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In the late afternoon, she was interrupted by a maid coming to deliver her tea.  She followed the girl out, catching the door before she left.  The two guards looked at her curiously.  One was about to lock her in when he – as well as the other guard – was distracted by a loud scuffle happening down the hallway. 

A group of armed men had attempted to reach the king with violence and was fighting off the soldiers who had intercepted them.  They were headed towards the chamber Eun Sook was occupying.  So the guards watching over her promptly forgot her presence and fled down the hallway towards the trouble.

“Come!  We must protect the king!” one of them cried out.

And she saw the perfect opportunity to escape.  She had been longing to visit the outdoors.  To breathe some fresh air that wasn’t floating through an open window.  To gaze up at the blue sky while spinning around under the sunshine.

So she slipped out into the hallway and traveled in the opposite direction from the noise.  The corridors seemed to have been emptied of guards.  They had, most likely, all traveled in the direction of the action.  She was left to wander alone. 

Soon enough, she found a passage that led her outside.  As she stepped through the doorway and her feet hit the ground, she instantly reveled in the glory of the sun’s vibrant rays and realized just how much she’d missed her freedom.  A bag of silver was worth a month of isolation.  But she had craved the atmosphere that surrounded her when she was sitting by a bubbling brook or being embraced by a happy sun’s beams of light as she wandered through an open field.  That beautiful star had been her only constant friend.  With her from her birth.  She needed to see it.

So she was going to sneak a few minutes basking under its cheerful rays before she had to return to the rooms that had held her captive for over a week now.

––

“Have you captured all Wi Deok’s men?” the king asked his head guard.

The man nodded vigorously.  “Yes, your highness.  We rounded all of them up.  They are currently in the prison.”

Jin Heung sighed with relief.  But then a momentary qualm worried his brow.  “They didn’t reach my chambers, did they?”

A tremor passed over the man’s countenance, but he instantly replied, “No, your majesty.”

“What is it?  What aren’t you telling me?”

“They did travel as far as the hallway leading to your rooms.”

The king stood up.  He was suddenly concerned about Eun Sook.  “I am going to my rooms for a while.  Don’t allow anyone to interrupt me.”

He strode briskly down the corridor as his guard watched him go with a very interesting expression cloaking his features.

––

A couple of minutes later, Jin Heung slipped through the doorway into his chambers.  The first thing that troubled him was that his customary guards were missing. 

He headed for his office.  She was surely seated at his desk embroiled in penning her most recent story.  Her long, silvery white hair flowing past her waist to pool in the seat of his chair.  Her indigo eyes intent on the parchment as her fingers curled around her quill.

But as he entered that room, he found it empty.  And felt a moment of alarm.  However, he quickly brushed it aside.  She was probably in the private chamber which he’d given to her for her own use. 

He headed that way yet found the door open, this room also void of her captivating presence.  She hadn’t been in the front room either.  He continued forward, pushing open the door to his own bedroom. 

Would he find her there?  But if so, why?

However, his hopes were disappointed.  This room was also empty.  He spun around and retraced his steps.  Hoping, somehow, he had just missed her.

But it was quite clear that Eun Sook had flown his coop.  His initial alarm blossomed into a raging fear.  Had the crown prince of Baekje learned of his weakness? 

Had some of his men escaped Jin Heung’s?  Had Wi Deok’s soldiers breached her defenses?  Had she been dragged off to torture?  Rape?  Death? 

Or had she run away? 

Was she completely lost to him now?

As the worst of imaginations ran wild in his head, despair instantly swamped him.  Fighting to gain control of his emotions.  As he was contemplating his next step, one of the doors to the outer room suddenly opened, and Eun Sook tiptoed in. 

His eyes widening violently, he turned to face her fully, fury and relief sparring with each other as they both spiraled through him.  But indignation won that war.

“Where have you been?” he greeted her angrily as she stepped into his room, his face a mask of rage.

But she could hear the tremor in his voice.  And see its twin shaking in his eyes.  So, when he crossed the room quickly and grabbed her wrist, yanking her close to him, she took another step towards him.  And reached up to slide her arms around his neck.  Raising her face towards his.  

Her eyes caressed his as she whispered, “I was in the courtyard, enjoying the sunshine.  I missed it so much.”

She hadn’t tried to escape.  She wasn’t bent on leaving him.

She hadn’t been kidnapped.  Or violated.

She was here.  In his arms.  Safe.  And sound.

His anger evaporated.  He bent his head then, and his lips brushed hers in a tender kiss that melted her instantly.  Her eyes fluttered shut as his mouth embraced hers.  And a sigh of pure happiness left her mouth to fill his with her contentment.  And his own heart filled with satisfaction.  He had finally found a woman who wanted him.  So he deepened that kiss.  And felt her shocked gasp filling his mouth with the taste of her.

He drew back.  And gazed down into her captivatingly strange eyes.  

“I love you,” he murmured as an expression of such tenderness overtook his countenance that she felt her knees giving out beneath her.  

She clung to him so she wouldn’t slide down to the floor.  “You do?” she whispered uncertainly.

“Yes.”  He bent his head, kissing her again.  Softly.  Sweetly.

And Eun Sook began to weep.

He ceased kissing her when he tasted the salt of the healing of her heart’s wounds.

“I love you, Sookie,” he murmured against her lips.  His arms around her tightening to draw her warmly against him. 

Her reassuring presence flooded him with instant peace.  He bent his head and began to kiss the tracks of her tears.  His lips sliding through the moisture produced by the overflow of her heart in response to his unlikely affection for her.

“I love you, Sookie,” he spoke against her cheek this time.  “I love you.”  His words soaked into her skin.

Could he say it enough times?  Until his words had buried themselves like fertile seeds deep down into the core of her heart so that the only harvest produced by her life would be a healthy one, full of tenderness and love?

She trembled in his arms.  And clung to him as she burst into tears.  All the wounds of the past surfacing in that one wonderful instant.  When a man’s love breached every single defense that she’d spent a lifetime erecting.

“I won’t leave you.  Ever.  I promise,” he murmured, somehow discerning what she needed to hear.  “And I will never drive you from my presence.  If you ever leave me, it will be your choice.  And yours alone.”

She shook her head as fresh tears spilled over to run down her cheeks.  “I won’t leave you, Jijin.  I won’t.  You’re…you’re my home.  The only home I’ve ever known.”

His lips found hers then, and he spent several sweet moments blessing her mouth as his heart poured out his love for her through his lips.