Thanks to the guys who reviewed
rootbeergirl9: Thanks for review, make sure you don't whip them too hard! Lol :)
ElvenSilver: Thankyou so much for review. I'm glad you love this story.
Baby Perfectionist: I'm sorry my story makes you feel depressed. I didn't mean to! And it's not that good. Hehe, I'm not gonna tell you, you'll just have to wait and see...
Jess: That was totally pointless wasn't it?
arandomreader: thanks for reviewing!

I got five reviews (I didn't realise they'd come so quickly, I honestly thought it would take ages!) but, anyway, here's the next chapter...

When Callista and Anna arrived at the ball, there were still people arriving. Before they could be handed out of the carriage, a young woman about their age, blocked the exit to their carriage. She would have been quite beautiful, if she hadn't been scowling. She had glossy chestnut curls piled into an intricate style on her head, strewn with pearls. She was not wearing a mask and the two girls could see her face clearly. Her eyes were a deep brown framed by thick lashes. Her lips were painted red and curved downwards in a pout that reminded Callista strongly of Mary. The girl was wearing a pale pink dress that was lined with more milky white pearls and her elbow length gloves were the same shade as her dress. There were several people crowding around her and she seemed to be having a tantrum. "Mummy," the girl said to a middle aged woman who must have been her mother, "I mean mother," she corrected herself, "I can't wear these gloves. There's a spot on them!" The girl's mother whispered something to a maid who was standing behind the girl and the maid produced a pair of spotless white gloves. "I can't wear those! They're not pink." A man who Callista suspected was the girl's father came forward and whispered something harshly to the girl. She glared at him and snatched the pink gloves from her maid.

The girl walked haughtily up the steps and into the castle while her parents stood by their carriage discussing something. As Anna and Callista stepped through the large oak doors and into the entrance hall, behind the girl with chestnut coloured curls, they heard a hush fall over the small crowd that was gathered there. Taking a step to the side of the girl in front of her, Callista saw that the Prince and his friend William were at the front of the crowd. They were both gaping open-mouthed at group that had just entered the hall. Callista wondered what had caused the crowd's silence.

Before anyone could speak, the Queen came out of the ballroom and on catching sight of the girl, rushed to her and embraced her warmly. "Oh, it is so lovely to see you!" the Queen exclaimed. Callista watched as Eric tried to sneak away while his mother greeted the guest, but the Queen caught sight of him and beckoned him over. "Eric darling, why don't you take Adeline to the ballroom and dance with her?"

"Uh, well, Princess Adeline, are you not tired from your journey?" Eric asked hopefully.

Adeline smiled prettily, "Oh no, I'm sure I have enough energy for a dance with you" and with that, she took him by the arm and almost dragged him towards the ballroom. "Who was that?" she asked Anna who was smothering giggles, what she was giggling at, Callista did not know.

"I have absolutely no idea Callista" Anna said as the two girls walked into the ballroom. Many couples were already dancing when they entered the room but some were sitting in chairs that were set aside on the other side of the room. Anna walked across the dance floor towards them. Callista tried to follow, but a young man asked her for a dance. Callista hesitated for a moment then nodded. This may be the only chance I get, Calista thought. The man took her hand twirled her around the room. Her partner was swapped and she had to dance another song with a new partner. When the dance was over, Callista curtseyed and looked around trying to find Anna. She spotted her at the seats on other side of the room. Callista had only taken two steps when another man had asked her to dance. Before she could answer, they were swept up in the dance. She was spun around the room again and two songs had finished before Callista had enough time to excuse herself from the dancing and even then, three more men asked her to dance before she could reach Anna.

"I can see you're enjoying yourself" Anna said to her as Callista sank down into her seat, a little out of breath. Callista gave a small smile.

"I didn't know that dancing could take so much out of you." Callista said.

"It does when you have endless partners" Anna said cheekily as a rose in the other girl's cheeks. Two girls approached the place they were sitting, they were unmasked and Callista could see that one of them was Mary. As the pair came to sit down Callista exchanged worried glances with Anna as they turned their chairs discreetly away from the other girls. "Who's that girl the Prince is dancing with?" Callista heard Mary ask.

"Her name is Princess Adeline of Durriya" the other girl answered.

"Of where?"

"Durriya, it's a place famous for pearls, somewhere in the east I think, near the coast"

"So what's she doing here?"

"They're trying to get her engaged to the Prince again"

"Again?" Callista heard Mary say.

"Yes Mary, again,. Honestly, don't you ever listen? They were engaged about two years ago, when the Prince was sixteen, but the engagement was called off."

"Then why didn't we hear of any of this Maude?" Mary said

"It was a private engagement" Maude told her.

