After hesitating for a moment, she did, but kept her distance, about a carriage length away. Holding my breath, I moved closer. She did not pull away. On impulse, I said, "You can call me Char. Everyone else does."

"Thank you," she said.

"Thank you Char," I said, joking a little. Then, overwhelmed by the sudden memories of the few times I had met Lady Eleanor, I started relating what I remembered, attempting to comfort her. "Your mother used to make me laugh," I started. "Once, at a banquet, Chancellor Thomas was making a speech. While he talked, your mother moved her napkin around. I saw it before your father crumpled it up. She had arranged the edge in the shape of the chancellor's profile, with the mouth open and the chin stuck out. It would have looked exactly like him if he had been the color of a blue napkin. I had to leave without dinner so I could go outside and laugh."

I looked at Ella out of the corner of my eye, but saw no reaction. We walked in silence for a minute, me being shy and awkward for the first time in my life, as it started to rain slightly.

"Where did everyone go?" she asked abruptly.

"They all left before I came to find you," I answered, worried that I had done something wrong. "Did you want them to wait?" I asked anxiously.

"No, I didn't want any of them to wait."

"I know all about you," I said to Ella, again on impulse, after a few moments silence.

"You do? How could you?"

"Your cook and our cook met at the market. She talks about you. I looked at her. "Do you know much about me."

"No," she answered, avoiding my glance. "What do you know?"

"I know that you can imitate people just as Lady Eleanor could," I said, relating the things our cook had told me. "Once you imitated your manservant to his face, and he wasn't sure whether he was the servant or you were." I chuckled a bit, and Ella seemed a bit more relaxed. "You make up your own fairy tales and you drop things and trip over things. I know you once broke a whole set of dishes."

"I slipped on ice!" she protested, beginning to smile.

"Ice chips you spilled before you slipped on them." I laughed, a real laugh, and it was such a relief, to finally, finally laugh out loud again, after all this sadness.

"An accident," she said, but she was smiling as well.

I regretted how fast we were traveling towards her father. I did not want this conversation to end. I was truly happy right now. But alas, everything must come to an end, and we reached Sir Peter, who bowed, and said, "Thank you Highness, for accompanying my daughter." I bowed back, not knowing what else to do.

"Come Eleanor," said Ella's father.

The girl started, and pulled away from her father. At first I thought she didn't want to go to him, until she said, "Ella. I'm Ella."

Ah ha, I thought. The girl's mother was Eleanor, and the memory of her was still too painful for her to take on her mother's name quite yet. Poor Ella. My heart ached, for I wanted to comfort her, but did not know how I would without looking like a fool.

"Ella then," said her father impatiently. "Come, Ella." He bowed once again to me, and climbed into the carriage. I helped hand Ella up, but she seemed awkward, first giving me her hand, then her elbow. Finally, reaching a compromise between the two, I wound up with the middle of her arm, and she grabbed at the carriage to keep from falling back. Another smile was growing on my face as I closed the door. I started to turn away, but a loud ripping noise caught my attention. Ella's skirt had caught, and I started chuckling again, then turned it into a full-fledged laugh.

I walked back to our carriage, and, after climbing inside, gave the signal to the driver to move. My mother and father had already traveled back to the palace. I would have liked to pay my respects to the family of Lady Eleanor, but my father had forbidden it, despite my mother's protests, saying it was unseemly to visit the common folk, even for so solemn an occasion.

I began going over Ella's and my conversation, revealing in the moments where she had laughed, and treasuring every word she had said without even realizing it. When I did realize what i was doing, I shook myself. "Stop it!" I said sternly, and forced myself to think of the matter of the kingdom's baby dragon my father had captured while questing, and what to do with it when it became too large to keep in the iron cage in the royal menagerie, a problem we had been puzzling for many moons. But before long, I was thinking about the girl Ella once again, and how happy I had felt being with her.

When we got back to the palace, I paced my room with the gold furnishings and trimmings of scarlet and blue, the kingdom's colors. As I paced, I sternly told myself that I was nearly full-grown, and she was only a girl, and I would only shame myself thinking of her. But I could not stop. My heart beat faster when I thought of her, how wonderful she was. Was this love?

I hope that chapter was a bit longer than the others. i tried, thank you everyone who has reviewed!!! reviews are awesome! (squirrels are better) yes, our snow's melting! please write any suggestions, comments, questions, etc. in, oh what the heck. whatever. please enjoy this story!