Just One Dance

Chapter 19 - Mistakes Were Made

Kate's POV

It was all a mistake. More like several little mistakes. I realize that now. It started when I rushed out of the room with Sasha. In my haste, I forgot my shoes. It wasn't until I felt the cool wood paneling under my bare feet that I realized my first mistake. I didn't realize then that it would be the first of many.

"Oh, Katelyn, there you are," my mother says as she meets me and Sasha near a door leading out to the gardens. "I saw your friend Marsha earlier, and she asked about you. She already left, but I invited her for tea sometime in the next week."

"That would be lovely, mother," I smile, still calming down from my interaction with the prince. I wanted so badly to tell him that I love him and I want to be more than friends, but with my malady... A clap of thunder sounded in the distance, reminding me of the rain that started hours ago. My second mistake: forgetting about the rain.

"The ball is set to end soon, love. We should get going." My father says to my mother.

"Of course," she agrees. "Oh, I do believe that the prince is coming our way."

"Sasha, escort Katelyn to the car," my father says quietly, apprehension laced in his words.

I shook my head. "No, father, I think we should stay. It may look strange to have us leave suddenly." And that was my third mistake. I should have left when my father suggested it.

"Kate, I-" my father begins, but he is quickly silenced by the sound of approaching footsteps. "Your highness, we were just leaving," my father says tactfully, "thank you again for hosting such an excellent affair."

"Of course, Lord Morgan," Wilfred says in an ambiguous tone. "I did want to ask you a quick question before you left."

"Is it important? I don't mean to be rude, however, I should be escorting my wife and daughter home. It is getting late."

"It can't wait, sir. I'm sorry." Wilfred keeps his voice even, and I can't tell what he wants to ask my father. "I have been asking myself for the past five years what I did wrong. I had no clue how I had offended Kate. When I met her, I was shocked at first, but against every lesson of etiquette I have ever learned, I asked her." He took a breath. "I hadn't offended her. And just now when I asked her if she could possibly have feelings for someone like me, she said that she couldn't even if she wanted to."

"What is it you want to ask, your highness?" My father's voice is as cold as ice. My fourth mistake was letting Wilfred continue.

"Lord Morgan," Wilfred's voice is full of desperation, "what offense have I committed that makes you so unwilling to allow Kate and I to marry?"

That was it. The fifth mistake was not stopping him before he asked the question. At that moment, I wanted to die. I wanted a hole to open in the floor and swallow me. I wanted to run. Run. That was something I hadn't done in so long. In my mind, I knew the layout of the ballroom. There was a door only feet from me. Without thinking, I made my sixth mistake: I ran. I started backing up until I felt the door behind me.

"Kate," my mother says, "you haven't told him?"

"I- I didn't want to- I thought- I- I'm sorry," I cried as I open the door at my back and ran out. I didn't know where I was going, but I knew I couldn't stay. If I stayed, my parents would never let me leave the house again. If I stayed, he would find out. If I stayed, he would hate me.

And now, I'm here, bloody feet and cold and wet. And lost...

Wilfred's POV

"I'm sorry," she stutters out between the tears as she opens the door and flees into the rain.

"Kate!" I say ready to run after her. It's Sasha that holds me back.

"I get her. You stay." He shoots a look at the Morgans. "Do not say it. Kate will tell him."

"Kate will tell me what?" I ask, frustration rising.

Sasha doesn't answer as he jogs out of the room into the rain. Just what was so bad that Kate needed to run?

"Will someone tell me what is going on?"

"Not now," Lord Morgan growls as he too heads out into the rain to look for Kate.

"Your highness," Lady Morgan says gently as she stops me from charging out into the rain as well. "They will bring her back. For now, we wait." The look on my face must have told her that I wanted to help look for Kate, so she added, "while we wait, I will explain as best I can."

"Please," I nod.

"We should sit down," she says looking around to make sure no one was watching us. Closing the door, she then turns on her heel and walks gracefully to a seat. I follow her, hoping for answers.

"Forgive me for my impatience." I apologize as I sit beside her.

"You know, your mother and I were good friends as young girls. We even roomed together in college." She smiles. "She told me that you were a quiet and calm child. She also said that you found arguing a rather pointless passage of time." She gave me a knowing look. "It is obvious that love has changed you."

"I-"

"I know that you have been texting Kate. I also know that she snuck out of the house several weeks ago for a ball at Noble Michael and then again for a dinner party here at the palace." She shakes her head. "I have never given up hope that one day Kate would find a man worthy of her, however, that man is going to have to learn to work around...certain things. I don't know what Kate has told you, but you should know she was in a car accident about five years ago." Her eyes began watering. "There are things that happened in that accident. She broke her arm and her ...well, there were other problems. If she were to marry, it cannot be you. Her ailment is too severe for her to be your princess."

I nodded slowly, my heart sinking. So Kate is still recovering from that accident. If that's the case, then it has nothing to do with me.

"Is there nothing that can help her? I just..." I can't finish the sentence.

"N-" Lady Morgan stops. "Yes, there is. It's a treatment option only available in Oriens; Lord Michael told us about it. Sadly, Kate is refusing." She shakes her head. "She had given up having any kind of life until a few weeks ago. She only started acting like her old self after she met you." Standing, she turns to me one last time. "I wish the circumstances were different, but, your highness, you must give up on Kate. As grateful as I am to you, this romance will only end in you breaking my daughter's heart, and I don't think she can recover a second time." Without another word, she turns and walks to my mother on the other side of the room.

Should I give up on Kate? Why do I feel as though I'd be losing part of myself if I did?

No POV

The ball ended and Kate still had not been found. Guards were dispatched to search the grounds, and the rain continued to pour. The angry sky thundering at the lives that would soon be ruined by one little secret. Little did they know that by the time they found Kate, it was almost too late...

To Be Continued...

Thanks for reading!