The prompt was: „I've come here with no expectations, only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is, and always will be, yours." - Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

The worst thing for you was that you knew Alfred was to be married. And not to you.

Alfred had always been the one that was there whenever you needed him, you had been there for each other in every way and in every situation.

When your father had died he had been there in the small one-room-farmhouse you lived in with your family, holding you close and whispering comforting words in your ear. You had been anxiously waiting outside in the castle's gardens whenever he had one of his seizures, your low status preventing you from stepping into Alfred's chambers.

Your friendship, or rather relationship, since none of you had ever felt the need to clarify the bond between the two of you, had been strong ever since the day young Alfred had seen you running in your family's fields, long hair blowing in the wind behind you and skirts pulled up in your hands so you could chase whatever you were chasing faster.

After seeing you like that he had stopped his horse and had watched you, until motioning you forward to talk to you.

From that day on there wasn't a day you were apart, if he could help it, that was. His fits had grown longer and it had also taken a toll on you, the fear and agony of not knowing what was going on inside his chambers and the scolds and occasional beatings you had to endure at home for being useless at his side than working as you were supposed to.

But you would still wait in the gardens, no matter the angry English weather, to wait for Alfred who as soon as he was able would come outside, sometimes supported by his brother to show you that he was going to be alright.

It was always accompanied by a tight hug and most of the time also heavy tears on your part. You and Alfred loved each other deeply, to the disdain of Princess Judith, who looked at you as a mere cocroach, if she even dare look at you. You were not good enough for her son, and there were so many points that reassured her in her opinion, you were a mere farmer's daughter, not well educated since the only schooling you had ever received had merely made sure you could write and read what was absolutely necessary. You weren't extraordinarily witty or sharp tongued, your ‚farmer's slur', as Princess Judith would call the way you were speaking disgusted her as well. Nor were you, at least in Judith's eyes, beautiful, though at least the male part of the castle's residents would disagree in that matter. You weren't royal court pretty, your beauty was deeply founded in the naturalness of your character, openness and kindness.

Alfred only had ever had eyes for you, and due to the easiness and bliss of children's friendship you had grown up closely, your parents and anyone that dared talk about the relationship you and Alfred shared warning you of the danger of the connection being deemed ‚improper', not that that mattered to you.

Now that you both had reached adulthood you were bound to talk about it, your closeness for short or long forcing you to. The love you Boot shared was deeply founded, and you dreaded the day Alfred would have to marry. You knew it couldn't be you, but you could dream. Alfred had taken it upon himself to force away the few suitors you had gathered, it only being few because everyone was aware of the bond that had formed between you two and no one daring to come in between.

Alfred had felt heartbroken when he had to announce his engagement to you, though there had never been a kiss or any other informalities between the two of you he knew how you felt for each other. He also knew that the two of you could never be, not in the way you both needed it to be.

The day he told you about his engagement to Elsewith was the hardest in your life.

Alfred never was one for affection, but this day he had been distant, almost as if he was discussing business matters with you. You had felt the profound sadness he radiated off of him. And that had been all the warning you needed. As he told you about Elsewith and his mother's plans he had not once looked at you, studying the ground like one of his many religious books. Perhabs that had hurt you the most, him not even being able to look you in the eye. You didn't know what to say or do, you just kept standing in the royal gardens in front of him, the cold wind biting your cheeks and blowing the hair out of your face. You had felt nothing, not pain, grief or any other emotion, just deep and utter abyss. Once that passed you had cried, and once again Alfred had held you.

You had cried for a long time, Alfred's ringed hand in your hair, stroking it softly, the other one at the small of your back, the tip of his nose and mouth buried in your hair in a gesture of affection.

After you had stopped crying you had kept the quiet, just sharing body warmth and holding onto each other for dear life. You knew that this would change everything for you, you knew it and yet you couldn't accept it. You couldn't let it be.

Alfred had inherited the throne from his grandfather though he shouldn't have, it had been Aethelred's turn. It should have been Aethelred, though everyone with a bit of wit had seen it coming long ago. You had too, though you had prayed for it to be a false conclusion.

The hurt expression on your face stayed once you had finally gathered the courage to look up at him. You had been standing there in a lovers' embrace, holding each other with your foreheads touching. Though you weren't lovers, and it wasn't in your future to become them.

