Author's Note: Success, you all now fully appreciate that another man could have been just as good for Mia (you know, if he hadn't 'croaked' ;)

I stared at her, gaping.

"By your appearance I am guessing he has not."

I shook my head. The news was a bit too shocking to handle. But I am mature enough to face the facts. I'm not going to run away and hide like I did when I found out I was a princess. I have to deal with reality.

She tossed a picture over towards me. Why were we always in these kinds of positions? With Grandmere always giving me bad news via photos.

I looked at it. It was Joshua all right. But he had longer hair. And glasses. "What is it he's doing?" I asked, inspecting the photograph for hints.

"Protesting the royal family," she explained, biting into her finger sandwich.

"What are you talking about?"

"If you look at these photographs," she said pushing a folder toward me. "You will see that the royal family, the British one, and their carriage had paint balls shot at them back in two thousand and four, when he was twenty he was arrested for the crimes against the royal family. He got charges dropped because of his father...but he has a deep history of hating anything royal. He could very well be getting close to you just to single handedly destroy the Genovian royal family."

I couldn't stop staring at the pictures. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

"I hadn't thought you would fall for him. After all, you had gone years without dating him, you had dated those other two boys..."

I shook my head, "No...he wouldn't use me like this. I know him."

"Do you? Why didn't you know about these things then??"

"He doesn't know everything about me," I countered. "But why would he tell me about this? He's grown up, Grandmere. Matured a great deal..."

"Men do not change."

I stared at her, with the pictures in my hand. "Just LOOK at him, Grandmere. This is a twenty year old kid. Look at how much I've changed since I was eighteen. When I came here. Look at Dad...Joshua must have a reason...maybe he was embarrassed about all this." I was reaching, and I knew it.

"Believe what you want, Amelia-"

"What other relationship did you say?"

She half smiled, enjoying my surprise. "He was engaged to a young woman when he was nineteen. She was with his child."

My jaw dropped. Yeah, he never mentioned this to me. I mean, we never really discussed his past relationships...only mine. ANd he certainly never mentioned being engaged. And I'm pretty sure he's never mentioned that he had a kid.

"They broke it off after she miscarried. I understand from time to time they meet up. Her name is-"

"Kate," I said softly.

"Yes. Katelyn Winters. An American. You know her?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I've met her."

"Well, you clearly understand why I don't want you with him. I cannot possibly have you embarrassing the family-"

"Or what?" I asked as she stood up.

She looked at me.

"Or what?" she asked back.

"Yeah, what, you'll kick me out of the family? Give me something I've wanted since the day Dad told me I was a princess? Go right ahead, be my guest. Then I could FINALLY move back to New York and have the life I always wanted!"

With that I stood up and stormed off. I'm sure another disgruntled palace employee would be selling this story to the press in no time. How my grandmother and I were arguing about my love life, or now the lack there of.

I stayed in my room for the next few days. Trying to figure out my next step. Trying to figure out if Joshua could be trusted. I mean, he had taken care of me whenever I needed him. He'd...no, there was NO way he was lying to me for four years. There was no way he'd be the type to act like he was in love with me for four years an then to only break my heart.

But he hadn't mentioned that he had fathered a child with Kate. He blew off my jealousy. He always made me feel foolish for being jealous of a past relationship.

What was I supposed to do when the man I was in love with was a blatant liar?

Lucie came into my room the evening before the Holiday Ball. "Mia," she said softly.

I wiped my tears away and put the television on. "Hey, just watching some Lifetime movies."

She smiled, "Joshua has been calling me...trying to get to you. What's going on?" she asked, sitting on the edge of my bed. "I figured after his letter you would be sneaking off again to see him."

I sniffled.

"What happened?" she asked.

"He's been lying to me."

"About what?" she asked, glancing at the television, "Ohh Co-Ed Call Girl! Tori Spelling at her best."

I smiled slightly.

"So, what did he lie to you about?"

"He is anti-monarchy," I said simply. I still couldn't say the other thing.

She gave me a look that said So What? "Wasn't your little Lilly friend anti monarchy?"

She had a point.

"Grandmere believes that he will try to destroy the family."

"Did Lilly do that?" she asked.

"No."

"So, why would he?"

"Because he actually committed crimes against royalty...against the royal family of his own country."

She rolled her eyes. "So? Who cares really? He was how old when he did all this mumbo jumbo?"

