A/N: Written because I need a happy ending every once in a while. :)
my love is a sonnet of gold and blue
You spent your life earning the keys to set you free when you were free all along. (New York City, Among Savages)
This is not your usual picture of an aristocratic Elizabethan wedding.
His Most Reverend Excellency Alaric Saltzman, Bishop of Emmental, stares uncertainly at his audience, a select crowd of doublet-wearing gentlemen and lavishly attired ladies, majority of which are either gasping in shock or staring agape at each other with a "What the bloody hell just happened?" look on their faces. The most important guest of all, Her Majesty Queen Sheila of the House of Bennett, the reigning monarch herself, raises a finely-arched brow in dignified disbelief at the scene unfolding in front of her while her granddaughter Princess Bonnibelle tries to hold back a smile.
In his seat on the front-most pew, Giuseppe Philippe Arnaud Salvatore, Duke of Roquefort, is sending deathly glares at Lord William Thomas Forbes, Viscount of Edam, whose face is flushed red as a cameo apple as he holds his hand over his forehead in a mix of puzzlement and surprise. Lord Elijah Leventhorpe-Rath Mikaelson, heir apparent to Earl Mikael Rhys Mikaelson of Camembert, keeps his face blank as he tries to hold back his irate father, whose frightening roars of "I'm going to kill him, I'm going to kill him!" resound throughout the cathedral.
All this, while Duchess Esther Amelia Leventhorpe-Rath Mikaelson quietly reaches out to Lady Elizabeth Ellinor Forbes, taking the latter's trembling hand and smiling at her understandingly.
-o-
"For a groom whose bride just ran away, you don't even look sad." Damon comments, discreetly passing a flask of whiskey along to his brother amidst the commotion that ensues throughout the church.
Stefan laughs, taking the offering of alcohol and gulping down the biggest swig of his life as he watches his fiancee run out of the cathedral, hand in hand with another man. There's a sharp, stabbing pain in his chest, he won't deny that, but you know what they say about people in love – they do foolish things. Like, let-the-love-of-your-life-run-away-with-the-man-sh e-really-wants-to-be-with-on-your-wedding-day kind of foolish.
"I just want her to be happy, you know?" he says softly, more to himself than to anyone else.
His green eyes follow the sweeping white train of his bride's wedding gown, and his lips curl into a sincere smile as it disappears cubit by cubit while his golden columbine hurriedly descends the cathedral steps. It's the truth, plain and simple. If this is what will make Caroline smile every day for the rest of her life, then Stefan honestly doesn't mind taking in the hurt.
Maybe, someday, the pain will eventually go away. If it doesn't, at least he knows that Care is happy.
And to Stefan, that's really all that matters.
-o-
"Are you certain you want to do this, love? It's not too late to -"
Caroline silences Klaus with a kiss, and immediately he kisses her back, his hands lacing together with hers and holding them tightly in a wordless expression of how much he needs her. Inside the horse-drawn carriage that his brother Elijah had arranged for them to escape in, they're surrounded by yards and yards of soiled white silk taffeta that is her 25-foot long wedding dress and Lord it's so ridiculous he almost wants to laugh.
But then again laughing is not exactly on the list of the things you should be doing when you're a plain artist slash horseman who just ran away with the supposed-to-be wife of the duke's son.
Klaus doesn't even know where to go - if he ever shows his face in Emmental again he's sure Giuseppe Salvatore will kill him (if his own father does not do it first, that is; there is no greater sin to the old man than to disgrace the sacred Mikaelson name) - and the only money he has in the world is the fifty-pound a year designated inheritance from his grandfather that Mikael can't disown him from. Klaus can only pray to God that the Shakespeare playwright bloke from The Rose theatre won't write a comedy out of this someday.
Still, he closes his eyes and smiles as he presses his forehead against Caroline's, reveling in the warmth that spreads all over his chest when he feels her lean in closer to him. He loves her and she loves him and that's everything he needs to know.
"I don't have what Stefan has." he tells her in all honesty, taking in the heart-melting sight of his muse's blue-green eyes; the same eyes that have inspired page upon page of charcoal sketches rendered devotedly by his hands on crisp English parchment, immortalized forever in the streaks of gold and blue that daub the very canvas of his artisan soul. "I've no title to give you, no estate to inherit for you to be mistress of – I don't even know if I can ever offer you the gift of another diamond necklace or emerald earring."
"But know, my lady, that I love you and so long as I draw breath I swear to be faithful to you and to take care of you and to love you as no other man in this world will."
Caroline shakes her head, a meek smile planted upon her lips as she rests her head on Klaus' shoulder. Her hand gently guides his over her heart, letting him perceive its fluttering rhythm.
"Do you feel it, Nik? My heart – how it beats for you. I don't need a noble title. Not a castle, not even one teardrop jewel." she assures him. "I just need you."
And he kisses her again, earnest and fervent and thankful, because he's a man who's supposed to have nothing and she's the woman who's supposed to have everything, but she let it all go just to be with him.
And damn, he's going to spend the rest of his life making sure that she does not regret it.
-o-
"You think we'll ever see Nik and Care again?" Kol asks Elijah later that evening, before the youngest Mikaelson son retires to bed.
Elijah takes a deep breath. This is not something to be taken lightly, what his reckless, stubborn, utterly in love brother did – elope with the woman whom the almighty Duke of Roquefort himself chose to become the wife of his son. As if that wasn't enough, whatever kinship there was between Mikael and Giuseppe had been thrown out of the window by now and their politically shrewd father may just kill him for that. Elijah is almost certain that there will be a troop, if not an entire cavalry, waiting for Klaus and Caroline when they return to Emmental.
'When' being the operative word, because although things are looking royally screwed up right now he knows how it will all play out in the end.
"Give it a year, perhaps two." He tells Kol. "They'll have a child, Caroline won't be able to hold back from wishing that Lord and Lady Forbes could see their grandchild, and Klaus won't be able to refuse her. He'll fashion some way to speak to Stefan, Stefan will be equally unable to deny this request and will intercede for them when he discourses with the Duke. Father will give his own earful about this, but mother will take care of him. Another month or so later an official pardon will be granted and they will be allowed to return."
Kol smiles faintly at his older brother. He's hoping for the best, but after that disaster in the cathedral earlier today, it's bloody hard to believe Klaus will ever set foot in Emmental again.
"I hope you're not wrong, 'Lijah. I hope to God you're not wrong."
-o-
Well, it does turn out that Elijah is wrong - because they don't even get to wait out a full year. Just ten months later, an adorable baby boy with the most charming dimpled smile is christened Joseph Elijah Mikael Rhys William Nicholas Leventhorpe-Rath Mikaelson in the Emmental Cathedral.
And you couldn't yank the bouncing bundle of joy away from his grandfather Mikael even if you tried.
-o-
A/N:
1. You can check out the accompanying manip for this story in my tumblr, erica-dreams-in-colour, link in my profile page.
2. Technically, Stefan wouldn't have a title nor an estate to inherit either because the dukedom will go to Damon, so let's just assume that Klaus was pretty sure Stefan would have been awarded a peerage of his own and an estate to boot after his wedding.
3. Super sorry to all my friends whose updates or new stories I haven't reviewed, I'm being shipped to Ascot this weekend and there's literally a ton of things I need to get done before I leave. I'll catch up over the summer. :)