All of that week Pauline came visit him and make sure that he was mending well. When she came she often brought meals for him from the castle kitchens which far outdid his own cooking. Halt to his credit tried to behave…. For the first day or two… but by the end of the week he was stir crazy. All he wanted was to get out and chop some firewood for his stove. He needed coffee.
"Are you crazy?" she said when she saw him outside with the axe. The blade glanced off the log as her voice caught him off guard. "I need firewood for the stove and I won't have you cutting it" he defended a little more sharply than he intended. She set down the basket she had brought with her on the porch and started toward him "are you implying that I can't swing an axe?" she demanded. Halt eyed her slight frame with a cocked brow, which was all it took. "Give me that axe" she demanded. "Absolutely not" Halt said holding it away from her. She gave him a look that could have stirred the dead and for a moment he faltered, he was supposed to be the only one who could use that look. They had been shorter and shorter with each other and part of it was Halt's stubbornness and desire to be outside but there was something else too but he couldn't put his finger on it. She came toward him and reached for the axe but rather than handing it to her he caught her by the waist and kissed her deeply. For moment it was filled with the tension that had been floating around them for a week, both of them stiff and ridged. Then the tension eased and melted away her body relaxing with his and she stepped into his embrace returning his kiss, her arms looping around his neck as he held her by the waist.
It lasted for what seemed like forever their lips moving together like a perfect dance as they stood wrapped in each other. When they parted it was only enough for them to open their eyes and take a breath. Green eyes met brown gently. Pauline flushed and turned her head "I'm sorry Halt" she said. "Don't be" he replied softly caressing her side. "No… I am sorry because I can't do this" she said sadly stepping away from him a bit. He observed her silently letting her words sink in "but I thought-…" "I have worked too hard for my position to give it all up to become a house wife" she said shaking her head "to hard to see you walk away from me all the time and not know if you will come home." All Halt could do was stand there looking like she had hit him with a hot iron. "Tell me I am wrong… you aren't the domestic type" she said shaking her head looking at him. He couldn't disagree he wouldn't give up his job it was his life it was who he was "you're right" he murmured softly. Inside he felt something break something he had never felt before so this is what it felt like to have your heart broken. She had tears in her eyes now here was the man she loved and she knew she was hurting him and herself. She reached up and touched his cheek the rough scruff of his beard tickling her palm as she looked into his eyes "I'm sorry" she said then turned and walked away.
Everything in Halt's brain told him to go after her to say something inside he screamed but his feet seemed to be stuck to the ground. He watched as she mounted her horse the tears glistening in the sun as they slid down her cheeks she looked at him one more time before she turned and rode away her heart breaking just as deeply as his.