You had looked at Alfred, and the first words you had spoken were those of denial. You could run away together, you could give everything up just to be together. And that was when Alfred had done the unspeakable, he had leaned down to kiss your lips, savoring the feeling and cherishing you. It had only been a brief moment, and though Alfred should have felt guilty before his fiancée and his God he couldn't, it had felt like the most natural feeling. He hadn't felt guilty, he had felt like through kissing you he had found a new way to praise his Lord. It was not against his religion, it was practicing it in the most caring way.

And you had known then that this had been it. You knew he couldn't give everything up to be with you, though you felt like he should. You knew you couldn't live without him, but you realized that now you had to.

Every fiber in your being strived to stay with Alfred, and for Alfred the feeling was mutual. He couldn't imagine a life without you, and he certainly didn't want to.

Holding you close to him, foreheads against each other, bodies pressed as closely together as physically possible his mind drifted back to what you had said after you had processed that Alfred was going to marry someone else.

You could run away together, you could run just so the two of you could be together. Live together. Have a life to share with each other. Instead of having to live and bed others, though your minds and hearts were set on each other. It was a desperate wish to do as you suggested, but he couldn't. He had a kingdom to lead, and though he knew his brother would succeed as doing so as well he also knew that he had the better preconditions for it. It was a fight, could he be so selfish, so godless to be able to leave them behind? For his own salvation? He couldn't marry anyone but you, he knew that, but was his obligation to do so greater than his own happiness?

If he married he knew that he wouldn't see you after that day, which very much would be his mother's doing.

Anything he would have been able to give up, anything, anyone... but you.

You loved each other more than most people were able to love, and though you had never said so you weren't going to do so now. Not now, not as a goodbye.

Your head grew heavy and you let it rest on his chest, feeling him push his lips delicately to rest at the top pf your head.

Once you had stayed in that position for far too long you had kissed his cheek for a final time, looking into his eyes after you did so you gathered the courage you needed and finally left. You could feel his eyes on you as you slowly vanished from his sight, using all the strength you had in you to keep walking and not collapse from grief and exhaustion.

Though the time in which you weren't able too see Alfred killed you and your family continued to lecture you that you weren't concentrated on your work properly and that they had all told you long ago you knew that the worst time was not yet over.

That thought proved itself true the day the wedding was set.

You hadn't slept that night, nor a few nights before that and the exhaustion fro the lack of sleep and the grief you felt of not seeing Alfred and never being able to do so again made things worse. It was supposed to be a national holiday, though your family and you had decided that you had to work on the fields. You didn't know if they had decided to do so for your sake or not, but you felt like it. Working on the fields from dusk on had helped you a lot, though you hadn't eaten at all and the sun that had begun to shine tortured you to no end. You were dirty, your body aching with everything coming together.

You were entirely grateful for the physical work that pushed every little thought out of your head. You weren't able to think and you were happy about that. Sweat was dripping down your forehead, neck and cleavage and you were sure you weren't a sight for sore eyes.

Then suddenly something changed. It wasn't anything you realized immediately, but over a bit of time you lifted your head, the silence affirming that the rest of your family had stopped working. Once you had lifted your head youwere fairly certain that you sleep and water deprived mind was playing tricks on you.

There stood Alfred, in his wedding attire in the middle of the fields, staring at you.

He looked breathless and you were as well once you had made up your mind, he was standing there, it wasn't a hallucination.

You stood there, caching your breath though your heart was racing, staring back at him. What was he doing here? He was supposed to be at the palace now, marrying the girl he didn't even know. Yet he stood there in the fields, looking at you as if you were the only salvation he'd ever need in life. And maybe it was so.

He moved a few steps forward, stumbling was more like it, and you did the same.

„I have... I've come here with no expectations, only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is, and always will be, yours", was what came out of his mouth.

You needed a few moments to understand what he had just said.

Did it mean... no, it couldn't mean that he was standing here, that he was choosing you.

He was choosing you over everyone, over everything in this kingdom.

You stumbled forward, nearly falling over your skirts, not caring about your family standing around the fields eyeing you in awe and disgust as you moved forward into his tight embrace. You were sure that you both had begun crying at some point, but you didn't mind as you pushed your hands on his cheeks and letting your lips finally find his.

You were going to be happy. Together.