As she reached the drawbridge-- feeling a little out of breath, her cheeks burning either from the climb, or from her secret, and unexpectedly fulfilled expectations-- Nora saw Martin talking to a small group of people on its other end, inside the castle's gloomy Entry Hall.

The veterinarian was difficult to miss, he was nearly a head taller than most of the people surrounding him. Smiling to herself, not wanting to disturb him, she hurried out of his view, towards the stables. But, somehow, he saw her and called out her name, leaving the people behind with a quick excuse delivered over his shoulder, while he rushed across the bridge towards her.

"Hi. I need a coffee." he said, running his hand through his nearly shoulder-length hair. "And then I must go to the spa-- the park rangers found an injured swan. Do you... Would you...?" He looked at her questioningly as his voice trailed off into silence and insecurity.

It was... He was... so sweet and charming. And so busy-- he still hadn't shaved. However, the few days old stubble suited him only too well. She forced her eyes off his face and into the freezing, deep blue water filling the moat, trying to school her stray thoughts into obedience... But, try as she might, there was no way she could say no to a morning spent in his company.

"I'll come with you if you wish. I was just thinking about what to do with my day. I'm quite free." Nora said truthfully, giving up the battle against herself, smiling up at him. "So... let's grab a takeaway coffee and go?" she proposed, already heading to the café by the lake which he showed her the previous day.

"This one's closer," he said, taking Nora's hand, leading her back over the bridge, towards the castle's coffee shop.

The gesture was so natural that she did not notice it until he let go of her hand, to open the door for her, and she realised that she missed his touch.

"How did the interview go?" He asked as he looked at her again once they entered the small, warm room, as if he suddenly remembered it when he noticed that she was wearing make-up, a more elegant coat-- a silvery-grey thing arriving to her knees with an oversize, faux-fur lined hood and wide cuffs-- and her hair was confined in a long, intricate braid resting on her left shoulder, so tight that it was still quite undisturbed by her walk in the frost.

"Good, I think. If my ward will have me, I should start next week. We will meet personally tomorrow."

Martin laughed, "What about the child's parents? Don't you care about meeting them?"

"I will meet them as well, but the child matters more, I believe. He must be happy to have me around in the first place..."

They were still standing by the door, at the end of a short queue of noisy and excited tourists, when a young, pretty waitress who considered Nora with open curiosity, before she turned to Martin with a perfect smile lighting her face up like a Christmas tree, brought them two takeaway paper cups.

"Thanks, Sara." Martin told the girl, already turning to the door.

"Why... Have you ordered? When? I wanted to pay." Nora protested as she inhaled the aroma rising from her cup-- it was her favourite, a cappuccino with a generous dusting of cinnamon-- while he opened the door again and they stepped back into the dark Entry Hall.

"Next time. So you still owe me a drink..." he smiled at her, and she shook her head in pretense disapproval. It really was so... easy to be around him. It felt as if she had known him her entire life. As if they had always been friends.

"I wish there was more snow." he muttered as they reached the end of the drawbridge.

"Why? It would take us forever to get to the spa over the snow, you would definitely need to take a car to get there faster, hoping to find the roads cleared... " she mused. "Today we can walk. I'll show you a shortcut, we will be there in about twenty minutes, starting from my house."

"Well, that sounds interesting. Believe it or not, I did not get much time to explore the forest properly so far. But if there was more snow, we could take the sleigh. The horses would do with some exercise."

"Are you serious? The Count has a real, horse-drawn sleigh, and he would let us use it?" She asked, stopping by the stables where he took her empty cup and went to throw it away, before they continued on their walk up the hill.

Suddenly she regretted that it hadn't snowed at night, Nora had only seen the kind of sleigh he mentioned in fairy tale books.

"Of course," he said simply. They walked in silence for a while then, until he asked as they neared Nora's cottage, "Which way now?"

"The trail starts right behind my house. I just need a minute to change my shoes." She said, pointing at her boots-- the heels were not very high, but they would not do to walk in the forest. "Do you want to come in?" she offered, running up the wooden stairs to the porch.

He shook his head and walked along the porch, inspecting the floor planks and the piles of wood, while she vanished inside for a few moments, to pull on the old pair of boots she wore the day before, and change the coat for her more practical blue jacket.

"Ready," she announced, joining him on the porch again in less than five minutes, locking the door and leading him into the forest, starting under the window of her bedroom.

They did not talk much as they followed the ribbon of a trail, perfectly snow-free in some parts, buried under a few centimeters of snow in others, as it wound its way first up the hill and then down again, into a valley, skirting around two thermal lakes-- the one closer to Nora's house small, deep and perfectly round, the other, closer to the spa, large, shallow, and shaped like a flower.

Like everything with Martin, the silence that settled between them felt natural, neither of them had the need to break it with words that would only sound awkward in this place filled with its own sounds. The whisper of their footfalls caused an avalanche of small, corresponding noises coming from the underbrush, made by animals surprised by their alien presence retreating deeper into the forest, the birds spreading the news of the intruders farther along the trail, way ahead of them.

If perfection existed, it would feel like this, Nora mused, stealing sideways glances at her companion, catching him observing her thoughtfully a few times.

She started as he spoke the moment the forest ended suddenly, and the trail became a cobbled path leading towards one of the hotels of the spa.

"Here we are."