A/N- Quick clear-up to avoid confusion. Technically at the time I'm roughly writing this a Queen of England would also be the Queen of Ireland, Wales and maybe even Scotland but I am writing this as a distraction so I'm not going to be getting that historically accurate.
And why does Caroline keep alternating between first person and the royal 'we'? Because around Klaus she forgets her role as queen and instead behaves as a young woman.
The day after his investiture, Earl Niklaus approached Caroline as she was walking through the gardens of Hampton Court, he steps into her path with a flourish of his ermine lined cloak she'd draped over his shoulders and bows,
"May I have the honour of attending Your Majesty?" he asked looking up at her eagerly and she hesitates only momentarily before nodding, resting her hand on his sleeve when he offers it to her.
Her ladies fall back obediently and they continue along the garden, the autumn leaves of orange and brown scattering across the pebble path as the grey sky hovers low and ominously over them,
"How are you enjoying your new position?" Caroline asks him as she studies his face from underneath her eyelashes.
In the last week they had not spoken a single word until she had bestowed his earldom on him, it had been as if they'd never dined together in the tent but she had thought about him often, looking for him at Court and always finding him at a distance, watching her but not approaching.
Nervously she'd told herself that he was simply taken with naval matters and decided not to seek him out, allowing herself instead to enjoy day dreaming about romance and happiness as her ladies often did when they were supposed to be attending to their duties.
"I like it very much," he tells her,
"As does my brother Kol who is now sending all his creditors to me and all the new friends I suddenly find myself with."
"And new lady loves we assume?" she suggests more coldly than she had intended.
"I'm sure that there is many a woman willing to match herself to you now that you are an earl."
"Well," he shrugs uneasily, "Yes…but are we not…?" he trails off uncertainly, a slight furrow of his brows,
"Have I done something wrong, Your Majesty?"
"You have not spoken to us," she pointed out, "I thought you were unhappy with the union I had suggested and unwilling to marry me"
"No" he says the word loudly, firmly and Caroline can see behind her that her ladies are utterly stunned.
'No' is not a word that is spoken to sovereigns often. She herself pauses a step in surprise before resuming,
"Forgive me, Your Majesty," he pleads,
"In one day you rose me from a nobody to an earl and then from an earl to a prince, I climbed so quickly that my head was dizzy from the height."
They are approaching the end of the path and Caroline slowly changes direction, leading him to the river that they may walk alongside.
"And now?" she queries apprehensively, "How is your head?"
Niklaus smiles and his voice is warm, "Very aware of the great honour that you do me and very willing to accept and my heart…"
He turns his head to face her, "May I speak honestly, Your Majesty?"
She nods excitedly, relieved in his willingness to marry her,
"I would have you do that always."
He bends so that his mouth is closer to her ear,
"My heart yearns to be joined in matrimony with you, the most beautiful woman in England,"
She gasps in delight and smiles and seeing this, Niklaus continues,
"It wishes to marry you as soon as possible so that I may begin my husbandly duties."
"You think being my husband will be a matter of duty?" she asks confused and he chuckles, his breath warm on her cold ear,
"Yes, I speak of my duty to take you to bed of course and to keep you there until we have made an heir, no matter how many hours or days that will entail. England requires me to enjoy conjugal bliss until your womb has quickened and I am nothing if not a dutiful subject."
Caroline blushed and looked around to make sure nobody could overhear them,
"You cannot speak to me thus" she chastises him, "I am the Queen"
"Yes" he agrees, "You are the Queen, the Queen of all of England until the very moment you step into the marital chambers, then you shall be my Queen and mine alone to serve most loyally."
Her heart is thumping in her chest and her breathing quickens. She has never been spoken to in such a manner before, as if she were a simple woman and he an ordinary suitor. She allowed her women to read the romances and sigh over the pretty words whispered but had never thought that she would find herself receiving such attention.
"We should marry in the winter and I will still make ours the hottest bed in Christendom," he murmurs,
"And when you are my Queen, your most loyal subject will refuse to let you wear even a shift in our marital chamber, for my duty will require you to be gloriously naked as often as possible"
Her eyelids flutter closed and she swallows to try and wet her mouth, her hand falling from his arm to pat down her skirt,
"You are uttering the most indecent things with your mouth."
"Send away your ladies and I shall show you what other indecent things I can do with this mouth."
"Leave now before I throw you in the Tower." She orders in a daze, her face so hot as to look feverish, Niklaus bows and takes her hand, pressing a long kiss to the knuckle above her ring, his eyes flicker from her face down to her skirt,
"I wish I were still a scout in the army" he jokes, "So that I could search under that dress for any hidden treasures I might claim"
Caroline pulled off her glove and threw it at him, only to have him catch it and tuck it into his sleeve as he darted away with a laugh that she couldn't help but echo.
"Your Majesty?" Lady Elena approached, confusion evident on her sweet little face,
"Shall I ask the earl to return your glove?"
Caroline placed her bare hand to her lips, "No, no, Lady Elena let him keep it"
She rather liked the thought of him having her favour.
From then onwards, Niklaus kept finding ways to place himself in her path and she kept finding excuses to seek him out,
"Lady Katherine," Caroline called quietly as she rose from the Royal box after chapel,
"Ask Earl Niklaus to walk with us, we would speak to him about the state of our ships"
Her lady darts away, sweeping gracefully down the stairs to the pew where Niklaus had sat and Caroline had watched him the entire time, ignoring everything but his handsome figure.