"So how did you know?" the other girl asked.

"Oh you know, when you're as close to them as my uncle is, you hear about these things" Maude said smugly.

"So why did they call off the last engagement" Mary said sullenly.

"I think it was because the Prince left and said he wouldn't come back if he had to marry her"

"Oh." Was all Mary said

"Well I don't think she's very pretty." Maude said "That dress does not suit her at all" Callista glanced over at them and saw Mary nodding in agreement.

"We should go and talk to her." Maude decided.

"Why?" Mary said, confused.

"So she'll be friends with us and we can use her to our advantage. And to get her away from the Prince of course. Really Mary, you'd think you weren't a noble, with your ignorance of court affairs." Maude stood and walked towards the Princess, with Mary in tow, clearly sulking

Eric looked around the room for some sort of escape as he danced Adeline around the room for the fifth time. This is almost as bad as dancing with Lady Mary, he thought to himself as the musicians struck up another tune. His partner did not seem to notice his inattentiveness and Eric performed the steps almost mechanically. Oh no, he thought as he saw Mary and Maude heading towards them, here comes more trouble. The two girls curtseyed when they reached the Prince and Princess. "Lady Maude, Lady Mary" Eric said, nodding to each of them. Adeline, who still had his hand in her claw like grip, gave a little cough. "Lady Adeline, this is Lady Mary, the Duchess of Rasine's daughter and Lady Maude, niece of Bishop Dominick." The two girls curtseyed to the Princess and smiled. Lady Maude was looking at Lady Mary, as though trying to get her attention, but Mary did not get the hint. Eric almost laughed as he saw Maude elbow Mary sharply in the ribs. "Ow! I mean, your highness, we were wondering if we could borrow her highness for a moment" Mary said.

"What for?" Adeline asked the girls, eyeing them suspiciously. She had a sneaking suspicion that they were going to do something nasty to her. She saw how they were looking at her Prince. " Er, we just wanted to introduce you to a few people, since you don't have many acquaintances here, that's all," Maude said sweetly. "It gets a little lonely without anyone to talk to and we thought you might need some friends to show you around. The Princess looked thoughtful for a moment, then smiled hesitantly. "All right then" Adeline said as she linked arms with Mary. A look of annoyance passed over Mary's face but was gone in a blink. The pair walked away, into the crowd, leaving Maude with Eric. She looked expectantly at him as the opening notes of another song began. He sighed. "Would you care to dance Lady Maude?" Eric said.

"It would be my pleasure your highness" Maude said, fluttering her eyelashes at him at him. She took his arm and led them into the dance. Luckily for Eric, the dance required them to switch partners several times. He linked arms with a dark blue mask, a red one, purple, pink, orange , lilac, and then back to Maude. They went around the room twice and then began switching partners again. White, lavender, rose, mauve, yellow, green. As he linked arms with the last partner, he felt a tingle of warmth shoot up his arm. She let go suddenly and Eric was dancing once again with Maude. He looked past her, trying to find his last partner, but it was no use. He had only glanced at her face for a second, and even then, it was hidden by a mask. Something told him he had to find that girl, but first, he would have to survive the rest of the dance. Maude did not want to let go of his arm and when she finally did, Mary had come back. She claimed a dance from him and Adeline demanded another two. Then his mother dragged him over to more nobles who he had to dance with out of courtesy.

After Eric had finally removed himself from the group of girls that persistently followed him, he set out to find the other girl, the one he linked arms with in that dance with Maude. Eric saw countless numbers of green masks but none if them seemed at all familiar. At one point, he ran into William and tried to enlist his help but William was too busy chatting to a blonde girl in a blue-green mask. Eric decided to give upon his search and went out into the palace gardens to clear his thoughts.

Callista strolled along the pathway that led her through the palace gardens. She stopped at a fountain that was surrounded with flowering bushes, the gifts of the spring weather. She sat on the edge of the fountain, glad to be away from all the men who kept asking her to dance. If I'd only known how tiring it was going to be, Callista thought as she listened to the water of the fountain trickle into the pond. She heard footsteps behind her and got up quickly. She walked to the other side of the fountain and saw that the prince was leaning on the edge of it, just as she had been doing a minute ago. His eyes were closed and he seemed to be muttering to himself. "Your highness?" Callista said quietly. He did not respond. "Your highness?" she said again, this time a little louder. Eric's eyes snapped open and widened in surprise as he recognised the girl he had noticed earlier. In that split-second that he recognised her, Eric was so surprised that he jumped to his feet and over balanced, falling backwards. He fell into the fountain with a loud 'splash!'. Cold water sprayed over Callista's head and sprinkled onto her dress. As she shook the droplets out of her hair, she saw the prince was still sitting in the fountain, his curly hair plastered to his forehead and hazel eyes blinking away the water. "I am so sorry!" Callista said to him as he wrung the edge of his doublet. She took off her gloves and offered to help pull him out of the fountain. As he took her hand, she felt a sudden warmth and blushed. The Prince stepped out of the water, but was neither one of them let go. They both looked down at their hands in surprise and let go quickly. An awkward silence followed. "Are you all right?" Eric asked Callista finally.