"Twenty."

She rolled her eyes again. "Oh come on Mia. Get real. He's twenty five years old now. He hasn't been arrested since then. And, he went to Oxford and straighten out. He found more straight and narrow ways to rebel. Has he ever given you reason to believe that he isn't who you think he is?"

"He also was engaged to someone and they were supposed to have a baby."

She made a face, "Really? That doesn't sound like Joshua. What happened?"

I went through the whole story and she listened intently.

When I finished, "Well, at least he was honorable enough to almost marry her."

"He told me he never loved anyone else-"

"Whoa, didn't he tell you that he used to have sex a lot before he met you?"

I nodded.

"Not necessarily in love. He was marrying her because of the baby, not because he loved her. He was doing what he thought was right."

She had a point. But why not tell me?

"He probably didn't tell you because he didn't want to screw things up with you. He would have told you eventually. Before he proposed to you so you could answer him with all the information in front of you," she answered, reading my mind.

" I just...I don't know. I need to talk to him about all this."

"So stop crying already and figure out how to get him here."

"And how would I do that?"

She shrugged. "I bet we can figure something out."

I had a feeling that she already had a plan.

Grandmere avoided me at all the pre-Ball activities. The tea, the dressing...everything. Dad looked conflicted as to who to support. His daughter who did not terrify him, or his mother who gave him life?

"Mia?" Lucie said through my cell phone.

"Yeah?"

"Everything is taken care of. Just be at the ball."

Paolo (who Grandmere lured away from New York City with more money as bait), placed my tiara on top of my head. He placed the tendrils like they were pouring out of the tiara, "Just like bubbles from a glass of champagne!" he exclaimed. Great. In my tenure as Princess of Genovia I have looked like Glenda the Good Witch, a Snowdrop and now a glass of champagne.

Dad was escorting me and Grandmere into the ball. Isn't he lucky?

"Be pleasant," my father said. I wasn't sure if he was talking to me, or to Grandmere.

I had my traditional dance with my cousin Rene. Dad was with Grandmere. She seemed happy that I was dancing with Rene and that I hadn't argued to choose my own date. "What is this tension between you and the dowager princess?" my cousin asked as we waltzed.

I gave him a dirty look, "That is between she and I."

"Fine, just thought I'd be nice. Who is that over there?" he asked, nodding behind me, then twirling me so I could look.

"That's Lucie."

"She's gorgeous."

"I know," I replied. "She's dating some American. You've met her before."

He made a face. "Those horrid people. I have?"

I smiled, "I am in perfect position to destroy the little family jewels you have left."

He smirked. "Her date is rather handsome," he said looking at me. I turned and saw him.

For the first time in a month I saw him. He was wearing his hair a bit longer than he normally did. And he was wearing glasses. I mean, sure I had seen him in his glasses before but he was different now.

Rene waltzed us over to the area near Lucie and Joshua. He then slipped me off the dance floor and took Lucie. I slipped away with Joshua.

We quietly slipped away from the party. He pulled me in for a kiss. I pulled back though. "Joshua..." I said softly, looking at the ground.

"What is it? Mia, what is going on with us? I don't understand now...why did I have to sneak in? Why couldn't you explain to Grandmere-"

"Why didn't you tell me about when you were nineteen? When you attacked-"

His confused eyes filled with understanding. "I see...God I thought-"

"What happened?"

He sat down on a fainting chair. "Mia...I was stupid."

I sat next to him and let him take my hand in his.

"It was a dare. M-My friends didn't think I'd do it."

"Grandmere said it was something in protest..."

He laughed, "That's what we told the police. The family spent an incrediable amount of money on NOTHING. Useless jewels, cars holidays...all at the taxpayers expense."

"I see," I shook my head while I thought. "So, you don't actually hate royalty, just the money that comes along with it?"

"Well, I did. I thought it was a waste...but seeing everything you and your father have to do...it made me realize how important monarchies are...I've changed...I swear to you Mia. I swear to everything holy that I have in fact changed. I'd do anything to be with you."

I stared into his eyes right then. It wasn't like one of those magnet moments that I always felt with him. He was pleading with me. Begging me to forgive him. I took his glasses off of him. "What are these doing on you tonight?" I asked.

He stared at them. "I thought maybe you wouldn't hit a man in glasses?"

