Majesty Castle

Matthew went up to the bedchamber to change out of his wet clothes and found Allegra sound asleep, curled up under the blankets on the bed. He shook his head and smiled to himself before stripping out of his wet clothes into dry sleeping clothes. As quietly as he could, he got into the bed and went to sleep.

It was a loud clap of thunder that woke Allegra early in the morning. She opened her eyes to the sound and stayed still after noticing a heavy arm resting around her waist. Her back lay against a rock hard chest and she knew it could only be one person. “Go back to sleep, it’s early,” Matthew whispered and Allegra gasped softly. She turned around to face her husband. His eyes were still closed and his arm was still lying over her waist.

“What are you doing in my bed?” She asked in a whispered voice.

“It’s my bed, go back to sleep,” he whispered, never opening his eyes. She heard what he said, but Allegra couldn’t take her eyes off of Matthew’s sleeping face. He looked so at peace to her, so calm and serine as opposed to the angry hulk of a man that showed up at the cottage yesterday morning to collect her. “I can feel you looking at me,” he whispered and opened his eyes. “It’s early,” he yawned and focused his eyes on hers.

“It’s still thundering and lighting outside.”

Matthew closed his eyes and smiled to himself. “Would you like me to go and beat up the Gods who forced this storm on us and make them stop the thunder and lightning?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

He chuckled lightly to himself and opened his eyes only to kiss her nose. “Go back to sleep, Allegra.”

Allegra looked at her husband’s face and decided to take follow suit with him. She leaned forward and lightly placed a kiss on his lips. “No,” she whispered.

Matthew opened his eyes and looked back at her. “What was that?”

“A kiss?” She answered him as the blush rose up in her cheeks.

“That’s what I thought,” he smiled and closed his eyes again.

Another clap of thunder had her gasping and when lightning flashed so brightly that it lit up the room, Allegra leaned forward and shook Matthew’s arm. He chuckled to himself again. “You aren’t going to let me go back to sleep are you?”

“No way.”

Matthew moved his arm from her waist and moved his hand up to her face tracing his finger across her jaw line. “You stand up to Peter, but you’re frightened of a little storm?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Why are you whispering?”

“Because it’s still dark,” she whispered again making him laugh. Their eyes locked and in silence they stared at each other while he continued to run his finger over her jaw. Matthew moved his face closer to hers and Allegra didn’t move away. They were sharing one pillow now and comfortable being in each other’s space. He wanted to kiss her and moved his head even closer. He stopped moving his finger across her jaw and placed it under her chin, tilting her face up. She watched as he leaned closer and just as his lips were about to touch hers, there was a loud knock at the door.

“Damn it,” he whispered as the knocking continued.

Matthew slipped out of the bed and Allegra followed him with her eyes. He had no shirt on and this had been the second time she’d been able to see his body only this time it was much more relaxed. He stepped outside the door and returned to the room five minutes later. Allegra lay with her head on her pillow watching him move about the room while he gathered his clothes. He dressed right there in front of her and returned to the bed to put his shoes on. “Where are you going?”

“To stop the storm for you, of course!” He got off the bed and winked at her before walking out of the room.

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An hour later, Allegra walked into the kitchen to find Pippa preparing breakfast. “You’re up early.”

“The storm woke me,” Allegra answered as she took a cup of hot coffee from Pippa’s hands. “Thank you; have you seen my husband this morning?”

“Indeed, I have,” Pippa nodded and placed a tray of biscuits in the oven. “He’s in the stable. The rain brought so much water that it’s stared to flood.”

Allegra sat down at the counter and watched Pippa flutter about the kitchen. “What does that mean?”

“That means that your husband is helping to block the water from rising any further into the stables. The littler ones could drown otherwise.” She said it as if it were a natural thing. Allegra supposed that they were used to having to do this kind of thing when there was a bad storm. She got up off her stool and walked over to the back door to see out the glass pane. The rain was coming down so hard, there was hardly any visibility.

“He must be freezing out there,” she said as she turned back to face Pippa.

“Most likely,” she nodded and poured coffee from the pot into a metal canister.

“Is that for him?”

“Yes, soon as Rupert gets back, I’ll have him take it out to the stables.”

“Let me!” Allegra stepped forward and Pippa looked at her as if she had just lost her mind.

“Your husband would have my head.”

“No, he wont, I promise,” she pleaded. “Please, I want to help.”

Pippa sighed and set her hand on her hips. “You aren’t going to take no for an answer are you?”

“Nope!”

“Alright then, there’s a rain slicker by the door.”

Allegra put the slicker on and took the canister of coffee from Pippa. “Don’t go catching your death now. Give Matthew the canister and get right back here.”

“I will!” Allegra left the kitchen and was quickly shoved back against the door by a harsh wind. Thunder and lightning terrified her, but she would put that fear aside to help her husband. She ran against the wind and rain as fast as she could and when she did finally reach the stables, she was completely drenched.

“What are you doing here? Go back to the castle!” Matthew shouted at her as he lifted a sand bag and stacked it on top of a pile in front of the door.

“I brought you some coffee,” she yelled over the howl of the wind. He walked over and took the canister from her hand and set it down on a hay bale.

“Thank you, now go back inside!”

“No. I want to help,” she pleaded. Matthew sighed knowing that his wife would fight him tooth and nail to have her way.

“Fine, grab the end of that sack.” He pointed to the sand bag and Allegra quickly moved to grab her end. Matthew’s strength was more than enough to lift the bag by himself, but he let his wife believe that she was helping. Occasionally he would fake a wince or let out a grunt to make her believe the bags were too heavy for him and she would try harder to lift her end. On the inside, he was laughing.