Martin brought Daniel to the reading group the following afternoon just as he had promised, bestowing a quick kiss on Nora's lips despite Clelia watching them inconspicuously from across the shop.

"We can go for a walk after, unless you have other plans?" Martin proposed, and she agreed.

She ended up having an early dinner with Martin and Daniel in one of the town's plentiful cafés, before they walked her back to the square later to help Clelia in the market.

Nora didn't see Daniel the day after, but Martin turned up at her door in the afternoon, in time to walk with her to Clelia's for the reading group, moments after her potted Christmas tree was delivered. He helped Nora to find the most appropriate, sheltered place for it on the porch, agreeing with her that it was best to leave it outdoors, unless it got too cold, until the moment she decided to decorate it.

"What have you done with Daniel?" she asked as they walked down the white meadow in the pleasantly snow-free afternoon.

"Lino and Magdalena took him sledging. I had to supervise the delivery of Christmas trees, and he always gets overexcited, and in everybody's way, when they arrive."

Nora smiled at him. "I suppose Daniel and I are in for super busy afternoons until Christmas, decorating all those trees will take time."

He smiled back, bringing their joined hands to his lips even as they walked by the stables, then spoke again as they passed by the castle's drawbridge.

"Are you happy to lead your first tour on Tuesday morning? There's usually one starting every full hour. We might need to schedule them closer together once the school holidays start, there's always more tourists then. You could do a couple of tours each morning before you pick up Daniel and then start doing full days once Adele is back?"

He looked at her questioningly, and she nodded her agreement; it sounded perfect to her.

Martin left her in front of Clelia's shop feeling weak in the knees after a long and very public kiss-- Nora was certain that she glimpsed several people who must have recognised Martin as they passed by on their way to the square, turning their heads towards them curiously, their attempt at being inconspicuous futile.

Whatever, she didn't care about anyone beyond Martin and Daniel, Nora decided, burying her face into Martin's chest, breathing in his scent trapped in the folds of his charcoal coat until she felt steady, and strong enough to leave him. The moments they spent apart had started to feel always longer and more forced at some point.

She felt overjoyed when he appeared in front of Clelia's stall in the market at midnight, her knight in shining armour coming to escort her home through the raging elements-- the howling of the strong northern wind was making the world beyond the square imbued in the christmassy mood and warmth feel dismal and eerie.

"Whenever you decide to stay with us instead of walking up the meadow on a night like this, you are welcome, Nora," he said after they walked through the park and reached the castle.

When she only shook her head in reply-- it just... still felt awfully early to her-- and he simply pulled her closer and wrapped an arm over her shoulders as they directed their steps towards the stables, she knew that he hadn't expected her to accept the proposal.

She would feel much... happier, and less awkward if he could spend the dismal night with her in her cottage. But the thought of him having left sleeping Daniel home alone, had her pushing him from her instead of pulling him inside when he pressed her against the door, their lips engaged in a kiss that made her melt into him, the heat of his large hands on her hips searing into her through the layers of clothing she wished she could discard to feel his touch on her bare skin...

"Daniel," she muttered when they pulled away for breath.

He pulled her into a bone shattering embrace before kissing her one last time, accepting her worried, responsible reasoning.

"Sleep well. See you in the morning," he said, waiting for her to find her keys in her handbag, then walking down the hill towards the castle, turning around once to wave at her as if he could perceive her eyes on himself.

She waved back, then let herself in, feeling... confused, and elated... Feeling in love.

It was snowing too heavily to go ice skating on Monday afternoon after school, and so Daniel insisted on Nora fulfilling her promise and starting to decorate the Christmas trees with him.

"Fine. But then you'll help me decorate mine," she agreed, recalling her small potted tree still sitting unadorned, removed from the too cold porch into the coolest spot of her sitting room, right next to the large window. Nora hadn't had the time to search the cottage for the boxes of Christmas decorations she knew were hidden away somewhere yet, but she didn't have much time left to decorate the cottage for the fast approaching holidays. Her birthday would be on Friday, and it would be followed immediately by Christmas Eve, and she still needed to finish her hunt for presents...

"Perfect," Daniel agreed easily, scattering her thoughts. "But only if you make me hot chocolate again."

"Of course I will," she promised, smiling and mussing her Little Prince's golden curls as she followed him out of the flat once she had washed the dishes after lunch, letting him lead her down a staircase and along a corridor to the first tree he decided to decorate, placed in a hall close to the castle's chapel, the boxes of Christmas decorations for that particular tree already placed by a helpful someone under its plentiful branches.

