Nothing's in my way

Chapter 2

"Glad I caught you."

In the middle of the ballroom, an elegantly gloved hand, held me for an instant before I kissed the ground by the hit that some opulent member of the nobility had given me with his bottom. I looked up to find a dapper young man with green eyes smiling gracefully at me.

"Thank you."

"A pleasure to be useful to you, princess."

I got up quickly and recomposed my dress.

"Just Anna, please."

"As you wish, Anna. Prince Hans of the Southern Isles," he introduced himself bowing to me.

'Oh... another bow...' I thought as a slight smile escaped my lips as I remembered the unusual reaction that Kristoff had had a while before in a similar situation.

"It is my pleasure, Prince Hans."

"Only Hans."

"Okay, Hans."

"Would you grant me, Anna, the honor of dancing with you?"

The boy extended his hand to me in a stretched and normative posture to invite me to dance and, unconsciously, I made the comparison with the huge, bare and rough hand that had been extended to me only a few hours before: the relaxed and close posture in front of the pedantic etiquette, the warmth and hardness of the skin of someone who works with the sweat of his forehead versus the cold, unpolluted and soft fabric of someone who lives off the sweat of others. I guess I wasn't the one to criticize though.

I shook my head almost imperceptibly knowing that all this was getting me nowhere and I returned to the role that was expected of the Princess of Arendelle.

"Of course I do."

I took Hans's hand again and we danced to the piece that was beginning to sound with the grace and elegance of someone who has received years of tedious practice.

After dancing, we enjoyed the party in each other's company. For a long time we raided the treat where, thank God, there was no shortage of chocolate. Then I took him on a short tour of the palace, the stables, and the castle gardens. Finally, as night fell, we stopped to eat something else and rest while, from one of the large balconies of the main building, we enjoyed the views of the illuminated town. There, the two of us told each other a little about how our lives had been. Hans told me about his twelve older brothers and how they shut him out and I told him how my only sister had done the same to me.

Despite having felt the rejection as well as I did, I couldn't feel in him the understanding and empathy that I had received from Kristoff.

The dark sky was widely illuminated by a huge full moon that made the light of all the stars that accompanied it almost imperceptible. My gaze traveled to the mountains and I wondered if that tremendously free ice harvester had already finished his work or if he was there, enjoying the fresh air of the mountains and of that moon that bathed everything.

"It's really beautiful, right?" I said without taking my eyes off the mountains trying to bring up the topic of conversation.

"Indeed it is, but not as much as you are."

I turned to him somehow blushing. I didn't expect that kind of reaction. I wasn't used to hearing compliments of that kind about my person.

"I can understand how lonely you've felt so far, but you know?" Hans carefully took my hand and fixed his eyes on mine. "I would never shut you out."

I immediately read his intention to woo me and couldn't feel more uncomfortable with the idea. The party, next to him, was being quite entertaining, but not nearly as fun as I expected. I envisioned myself locked in the palace writing letters to a refined, elegant, and uptight prince until, hopefully, it was time to get married. And then, living locked up in my own castle with that man or living free in another kingdom; in an unknown place that wouldn't be my home, surrounded by twelve princes and their princesses, all equally refined and pedantic... That was the life that awaited me, right? That was definitely my best option.