Simon stood and moved quickly towards Katherine as soon as she came within sight, meeting her with eager eyes and open arms. He buried his head in her shoulder as he wrapped her up in a warm embrace, holding her body tightly against his. He exhaled slowly as they held one another as if he had been holding his breath for an hour. To him it felt like that was the case, and with her nearby he was able to breathe once again.<br/><br/>“God knows how I love you, Katherine,” he whispered in her ear before sliding his cheek gently across hers so that their lips met. He kissed her with the intensity of someone who needed her kiss more than he needed to draw breath itself. His hands found their way to her hair so that his thumbs could gently rub against her cheekbones as they embraced. The young man was in heaven and would have given anything to stay there with her for the rest of his days.<br/><br/>When she finally needed to take a breath Simon relaxed his hold and offered her a seat on the bench. He then sat down right beside her and wrapped one arm around her waist as they spoke. His smile never wavered for a moment as they whispered to each other in the near-darkness.<br/><br/>“You are so beautiful, Katherine,” he added with an enraptured gleam in his eye. “You are like an angel from heaven sent to grace my lowly existence. Everything in my life is better with you in my thoughts. My life was so hard before we met but now… now everything seems so… easy. And simple.”<br/><br/>He realized he should explain what he was thinking to avoid her getting the wrong idea. He didn’t think<span style="font-style: italic">she</span>was simple!<br/><br/>“And by simple I mean I know now what I want. I want to be with you – no matter what. No matter the difficulty. No matter where we must go,” he added for good measure.<br/><br/>As he spoke the hand on her waist began to move. Gently, but with purpose, his fingers brushed against her gown in a circular motion, slowly inching their way up her belly. As he did so, he leaned in to kiss her once again. Although he hoped against hope she wouldn’t object, he certainly would stop any of his attentions the moment she requested it. If allowed, this time he kissed her more deeply and more intimately than ever before – in the French fashion.<br/><br/><div><hr style="height:2px; width:100%; border:0; color: gray;background:gray;"/></div><br/><br/><br/>Around that time Prince Ewan stepped out of the party for some air. On the way out of the great hall he stopped by the Herald’s station and borrowed a scrap of parchment, a quill and some ink. Once he located a quiet spot Ewan wrote a brief note for the henchman he had just sent his man to hire. The parchment mentioned how the young gardener, Simon, had met his end in an unfortunate drowning in the pond – as if the event had already taken place. Ewan figured that, if discovered after the fact, a note written in this way would resemble a diary entry rather than instructions for an assassin. Later that evening he would have another squire deliver the note with strict instructions not to read it, and it return the note to Ewan once read. Now, the Prince thought to himself, all he had to do was wait until eleven o’clock...