Author Note: This story has been finished for months, but then nirnaeth12 drew Bern's portrait for the cover art, and it turned out so well that I wanted you all to come see it. (Click on it for a larger image. And be sure to visit her site at Deviantart dot com. Search her artist name "Deidale." It's worth seeing the full-size version – the details are amazing.) You can thank nirnaeth12 for this bonus chapter, because I wouldn't have written it otherwise. The plot is done, and so you get this very fluffy postscript to an otherwise serious story.

Chapter 16 – An Unexpected Outing

Bern set aside the committee report he was working on and decided to take a short stroll before he finished it. That funny little snowman was right, there was no need to stay inside a stuffy castle when there was so much sunshine outside. He headed for the garden and pond, tucked into the interior of the castle island where it was safe from the salt spray of the surrounding harbor. The castle gardeners kept the lawn tidy and the flower bushes pruned.

A mother duck paddled her way across the pond, followed by a line of ducklings who had weathered the cold snap unharmed. The violets and pansies at the water's edge had not been so fortunate, and sat in brown, dead lumps, waiting for a gardener to pull them out. Bern strolled slowly past the flowerbeds, noticing the delicate flowers that had died in the freeze, and the hardier bushes that survived.

Bern was so interested in picking out what had died and what had survived the queen's coronation storm that he almost stepped on the queen's foot before he noticed she was down there, sitting at the edge of a flowerbed.

"I beg your pardon," he said, hastily straightening his tie that was already straight.

Queen Elsa climbed to her feet. "No need, please don't worry. I was only looking at the flowers." Her hands were bare, and she brushed dirt from her fingers.

"The garden is beautiful this time of year," Bern offered awkwardly.

"Yes, I can see that. I haven't been outside much," Queen Elsa replied, fidgeting with the cuff on her long blue sleeve.

Bern relaxed as it became obvious she was as nervous as he was. "Olaf told us at the council meeting yesterday that we should spend more time outdoors in the sunshine. I took his advice."

"I approve of your choice of advisor," she said gravely.

"I'm not sure he's qualified to advise anyone on summertime, but his enthusiasm is admirable," Bern replied with equal seriousness.

Then they both smiled. It was another one of her real smiles that brightened her blue eyes enough to put the sky to shame. "Do you think a snowman could really learn about summertime?"

"With that snow cloud of his, I'm not sure he'll ever be able to experience summer. He'll always be an oasis of winter whether he wants to be or not," Bern replied.

She gave him a wistful look, and he wondered if he'd said the wrong thing.

"Elsa! I've been looking all over for you!" Princess Anna charged into the garden, tripped on a rock, staggered a few steps and landed in Bern's arms as he stepped forward to break her fall. "Good thing you were here, Councilor!"

"Yes, your Highness," Bern said, setting her back on her feet.

"Hi! Look! It's one of those serious people!" Olaf called out as he followed the princess into the garden and saw Bern. "They have a really big table, and no one likes warm hugs."

Princess Anna gave him a disapproving look. "How can you not like warm hugs?"

"Perhaps warm hugs are an acquired taste," Bern said. While everyone on the Council knew Princess Anna, she rarely did more than chirp hello if she passed them in a corridor, and Bern suspected she shared Olaf's opinion of them.

"What's that mean?" Olaf asked.

"It means we'd have to get used to warm hugs, but we would like them eventually," Bern explained, and hoped he would never have to tell his fellow councilmembers that he'd just volunteered them for frequent hugs from a snowman.

"If I give you fifty warm hugs right now, will you like them before dinner?" Olaf pressed. He waddled up and held up his twig arms.

Princess Anna was giving him an encouraging smile, so he knelt down and let the snowman hug him. Olaf started counting hugs. He got to about twenty-eight when Bern noticed Queen Elsa was stifling a laugh behind her hand.

"Olaf, it turns out that twenty-eight hugs was enough. I like warm hugs now," Bern said.

"Are you sure? We wouldn't want them to wear off or anything," Princess Anna said with an impish grin.

"You'll have to tell Rodmund that I've appointed you to the Warm Hugs Committee, and you are now the liaison with the Official Snowman of Arendelle," Queen Elsa told him.

"I get to be a committee!" Olaf shouted in glee.

"I will do my best to discharge my duties, as soon as I know what they are," Bern said.

"To persuade the rest of the Royal Council to like warm hugs, of course," the queen answered with no hint of a smile.

Princess Anna burst into giggles. "I'd come to a Council meeting to see that!"

"You do realize that I'm the youngest one on the Council by a couple of decades, and they have a hard time taking me seriously anyway," Bern pointed out.