I grinned, "I wouldn't hit you, Joshua. Maybe use harsh rhetoric, but never hit. Violence isn't the answer. "I put the glasses back on him.

"Will you forgive me?" he asked again.

"If you explain about Kate," I said, holding back my tears.

He closed his eyes, "You do know..."

"The truth. Everything. I need to hear it from you."

He stared at me. "You knew I had been with her before you. I was only doing the right thing."

"Why did you break the engagement then? If you loved-"

"I never said I loved her. I only said I was doing the right thing. I cared for her but I was too immature to realize what love really was. We were using one another. Not something I'm necessarily proud of to be truthful. She wanted a real English title and I wanted someone to care about me for me. I thought she did. When I explained that my brother would be inheritting my father's title she went a little weird. Then she lost our baby. My child died Mia. Not something I like thinking about. Nevermind discussing."

I stared at the ground. I was being kind of selfish.

"But then I found you and I saw that I could have a second chance. That I could do something right for once. That you and I could have kids together. That I would marry you for the right reasons. That the kids would come later. I honestly wasn't hiding it from you...I just don't discuss it very often. Not with anyone. I don't think about her, only the child we lost."

I took his face in my hands a few minutes later and wiped a tear from his cheek. "You are stuck with me then. But..."

"Anything, "he said quickly. "You just name it and it's yours."

"You have to tell me about any other charges that have been brought up against you. I can't be having a fugitive in my...my life," I said. I almost said family but I stopped myself.

He grinned. Lord did I love that grin. But his eyes, they were too familar. They looked like-

"Not a single charge. They can't prove a thing," he said with a wink.

I gave him a hard look. "Joshua Alexander..."

He stopped me with a kiss. A kiss I'd been waiting for all my life. I had kissed him before...but not like this. This was like a first kiss. The kiss that held love and promise and hope. And, I hoped, my last first kiss ever.

As we pulled apart I realized something. Just because I have forgiven him didn't mean Grandmere did. She still wouldn't forgive him for simply hurting the British family (although I think she secretly enjoyed that they had been attacked and not once in her reign had she). She'd reject him because he was of the Church of England. "Joshua...are you serious when you say you want to be with me...forever?"

He laughed and nuzzled into my neck, "Of course darling."

"Then we may have a slight problem."

He looked at me with a confused expression. "What?"

"I can't marry you."

He pulled back, "Why not? I mean, not that I am proposing at this moment, mind you...but what are you talking about? Of course we can."

"Well, you would never be accepted by Grandmere. And if she doesn't accept you, then the Parliament won't."

"Why not? I'm sure I can convince her that I have matured and no longer am a delinquent."

"But you are not Catholic," I said looking down at the ground.

I glanced up at him when he didn't say anything. "Why are you smiling?"

"Because...ever since I realized I loved you, four, almost five years ago, I have been thinking of converting, for your sake. And going to mass with you on Sunday's made me realize that it wouldn't be a big change for me to convert. Besides, I think Catholicism is rather ...interesting."

"You can't just convert for that though...for the fact that it interests you. You have to really believe in it."

"I bet I know more about it than you do," he countered with a cocky grin.

"Oh?"

"Mia, I started studying it five years ago. Five years. Most seminary students become priests in that time. Although...I have been living like one for quite some time," he said with a wink. "And I am in the process of converting already. You can't stop me now. Heck, the priests accepted me, I think you can. I also think it'll prove to your grandmother and your dad that I truly do love you. And adore you."

I stared into his eyes. He was giving up his own faith for me. Okay, so it wasn't all that different to begin with, but it was technically different. "You'd have to give up so much..." I said, staring into my hands.

"Give what up? Law school? Mia, I already have quit that. I can't even imagine spending any more time apart from you. Your father has offered me a position with the Athletic Association. I am going to be coaching the Genovian National Rugby team."

My mouth dropped. He had talked to my father? Dropped out of law school? "B-But you always wanted to go to law school...to help others..."

"So let me be selfish for once, won't you? I want to be with you. I can do so much more to help others if I stay with you...not that I'm with you to do so, but it's an added bonus."

He had said something to that effect when I told him I was a princess, or rather when he confronted me about being a princess. "I do believe I have a potential royal consort in front of me."

"Potential? Darling, you are stuck with me now," he murmured before he took my mouth over with his own. Very bossy. Very Mr. Rochester of him. Shall I even go as far as to call say he was like the Beast?