Hey guys. i am so sorry about not updating sooner, but I lost the disk with all my stories ont it. Some people have been asking me why I didn't save straight onto my computer, well, I have 2 sibings who do not understand the word privacy and you would not want to see what would happen if they ever got hold of this. So onto cheerier things, thanks for waiting for this chapter. The next one I promised you wil be up tomorrow because I need to add a little bit. Thanks to a my reviewers:

Abby: Anna and William are so cute together. I hate when they say there are updates but they don't come up, i know how you feel. thanks for all your reviews!
Breeze2: Thank you so much for your review! I think the story wil be changed more than slightly though. I'm gad you enjoy my story!
Aragorn is mine: that made absolutey no sense at all Samia.You know that don't you? Anyway, you get to see yourself in this chappie! haha, I don't thinkyou'l like it ;P
Maggie:I can't be bothered typing your name out. You updated, yay! Eric is quite stupid sometimes.Haha, Samia's in this chapter being stupid. Lol.
Jess:The whole point was to change the story to make it more interesting and onger so I can torture you by not updating! Muahahah! i'm so evil sometimes. And you can't kill me or I'll NEVER finish it. Haha.
a random reader: Thanks for reading!(and reviewing)
Emma-J-Riddle: Thanks for reading. I'm glad you enjoy it!
Shards of Dawn: it's not going to stay traditional for much longer!
whitecamelia: Yay, I love reviews!I'm gad you love it. Callista and Eric are so cute cos they're so clueless!
Indirescent Moonlight: Thanks for your long review! It didn't really seem right for her to speak in modern terms apart from the occasional 'yeah'. You'll find out why she hasn't run away very soon when she decides enough is enough(which is very close). Thanks for the tip about the spelling errors, I usually use word (which has a spell checker) but latey i've had to use notepadbut now, it shouldn't be as bad. Thanks for your offer though.: )
And thanks to anyone else who reads this (even though you don't review!)
Sohere you go...

Eric twirled a gold bracelet around his fingers absently as he cursed himself over and over again. Why hadn't he asked her for her name? Why couldn't he think straight when he was around her? Was he…No, he wasn't, he couldn't be, could he? Snap out of it he told himself. She was such an enigma. Eric still wasn't quite sure who or what she was. The first time he had seen her, he had been almost sure she was a merchant's daughter but then there was that time outside the blacksmith's, she had said she was getting a dress for her mistress which meant she was a servant. And tonight, tonight she was dressed well enough to rival Princess Adeline. As he looked back down at her bracelet to examine it more closely, he saw that it was a magnificent piece of work. Threads of gold were woven around pure white pearls and sparkling green emeralds. For some reason, Eric's first thought was that she had stolen it. Why did you think that? he asked himself angrily It's probably a family heirloom or something. Why do you always think the worst of people? He had found the bracelet caught on his doublet when he had exchanged his wet clothes for dry ones. He turned his thoughts back to the bracelet and the owner of that piece of jewellery. Eric was too caught up to notice the dreamy look on his face or that Adeline and several of her new acquaintances were watching him closely.