"You have my permission to ask Olaf to administer the warm hugs instead of doing it yourself," Queen Elsa said with a straight face.

"No, make him do it, Elsa!" Anna said, tugging on the queen's sleeve.

"Do you want me to teach you how?" Olaf offered.

Bern was caught between laughing and looking horrified. He'd never suspected that the queen had a sense of humor and he wasn't sure if she would call off the joke before he actually had to hug Rodmund.

Princess Anna exploded in giggles and draped herself over her sister. "He's afraid you're actually going to make him do it!"

The queen finally cracked a sly smile. "Would you do it if I told you to?"

"While I am always your obedient servant, your Majesty, I would greatly prefer to sail through shark-infested waters in a leaky barrel."

"During a blizzard, right, Councilor?" Princess Anna continued.

"Yes."

"I don't think you like warm hugs enough yet. We shouldn't have stopped at twenty-eight," Olaf said.

"I'm disappointed at your reluctance to embrace a new policy," Queen Elsa said.

He smiled at the pun. "On this issue, your Majesty, you may have to lead by example."

He'd silenced her with that comment, he noted smugly, and cocked an eyebrow at her as she stepped back.

"He's funny!" Princess Anna said.

"Most of us did spend time as human beings before we were appointed as politicians, your Highness."

"Elsa didn't," Princess Anna replied frankly.

"Anna!"

"Well, you didn't!"

"And yet she still manages to have a sense of humor," Bern said.

"Thank you, Bern," Queen Elsa said.

"Do you want to come to the marketplace with us?" Princess Anna asked.

"Certainly. When?"

"Now sounds good," Anna said. "Elsa has been dying to go."

"That's overstating the matter, Anna. I said I would go at some point," Queen Elsa said.

"The gates are open, Elsa. What's the point of having open gates if we never go through them? Come on!"

"I love the marketplace!" Olaf announced.

"Do you know people in the marketplace?" Anna asked. When she got excited, she had a tendency to start bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"All of them. I am the Economics Councilor, after all. It's my business to know them."

"Do you know Kristoff?" Anna asked.

"The ice harvester, yes, I've known him a few years now." Bern had gotten an earful from Kristoff about his adventure with Anna when they were trying to get Sven loaded into a boat so they could get him to shore. Bern got the impression that Kristoff wondered how any of them could tolerate a castle full of the craziness and drama of the royal sisters. He'd tried to explain that up until the coronation, there hadn't been any craziness or drama at all, but he wasn't sure Kristoff believed him.

"Is he dating anyone?" Princess Anna asked nonchalantly.

"I don't know anything about his personal life," Bern said after a pause.

"Not that I care," Princess Anna added hurriedly and switched topics. "Come on, Elsa! You'll be back soon enough for another boring meeting or more paperwork or whatever you want to do!"

"I suppose we could," Elsa said at last.

Bern got the impression that she was reluctant to tell her sister no, which was how they had ended up having an ice skating party in July. Suddenly he wondered if he was up to escorting the queen, princess and snowman on their first outing, and sincerely hoped it would be boring. Then he looked at Princess Anna, who had taken a moment to sing to a duckling in excitement, and his heart sank. Princess Anna was not capable of being boring.

Elsa examined her hands and tried to brush off more dirt. Her hands were bare. Bern's heart sank further.

Olaf sneezed and his carrot nose shot across the grass. "I'll get it!" he sang out as he toddled over.

Bern thought longingly of the committee report on his desk, even as Anna grabbed his arm and cheerfully hauled him along. "Let's go!" He wanted to offer his arm to the queen, but she'd put her hands behind her back and was already walking next to him with a slightly startled expression on her face, as if she couldn't believe she was actually doing this. Olaf went running ahead of them.

Anna's happy chatter flowed over them without requiring a response all the way across the causeway, and then they were at the marketplace, with its wooden platforms, sea wall, and booths with merchants and craftsmen hawking their wares. The booths and partitions that had been ruined in the storm were cleared away, but Bern knew the marketplace well enough to see where they were missing, and items were laid out on blankets on the ground instead of along counters.

Silence rippled out as villagers recognized who had just come into the marketplace, and then it disappeared in a rush of whispers and exclamations as they turned to stare.

Princess Anna took their reaction as a welcome, calling out a cheerful 'hello!' and swinging her skirts in excitement as she tried to look at everything at once. It was impossible not to smile back at her, and presently she was exclaiming at a woven basket as the basket weaver pointed out the pattern while Olaf tried to get her to admire a bucket of purple flowers and another merchant stood ready with necklaces to show her.

"Councilor, did you bring any money? Can I have it?" Princess Anna asked over her shoulder.

