The Ball Night

Hidden Talents

"I don't mean to, I guess I just reminded him of something." I mumbled to myself. I walked down the empty hallways, huge paintings of noble men and women. Some even of a battle field. I looked at the generations of this castle, and eventually stumbled upon the King. I stopped and stared.

He looked exactly like Catherine, only that his eyes were different colored. In the painting, he looked about twenty years or more, wearing a military suit. No lie, the guy looked handsome. I slowly walked, staring at each painting until I came upon Andrew. It seems he looked about eighteen or nineteen when this painting was made.

The last one was of Catherine. It seems as sunlight was pouring on the painting. She sparkled, wearing a green and white dress." Gorgeous..." I said out loud, echoing down the hall. I touched her painted cheek. She's beautiful. I stared at her beauty and pressed my thumb on her lips.

"Ahem." I snapped my head to Lu standing a couple feet from me.

"Yes?" I said in my man tone. Lu kept staring and I got nervous real quickly. My heart accelerates and I pulled back my hand from the painting.

Lu looks at me up and down," Ruby?"

My palms started to sweat and I clenched them. I held my breath and raised my eyebrow." W-who?" I finally spoke.

Lu looks down and shakes his head," A thousand apologizes sir, you...I...never mind. Princess Catherine would like to speak to you in her bedroom." He straighten up and raised his chin.

I nodded." Uh, sure thing." He turns and walks away as I stood and waited till he made a turn. I exhaled and wiped my hand against my pants." Too close."

I walked up stairs to the bedroom section. I stopped at Catherine's bedroom door and knocked. I heard footsteps and the door creaks open. I smiled," Princess." Catherine opens the door and we embraced. We pulled at arm length.

"What did my father say? Does he know?" I shook my head and she signs in relief."But," she looks up at me.

"But?" I bit my bottom lip." He was talking about a women and that's when he kicked me out?" Catherine had her mouth open and she kept looking at me." What's wrong?"

Catherine lets go of me and walks to her bed and sat at the edge. I went inside and sat next to her, waiting for an explanation. She signs," I'm sorry, its... it was my mother he was talking about." She traces off and looks down.

I took her hand," Hey, hey I'm sorry for bringing it up. It's okay that you don't tell me...unless you're comfortable." God dammit, I just had to make her sad and ruin everything!

"No, I think you should knows this." She says.

"When I was 9, and Andrew 15, my mother knew. She always knew that I didn't like boys because I saw her when there was an party at the castle. I was wearing such a pretty yellow dress and I went and played with the town kids around the ball room. I remember a boy who took a taste of my liking and followed me around and I was a bit annoyed with it but he was funny.

We were playing tag in the ball room and that's where I asked him why he followed me." She smiles, and I furrowed my eyebrows. I felt a stir inside my chest. She continues." He said, well I like you a lot. I laughed and said, prove it! Sticking out my tongue and laughing, he said alright, leans and kisses my cheeks. I stood there for a while and rubbed my cheek.

"Eww, I said wiping and rubbing my cheek and told him I'm tired. When I turned around, I...I saw my mother. Her eyes said something and that little frown she had, it's like she knew right there." She leans against my shoulder as I tried to imagine everything. Cathy signs again and says," That's why she convinced my father that I should go to the academy and that's why she made me marry all those princes, well half of it. The other half is just to produce heirs...". I laid my chin atop of her head and wrapped my arm around her and she leans on my chest.