Disclaimer: I only own Adelinde, Aari, and a few other characters yet to appear. All else does not belong to me.

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Chapter Six

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The next few days passed in a lovely haze for Adelinde. Although she had no real duties in the castle, Susan set her the task of supervising the setup for the Harvest Ball, which Adelinde found to be amazingly fun. She directed the fauns in where to hang the banners, and selected the place settings and table cloths. She spoke with the nobles of the court and decided on musicians.

In fact, Adelinde was so wrapped up in planning that she hardly ever had a chance to see Edmund except during meals, and then was certainly not the time to be talking about what she wanted to speak to him about.

Oh, they spoke, and spoke quite frequently, but never about anything important. They talked about art, or books, or music, but never anything that Adelinde wanted to speak to him about. He was driving her mad with the silence on the subject.

Courtship. The very word brought a shiver over her, especially when the thought about Edmund courting her. The prospect of being officially courted by a king of Narnia was an exciting and overwhelming idea to her, but she was sure she could handle it.

Never, in all her years, even when she had been a young, foolish girl, that had dreamed about knights in shinning armor, and valiant battles, and epic love stories, she had never, never dreamed that she might one day be in one.

All these thoughts battled in her head as she worked her way through the week.

But by the time the Harvest Ball arrived, one thought dominated her attention – tonight would be the night that Edmund asked to court her, officially.

For this special occasion, Aari was joined by another dryad maid to help dress up Adelinde. She was a sturdy, but thin girl that appeared about Adelinde's own age. Her name was Ilina, and she was the dryad of a maple tree. She seemed nice enough, but Adelinde still didn't speak openly when either dryad was within earshot.

"Ma'am, I do believe, you're as ready as we can make you!" said Ilina, who was far less shy than Aari about telling what she thought.

Adelinde studied herself in the mirror for a long while, before finally agreeing. "Aye, I am ready," she said, attempting to smooth nonexistent wrinkles in her wine red gown. She fiddled with the end of her braid as she stepped out of her bedroom door to see Edmund standing there, looking very handsome in an intricately embroidered red tunic, nearly as dark as her dress.

"Are you ready, Ada?" he asked, holding out his arm to her.

"Yes, Edmund, I'm ready. Let's go down now," she said, taking the arm. She noticed that he did not seem as excited as he normally did to speak to her, or to see her. There was no smile on his lips, and he seemed…flat.

They walked down to the Great Hall in silence, Edmund never looking at her. As they entered the elaborately decorated room, Peter came over and clapped Edmund on the back.

"I'm glad your finally here, Ed!" He said, steering the couple toward the dance floor, "Susan insisted that we not start the Ball officially until you arrived!"

"Oh?" said Edmund, quirking an eyebrow at Peter, "And since when are you eager for a ball to start?"

Peter simply rolled his eyes and shoved Edmund toward the dance floor and said, "Since now! Now get out there! We need to start the dancing!"

"Come on, Ada," Edmund said, leading her out onto the floor. She could see out of the corner of her eye Peter, leading a small, slender black-haired girl onto the floor. Lucy was tugging at the faun Tumnus's hand, trying to pull him onto the dance floor, and Susan was taking the hand of what appeared to be one of about twelve humans in the whole room. He was tall and pale, most likely from Archenland, and she could see his blue eyes even from across the hall.

Adelinde could feel the blood drain from her face. She wasn't ready...she'd not been here a month! That two-faced man had promised her at least a month! But nevertheless, the man was here, and he would not be happy when he heard that not only had neither of the Narnia Kings offered courtship, but the one she was closest to was pulling away!

After a few measures of the dance, several more creatures in pairs, as well as several dryads, joined the dancing. Edmund was looking at her with worry in his eyes.

"Adelinde?" he asked, pulling her closer than the rules of propriety dictated, "Is something wrong?"

She shook the thoughts out of her head and nodded, smiling a little bit. "Of course, Edmund!" she said with an attempt at enthusiasm, "I-I'm just not used to having so many people around me!"

He smiled for the first time that night. "Don't worry, love," he said with a small laugh, you'll get used to it!"

Adelinde grinned as Edmund reddened at what he had just let slip. But her smile faded as the blush crept back out of Ed's cheeks and he slipped back into the shell that she'd just hoped she'd brought him out of.

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I should have known... Adelinde thought as she watched from the sidelines of the dance floor. Edmund was dancing, but, obviously, not with her. He was now twirling some delighted looking black-haired girl around, grinning and laughing as he had not with her. Closer inspection told her that it was the same girl that Peter had danced with in the opening dance.

She sighed resolutely, standing up from the bench she had planted herself on. Evidently, Edmund would not miss her if she left the room, and it didn't seem that anyone else would, either. She wove her way through the swaying and spinning couples and friends to the far side of the room, where the doors stood open to a terrace, from which the chill November air blew into the hall.

She stepped out, shivering a bit as the cold air hit her bare arms and shoulders. She leaned forward as she looked out to the West, where the sun was just visible above the horizon. The lights and sounds of the party drifted out to her, but they seemed very far away.

"It's a beautiful sight, isn't it?" said Peter, coming up beside her on the rail.

"Aye, it is..." she said, still half lost in her thoughts.

"He doesn't mean it, you know?" said Peter, putting a hand over hers. "He doesn't mean to hurt you."

Adelinde shot him a hard look. "How do you know?"

"He's my brother; I just know," said Peter, looking at her just as seriously.

"He had real feelings for me..." she said without thinking. Her face went red as she realized she'd said it aloud.

"Did he?" asked Peter. Somehow, they had ended up switching sides.

"He did!" said Adelinde vehemently, "At least...I thought he did..."

"If he did, would we be having this conversation, my Lady, while he dances with another woman?" Peter questioned. He squeezed her hand gently. "Just think about that," he said before turning and going back inside.

Adelinde stood there in silence for a long while, letting the sunset half blind her.

"He is getting impatient, you know," said a harsh voice behind her. "He may not give you much longer."

"Well he will just have to wait!" snapped Adelinde, turning sharply to face the blond man. "Things are not going as smoothly as planned!"

"He will not give you much longer," the man repeated.

"So I hear!" Adelinde said impatiently. "Why are you telling me this?"

"I just thought I should give you fair warning, my sister," said Brae, smirking at her. "If you cannot secure a proposal by the new year, you may want to go into hiding, because he will not let you get away."

"I am working on it, brother!" she said, "Now, you must leave, before they start to suspect something."

"Always the suspicious one, my dear Adelinde," he said turning away. "You know, you may have the face of an angel, but you have the tongue of a serpent."

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Hm...who is this mysterious man? Well, I'm honestly not much more sure than you are!