Chapter Two

A Decision

Eloderaý faced him squarely. "Why do you want me to come so desperately, my lord?"

Thus confronted, Galdore searched for an answer. Coming up with an excuse, he chose his words carefully. "Everyone else will be there, Eloderaý."

"I was not even included in the invitation," she hurled back.

"You are now," Galdore said quickly. "As a favour to me... and Eloderaý, I am Galdore to you. If you do not mind, that is."

The faintest hint of a smile passed over her face, but it was instantly replaced with coldness. "That would be an unpardonable breach of courtesy, my lord," she responded haughtily.

Seeing ti was useless to argue his point, Galdore left Eloderaý in frustration. She was impossible! How ould he have ever entertained the notion that she liked him?

"You are a King, Galdore, but a fool nonetheless," he scolded himself. "You cannot be in love with just anyone."

It became increasingly obvious to everyone that Galdore liked Eloderaý, except for one individual. That was Eloderaý herself. Either she knew, or she ignored it. She still refused to attend the party, even though Galdore had asked her many times.

Eloderaý lounged in her luxurious bedchamber. The frown on her face showed that she was deep in thought.

"Is there anything you'd like, madam?" enquired her maid, coming into the room.

She smiled. "Wait a minute, Lynessa. Let me think, please."

Swalowing her pride, she surrendered to the pressure. "Yes, there was actually something," she said reluctantly. "You can tell King Galdore that I will come."

"Very good, madam." Lynessa scurred away, her face breaking into a wide smile as soon as she was sure that her mistress could not see it.

As soon as Galdore heard the news from Lynessa, he dropped everything and ran to see Eloderaý. He was hoping for a smile from her, but was instead greeted with knit brows and grim lines on her forehead.

When he started talking, she interrupted almost immediately.

"Don't think I'm admitting defeat," she said, "because I'm not. I'm simply surrendering to your pressure." But a smile replaced the look in her eye, and she suddenly found that she was repressing a merry laugh. How much easier it would have been to succumb to his wishes at the very first, instead of having to bear defeat in this mortifying way!

"If you would not mind leaving..." she hinted, "I have to decide what to wear."