Alert: if you read chapter 23 when I first posted it, you should go back and look at it again. Turns out I posted the unedited version, which left out kind of an important piece of the conversation between Char and his father.

It was irrational, but it felt like everything clicked into place for me the moment that slipper slid onto Ella's foot. This dazzling creature before me, with the way she could always make me laugh, the way she made me feel more like myself, the way she was constantly surprising me, and yes, with impossibly tiny feet – she was the one for me. She was destined to be my princess.

In a daze, I asked her to stand and she did, twirling to the music drifting up from the wedding below us. There was nothing more natural than for me to come forward and join the dance. "The young lady must not dance alone," I told her, hoping my voice didn't tremble.

My hand found her waist, and we were off. I had done this so many times before, sometimes it seemed like my whole life was one long procession of dances with girls who all looked alike, and none of them was Ella. Dancing had never been like this before. I was keenly aware of every point where we were touching, and the familiar patterns of movement became a matter of watching her respond to my touch, advancing, retreating, just moving together, around and around the dance floor that was nothing more than a clear spot amid the potted plants.

We danced a few songs without speaking. Words seemed unnecessary when every movement was a conversation between us. But eventually thought returned, at least enough that I began to worry about keeping her from her family. In a brief lull between songs, I carefully broached the subject. "Do you want to return to the celebration? I wouldn't mind." That was a lie – this was the first time I'd been really alone with Ella, and the last thing I wanted was to share her with other people, but I didn't want her neglecting the party on my account. "Surely your family will have noticed your absence by now. Won't they be looking for you?"

She looked away. "Perhaps. Do you want to?" She made no move to leave my arms, and I wondered if she was as reluctant for the moment to end as I was.

"No. I came only to see you," I said absently. Then, realizing how that must sound, I added, "To be sure you arrived home safely." I had assumed she arrived home safely, since she was here, but surely that was an acceptable reason to seek her out.

"Quite safely. Sir Stephan guarded me well, and the giants took excellent care of me. Did you catch more ogres?"

I tensed. It was perfectly natural for her to ask, of course, but I didn't want her thinking too much about the implications of her ogre-catching methods. Taking a leaf from Ella's book, I tried to make a joke of it. "szah, suSS fyng mOOng psySSahbuSS." This was as many words as I'd picked up from Sir Bertram, listening to him the last few days. She laughed, of course. With any luck, she'd be so busy laughing at my terrible pronunciation that she wouldn't pay too much attention to the conversation. "They laughed too and never listened to me. Bertram was the best; they obeyed him half the time." She didn't ask any more questions, and as the music started again I let myself relax again.

Her face was still distant, though, and I was surprised when she introduced a new subject of conversation. "A fairy gave my father and my new mother an unusual gift. They… well, they said they loved each other, but that's not why they were getting married. And this fairy – Lucinda – took it into her head to cast a spell so that they would always love each other. She meant well, I think, and it does seem like it worked… what do you think of such a present?"

I considered. I was only now learning what it was to love someone. If it was all arbitrary, if I only felt this way because a fairy took it into her head that I should, if it was anyone but Ella, I didn't think I could live with that. "I shouldn't like to be under a spell to love someone."

She cocked her head at me thoughtfully. "Sometimes people are forced into wedlock. If they must marry, perhaps it's better if they must love."

I frowned, wondering what she was driving at. "Do you think so? I don't." She must know that arranged marriages were common for royalty – perhaps this was her way of wishing me happy. I thought of the conversation I'd had with Cecilia, months ago. Cecilia had accepted the inevitability of an arranged marriage – would she want a magic fix to make her love her intended? The answer came to me immediately – no. No, Cecilia would want to be mistress of her own feelings, as would almost anyone. As would Ella, I should think.

"It doesn't matter for you," Ella told me. "You can marry anyone."

My heart froze. If she wasn't talking about me… "And you cannot?" Perhaps I had been right, perhaps she had come back from finishing school engaged. And worse, engaged to a man she did not feel she could love. She blushed, and I thought I might weep.

I had to lean forward to hear her next words. "I suppose I can." I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding. "We're both too young to marry in any case."

Too young. Too young I could handle. She would have to wait a year in any case – I realized I hadn't yet told her that I was leaving for Ayortha. Still, I couldn't resist teasing a bit. "Are we? I'm older than you." Mother certainly didn't think I was too young to marry, but I decided not to mention that.

"I am then," she said, not giving an inch. "And the fairy's gift was horrid. I would hate to have to love someone."

I wondered at the abrupt return to the earlier subject, but I agreed. "Love shouldn't be dictated."

