They ate dinner at a dimly lit restaurant with glowing orange candle holders.

"Ms. Alice McNamara." said Claude. "What is your current occupation?"
"I work at the library on Hudson Street." Alice said, sipping her chardonnay.

"Do you enjoy your work there?" said Claude.

"I do." Alice said. "I love introducing children to books."
"I like children, too. They're easier to relate to than most adults." said Claude.

"Do you have any of your own?"

"Oh, my, no, not a traveling man like me. But I have four nieces and nephews, respectively. Two of each. A pair of boys and a pair of girls."

"Are you close to them?"
"Oh, yes, but they live so far away that I don't see them frequently."
"That's too bad." Alice said. She looked at him. "A traveling man, huh?"
"Yes. I never like to stay in one place for very long. Always new adventures, and new kingdoms to conquer. What about you? I see by your lovely accent that you must have been in Texas for some time."
Alice smiled. "I grew up here."

"That is very fortunate for you, my dear. Texas is a fine state. Do you have nieces and nephews also?"
"Just my niece Suzanne, but she's almost my age. My brother was twenty-five when I was born."
"That's quite a gap." Claude said.

"He practically raised me after my father died. My father had a heart condition, and he was sick a long time."
For once, Claude was unsure of what to say. "I'm…very sorry." he said finally. He looked at her. Her green eyes were sad, but she smiled.

"It's okay. He died peacefully, in his sleep." She looked at him. "What about your father?"

"Marcus Newbold. A shopkeeper in northern Pennsylvania. He died of cancer many years ago."
"I'm sorry." said Alice.

"He was a man who lacked imagination in many ways. But that isn't to say that I don't wish that he was here." He resumed cutting his steak.

"And you, Claude the Newbold." said Alice, looking at him with consideration. "I can see that you are not a man who lacks imagination."
"It is my downfall, I'm afraid. Too much imagination."
"I don't think you can ever have too much imagination." Alice said.

"My sister Hallie says that I fill her children's heads with nonsense. But I told her that I fill them with dreams." He looked at her. "I have so many, that if I didn't give them away, my head would explode, and it would make a terrible mess, all those dreams spilling everywhere."
"Not to mention all the blood and brain matter." said Alice.

"I can see that you are a person of a very violent nature, Ms. Alice McNamara. Tell me, are those the kind of stories that you tell to the young frequenters of the library?"
"Sure. When I was a child, I craved tales of violence and bloodshed. What about you?"

"Only if they were conducted with honor and valor." said Claude.

"Me too. When I was a girl, I always wanted to be a swashbuckler. Vanquish the evil, and rescue men and children."
"Men and children?"

"Sure. Who's to say a woman of honor and valor can't rescue a gentleman in distress."
"No one, Alice McNamara. Not a soul." He lifted his glass. "Shall we drink to honor and valor? To nobility, and gallantry?"
"We shall." They clinked glasses.

"I notice," said Alice on their second dinner. "that you never drink any wine. Are you a Mormon?"
"My, Alice McNamara, you are truly a very direct woman. Your mouth must have earned you more than a few stays in the tower."

"At least I had the birds to keep me company." Alice said cheerfully, but bit her lip. "I'm sorry if I offended you."
"My dear Alice McNamara. Claude the Newbold never offends." said Claude. "I have been a Mormon since my stay in Salt Lake City three years ago. I worked at the salt packing plant, you see, and the my coworkers always looked so terribly uncomfortable when I'd drink a cup of coffee at break time, that I decided to convert. When in Rome, as they say, or in this case, when in Salt Lake City. So I gave up caffeine and alcohol upon conversion."

"Then you'd better not drink any more of that iced tea." said Alice. "It does have caffeine, you know." She smiled.

Claude looked at the glass. "Does it indeed?" he said. "Well, we're in Houston now, so I should do as the Houstonians do."

"What is your brother like?" Claude asked Alice one night, walking from a movie theatre.

"Hmmm. He's…a very serious kind of a guy. A leader, I guess you'd say. A wise and noble king."
"Really? He sounds like a very interesting sort." said Claude.

"He is." Alice said. "What's your sister like?"
"Hallie is…always very kind and gentle. She and I were only a year apart as children, and we were very close. We had all of these imaginary kingdoms. Well, I did, and Hallie went along with them. We had our own tree house, and a set of rules for the kingdom in our tree house. All of the other children in the neighborhood grew tired of the language. The rules were too complex for their small minds, I guess."

"Lacking in imagination." Alice said.

"Quite so, quite so. But Hallie was faithful to our kingdom. At least for awhile." Claude looked at a crack in the sidewalk, and traced it with his foot. "But soon, she gave up as well. I guess it got to be too much for her. I never understood why, when we were in the same family, that she didn't believe in the kingdom."
"Oh." said Alice. "Well, I wish that I could have been there."
"I'm afraid it was short while before your birth, though mind you, just a short one. Perhaps you were there as an angel, hovering above us." said Claude. "Perhaps your memories of us as children are lodged somewhere in your subconscious mind, and do you know what the way to remove them is?"
Alice shook her head.

"Hypnosis. Are you willing to undergo hypnosis, Ms. Alice McNamara?"

"Don't tell me that you can do hypnosis, Claude the Newbold?" said Alice.

"I've dabbled in the art. I learned from a very established psychiatrist in Vienna, the birthplace of psychiatry. I spent a year there once."

"You speak German?" Alice said skeptically.

"Of course. I speak Russian as well. Quite fluently, I might add." said Claude.
"You're quite a guy, Claude the Newbold." said Alice. She stopped walking, and turned to face him.

