As Adrian and Justine danced together, secure in each other's warm grasp, Brianna and Mikael wandered the Great Hall together, sharing a cup of mulled blood wine. Arm in arm, Mikael squired her around the wide, broad room, showing her portraits of his family and dignitaries of years past. It was clear he had a vast, rich knowledge of his family's history. She enjoyed listening to the richness of his deep resonant voice. Neither one of them were talkers, although when something needed to be spoken, it got said.

"You look so beautiful tonight," said Mikael, regarding her fondly in her deep indigo dress, her long sleeves of ivory lace dripping around her slim arms and wrists. Her diamond and copper crown was small, wrapped inside the twining of her wild chestnut-hickory brown curls. Her little girl's face betrayed her innocent personality, but Mikael knew the fire that lay just beneath the surface. Tonight he intended to tap into that fire, and find a way to create something new within its depths.

She looked up into his eyes adoringly, hanging on every word. "Only because of you."

"Because of me?" he chuckled.

"You make me feel beautiful. The way you look at me. The way your eyes see me. The way you are with me. I feel beautiful when you're with me!" she breathed, her voice a whisper in the wild wind of his mind.

"If you could fall in love with me again, would you?" he asked whimsically.

"Always," she answered without hesitation. "In this life, and the next life, and the next life..." she smiled up at him, a look of wonder and amazement at having him for her husband. His hair was a waxen haloed chocolate in the candleglow, his dark olive skin warm and colored with a blush, and his straight broad shoulders were a perfect fit in his tailored suit, the trademark Dhamphir black military style brocade, with gold and red embroidered dragons decorating the lapel and border, and his snug pants accenting every masculine movement. pink color wedding bridal selections

"Brianna," Mikael began, his voice low enough to hear as they stopped in a secluded corner, "do you believe in fate?"

"Of course I do." she whispered back. "Had it not been for fate, I never would have met you that rainy night."

He smiled, looked up at the alfresco paintings on the cathedral ceilings and smiled in remembrance. "Yeah, that night...I never thought it would happen to me like that!"

"Or me. It was fate, that night," she recalled, whimsy in her own voice.

"And maybe it's fate that we have a child together," Mikael said, trying to gage how she felt about the blessing that had been bestowed on them.

Brianna looked down, smiling sadly. "No, Mikael, I know what the doctor told us. I'm sorry, but there's nothing anyone can do." She looked down in shame at her shoes, unable to face her husband.

"Once you would have tried to tell me there was hope." he noted, a bit taken aback by her faithless statement.

"I understand now it wasn't meant to be. Are you sorry you married me now?" she looked up at him in sad expectation. "Do you wish you'd married Theresa instead?"

Mikael felt like crying when she mentioned her sister's name, when she asked him if he was sorry he married her. "You're not ever to say those things again!" he admonished her. "I love you, Brianna, and only you. No matter what else happens in our lives, you are my one true wife, and I'm your one true husband, just as we promised each other on our wedding night, and I mean to see that our vows are followed to the letter!"

"Then you know now just as you knew then, the doctor said it wasn't possible," she repeated in that same despondent voice. "But I've accepted it," she brightened. "Maybe we could adopt!"

"Maybe," he said, embracing her and kissing her softly, as gentle as a snowflake falling in the air of a deep February night.