A Princess For Christmas (Of The Dreams We Seek)

Forty- Nine

Avni found herself surrounded by her mother, father and friends from last night. It had been Callahan's habit from last few days to stay by her side at night. But he had to let her go painfully. And then he watched her sleep in her mother's arm. 

He had a smile gracing on his face seeing that. But he remembered that he needed to do something. He needed to honour his last wish. And that isn't a bad wish at all He get to keep the last memories of his mother. 

And he can bestow the gifts that his father made for the woman he loved to the woman his son loves. Maybe he can become his legacy after all. He walked toward the study he inherited after his father. He was not allowed to come here when his grandmother was alive. He wasn't allowed to spend time with his father.

 All his life he expected to be the perfect child all the time. And then the perfectly behaved teenager. No wonder there was more of a rebel than a prince in him. He didn't wish to stop running away or tied down to anything.

 The thing that had landed him in trouble more than once. But then he has to step up his role, be the prince to this kingdom, then too all around him people manipulated him. People played with him. Just to gain something they favoured him, no one, no one had ever been loyal to him. No one ever been truthful entirely. 

And the she came, in front of her he had nothing to hide. He not needed to be perfect, for she had accepted that he was flawed he had many imperfections. And then after all of that, she dared to look inside his darkness, dared to venture into a battle that was no way she could have emerge victorious from. Then too she was brave enough to not leave it in the middle. 

Truth is the courage he felt yesterday, the courage to make him accept and speak about his feeling came from her selfless sacrifice, she was the reason. And now he needed to save that reason, respect that reason. 

He pushed the door open of the cabinet and slid around the books until he found what he was looking for. The keyhole in the smooth surface of the wood. And then he found it and a satisfying smirk graced his face.

The Queen was there when Roxanne and Avni's friend including her mother were preparing her for the wedding. Avni was little tensed. She hasn't seen Callahan from last night. "Looking for someone Princess?" The Queen asked joking. She blushed looking down.

 "I..." Avni's mother laughed at this. And the Queen joined in too with it. "I was once your age you know? I too married your father; I know what a bride feels before wedding." The queen also joined in "And I married Richard, so I know too. It is alright to look for him, but he had told me that he is off to run a very special errand for you Princess, and he will wait for you at the end of the aisle." 

"And" said Sneha "If you didn't come in time he will die then and there, you do not wish to be late and kill the king of the country, do you?" "Or make him think that you run away and eloped with Avi?" Roxanne asked. 

"I know he knows that no matter what happens at the end he is the one I will choose" Avni said smiling. "Here, these are earrings I have worn when I got married, it can be your something borrowed" The queen gave her a box. 

"And we all bought you your something blue, that you will find lying inside with your gown" The girls said excitedly. "And, at last, for our little Princess, who was always born to be the queen of our hearts, here is something new" The placed a bracelet, and a necklace set. Kissing Avni's forehead. Her mother looked at her lovingly, so did her father. 

Someone knocked at the door. "oh, are you all done giving gifts to Princess, we have bought something too." Serafina, Philip, Robert, Rose and Rachel came inside. And they had someone behind them, it was Serafina's grandfather. He was carrying something on a cushion.