"Marry you? You want me to marry you?" Eleanor repeats, staring back at him, shocked. "I thought you were going to dump me!"
"I know, baby, that's because you weren't really listening to me at all. And even though we argue and fight and you drive me crazy, it all comes back to the fact that even though living with you is always interesting -" Jasper pauses and Eleanor can hear the amusement in his voice. Challenging he could have said, but he was trying for diplomacy – "I just can't live without you," Jasper stands up and moves into Eleanor and leans forward, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
He pulls her to him suddenly and his arms encase her tightly as he talks in her ear. "I don't know what it is about you, you're impossible at times, and wild, and brave and sweet and beautiful and I need you to be mine forever – nobody else's just mine."
His lips are almost on her neck when Eleanor breaks the hold, steps back and stares back at him, every inch the Princess.
"You asked a question. Don't you want to hear the answer then?," she enquires, looking him up and down haughtily.
Jasper's not sure he wants her reply but fortune favours the bold, he supposes. "Hit me," he replies back, and straightens himself upright, raising his chin for her reply.
"So you said you fell in love with a Princess, Jasper," Eleanor starts.
"I did," he agrees.
"Well it so happens that while you were falling in love with a Princess, I fell in love with a spy masquerading as a conman masquerading as a bodyguard from Nevada, or Shoreditch or Camden," she finishes her sentence and breaks into a dazzling smile, the dimples showing on her cheeks.
Her comments give him hope and although his mouth only quirks his eyes light up. "Sounds like a complicated fellow," he offers.
"Isn't he just?" Eleanor replies back, strolling over towards him.
"Well then, Mr Jasper Frost or James Shaw or whatever other names you like to call yourself, I'll tell you something," she says leaning into him and pulling at the labels of his coat as she gives him an order. "I will marry you provided you promise never to leave me. Never," she repeats, poking him in the chest for emphasis.
"Who am I to disobey instructions from a Princess?" Jasper replies, smirking back at her.
In less than an hour she's gone from discovering she is love with this man, to thinking she will lose him forever and have to raise their child alone, to receiving an offer of marriage from him. Now that she knows she loves him it would be unbearable to be apart from him, ever again.
Eleanor grabs his coat and pulls him in for a kiss.
It's a good minute before they draw a breath and then Eleanor leans back while Jasper's hands tighten around her waist. "Exactly," she purrs, wearing a cat that got the cream expression to perfection.
...
...
It's 11.30pm and the Princess and her bodyguard are tangled up in bed, talking about the future.
Eleanor has her head on Jasper's chest. It's been a long day and her eyelids are starting to flutter as Jasper keeps talking in her ear.
"And when we're in our new home, we'll make up a room for the baby. Pink for a girl or blue for a boy," he says, running his hand through her hair in slow strokes.
"Not pink," Eleanor corrects him, wrinkling her nose. "Yellow for a girl. I don't want it to look like barbieland."
"Fine, so yellow for a girl or blue for a boy. And we'll have a little basinet and a mobile hanging over the crib."
"With animals on the mobile. Elephants, and penguins and monkeys, and pandas," Eleanor chips in, sharing her opinion.
"All of that, baby" Jasper replies, back, nodding, as he presses a kiss to her cheek.
"Oooh," says Eleanor, sounding excited. "Maybe we could paint the walls some kind of fun design for the baby, like a tropical island, or draw little teddy bears marching around the walls."
"Whatever you like, Princess. We'll make the room perfect. And our baby will be perfect too," he says, running a hand over her waist to shift her closer against him.
"If it's a girl we'll call her – " he pauses, waiting for her to repeat what she told him she wanted to call her before.
"Eve," Eleanor replies.
"And if it's a boy we'll call him Simon Robert, right?" Jasper asks.
"Right," Eleanor agrees, because she's said before that she wants to name him after her father and her brother. "Not Jack," she adds, sleepily.
"No, not Jack Frost," Jasper replies, smiling, catching on to her joke.
"And if it's a girl she'll look just like you. A beautiful little girl with dark hair and a twinkle in her eyes and-"
"We should get a puppy," Eleanor interrupts, dreamily. "A puppy just like Prince Rufus, to keep the baby company."
"Fine, we can get a puppy too, and when the baby gets bigger they can play together and chase each other around. I think if the baby's a boy I'll teach him to fish and we could get him a little football and we can play around at home. And if it's a girl well I think she'd like to learn to play football too and I could take her to games and she'd sit on my knee and I'd point out all the players so she gets to know they by heart. And in the evenings I could read my favourite stories from when I was young and you could tell them your favourite stories too, couldn't you baby?"
There is no reply and Jasper looks down at his chest. In the dim light he can see that Eleanor's eyes have closed and she is already asleep, dreaming of the return of Prince Rufus and their new life together with their baby.
...
Ha. I think Eleanor has been secretly formulating a plan to get the puppy Prince Rufus back for a while now and now it finally comes out – the baby needs Prince Rufus!