Once And Always

Chapter 14

Hallooo.

Genki?

Let the party begin!

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"Nearly everyone has arrived," Khun Janean bubbled excitedly as Shone finished putting the last touches to Tee's suit jacket. "It's time to make your grand entrance, my dear."

Tee rose obediently but his knees were trembling. "I would much rather have stood in the receiving line with Uncle Prama and Khun Luang Tae, so I could meet the guests separately. It would have been much less nerve-racking."

"But not nearly as effective," Khun Janean said airily.

Tee took a last critical glance at his reflection, accepted the handkerchief that Shone gave him, and folded it in his chest pocket. "I'm ready," he said shakily. As they passed across the landing, Tee paused to look down upon the foyer below, which had been turned into a wondrous flower garden in honor of the ball, with giant pots of airy ferns and huge baskets of white roses. Then he drew a nervous breath and climbed the curving staircase that led upward to the next story, where the ballroom was located. Footmen dressed in formal, black velvet livery trimmed with gold braid stood at attention along the staircase beside tall silver stands of more white roses. Tee smiled at the footmen he knew and nodded politely to the others. Ohm, the head footman, was stationed at the top of the staircase and he asked him softly, "Has your tooth been bothering you? Don't fail to tell me if it pains you again—it's no trouble at all to fix another poultice."

He grinned at him with unabashed devotion. "It ain't bothered me a bit since you fixed me the last one, Khun Chai."

"Very well, but you won't try to suffer with it if it starts up again, will you?"

"No, Khun Chai."

He waited until Tee had rounded the corner, then turned to the footman beside him. "He's a grand one, ain't he?"

"A noble through and through," the other footman agreed. "Just like you said he was from the start."

"He'll brighten up things for the lot of us," Ohm predicted, "and for the master too, once he's warmin' his bed. He'll give him an heir—that'll make him happy."

Mr. Pawat stood on the balcony overlooking the ballroom, his back ramrod straight, ready to announce the names of any late-arriving guests who passed beneath the marble portal beside him. Tee approached him on legs that felt like jelly. "Give me a moment to catch my breath," he pleaded with him. "Then you can announce our names. I'm dreadfully nervous," he confided to him.

A smile almost, but not quite, cracked his stern countenance as his expert eye flicked over the breathtaking young man before him. "While you are catching your breath, Khun Chai, may I say how very much I enjoyed hearing you play Beethoven's Piano Sonata in F Minor yesterday afternoon? It is one of my favorites."

Tee was so pleased, and so startled, by this unexpected cordiality from the austere servant that he nearly forgot the noisy, laughing crowd in the ballroom below. "Thank you," he said, smiling gently. "And what is your very favorite piece?"

He looked shocked by his interest, but he told him.

"I shall play it for you tomorrow," he promised sweetly.

"That is kind of you, indeed, Khun Chai!" he replied with a stiff face and a formal bow. But when he turned to announce his name, Mr. Pawat's voice rang with pride. "Mom Rajawongse Thanapon Jarujitranon, he called out, "and Khun Janean Lee Kreepolrerk."

A lightning bolt of anticipation seemed to shoot through the crowd, breaking off conversations and choking off laughter as some 500 guests turned in near-unison for their first real look at the village-born boy who now bore his mother's title and who was soon to receive an even more coveted one from Khun Luang Tae.