Irenie was quickly exiting her bedroom door when she nearly ran right into Ophelia and Curdie who had been walking down the hall together.

Rat followed quickly on her heals as her other cat, Turnip, lazed on the bed. Ophelia and Curdie watched with surprise as the princess skidded down the hall.

"Irenie! Where are you going?" Curdie shouted after the princess who didn't so much as blink an eye at them.

She was all the way around the corner when the two of them heard the princess' reply. "Business!" She called back and they stared at the empty hall for several seconds before Curdie's gaze drifted back to Ophelia.

"Well I guess that means we're on our own tonight," he said, scratching the back of his neck and closing his eyes.

Ophelia's mouth pursed before she poked him in the chest with her fan. "Don't get any ideas, miner-boy," Ophelia laughed abruptly and began walking again, wandering down the halls as the sun was setting. The lady had said that she needed some fresh air and like the gentleman Curdie professed himself to be, he said he knew an alright balcony in the knight's tower from which to watch the sunset.

"Ah, right," Curdie muttered from behind, his face going a slightly brighter red.

They snuck behind the guards who had passed out from their ale earlier that evening, and found themselves on a balcony overlooking one of the sides of the mountain where there was a shear drop for two hundred feet down.

"Not bad for a miner," Ophelia smiles her catty grin back at Curdie as they rested their hands on the barrier between the drop. "All the other girls you take up here must love it."

Curdie's face went bright red but he popped himself up and sat down on the stone wall before looking Ophelia directly in the face.

"It's just us, you know," Curdie said in barely a whisper. Some sounds of guards who were fast asleep and groaning made its way to the outside as Ophelia flicked an eye back to them for just a second. Curdie's mouth fell into a straight line as his warm brown eyes burned through Ophelia. "You don't have to pretend to be witty."

"Just because I'm not currently lashing you with my wit right now doesn't mean I'm pretending to have it all the other times." Ophelia snorted dismissively and braced herself against the low wall as she stared almost unhappily at the sun which was currently dipping behind the other mountains.

Curdie released the tense breath he been holding back and grimaced. "Yah yah alright, I mean, you don't have to be witty around me." The knight rolled his eyes and leaned back over the incredible drop. It elicited just the faintest reaction from Ophelia whose eyes widened. "Just be you, Ophelia."

Again, she snorted, but the wealthy woman's fingers buried a little deeply into the sides of her arm as her gaze hardened on the horizon. It was almost night.

She laughed then, and shook her head, breaking the concentration "You know... when I first met Irenie, I hated her."

Curdie's eyes went to the size of teacups in seconds having been fully caught off guard by Ophelia's statement "What? But you–"

She laughed lightly again and instead directed her gaze to the terrifying drop below them as the last of the golden rays cascaded over Ophelia's pale gold hair. "I know, I know... of course we're good friends now, but..." she paused and her fingers tightened on her arms again. "But Irenie doesn't care about wealth, she didn't care who my father was or what I did, she wasn't easily won over like some of the others I've met in my life. I didn't like that..."

The wealthy woman hummed to herself and Curdie stared at her in astonishment, still unable to get his head around the idea of what Ophelia had told him. He didn't know anyone more 'above it all' than Ophelia Estrild.

"That's when I met you, I knew you would be exactly like her," Ophelia whispered into the darkening sky, her words being carried on the light summer breeze. "And I knew no matter who I was, it didn't matter to you."

Curdie's head finally stopped spinning and he inched himself off the wall until he was standing beside Ophelia. She didn't so much as look at him directly, but she certainly felt his eyes on her.

"That's where you're wrong Ophelia..." Curdie's rough voice cracked lightly and the young woman laughed as she looked up at the night from under her brow.

"It does matter, who you are matters to me." Curdie reached out a hand that flinched twice before it cupped the one Ophelia had been digging into her arm. "There's no girl like you, Olly."

His eyes were burning and unfortunately it caught Ophelia so off guard, she laughed before she was able to say anything too kind. Curdie's face went a brighter shade of red than the sunset they had just watched.

"That almost sounded like a compliment, Curdie Peterson," Ophelia said breathlessly and she leaned in delicately, closing in the gap between them.

"It was," Curdie murmured under his breath which had grown husky until they were almost close enough to be touching, but he smiled cleverly. "Oh, I forgot, Ophelia Estrild doesn't just let any man kiss her."

Her eyes, which had fluttered closed, recognized that their lips had not made contact and snapped open to look at the knight in the twilight dark as he grinned back down at her.

The blush that overcame Ophelia's sun-kissed features turned her whole face redder than Curdie's but she didn't let so much a word pass before she grabbed his collar and a startled Curdie was pulled down a solid two inches so that his eyes were exactly aligned with the duchess'.

"Curse you, Peterson–"

And just as all remnants of the sun faded to complete darkness, she quickly pressed her lips to his and their stiff face muscles softened into something kind.