Alfred and I spoke for a long time that night. I realized he wasn’t so thick-headed after all. In fact, we had a lot in common. We’d read a lot of the same books and held similar political beliefs.

“You’re very well read, for a maiden,” he told me before he left.

“And you’re pretty good looking, for an Austrian guy,” was my reply…OK, not really, but I did think it. He was definitely the most attractive man I’d ever met. Not that I’d met that many, but still.

“I’ll be back on the morrow. Good night, fair princess.”

“Good night, fair prince.”

Only when he was gone did I realize that was the first time I hadn’t corrected him on my not being a princess.

~

Alfred visited me every night after that. I got used to our conversations, and even began looking forward to them. It became a routine – after my parents came to bring me dinner, my mother would go down the ladder again and they would leave, taking the empty tray and the ladder with them. Not long after, I would hear the far-off pounding of hooves.