Each man was allowed one hour with the Princess, distantly attended by guards in case he should offer harm to her — and to provide witnesses to his potential success. For her part, ultimately her father commanded her to receive the men, and so she did, stiffly proper in the manner that had been drilled into her.
From early in the morning until late into the evening, as candle burned down each hour, knight after knight, lord after lord, entered the Princess’ tower and attempted to bring her to smile. They brought flowers, jewels, dresses. They offered lands, titles, animals. They told stories, composed poetry, sang.
All of them failed.
Some tried touching her, holding her hand or even kissing her. Those she failed to respond to at all, as if marble. One or two tried more forceful tactics, and were ejected with equal force. Some few elicited responses, even actual conversation or interest — but she did not smile for them.
Isaac’s turn fell midway through the third day.
His nerves were growing increasingly more frayed as time went on, and he spent the first couple of days of the new challenge venting his frustrations out in the field, training by himself for he was simply too agitated to converse with any of the others; even those that he had interacted with on occasion, even found himself conversing with them every now and again.
He’d heard tales, rumours of the others’ attempts to win the Princess over and he frowned helplessly, knowing that even though Summer liked those things most of the time, it wasn’t how to win her over. He hoped. He had yet to come up with a plan, and he was quickly running out of time.
And then his turn came.
Summer knew Isaac had been there, at the tournament. She didn’t know he had stayed to attempt the Task. The previous knight had been one of the boorish sort, who obviously felt that her inability to smile was merely the result of some superior game she was playing with them all. The last few minutes of his time had been spent in a hail of insults, bringing her near tears and dragging up wholly unwelcome memories.
She was not even looking at the door when Isaac entered, but standing before the fireplace and staring into the flames. She wished desperately that she had never left the Hale lands, and knowing that Isaac had been so near but made no attempt to see her tore her heart.
“I miss you so much, Isaac,” she whispered.