Bern handed over his coin purse, assuming that would be the last he saw of it.

While there were smiles for Princess Anna, they were openly staring at Queen Elsa, and while no one was so bold as to glare at her, there was furtiveness and caution in many expressions. The queen folded her arms, and looked regally at nothing, refusing to retreat and yet not able to meet their eyes, either. Bern regretfully noted the absence of several of the merchants he liked best, and looked around at who was left. He wanted to introduce the queen to someone, but wasn't sure how people would react to her.

Princess Anna abruptly made the whole question moot. "Elsa! Come see!" She was holding up a bracelet with polished wood beads, strung with ribbon knots fashioned to look like flowers.

The queen joined her sister, her expression cautious where the princess was ecstatic, but she did reach out to finger the beads. Nelly, the jewelry maker, relaxed when the beads didn't freeze, and several merchants with jewelry, scarves, and other items that might tempt ladies began to gather around. Bern wondered if the reason the royal sisters didn't wear much jewelry was for lack of opportunity, and not interest, because Princess Anna was gathering up everything they offered her, and even the queen was looking more interested. Olaf was open-mouthed with a delighted smile as he tried to see everything at once.

"Good afternoon, Lord Bern." It was Pastor Thomas, the vicar of the village church, a sandy-haired, thickset man in his later thirties.

"Good afternoon, Father," Bern replied.

"You brought the queen and princess over for an outing?" he asked conversationally.

"Not entirely on purpose, but yes," Bern said, and a smile quirked his lips.

"It's good to see them out and about. No one is yet sure how to react to the open gates, and bringing them over may help thaw the ice, if you'll pardon the expression," Pastor Thomas observed.

"Father, you hear more than I do; what are people saying about this week's events?" Bern asked.

"There's still a lot of fear and uncertainty. In the absence of information, people are creating their own ideas, and I'm not sure that's going to end well. The castle may want to get the word out about the queen's powers, and how she plans to control them. I don't foresee riots or anything like they have going on over in France, but there's a fairly sharp split in the population between those who are willing to give her a chance, and those who think she ought to be tried as a witch," Pastor Thomas replied.

Bern pressed his lips together and thought hard. "Surely no one thinks this is a power she's sought after. Witches are deliberate in their intentions and search for magic. Her Majesty didn't invite any of these powers, and has done her best to conceal and control them. She'd rather not have them at all."

"Yes, and that's exactly what I'm preaching in my sermon this Sunday. Come over and listen, if you'd like. Bishop Saholt has talked to myself and Pastor Anders about preaching sermons to calm the people and reunite Arendelle," Pastor Thomas replied. "He knew a few hours before the rest of you did, you know."

"He what?"

"Queen Elsa froze the scepter and orb at the coronation ceremony," Pastor Thomas said.

Bern gave a long, low exhalation of surprise.

"It's a pity she kept herself hidden away for so long, but it looks as if her sister will be able to help her out of seclusion," Pastor Thomas said, with a nod towards the queen and princess, who were now admiring painted cloth bags.

While Princess Anna was still doing most of the talking, Queen Elsa occasionally offered an opinion, even reaching out to touch things that people offered her. She wore the same 'please like me' expression she'd worn right before she created the ice for the ice skating party three days ago. Bern felt relieved to see the merchants had lost any hesitation they might have had about talking to the queen. Of course, the fact that she was a customer helped matters along.

"Bern, you ran out of money!" Princess Anna announced.

Apparently they were now good enough friends that she could spend all his money and not use his title anymore.

"I can put it on his account and he can settle up later," Nelly suggested, and had the temerity to look highly amused.

"What a good idea!" Princess Anna gushed, and turned back to the bracelets.

Bern watched her, bemused, and thought of sisters. He'd severed yet another tie with his mother this week, and relief warred with loneliness. Both of his sisters had been older than he was, and dead before he was born. But perhaps if he'd had a younger sister, he would have indulged her like this, and she would have thanked him, and her excitement about a new bracelet would have meant as much to him as the words.

Someone called for Pastor Thomas's attention. "I'll take my leave of you, and hope to see you on Sunday, Councilor. Enjoy your afternoon," he said with a hearty handshake of farewell.

Bern promised to be there on Sunday, and then stepped up to find out what he was buying. Olaf had picked out a bucket of flowers, asters and goldenrod that had survived the cold snap. Princess Anna had new hair combs of polished wood and pearl already tucked in above her braids, with a matching necklace and bracelet wrapped in paper. She was now exclaiming at silk scarves.

Queen Elsa put back the cloth bag, painted with yellow flowers, with a compliment to the artist but no promise to buy. Bern took the bag back from the artist and handed it to her. "If it pleases you, it would be my privilege to buy it for you."