Maude steered Adeline and Mary to a cluster of noble young women who were standing together giggling. 'Ladies,' Maude said loudly over their talk, 'this is Princess Adeline of Durriya. Adeline dear, these are some of the ladies from the Ladies of the Only Suitable and Esteemed Ranks or Stations our own secret society' Mary gave her a smile that anyone else would have found frightening, but Adeline found it charming and smiled amiably back as Maude introduced the ladies. 'This is Lady Daphne, daughter of the Earl of Montague; Lady Angeline, younger sister of Lord Derby and Lady Gabrielle, niece of Sir Edward.' Adeline looked over the girls critically. All five girls had long plain brown hair that was styled the same way, their dresses would have looked exactly alike, had it not been for the different jewels and colours of their attire. They were all staring at her with expressions of awe and admiration but Adeline was used to being adored. She knew she was gorgeous and stunning and intelligent, it wasn't her fault that she was always the most beautiful person in the room. I can use them to my advantage she thought as she smiled charmingly at them. Adeline then noticed two girls who had not acknowledged her at all. They were too busy discussing something amongst themselves. As she looked them over, she decided that they must be very wealthy. The first girl had dark brown hair and caramel coloured skin. She was wearing a red dress with gold stitching around the hem in a style that Adeline had never seen before. Several gold bangles snaked up her wrists and gold threads were woven into her hair. Her brown eyes it up as she laughed at a comment the girl next to her made. The other girl, who had made the joke, was wearing a dress of gold fabric that seemed to become silver as it caught the light. She had dark skin and a mischievous look in her almost black eyes. Her dark hair was piled up on her head and held by gold and silver pins. Strings of glass beads looped around her neck, interwoven with chains of gold. They look wealthy, it would be wise to befriend them Adeline thought as she asked Maude who they were. Maude looked at her strangely. 'Don't you know?' she said.

'Know what?'

'Who they are?'

'No, should I?'

'Well, yes, considering they're both princesses'

'They are?'

'Yes'

'Princesses of where? And what are they doing here if they're princesses?' Maude raised an eyebrow.

'The one in the red dress is Princess Kah-Yi of Jihan. She's here because her father, the King of Jihan is very friendly with our King . Her uncle is one of our chief magistrates, who she stays with during the autumn while her parents tour their kingdom. The other one is Princess Samia of Rohanna. Her mother is Queen of Rohanna but' Maude's voice dropped to a whisper 'they say her father was once a jester who performed for the King of Chaney and that's why she's favoured at court. She mostly stays with her uncle who's Chief Scribe here at the palace. They're only in our society because our mothers were close friends when we were younger. But we don't really like them.' Maude added. Adeline glanced at them again and smiled even more widely. Maybe she could use them too. A short silence followed before Adeline finally spoke. 'Where's the Prince?' she asked loudly, trying to involve the two princesses in the conversation. They ignored her but one of the Ladies (Adeline wasn't sure which one, they all looked so alike) announced that he was over on the other side of the room staring at something in his hands. Adeline didn't really hear this, she was too busy scheming to make friends with more powerful and wealthy people.

'Oh my God!' Mary exclaimed.

'Keep your voice down!' Maude whispered harshly to her.

'But he's got something gold! It must be a ring!' Mary said, her voice a whisper.

'What?' Adeline said, her attention caught by the word 'ring' 'He has a ring?'

'I'm not sure if it is' Mary said as squinted in his direction ' I can't see that far but it's something gold and he looks like he's deep in thought'

'And the dreamy expression on his face means he's thinking of a woman' one of the Ladies added.

'Well,' Adeline said 'I'm going to go find out' and she walked away from the group , making a beeline for the Prince.

Eric glanced up for a split second, just to check if the party was over yet, but to his dismay, the room was still filled with giggling girls and match-making mothers. He sighed as he saw Adeline making her way towards him. There was no way he could get out of talking with her now, she was too close. All thoughts of the mystery girl were pushed away and he braced himself for another hour of pointless chatter and meaningless conversation. 'Hello Eric' Adeline said sweetly. 'Goodness, that lovely, is it for me?' Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed the bracelet he had been fiddling with and fastened it to her wrist. THE BRACELET! Eric's mind yelled at him as Adeline took it. He had the urge to snatch it right back and lock it somewhere very very safe for some reason . But his body wasn't functioning properly anymore. All his mind was telling him was that that bracelet was the only solid connection he had ever had to the mystery girl and now it was gone. FOOL! his brain told him Dim-wit! Idiot! Stupid! Why did he let Adeline take it? Why did he even care so much?

'Eric. Eric? Hello? Are you ignoring me?' Adeline's whine broke into his thoughts and he blinked stupidly.

'What?' he said

'Isn't that your mother beckoning you?' she told him

'Huh? What?' Eric's brain was still not working properly.

