A/N: Fun, as I promised. Enjoy.


Days turned into weeks. Edward and Bella found time to be together in secret, but it was not enough. It would never be enough. Still, they tried to content themselves with what they had. No other solution presented itself, and they were lucky in many ways. It would not do to ask more of God than what they had, not when they were who they were.

At least, that was what Bella tried to tell herself. Still, one day when she and Alice walked out to the gardens and came across Jasper, Bella was jealous as she watched them kiss. They too could not spend as much time together as they wished, but they were not forbidden. They could kiss, and Jasper could hold Alice in the daylight. Meanwhile, Bella's gaze strayed across the yard to where Edward worked with Emmett, mending a broken fence.

Jasper cleared his throat and bowed low before her. "Good morrow, Princess."

She took his hand and clasped it briefly. If the queen or any of her ladies caught her, they would wrinkled their noses in distaste. They didn't understand how Bella could stand to touch the servants. "It's been so long since we spoke, Jasper. How are you acclimating to Nomadia?"

"The sun shines more often here, Your Highness. It suits me in many ways." He reached out to take Alice's hand and smiled wide as he looked on her. "And as always, as long as my lady is with me, I am content."

Bella was genuinely happy for her maid and companion, but again, she ached.

Jasper cleared his throat. "The common folk honor the old gods here more than in Forkshire, have you noticed?"

"Aye. I had." Were she being honest, Bella would have acknowledged that she much preferred the old gods to the God the ruling class embraced.

"Fascinating, to be sure. I know not if you realize what today is to the peasants. It is the Beltane. Do you know what that is?"

Bella cocked her head, curious. "I've heard of it."

Jasper nodded. "It is a rite and celebration, a call to the gods to bless the crops. Tonight, fires will be lit in the fields, and many will come to lay together in the tall grass beneath naught but the moon." He raised his eyes to hers. "Many of the servants will make their way to the fields this night."

Bella's breath caught. "How fascinating," she murmured. Her skin flushed hot as visions of laying with Edward beneath the sky came to her.

"I must to work, My Ladies." Jasper bowed again and was gone.

~0~

Bella could see from the Easternmost window of her rooms when they lit the Beltane fires. Excitement shot down her spine, and she flushed as she turned to Alice. "This will work."

"It will. You've made your excuses to the Queen, and the rest will think nothing of two servant girls slipping out to the fields." Alice took the cloak she'd brought, plain as the dress Bella wore now, and fixed it about Bella's shoulders. She pulled the hood up, around Bella's face. "And if the Queen or anyone at court inquires, you will tell them you merely grew curious."

Bella scoffed. "It is to be expected of me, I suppose. They say I ask too many questions, that I care too much."

Alice cupped her cheek and smiled. "The common folk adore you, Princess. From the tales I hear, they have not had a queen to adore since Queen Esme, before King Caius's rule."

"Aye. The queen was beloved, but her King was not." Bella had heard much of Nomadia's King Charles. She was furious the lout shared her father's name. "But the queen went early to her grave along with the only child she was to bear the king."

"And the king followed shortly thereafter," Alice said. They all knew the stories well by then. "Come now, My Lady. Our men await."

They slipped into the hallways, looking this way and that as they made their way to the gardens. Bella worked to keep her pace steady. She was, as always, eager to get to Edward. She was nervous. She was always nervous. Was this more or less dangerous than letting Edward climb the walls to get to her?

Regardless, as it always did, her nerves melted away when she spied him at the edge of the forest with Jasper, Emmett, and Rosalie. Her step quickened, and he stepped out of the cover of the trees to catch her up in his arms. He spun her around and peppered her face with kisses.

"Come, Your Highness. You are not away yet," Emmett warned, though it was Edward he dragged backward into the trees.

Edward took care to pull the hood of Bella's cloak up around her face again. He pulled her to him and kissed her once more before he took her hand so they could walk with the others.

They watched the fires only for a little while before Edward drew her back into the tall grasses. She could hear the sounds of the other couples all around them, some close, some further away. There was a feeling of oneness.

Alice had repeated the stories she'd heard of the Beltane. The common people were simpler than the royals and more superstitious. The Beltane was a festival of plentiful crops and fertility. Alice had giggled and bent her head closer as she whispered in scandalized tones that the peasants did not always lay with their hearth husbands or wives in the fields. They let the gods whisper to them, and they laid with whomever they connected with as the revelry wore on.