"I couldn't impose like that," she objected.

"Yes, you could," Bern said firmly.

"You have to get it, Elsa, or else I'm going to feel greedy because he bought me almost a hundred things already!" Princess Anna argued.

"You wouldn't want your sister to feel greedy, now would you?" Bern said, hoping the princess was exaggerating.

Queen Elsa laughed. "If you're sure, then."

"I'm sure."

Queen Elsa took the bag and thanked him shyly.

"What else are we going to see today, Bern?" Princess Anna asked him.

"I need to get back to the castle for a committee meeting, Anna," the queen interrupted.

Bern thought of the committee report, unfinished on his desk, and the fact that a twenty minute stroll had taken his entire afternoon. "Your Majesty, I regret to tell you that the committee isn't ready for a meeting. I'll probably need another hour at best. I'll make my apologies to Rodmund."

"Elsa doesn't mind; this was more fun anyway," Princess Anna said.

"I suppose she's right," Queen Elsa agreed.

"I usually am."

Bern left a general promise of payment with the merchants who were obviously sad to see the royal sisters leave, and caught up with them. As they walked past a tumbled pile of wooden crates, Bern took Queen Elsa's elbow to guide her past them. She flinched away from him and he immediately snatched his hand back with a hasty, "I beg your pardon." Not that he was counting or anything, but it was only six days ago that she'd spent the better part of a day nestled unconscious in his arms as he brought her back from the North Mountain, his hand cupping her head to keep her from falling off his shoulder. His arms well remembered the feel of her, but of course she knew none of that, and he did not have permission to touch her again.

"Your Highness, would you care to show me what I bought?" Bern asked instead, to defuse the awkward tension.

Princess Anna was happy to unwrap her packages as they walked back over the causeway and show him everything. He realized he'd purchased more than he'd thought as she pulled yet another parcel out of a pocket. He would have to believe every merchant who asked him for payment tomorrow, rather than suspecting them of inflating the bill. He looked at the excitement on Princess Anna's face and decided it was all worth it.

Then she surprised him with a quick hug. "Thank you!"

"It was my pleasure," he answered honestly. She was gone before he could even pat her shoulder.

"That wasn't a very warm hug, Anna, it didn't last long enough," Olaf commented.

"Olaf, it looks like you need to work on a committee report as well," Bern said.

"Are you going to help me with it?" Olaf asked him.

"Bern is on your committee, Olaf," the queen volunteered him, again with that sly smile.

"Could I meet with you about it tomorrow morning, Olaf?" Bern asked gravely.

"Wow! I have a meeting!" Olaf exulted. "Can we sit at the big table?"

Rodmund was coming towards them, formally dressed in his vest and jacket. Rodmund never looked casual, and he was always punctual. Bern realized they were at least thirty minutes late for the committee meeting, and the report wasn't even finished.

Olaf went running towards him. "Hi, sir! Guess what! I have a committee now too! It's the Warm Hugs Committee and Elsa appointed Bern to be on it! Here's a flower." And he handed Rodmund a spray of purple asters.

Bemused, Rodmund took the flowers and gave Bern a quizzical glance.

Bern wondered why the earth couldn't open up and swallow him whole.

"It's all my doing, Rodmund," Queen Elsa said. "We monopolized his afternoon as well, and the committee meeting will have to be rescheduled."

"Yes!" Princess Anna shrieked with a wave of excited fists. "Now you've got time to come try on all this jewelry with me!"

"I need to reschedule," Queen Elsa began.

"Oh, they can reschedule a meeting without you, Elsa. They're smart enough," Princess Anna insisted, dragging her sister off. "See you later! Thanks for all the jewelry, Bern! Let's go again next week and get shoes!"

Olaf ran off with them, lugging his bucket of flowers.

Rodmund and Bern stood watching them until the castle doors shut behind them, Rodmund still idly twirling the branch of flowers.

"Had quite the afternoon, did you?" Rodmund asked him.

"Yes, sir. I apologize I didn't finish the report in time."

"Did they have fun?"

"What? Yes, sir, I believe they did," Bern replied, relieved that the worst that had happened was a sizable bill.

"Probably the first time in their lives, then. No matter about the committee report. What's this new committee you're on?" Rodmund asked, walking with Bern back to the castle.

"It turns out the queen has a sense of humor, sir."

"Does she now? How very unexpected."

"We keep using that word to describe the queen," Bern observed.

"I believe we can safely say that our calm and predictable days are behind us, Bern," Rodmund said.

Bern found that he didn't mind that thought at all.

THE END

Next in this series is A Touch of True Love.