"Me? I should be asking you that question, after all, you were the one who fell in the fountain." Callista said apologetically. The Prince was quite tall and Callista had to tilt her head upwards to see his face. As she lifted her head, Eric immediately recognised her. It was the mysterious girl with the red hair and green eyes. He was astonished and was once again speechless. They sat back down on the edge of the fountain. Another awkward silence followed until they both spoke at the same time.

"Sorry," Eric said, blushing, "you speak first"

"Oh no, you can go first, your highness"

"Do you, I mean, I, er, well, would you care to, uh, dance?" Eric said, his face getting redder.

"I would, your highness, but it seems that you're still soaking wet" Callista said, grateful that she would not have to dance with him.

"Oh, yes. That. Well, would you walk with me then?"

""If it pleases you your highness" Callista said. She didn't really want to spend more time with the Prince, she might accidentally let slip who she really was, and then she would be in for a worse punishment than her last one. Callista shuddered at the thought. The Prince stood and offered his arm. She took it and felt a the warm tingle which shocked her so much that she would have fallen backwards if the Prince had not had her hand. As the Prince pulled her back up, she felt a stinging sensation on her wrist and realised that the some of the wounds from Adrianna's nails, that had cut into her when she had been beaten, had left long scabs along her wrist. They were being stretched and as they weren't fully healed yet, the scabs were being irritated. Eric saw Callista's gaze fixed on their hands and looked down as well. Then he saw the marks and gazed down in shock.

Callista saw that the Prince was looking down at her wrist and tried to tug her arm free of his grip. "Who did this to you?" Eric asked her.

"No one, I, I scratched myself on the carriage"

"Then why is there no blood on your gloves?"

"I, uh, scratched them yesterday"

"But these marks are at least three days old" Eric argued.

"It's not your concern your majesty," Callista said, "now if you'll let go of my arm please" Eric let go reluctantly and Callista rushed back into the palace. And then it hit him that he found out anything else about her, not even her name. "Damn!" he muttered angrily. He cursed some more as he saw Adeline coming towards him. "What happened to you?" she asked.

"I, fell" Eric told her.

"Into the fountain?" she inquired.

"No, into the bushes" Eric said sarcastically.

"Then why are you all wet?" Adeline said, confused. Eric ignored her and went back into the palace, wet clothes and all.

Callista found Anna with Eric's friend William. Keeping her head down, she managed to tell Anna that they needed to leave straight away. Anna and William said their goodbyes and the two girls went outside to find their carriage. As Caleb hopped down to hand them in, he asked "did ya 'ave a good nigh'?" Callista was on the verge of tears so Anna answered, "yes, it was lovely" and they stepped into the carriage. As soon as the door closed Anna said gently "do you want to tell me what happened?" Callista spent the whole journey relating the night's events to Anna. When she was finished, she added, "And what if he confronts Adrianna? I'll be in enormous trouble then. She'll throw me out, I'm sure of it"

"Is that what you're worried about?" Anna asked

"Of course, wouldn't you be?" Callista said.

"No" Anna said calmly.

"Why not?"

"Because, from what you tell me, the Prince doesn't even know who you are. He'd probably be confused because the last time he saw you, you were running errands and now you've transformed into the perfect picture of a princess. I doubt he even know your name." Anna explained. Callista blinked the tears away and gave Anna a watery smile. "Thanks" she said

"For what?" Anna asked.

"For always having the right thing to say"

"I'm just telling you the truth." Anna said. Callista cheered up considerably, then she remembered she hadn't asked how Anna had spent the night.

"How was your night?" Callista asked her.

"Oh, it was alright, a little better than usual." Anna said vaguely.

"So did William make it the 'little' bit better?" Callista asked mischievously.

"I don't know who you're talking about." Anna said, determinedly staring out the window.

"Of course you don't" Callista said, "and I'm sure that blush has nothing to do with William, does it?" Callista grinned as Anna's blush deepened. Calista was still grinning when they reached the manor and Anna was still blushing.

Thanks for reading. I can't update for the next week coz I'm going to be at camp BUT if there are five more reviews, I'll try and update really quickly ok? Thanks again for reading and please review!