No one was watching to see who snuck off together. No one was watching them. They were safe, and this was right. Still, Edward glanced around to make sure they were hidden before he took the cloak from around her shoulders and spread it out on the ground. He knelt before her and pulled her hand until she followed suit.

"What are you doing?" Bella asked, watching as he took what looked like a long cloth from his pockets.

Edward eyed her as he took her hand. He pulled her arm out and began to unwind the cloth. "Just as the fields sown of these rites are blessed so are the unions made. There is a ceremony called a hand binding. We will be blessed, charmed for one year and one day."

Bella's smile was gentle. "Yes, we are charmed. Ah, well any further assurance we will not be caught-"

"We will not be caught." Edward brushed his knuckles down her cheek. "If you think it's silly-"

"I do not think it's silly." Quite the opposite, the idea was meaningful to her. "What do we do?"

Edward brushed the tip of her nose with his lips and kissed a trail to her ear. There he whispered a few words. Bella had no idea what he was saying, but the words were reverent and beautiful. As he spoke, he wrapped one part of the cloth around her wrist.

"Repeat after me," he said, and he spoke the words slower.

Bella repeated them and copied the way he bound the cloth around her wrist, binding his wrist to hers. When they were bound together and the words exchanged, Edward leaned in. He captured her lips, sealing their vows with a sweet kiss.

Then Edward guided her down on the cloak. They fumbled one handed, laughing together as they loosened cords and pushed clothing to the side. Edward grasped her other hand as he positioned himself atop her. He ducked to kiss her as he pushed inside her.

They lost themselves like the couples all around them. They made love, keeping each other warm in the crisp air of the spring night. And when they were tired, they held each other close and gazed up at the stars.

~0~

Two days later, Edward had once again climbed up to her room. They laid together, and he must have fallen asleep because next he knew, Bella was kissing him and murmuring in his ear. "Wake up, my love. The sun will be up soon. You must wake."

The kisses she trailed along his jaw did nothing to convince him to leave. Instead, he waited until she leaned over the other side of his jaw, and then he gripped her about the waist. He had her on her back in the next heartbeat. A slow smile climbed up one side of his mouth. He brushed his knuckles against her cheek. "There is time yet, Princess. I am not finished with you."

Her smile was so lovely. Edward traced the shape of her lips, and she kissed his fingertips. "Would that we had all the time in the world," she said with a sigh. "But yes, you have me now. What are your intentions, good Sir?"

He pulled back, bringing her with him as he sat cross legged on the bed. She'd only pulled on her wrapper, and it was easy to knock that off her shoulders, leaving her bare to him. He ducked his head to take her nipple in his mouth.

"Will you try something with me?" He supported her back as she arranged her legs around him. Her movements were awkward at first, and he couldn't blame her. She was not accustomed to different positions. Her duty was to lie on her back, but Edward had heard enough of the others' tales to know that was not the only position they could avail themselves of. He wanted to feel her move on him, with him.

"Of course, My Lord."

"Do not do that. You are not mind to command." He let his hand drift down her body between them and stroked her where she was warm and slickening. "Is this what you want?"

She leaned in, and her kiss was warm on his cheek. "I will follow where you lead and be glad. The things you make me feel, Edward… if they damn me to hell, I would gladly go."

His smile was warm. "The feeling is mutual, My Lady, My Love." He kissed her, drawing her legs around him. Gods, she felt so good. She was spread open this way, and it was easy to guide his length to her entrance. He lifted her and entered her, and she wrapped her legs around his waist as her hands fell about his shoulder.

She ducked her head against his shoulder as they moved together. "I love you, Edward. More than my own life, I love you."

"My lady, my love." He ran his hands over her body, feeling the warmth of her, her smooth skin. "There is nothing in this world I love as much as you. Not music, nor drink, nor the breath in my body." He gathered her close, as though he could absorb her in his skin.

She whimpered and pressed her body against his. He could feel her breasts soft against him, her nipples hard. Edward closed his eyes and thrust deep inside her. She muffled a cry with her face turned against his neck. He gasped when he felt her teeth dig into his skin.

"Do you like this, Bella? Tell me how you feel." Suddenly, he needed to hear the words, needed to hear that she felt the same as he did when they were together.

