Authors note: I am back. So again thanks for reading and reviewing. Not surprisingly this chapter does not get any happier than the last one.

Need for a Disclaimer: Well, I do not own Queen Lillian or King Harold (neither as human nor as frog). I do however, own King Lance of Avalonea (though I am not keen on sharing my bed with him)

So this is how we live. Maybe "living" would be said too much. "Going on" is more like it.

Now that our daughter, her husband, donkey and puss-in-boots are gone, I find it strangely empty and silent. The only sound being the chatter of the servants. And I do know their gossip topic.

The days pass by oh so slowly and still half a year manages to go by. Harold and I seem to do a "living next to each other without meeting at the centre". Not willingly, I believe. Of course we talk, but lesser and only the essential. No physical touch possible any longer.

I find him getting more and more depressed. He has given up any hope of ever being human again. He sits at the same spot for hours, doing nothing but staring out of the window.

I find myself becoming cold and calculating. Indifferent towards the world and those I once loved. A good queen but a terrible person. I can not stand the woman I am turning into.

And one day a king comes along, king Lance of Avalonea, to be exact. And I simply can not believe it. Because this king Lance once was a friend of Harolds.

Now, he is not exactly "King Charming", although he really tries to be. He sits high on his black stallion at our front gate. Tall and muscular (well, physical traits Harold never possessed). Grey hair kept very short and tidy. No beard, in a vain attempt to appear younger. A dark red suit with the emblem of his kingdom, the sword Excalibur. His keen green eyes keep watching me as I approach him.

He is a widower. We were at the funeral when his beloved wife died far too early, five years ago. No children. No heir.

No wonder he feels lonely? I can understand that. I do too.

But I do wonder why he bows so charminly as I reach him. Why he keeps looking at me like this. Why he asks me how I was in that strange tone. But as soon as he compliments my looks, my beliefs are confirmed. I know now why he has come.

"You should guide him into the castle." says the queen.

"You should tell him to go and stay where the pepper grows." says Lillian.

I say neither and keep silent.

I do not want Harold to see him. But as I gaze at the window, I know: too late. The frog sits silently there and is watching us. How can I blame him?

Harold had always been jealous. A few men seemed to think me good-looking and clever, plus the unreachable kick of being the queen.

I, on the other hand, never had much reason for jealousy. Of course "king" and "power" and "money" are easily associated. But no other woman or girl ever fell for Harold as a person. Which of course was good for me (not that he would have given them in), but I never quite understood, why I should be the only one to see all the good traits he possessed.

I know Harold always was good at lip-reading. But I have nothing to hide.

What to do? I want to spare Harold the blame of Lance seing him "like this". But Lance, will not leave until he got the certain something he came here for, off his chest.

"Should we take a little walk, so you can tell me the reason for your surprising visit?" Of course he says "Yes" and swings off his horse. The last thing I see before Lance and I head into the forest is Harolds brown eyes following.

As Lance and I stroll through the forest my only hope is that this will be over soon. Thankfully I know him to be a rather straight-forward character, not one who circles for hours around the topic he is keen on. Being Lance he gets to the point after about five minutes of admiring "my" (he actually said so) kingdom.

"The reason I wanted to see you for was...well I thought that now we have both lost the partner we loved...(I detested the way he talked as if Harold was dead) and I have no heir to my kingdom...we always seemed to get along quite well (true enough, well on the few occasions we had met and the even fewer words we had spoken)...if we could just... share our sorrow." Wonderful, even more sorrow, as if Harold and I did not have enough of that.

"Lillian, would you like to marry me?" rather caught me a bit with surprise. No matter how straightforward he was, this was simply too much. But there was a second, no more than that, where I actually considered it. Where the queen told Lillian, that having a king to rule and keep together the kindom, even more, to enlargen it and have greater defences against enemies, was just what we needed. And I hated that part of myself for it. For even thinking this way!

"No" only the queen was able to make me say "I am sorry" because I was not. The last thing I saw before turning around and leaving was the stricken look on Lances face.

"How dare he?" my thoughts raged "How dare he ask for my hand in marriage, when he knows that I love my husband, when he knows my husband is still alive, although changed."

I reached the window in my bedroom just in time to watch Lance swing himself onto his great black stallion and ride off without looking back. Typically a king who had been hurt in his pride.

I sighed a sigh of relief and turned around to look at my own king whose pride had been hurt.