Chapter 5:

Eléonore was on the spot, after the revelation that she was the one to marry the prince, everyone eyes were on her, waiting for an explanation, yet her mind was drawing a blank and just couldn't think of anything to say… her mother was the first to speak.

"Well dear, anything you have to say to us?"

"Wh… What do you mean mother?"

"Well, I doubt Germanian princes go around sending extremely detailed marriage proposals to random maidens from other countries… so I think you owe us an explanation"

"Well you see… the thing is…"

For some reason actually explaining everything to her parents was far more difficult that it should be.

"Come on Elle chan don't leave us hanging"

Saito spoke yet immediately wished he hadn't, having gotten too caught up in the moment he made a mistake that could cost him his life.

"Elle chan… just how in the world did you know that he called me like that? Wait, were you two spying on me? Because if you were…"

Bingo… Karin had just gotten what she wanted.

"So… just who exactly is 'he'?"

Eléonore had lost, she also gotten too caught in the moment and made a mistake that gave her mother a window of opportunity to get whatever information she wanted out of her. Completely defeated she had to tell them every little detail about her meetings, the only thing she managed to keep to herself were her feelings about the kiss, her mother would have to kill her before she spoke about that in public.

"So… you were dating a boy you met in a commoners bar, for some reason you got depressed, he proposed to you, you accepted and then the boy turned to be a prince… and you expect us to believe that story"

"Well… it's the truth"

Karin was an expert in getting information out of people, so good she had even received an invitation to work on a royal prison once, so she could see her daughter was not lying, she was still hiding something… but she was not lying.

"Well, that would at least explain a few things I found weird, for an example the church of the wedding is the same as your sister's, so is the date except that yours will be held a few hours before… done on purpose because he knew that Louise marrying first bothered you… how sweet, extremely corny and completely unnecessary, but sweet none the less"

"Well… yeah… he's that kind of person"

"Sigh… ok dear I won't pressure you anymore, you just said that you weren't completely sober when that proposal happened, so I'll give you some time to consider it, you have until tomorrow morning, if you accept you will accompany Louise and me and join us in the ritual"

"Yes mother"

After that everybody went to their respective rooms, leaving Eléonore alone so that she consider the proposal in peace, while she did that, Saito and Louise were talking about today's revelations.

"I can't believe the boy we saw that day was a prince, I guess miracles really do happen"

Louise was surprised about the whole thing and needed to talk about it.

"I know… I wonder if we are still in trouble."

"Seriously Saito, what were you thinking calling Eléonore neesama like that? you could have gotten us killed"

"Sorry, I guess I screwed up, we should apologize to her tomorrow morning… maybe she'll go easy on us if we do"

"I hope, I want to live to see my weeding day you know"

"By the way… Louise, you mind if I ask you something? "

"What?"

"I noticed that before we found out that Eléonore was the chosen one, you were really nervous… are you hiding something from me?" Saito asked mainly teasing, he knew Louise was incapable of such a thing but he was still curious about why she was nervous

"No of course not… I just thought that if for some reason I was the chosen one, my parents would cancel our engagement" Louise was entering her 'sweet' mode as Saito called it

"So what would you do if that happened?" he was just being mean now, he knew what her answer would be, but since getting Louise to confess to him was a near traumatic experience, he now liked to hear her feelings whenever he could.

"Saito… do you remember what I told you when we came to ask my parent for their blessing, that I would marry you regardless of what they said… sure in the end all it took to change their opinion about you was that letter of recommendation you got from… her…"

Louise got sad for a moment and then continued.

"…But what I said back then still stands, you are the only man I want in my life and I won't let anything get in between us… because… I love you…"

Seriously what was he thinking when he told her to wait till marriage, now was such a perfect moment… oh well… their wedding was only a few days for now, so it would be a shame to back down on his promise, and there were still a few things they could do without breaking it…

Meanwhile Eléonore was on her room thinking about what she should do when she heard a knock on her door.

"Who is it?"

"It's me Cattleya, mind if I come in?"

"Not at all, come on in"

Cattleya went into the room, closing the door behind her.

"Sis, can I ask you a few questions?"

"Sure go ahead, ask away" She had already been asked everything in the afternoon, so now there was nothing that would surprise her.

"Ok, I'll go straight to the point… do you love this Alphonse person?"

Ok, that did surprised her

"I… don't know... I feel different when I'm with him, I feel like I can be myself but… I just don't know if that's love… you know that I was never popular as you were, so I'd never received any attention from a man before, maybe I'm just so desperate for affection that I fell for the first person that gave it to me…"

Cattleya wanted to say something but Eléonore kept talking.

"You know, don't tell our mother what I'm about to tell you, but when he kissed me I felt like I could throw it all away and become his woman… "

"Mother would kill you if she heard that…"

"I know that's why I tried my hardest for her not to notice… but anyway I refused to believe those feeling were a lie, but that was just me being stubborn… I'm not sure if it's really love I'm feeling… but… I want to find out… that's why I decided to accept his proposal"