller room. It’ll be more comfortable. Here’s twelve shillings,” Thomas said as he handed the woman gold and silver coins from his money pouch.

“Thank you, and here’s your key. The room is upstairs and two doors down. We don’t have any other visitors this evening, so the floor will be silent.”

“Thank you very much,” Thomas said and then grabbed Cassandra’s hand to take her upstairs.

“That sure is a lot of money for a village boy. How do you have so much?” Cassandra asked, a little confused.

“Well, I work for my father in his pub. I serve the food, and since I am the only one who works for him, I make much more money than I would if there were more people,” he said in an unbelievable cover-up.

“Oh, I see,” she responded.

She followed him down the second floor hallway, looking around the building. It wasn’t anything she was used to seeing. She was used to seeing walls of stone with beautiful candle fixtures, windows framed in gold, and big wooden doors. Here the walls were wood, the doors were small and made of cheaper wood than the walls, and the windows were small and framed with wood as well. She was not uncomfortable though, even though she was not used to any of this.

“This is different,” she slipped.

“Different?” Thomas asked, sure that Cassandra would be used to the way these things looked.

“I mean, different from the way my home looks,” she managed to say to cover up her accident. “My home is different looking than this here inn.”

“Oh. I understand. Here we are. This is our room, the owl,” he said as he put the key into a door with an owl painted on it.

Cassandra was afraid of what was to come of this night. As Thomas opened the door, he lead her in, and she prayed for a night full of what love was to be about, nothing horrible or terrifying.

A/N: This story is on hold, but I decided to put it back up. Bear with me as I find new ideas and hopefully write more as soon as I'm able to.