"Nothing should be dictated!" The fervor in her voice was unmistakable, and I wondered who had been fool enough to try to dictate anything to this headstrong maiden. But then I thought of Sir Aubrey and his brief, frightening power over me. I thought of Father, able to send me wherever he liked because he was king and I was not. I thought of the way the course of the rest of my life would be dictated by what my subjects needed from me.

"As little as possible," I agreed. And we danced awhile longer, each lost in our own thoughts.

I wanted to enjoy the time we had together, to memorize her face and the way she felt against me, but I kept wondering how to tell her I was leaving. After the music stopped and we were just sitting side by side, I spoke a bit, hesitantly, about my soldiers, and a bit about the long journey to catch up with the ogres that had kidnapped her, though I tried to avoid speaking about the days after she'd left. "The poor men don't have too much time to rest, I'm afraid. We leave again in two days."

The look of dismay on her face gave me hope. "You're leaving again? So soon?" She made a valiant attempt at levity. "Are the ogres pining for you already?"

I sighed. "Actually, the ogres will have to get along without me. I'm going to be spending a year in the Ayorthaian court."

"A year!" I couldn't help smiling at her distress. It seemed she would miss me after all.

"Father says it's time." Never mind why. We promised to write to one another, and I thought that I would have a year's worth of letters to read and unravel all of Ella's mysteries. Assuming, of course, that she was joking when she said she would make things up.

When I heard the carriages departing outside, I tried to ignore it, but Ella went to the window. "The fairy's still here," she said, and there was a trace of fear again in her voice.

The way she had talked about her father's marriage, it seemed like even if Ella didn't approve of the fairy's gift, she wasn't unduly concerned on his behalf. So why was she afraid? "Perhaps she means to monitor the effects of her gift," I suggested, to gage her reaction.

"Would she? Do you think so?" The fear was still there, but also a bit of… hope, maybe?

"I don't know." I peered into Ella's face. That was enough to decide me. Whatever it was about this fairy that was worrying Ella, she needed to go. "I can tell her to go. She would hardly like a prince for an enemy."

"Don't!" I stared at her. The idea of me talking to the fairy seemed to worry her quite a bit more than the fairy's presence. So I dropped it, and watched as the fairy bid farewell to the family, and disappeared. Even knowing she was a fairy, it was still a shock to see such blatant use of magic. Suddenly the little scene at the reception earlier made sense.

If only all tonight's mysteries could be so easily explained. I watched as Ella visibly relaxed, and then she proposed that we go back down to find her family. I couldn't help wondering if she'd only stayed with me so long to avoid this fairy, though I couldn't imagine why.

We followed the trail of my buttons back to the landing. I didn't bother picking them back up – the shirt was ruined, at any rate. I wondered who was in charge of cleaning the old castle, and whether they would be confused to find the systematic distribution of buttons.

When we came to the landing, I remembered Ella's joking excuse for leaving the ball. I turned to her. "No one is here. You need resist temptation no longer." It came out almost as a challenge, though she didn't seem to notice anything amiss. And it was hard to remain suspicious when she was so genuinely excited at the prospect.

I wasn't sure when I'd stopped sliding down the stair rails at home. They were long, and well-polished, and of course there was always the chance that you'd knock over a courtier at the end, but most days that was just a bonus. For years, all my nursemaid's warnings that I'd fall and crack my head open, and even my stern admonishments that this wasn't behavior befitting a future king, had little effect. And then… something changed. I stopped being a boy and started being a prince.

When Ella was around, I was a boy again. It was one of the many reasons why I loved her. My brain got stuck on that thought. I loved her, I loved her, I loved her. It repeated over and over in my head as I whooshed down, feeling like I could let go of the rail and fly. I felt the familiar head rush as I regained my feet at the bottom, and turned in time to snatch Ella up and twirl her with me. Forget dancing, this was the most fun I could ever remember having. "Wait till you try the banister at home," I panted as we dashed up for another ride. It was a wonderful thought, having someone to slide down the stair rails with me for the rest of my life, and let anyone stop us if they dared.

We might have gone on that way for hours, but I'd forgotten that Ella's family would be looking for her. I spotted them in the doorway after our second ride, and realized how we must look, me in a state of dishabille with Ella in my arms. I set her down, bowing, trying to collect myself enough to say all that was proper, but I still felt like I was flying. Everything seemed ten times funnier than normal, and I could barely speak for laughing. This wasn't exactly how I had wanted to meet my love's father, but even that thought just made me laugh harder.

Eventually, I realized that controlling myself was a lost cause. I bowed, and with one last, hopefully apologetic, glance in Ella's direction, I took my leave.

Hope the chapter's everything you all wanted it to be. Here's hoping everyone had a great Thanksgiving, full of thanks and giving and lots of turkey. I'm thankful for all my loyal readers and my thoughtful, helpful, awesome reviewers.