To Love a Prince

Disclaimer: see chapter one

Author's Note:Ok, this chapter was so long that I didvided it in two so I'll probably update the second part of it tomorrow. Just wanted to say; there's mild swearing at the beginning of this chappie and all those lovely reviews spurred me on to update! Feel proud! There's some boring fluff, but I felt I had to put a bit in somewhere. Also there are a couple of short sequences where it ends in the middle; those are cause I didn't want to write out whole convos. Read and review!

Kate was woken by a soft rapping on her door.
"Roald, I'm sorry, but what the bloody hell are you doing?"
"I told you to wake up early!"
"It's four in the morning, I get up at six-thirty, that's early, this is…this is…REALLY early!"
Roald looked at her, "you're a clever girl, you are. Now hurry up, we haven't got all day!" (A/N By the way, I don't know how Roald manages to get into Kate's room with out waking everyone else up but he does, ok?)
They snuck out of the rooms then Roald led Kate towards the training yards.
"We have to be careful, there may be some early morning knights out." Roald whispered.
"You still haven't told me what this is all about!" Kate sighed, now slightly annoyed.
"I will, I will," Roald promised, then grabbed her hand and made a dash across the deserted yards.
Neither sawa knight watching them from a doorway.
Alanna frowned.

Kate gasped. The sunrise was stunning. The surrounding clouds were a brilliant pink and the horizon of mountains was stained a deep orange. The warm glow slowly spread, when it reached to two lone figures sitting on the roof of a tavern it seemed to them the whole world had come alive.
Sitting beside Kate Roald grinned. "My sister and I used to sneak out here practically every morning, but know we don't even see each other very often." He said, sadly, then added "Wasn't it worth it?""Oh yes," Kate replied, her eyes shining. When she finally torn them from the scene in front of her she looked up at Roald, half his face was bathed in the pale sunbeams, glinting in his dark hair. Roald was thinking that Kate herself was like a sunrise, warm, heartening, beautiful. They kissed again. It was deeper, more intense than their first kiss, both were absorbed with the other, time passed before they broke away and then lent against each other, content to just sit and watch the sunrise.

As the sun rose higher into the sky they watched as Corus woke up and greeted the morning. Shopkeepers, wiping sleep from their eyes unlocked and opened up their stores, people set up stalls in the market, the occasional drunk wondered home, bleary-eyed and grumpy. Before anyone noticed them Kate and Roald slipped down and mingled with the ever-growing crowd.
"Won't your parents wonder where you are?" Kate queried, thinking of her own aunt.
"No, I have a free day, I'm allowed to go off in to the city, they'll just assume I got an early start."
They enjoyed the sights, smell and colours of the town for many hours, stopping often, before deciding to go back to the palace. On the way back Kate hesitated but then decided they would have to talk about it sometime. "Roald… you…you…are going to have to marry a Yamani girl." It was more a question than a statement. Roald thought for a long time. "My parents are giving me some choice in the matter, but even so I would sacrifice a thousand princesses for you."
"But peace?"
"It would help international relations, but even if they say I must marry her I'll forsake my claim to the throne…if it means we can be together."
Kate felt she would explode from happiness. Impulsively she stood on tiptoes to reach up and kiss him.
"I love you."
"I love you, too."

Alanna hesitated only a second before knocking on the King's door.
"Come."
"Jon, there's something you ought to know…"

Embeth was disturbed from her reading by a sharp rapping at the door.
"Go open the door, Marge." She said hoping it was her runaway neice, she would be in trouble when she got back, didn't even leave a note… Embeth was interrupted from her thoughts by Margaret. "Mother, um, maybe you should come here…" She said in a rather small voice, throwing the door open wide revealing the King, Queen and Lioness standing there.
"Lady Embeth, I have to talk with you about something…"

Ohhhh! What will happen next? You'll have to keeping reading (and preferably reviewing too) to find out!

Thanks to reviewers;

Alanna-Queen-of-Tortal thanks for reviewing me twice! I'm pleased you like my story, tell everyone about it! I like yours too.

Wild-wizard-women Kel is squire aged, around fifteen or sixteen (maybe even seventeen!) Like I said before, I don't have my copy of squire so I can't check things, I'm trying to find it in a library though. I'm not even sure if she developed a crush on Cleon at the time this is set but let's just say she has!;) Thanks for reviewing!

jollyrancher-j2k lol, patience is a virtue! I'm trying to keep Roald and Kel in character

and that's how I thought she'd act! I like it when Alanna and Kel remember their feminine sides too. Thanks!

Makkura Arashi Thanks very much for reviewing, I admit I like george better too, although I've never really been a numair fan! By the way your name is really cool!