Alomina or The Book of Many Journeys

Chapter Five: The Second Dance

Alomina walked round the edge of the ballroom once more, still searching (and still fruitless). Oh where is Percy?!, she thought frustratedly. She looked around the tables. He wasn't there either! She looked even to the edge of the dance floor and began to scale around past it just looking for him. He still appeared to be nowhere in sight of anywhere she had looked.

He had said he would come back soon, hadn't he? Or at least, she'd thought that he had. Why wouldn't he come right back though, even if he hadn't specifically said he would? Was he perhaps talking to Aunt Cynnia? Mina looked over to the stairway. The king and queen there stood, close by Aunt Cynnia and Perce was nowhere in sight. No, Mina thought, Apparently not. Aunt Cynnia was over there conversing and Percy seemed to be nowhere near at all.

Well, what else could really detain him? Was there something wrong? Was something amiss with him? Did something serious occur with another person at the ball? Wouldn't he have told her first if something had happened? Wouldn't he have at least signaled? Wouldn't she have at least heard some outcry or fuss at any unusual event? Did he maybe get hurt or something? She just wasn't sure! She bit her lip in confused frustration and went back to scaling the first edge of the dance floor again.

Stepping now more quickly, she looked about, not searching any longer, but trying to cool her rarely-ignited frustration by seeing and thinking about something else. So she glanced at the now not-so-captivating decor of the palace, her eyes not really seeing any of what she looked at.

She looked up, down, and to each side, seeing many things but not really seeing them in her confusion. All she wanted was some answers (if not her brother) and she yearned for both. She became quite frustrated when neither came, as was in her trusting, following, child-like nature (for what child wouldn't get upset or frustrated if her guide and guardian suddenly disappeared without a trace?).

Perhaps if Mina had glanced but a bit to her left, she might have spotted a most jovial Percy, dancing with the eldest princess. But, as it was, Mina was too busy walking past couples aplenty to notice that particular one, and so at that moment, sheer Fate left Percy to his own doings and Alomina to hers.

She moved around the couples that had strayed around the edge of the ballroom. Oh, what a bother to have to go the 'long way' just because people didn't want to dance in the middle of the ballroom! She several times nearly bumped into someone and was practically tripping over herself trying to avoid it. She then, while once more avoiding yet another dancing couple, nearly fell over from stumbling over someone's foot. She instinctively grabbed something to keep herself from falling, and pulled herself up shakily. To her great mortification, she found that what she had grabbed was a dark-haired nobleman's hand!

He turned about, and instantly his expression, which had been of great anger, turned to pure astonishment. She let go of his hand as quickly as she could, and blushed deepest scarlet. Oh, why did things like this have to happen?! She would have loved to run, but she was too shocked and embarrassed to even speak, let alone move, so she stayed where she was, like a statue whose face had been carved into a terrified expression.

She hoped he would say something, anything, to somehow make this less improper, and she waited a moment, hoping beyond hope that he would. But he said nothing for a split-second, which to poor Mina seemed like an awful, terribly long hour. But she bit her lip, she gathered her courage, and tried to apologize, messy though her shaken attempt was:

"I - I am so sorry, I just, you see, was trying to, and I tripped - oh! - I am so sorry Sir!", she began distressedly, inwardly wincing at the crude failing of her doomed endeavor to apologize.

She tried to think of what she must do next, but to her (partial) relief, he slowly spoke instead:

"Well, I think that no one saw, and so to make it seem perhaps a more proper acquaintance, I would ask you for this dance", he said calmly, extending his hand expressionlessly.

"Oh, yes, of course", she said, being far too surprised to think much about it.

So he took her hand gently, and led her in the dance, with seemingly little to say or do beside dance or glance off into the distance. As they danced, she began to get over her mortification, and was almost beginning to enjoy it (almost). She still wished he would say something, though.

"I do not believe I have your name, Madam", he said, still unsmilingly, though as if in synchronization with her wish that conversation would start.

"It is Mina, Lady Alomina de Blyrwen", she replied, not really daring to refuse the impressing gentleman.

"It is beautiful", he answered, as he danced the steps coolly and without a look at his feet, as though he was uninterested in the altogether too easy dance.

"Thank you", she said, and almost feeling as though she should say something more, she queried, "I don't believe I have your name either, Sir"

"Ah, that is because it still belongs to me alone", he said humorlessly.

Alomina blushed quite tremendously at this remark. She tried to turn her head a moment to hide her blush, and endeavored to say something to cover up her embarrassment.

"If you shall not tell me, I shall guess", she said, trying to make jest for a less awkward atmosphere, as jest was the only thing she could really manage to think of. "You are a nobleman, no doubt?"

"Quite so", he answered. "Obviously nothing short of a lord", she said.

"Indeed not", he answered, beginning to get a hint of a smile in his light-brown eyes.

"A duke perhaps?"

"No", he replied quietly.

"A marquis then?"

"I am not"

"Then you must truly be a prince, for how could you be lesser?", she queried, now not only jesting, but indeed truly curious about this dark-haired, foreign-seeming Count.

He smiled ever-so-slightly. "No. I am a Count; Count Charles Montefore, at your service, my lady", he said, removing his black feathered hat, and bowing as the dance ended.

After a while of another quiet dance, she went out on the immensely large royal balcony without much ado or talk. And unusual though it may seem, it was there that she spent the remainder of the evening, under the silver-spangled velvet sky observing Montefore the mysterious caped Count. And when the ball was ended, and the dark Count had to leave, only then she went back to the ballroom, her eyes returning to the finding of elusive Percy.

Then she saw him, and she went to him as if in a pondering, dreaming daze. But only her physical form was engaged in the finding of Percy, as her every thought was focused on that mysterious and soft-spoken Count (and his keen, soft brown eyes that seemed altogether too deep to figure). She went to Percy, but he seemed to be likewise unfocused and disordered in mind. So it was that neither of them realized or even noticed in the least that the other was acting strangely or inattentively.

Yes, neither of them noticed the other's odd behavior. Perhaps Percy was too involved thinking of how charming the princess was. Perhaps Mina was too involved wondering what was so strange about that Count. Perhaps the ball was just fated to give people (especially Alomina and Percy) things to think about. Perhaps it was the influence of the champagne (the champagne that they had drank none of). Or, (most likely of all) perhaps it was because Percy was thinking only of blue eyes, and Mina only of brown.