It was with trepidation that she returned to the castle on Tuesday morning after having dropped Daniel off at school, directing her hesitating steps across the drawbridge and the empty Entry Hall towards the room labelled as Office, to introduce herself to whoever she would find there before claiming her group of visitors in the First Courtyard. She almost fainted with delight upon finding Martin there, waiting for her, next to a very strictly looking woman Clelia's age. The woman had an appearance of someone who had spent her life working in the castle and had almost become a part of it, making Nora feel uneducated and inappropriate for the position she had applied for. Well, what she lacked in knowledge and experience she would compensate with her love for the ancient castle, and its owner, she thought, forcing her eyes off Martin with difficulty, until she learned more about its secrets, myths and facts.

Martin rushed to her across the small room, kissing her as if they were alone, before he passed her a large iron ring full of keys, and a cloak with the Count's coat of arms embroidered in gold on one of its lapels, then introduced her the woman as an aunt of a sort, a distant cousin of the old Count, his father.

He helped Nora out of her jacket then, hanging it on a clothes hanger placed by the door of the office for the guides' use, and wrapped her in the castle's coat. Then, he took her by the hand and led her outside, towards the courtyard, leaving her there with her first ever group of curious and excited tourists while he hurried off somewhere, thus letting her know that he was certain that she knew her way throughout the castle well enough, and that he had noticed her feelings for him, and understood that his presence would only distract her.

Thank you, Martin, she thought, heart soaring, as she called the people scattered around the courtyard to attention and introduced herself as their guide.

The week passed in such a pattern for Nora. She walked Daniel to school each morning, led two groups of visitors around the castle-- blushing each time they passed through the Count's bedroom, avoiding to look at the golden bed-- spent afternoons with Daniel in whichever way the weather permitted, and a couple of hours with both the son and the father in the evenings, until Thursday.

On Thursday morning, Nora asked Martin if she could take Daniel to her cottage after school instead of bringing him home. It was the perfect day to finally decorate her tree and make him the promised hot chocolate.

It would be her birthday tomorrow, and Daniel's uncle would arrive the day after that, disturbing their routine, and she would be free from her au-pair duties until the second of January, only working in the castle during the holidays-- there seemed to be more tourists than ever between the Christmas and the New Year's Day. She didn't know when or how she would see Martin and Daniel on those days when she would turn from an au-pair to a family friend. Well, she would spend her birthday with Martin, and then there was the dinner at Clelia's on the twenty-fifth where they were all invited, and the ball in the castle on the twenty-sixth, which she had agreed to attend...

The thought of the ball made her recall that she still hadn't found an appropriate dress for the occasion; she needed to pass by Magdalena's shop. She had looked at a few dresses when she went shopping into town the last time, in search of something less grand and eye-catching than what Magdalena offered, but she didn't like any of them. They didn't feel appropriate for a masked Christmas ball held in a castle. The castle. Martin's castle... Hopefully, Magdalena would still have something left once Nora remembered to tell her that she needed a ball gown, a dress that would make her unrecognisable.

She was just adjusting the last angel she had attached to one of the tree's branches, Daniel, long bored with the job lost in the Exupéry's world as he turned the pages of Nora's pop-up book, when she realised that it was time to cook the dinner and someone knocked on the door at the same time.

"Daddy?" Daniel asked, shooting her a quick look as she made her way to the front door, smiling and nodding at him. No one else but the two of them had ever come to see her since she moved in almost a month ago.

"I'm sorry I'm late," Martin said as he entered, his arm wrapping around Nora and turning her around, pulling her in for a kiss the moment she closed the door.

"You're not late, I was just about to cook. You two will stay for dinner, won't you?"

They did and enjoyed the Thai stir fry Nora magicked out for them in twenty minutes.

"May I take you to eat out tomorrow night?" Martin whispered in her ear while she was collecting her wits after their longest ever kiss on the porch, her eyes trying to focus on Daniel's progress down the moonlit meadow in the direction of the castle.

"I want to cook for you," she muttered, her eyes meeting his even as he cupped her face and kissed her again.

"As you wish. But we'll go out after dinner, there's a place I want show you," he said, smiling mysteriously, bestowing a kiss on her forehead before letting go of her, heading for the porch steps. "Good night, Nora," he added, the sound of his footsteps vanishing as he stepped off the wood and onto the snow.