Chapter 2 – The First Dinner
Previous Chapter – Meeting Ella
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And so it proved to be.
What a delight to engage with someone so enthusiastic, eager and positive, with her shining eyes and ready laughter.
That very evening she heeded my gentle hints and joined the rest of the family at dinner. She shyly walked into the room, her eyes acknowledging me with a smile, before seeming to smile at everyone else, before those same eyes alighted on a very special someone, and stayed there! Well, what do you know?! By some miracle her allocated seat was right next to that same special someone, a certain Prince Wilfred! They had not seen one another since the first day that she had come to the Palace, and he smiled with such relief as she took her seat that I’m sure he had previously feared that she might already have run away. She in her turn smiled into his eyes a smile of such tenderness and gratitude that it brought tears to my eyes to see it, and I had to hastily look down. While there might have been a depth of feeling on his side, it was clearly not on his side alone; it was quite obvious that she blossomed like the flowers she so loved under the sunlight of his attention.
After Prince Wilfred’s diplomatic account of her eating at the first ball, I was holding my breath that she might attack the food a little too enthusiastically. However thankfully there was nothing of the sort. Rather she ate her food quietly and demurely, testing each dish out with a small portion before adding more as necessary, smiling all the while at the man who sat next to her, who was unable to fully hide his concern.
All eyes were discreetly on the two of them, of course. However, in their rapt attention towards one another they did not seem to notice, caught up in their own private little world, whispering quietly to one another.
So, when Ella suddenly broke her gaze with Prince Wilfred to smile down the table, twenty pairs of eyes guiltily, sharply, swung back in unison to their own meals.
My husband the King was sitting on the far end of the table, but he was also openly watching the two of them, even from my far position I could see him smiling at the display of young love. He had – of course – chiefly delegated to me the task of evaluating “Prince Wilfred’s unknown young beauty” – as he is wont to delegate all such tasks to me: “Because you have such strong discernment of character, Queen Agatha!”
But he was clearly as pleased as the rest of us with “the pretty young thing”. In our chambers at night he would chuckle that this little woman had been capable of arousing such restlessness in the heart of a whole Prince, and a whole Prince like Prince Wilfred, at that, who was usually so level-headed! And then of course I would gently remind him of the very unlevelheaded way he himself had behaved back when he and I were courting. And my dear husband would chuckle ever louder, and happily declare: “like Father, like son!” He was clearly happy to see Prince Wilfred so happy, as I was; we both had been worried about him for some time.
At that first meal I soon grasped the reason why Ella may have been reluctant to join the rest of the family at dinner. She was clearly well brought up, saying her pleases and thankyous with sincere gratitude. However, there was such an array of silverware, crockery and glassware on the tables, all with their specific uses, that it is sometimes confusing even for people who have been brought up in the Palace to know when or how to use each piece, so how much more anyone else?!
I watched her as she quietly followed Prince Wilfred’s lead. Being super-attentive to her as he was, he quickly grasped this without her having to saying anything, and I could see him slow down his movements so that she could see what he was doing.
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