"What would my title be?" she said. "In your tree house kingdom?"
"Let me give it careful consideration." He looked at her. She smiled at him.

"Smiling isn't allowed in the presence of the king." Claude said sternly. Alice pressed her lips together.

"Sorry. I'll never do it again, your majesty, King Claude the Newbold."
"Are you duly chastened?" said Claude.

"Duly chastened, your majesty." said Alice. She looked at him expectantly.

"Good. Your title, forever to be remembered in the annals of history is…Alice the Intrepid. Wise and witty keeper of books." He looked at her, and she smiled.

"Alice the Intrepid." she said. She clasped his hand, and they shook. "Queen Alice the Intrepid?" she asked.

"I'm shocked and scandalized by your boldness, Alice the Intrepid. Being a queen isn't something that you just have handed to you in an instant. Why, it took me years of perilous battles against formidable enemies to become King Claude the Newbold. And now you want to become a queen in an instant."

"Sorry, your majesty. I'm quite duly chastened." She looked at him. "But I think we should seal our covenant, don't you?"
"I do." said Claude.

"We don't have any paper to sign with, though, and I'm fresh out of sealing wax." She put her arms around him. Their eyes met, and Alice looked into his eyes, oddly full of childlike innocence for a man of thirty-seven. She kissed his mouth gently, and then more forcefully. He kissed her back, at first tentatively, and then more smoothly. They parted, and he threaded his fingers through her hair.

"History will remember this moment." Claude said, as they resumed walking on the sidewalk.

"And so will all the people on the street." Alice said, smiling.

"Let them see. Just think, they were watching a grand love story unfold, and they didn't even know." Claude said, squeezing her hand.

"Just think." Alice said.

"There's something that I didn't tell you about Hallie and her family." said Claude.

"What is it?" Alice said. They were seated on a couch in her living room.

"Well," said Claude. "It's only that…they don't think much of me. I said that Hallie didn't want me filling her children's heads with nonsense. But the truth is, that none of them…respect me. They all think that I'm a…fraud. Even Louise and Marcus. And the eldest, Tom, especially. One time when he was seven, he came up to me, and said 'Claude the Fraud, Claude the Fraud.' His parents sent him to his room, of course, but I knew where it came from."

"Not Hallie." said Alice.

"No, not Hallie. Her husband, perhaps. He never has liked me." Claude sighed. "I suppose I didn't help things much. When I came there, on several occasions, I was responsible for a dip in their liquor supply."
"Maybe…maybe you were imagining it, Claude. I mean you did say that he was seven years old. Children like to rhyme words, and they love to tease about names, but it doesn't actually mean anything to them. I know these things, I deal with kids all the time."
"Maybe." Claude said. "But it's true that they look down upon me, Alice. It's because I…I have many traveling adventures, and…well, I keep telling them that I'm going to make my fortune. But I never have, and they think that I'm a fool."

"I'm sure they don't." said Alice.

"They do. And…that's partly why I haven't been back, to see them, because…I want to be someone when I come back."

Alice looked at the carpet, not saying anything.

"My most lofty dream is," said Claude. 'that I'll be able to come there, and to…be someone important. Be able to take them out to dinner for a change, and to be able to buy Marcus, and Louise, and Stephanie nice things. Fabulously nice things." He looked at her.

"What about Tom?" said Alice smiling at him. "Don't you want to give Tom nice presents, too?"

"Well…maybe Tom, too." Claude said, smiling a little. "But more than that, I want to have their respect, Alice."
"Well," said Alice. "You don't need to be rich to earn people's respect, Claude. Having money doesn't necessarily mean that you'll have people's respect, and even if it did…you'd never feel like you earned it."
"I suppose." said Claude.

"Well," said Alice. "My brother doesn't respect me. He doesn't think working in the library is…worthy of my intellect. He still treats me like a child, even though I'm twenty-six years old. He has some very…old-fashioned ideas about things in many ways. He's definitely lacking in imagination. But I don't let it bother me, Claude. Because I know that deep down, he loves me, and besides that, it doesn't matter what he thinks of me, only what I think of myself."

"I'm sure." said Claude. "But I don't know if I could be that philosophical."
"Well, you can learn." said Alice. "I have. I didn't used to be philosophical, either."

"I was thinking," said Claude. "that I'd love for them to meet you."

Alice smiled. She kissed his cheek, and then moved to his lips. She stroked his back, and left a trail of kisses down to his neck, and then opened the collar of his shirt. Claude groaned softly, then sat up, and looked at her.

"You're absolutely right." said Claude, addressing a phantom remark. "On such a crucial occasion as this one, King Claude the Newbold should carry Alice the Intrepid into the bedchamber, as befits royalty."
"Who, you or me?" said Alice.

Claude pressed a finger to his lips. "Shhh. This moment should be met with complete reverential silence, Alice the Intrepid." He got up off of the couch, and grasped her legs firmly, pulling her up from the couch. Alice put her arms around his neck, and smiled.

"Don't drop me." she said.

"Why Alice the Intrepid," said Claude. "You must indeed be intrepid and courageous, to have such confidence in a king's clemency. There have been beheadings for less things than doubting the king's agility." They walked into the bedroom. Claude set Alice down on the bed. He sat down on the bed, and leaned over her.

"Claude the Newbold." Alice said, looking up at him. Claude gazed back at her.

"Alice the Intrepid." he said.

"I think," said Claude, later that night, in bed. "that…I never expected to meet anyone like you."

"I never expected to meet anyone like you either, Claude the Newbold." said Alice. "But then again, I don't think that there is anyone…quite like you."