When Katherine reaches him, he looks up to the Royal box and bows before moving through the crowd to wait for her at the bottom of the stairs. Falling into step seamlessly beside her as she walks back to her rooms,
"Good day Your Majesty" he greets her cheerfully, his eyes already dancing with mischief,
"May a humble nobleman offer his compliments on how beautiful you are in the royal purple?"
"You say that no matter what colour we're wearing" she points out, fighting back her smile, as she glances down on her purple and black gown.
"Then it must simply be your magnificence." he decides, not bothering to lower his voice when his words are nothing that haven't been spoken to her by one hundred flirtatious courtiers one hundred different times.
"Soon you shall wear the royal purple" she murmurs, wishing that it was not so cold an autumn that she might have an excuse to carry her fan and hide her face. Niklaus dips his head to show that he has heard her but he does not seem pleased by the honour.
"Do you not care for the colour purple?" she asks, slightly hurt.
"In truth my Queen, I am opposed to any sort of clothing between the two of us" he retorts, keeping his face clear as her cheeks flush red.
She whacks his arm and tries to glare at him disapprovingly,
"You have a soldier's bawdy tongue," she chastises,
"We should have it cut out!"
He chuckles, "Oh, I wouldn't suggest that my queen, a bawdy tongue has a great many uses for women."
She sees her Chancellor awaiting her in the corridor outside her rooms and calls out to him,
"Tell me Master Alaric," she raises her voice so the Court can be led to believe what had been said between the two of them,
"Is it possible to have a man thrown in the Tower for telling the Queen bawdy sailor jokes?"
Chancellor Alaric eyes the new earl disapprovingly, however he wore that same expression for almost every man at court.
"As the Queen you may do as you wish" he intones respectfully.
"Allow me to apologise" Niklaus responds theatrically, dropping to his knees as those around them tittered in merriment,
"May I kiss your foot in supplication?"
Caroline took a pointed step back and gathered her skirts around her,
"No you shall not," she says firmly, "We know enough about sailors to know not to let them anywhere near our skirts"
The court broke into peals of laughter as Niklaus rose,
"Then with your permission I shall retire to my rooms to await transport to the Tower."
She nods and he makes to bow before halting halfway and straightening again,
"Oh, I forgot, I had meant to ask a favour."
"Then come, for your services to this land we shall hear you before any other petitioner."
She leads him through her waiting chambers, where people have gathered to see her, through to her presence chamber where petitioners of all sorts awaited her, all scurrying out of the way as she moved but all eyeing her with adoration and eagerness. She wants to lead Niklaus to her privy chamber but is worried that will attract the notice of the jealous court who are always ready to grumble when someone new attracts her favour.
So instead, she mounts the dais and settles into her seat, beckoning for him to approach her, he hovers before her with only the slightest hesitation,
"Is it untoward of me to be asking favours already?" he asks with a concerned expression but she gives a little shake of her head,
"Ask it of us and we will grant it gladly," she tells him with a smile,
"For we would see you happy."
He grins, "I was wondering if there is a place among your ladies-in-waiting for one more," he begins and Caroline feels her smile falter.
Oh.
Of course she is not the first queen to have had to employ her husband's mistress in her rooms but surely she deserved a season of happiness before this insult?
"Perhaps," she allows cautiously, "What is her name?"
"Lady Rebekah," he answers, "My younger sister, she is fourteen but I am sure she will fare well at court."
Caroline puts a hand to her throat and laughs in relief,
"Your sister, verily bring her to court and we shall give her a place among my ladies."
Niklaus tilts his head and regards her with curiosity,
"For whom did you think I was asking a favour?"
She drops her head in shame, "The lineage of our family is filled with women given places in the Queen's court so that they might be romanced by her husband."
"Well," Niklaus drawls teasingly, "There is one woman who holds my heart as firmly as I hold an accessory of hers"
Caroline raised an eyebrow, picking up on his humoured tone, "Oh?"
"Yes, the wondrous woman was so generous as to throw her glove at me and I treasure it as surely as if it had been dropped from heaven. I keep it under my pillow and kiss it every night, awaiting the day that I might kiss her lips instead,"
She smiles and her eyes flicker to his lips, imagining kissing them for the first time and trying to think where they might be able to accomplish this without being spied upon by the court.
"Surely she is not a generous woman to only gift you one glove" she jests, eager to keep him in her presence for as long as possible.
"Mayhap you should ask her for the other one so that you might have the pair?"
His grin widens and he gazes pointedly at her dress, as if he can see through the purple silk and black underskirt,
"If I were so bold as to ask her, I would instead request the ribbon from her garter and beg for the privilege of removing it myself."
She gasps and shifts in her seat, turning her face away under the pretence of checking the line of petitioners awaiting her attention eagerly.
"You forget yourself," she accuses, yet without malice and he only shrugs.
"I have been told that I am to have the gift of marrying the most beautiful woman in England," he argues,
"How can I remember anything but the way your eyes shine like diamonds and your laughter rings like silver bells in the early morn?"
Caroline drops her hand from her throat to her heart,
"Have you sister come to court as quickly as possible" she orders tenderly,
"We would have her present a fortnight from now when we address Parliament"