Her words stuttered. "Edward. I am sure it is a sin to feel as you make me feel." She reached between them, spreading her fingers over where they were joined, over where he entered her body again and again and again. He groaned, feeling her fingers around him as he slid into her. "I dream of you. Day and night, I think of being with you. It is indecent."

"Is it? Princess, you are in my every thought. Every one. Every day. Every hour. Every minute."

"I love you. I love you," she said. The words sped, mingled together, and faded into a low moan of ecstasy and pain. Ecstasy because wasn't this the sweetest pleasure? Edward had felt nothing like it, to move in her, with her. To hear her sweet voice in his ear and her heat all around him. There could be nothing better than this.

They moved for hours or minutes, who could tell? Edward lost himself to the thrust, the taste of her kisses, and the feel of her hands on him.

When Edward was spent they did not move. They rocked back and forth, Edward's hands splayed wide on her back. Her skin was hot and moist underneath his fingers.

She sighed and clung to him. They rocked together not for either of their pleasure but simply because being connected like this was the purest joy they knew.

It took Edward minutes to realize she was crying. He felt her hot tears against his neck and the shake of her shoulders.

"What is it, Bella?" He held her at arm's length. "Have I hurt you?"

"No, my love. No."

He laid back and cradled her against him. "Don't cry. Please don't cry."

"I cannot help it. I love you, Edward. I love you so. I wish… I wish…"

She didn't have to speak. He understood. He wished a great many things that could never come to pass. He took her head in his hands and wiped away her tears. Then he rolled them to the side so he could move one hand down to her flat stomach. "Do not despair, love. I believe we were blessed at the Beltane, and our child rests warm beneath my hand even now."

Bella lifted her head to look on him. "Is that what you want?" she whispered.

Edward sighed and answered her honestly. "The idea of not being able to be with you as you grow our child… to know I will not be the one to hold him and kiss him… No, Princess, I cannot say it is what I wish. In my heart of hearts, it is not what I want for either of us."

He cupped her cheek, stroking her skin with reverence. "But the reality we live is unforgiving, Princess. I cannot give you the life you deserve. There is nothing I can offer you. This is all I have to give. That the children you bear will be ours, that you know I will love you and them without condition is all I can give you." He sighed and stroked her skin. "The idea my children, our children, will call James father…" He could not finish his thought. It made him furious and frustrated. The man should not have dominion over a fly, let alone a kingdom, and the idea his love, his family, would lawfully belong to James was the greatest injustice he could imagine.

Edward breathed deep. Bella shared his frustration. There was no reason to dwell. Their lives were what they were. He moved his hand over her stomach again. "The truth, Princess, is simple. I want what all men want. I want a hearth and home. I want strong sons to carry my line and pretty daughters to dote upon." He looked deep in her eyes. "And you, Bella. I want you. I want these things enough to take them whichever way I may have them." He hesitated. "And I hope… I hope, if you are with child, your husband will leave you in peace."

Bella closed her eyes and rested her head against his chest. She put her hand over his against her skin. "It is near enough to my husband's return. After the Beltane, I did not take Carlisle's elixir. I pray you are right. I pray our child grows within me even now."

His smile was genuine as he kissed her. "I very much hope so."

They lost themselves for minutes to soft kisses and caresses. All the while, Edward tried to forget the hourglass was running out of sand. Their time grew so short. But before Edward could bring himself to untangle their limbs, the unmistakable sound of voices close by reached them. They froze, but it was evident quickly the voices drew nearer. They were just outside Bella's chambers. Alice's tone reached them. She would try to keep the voices from entering the chambers, but it might not work.

"Oh, Gods. Oh, Edward. You must hide." She pushed him toward the edge of the bed and searched for her bedclothes. "The wardrobe. In the wardrobe."

Edward scrambled out of her bed, picking up his clothes as he went. He darted to the wardrobe and got inside. Bella's wide, frightened eyes were the last thing he saw before she shut the doors. He willed himself to be still as he heard the sound of footfalls in the room.

"Your Highness." Alice's voice. "News comes from Dwyer. A rider has been sent ahead with solemn news for the queen. Your husband and his party will arrive in two days time."

"My husband's party? What of the king?"

There was a heavy pause. Edward held his breath.

"King Caius is dead, My Lady."


A/N: So many thanks to barburella and jessypt.

SO. Buckle up, kids.