'Your mother, she's gesturing at you. I think she's calling you over.' Eric walked dumbly towards the thrones, unaware that Adeline was still following.. His father had left earlier and only one chair was occupied, by his mother. She smiled at them as he approached. 'Hello dears, are you enjoying the ball?'

'Yes, yes mother' Eric said vaguely, a deep furrow in his brow. The queen caught sight of the new piece of jewellery on Adeline's wrist. I seemed so familiar. As she looked at it more closely, the Queen gasped and paled. 'W-w-where did you get that bracelet dear?' she stammered.

'What?' Eric said, confused.

'Not you dear, Adeline, the bracelet dear, where did you get it?' she said, her voice becoming urgent.

'This?' Adeline said, delicately fingering her newly acquired bracelet, 'oh, Eric gave it to me.' She said, clamping onto his arm.

'What? I didn't, I mean, not gave, well, not exactly' Eric stumbled over his words until both his mother and Adeline gave him a strange look.

'Where did you get he bracelet Eric dear?' his mother asked.

'Oh, uh, well, I got it from, uh' for a reason unknown to Eric, he was sure he couldn't tell his mother about the mystery girl. 'I, uh…found it. Yes, that's where I got it, I found it while I was out riding the other day.' He gave his mother a falsely cheerful smile. She smiled at him uncertainly.

'Alright then dear. Now you two go enjoy the ball some more and Eric dear, were you wearing that doublet when you opened the ball?' Eric inwardly groaned and led a beaming Adeline out onto the dance floor.

Two pairs of eyes that had been following the Prince the whole night walked out of the room and towards the guests' wing of the palace. 'I guess he's taken then, Samia. Too bad' Kah-Yi sympathetically told the girl beside her.

'Taken?' Samia said questioningly 'he doesn't seem to like Princess Adeline very much'

'I'm not talking about Adeline, Samia' Kah-Yi responded.

'Then who are you talking about?'

'Don't you remember?'

'Remember what?'

'That other girl from the fountain'

'Oh! That girl' Samia said 'Yeah, what about her?' Kah-Yi fought the urge to roll her eyes.

'Didn't you see how he looked at her and the dreamy look on his face when he was thinking about her?'

'How do you know he was thinking about her?'

'He was playing with her bracelet? When did she give him her bracelet?'

'Samia, don't you ever pay attention? When he grabbed her wrist, it caught on his doublet.'

'If he liked her so much, why did he give her bracelet to Adeline? See, I do pay attention.' Kah-Yi couldn't resist rolling her eyes.

'He was really annoyed when she took the bracelet away Samia. Didn't you see his eyes?'

'I did! They were a very nice hazel and he was very angry. I think he's in love with her '

'Well, it's too bad he's taken now. And he was one of the intelligent ones.' Kah-Yi said.

'Yeah' Samia agreed, 'and he was good-looking too.'

After an hour of dancing with Adeline, Eric was both physically and mentally exhausted from dancing non-stop and having to listen to Adeline talk. He wished he could just collapse on his bed and go to sleep. As his eyes scanned the room, he saw that it was emptying and only a small number or guests remained. When they had finally gone, Adeline would not let go of his arm and he was forced to walk her back to her rooms. She chatted all the way there without a glance at him. How is it possible that she hasn't got the hint yet? Eric thought irritably as he she steered him through the castle. '…it'll be nice for you to spend the winter there. It's so pretty when it snows.'

'What!' Eric said

'Haven't you been listening Eric? I was talking about your visit this winter'

'Visit? What visit?'

'You haven't been listening at all have you? Mummy and daddy invited you to spend the winter at our palace any your mother said yes. Isn't it wonderful?'

As about as wonderful as walking on hot coals Eric thought as he nodded stupidly. How am I going to get out of this one?

Haha, poor Eric. Stuck for the WHOLE winter with Adeline. Anyway, I'm going to post the next chapter tomorrow, so while you're waiting, please review!

Nicole