This is Prompt No. 48-Heart
"I feel kind of silly telling you this," Mitchie prefaced, glancing down at their touching knees, "but if you're having dreams like that, then I think it's a story you should hear."
"There's nothing that you can't tell me," Shane told her earnestly. "I promise not to laugh."
Mitchie looked up at her young husband's face. No, he looked far from laughing. He looked pained and fearful, anything but humorous. "Very well," she said. "Are you ready?"
Shane nodded. "Yes."
Mitchie nodded and paused for only a moment, trying to determine where she should begin. "My father has always loved me more than my mother," she started. "He loved me because I was tomboyish and loved to play and do everything that Mitchell did. It was fine when I was younger, but as I grew, my father realized that he needed to do something about my 'finer aspects.'" Mitchie's face showed exactly what she thought of those "finer aspects."
"He sent me to my friend's house in Europe. You met her at the ball. Tess Tyler," Mitchie clarified, hoping that Shane would remember, thus making her story easier to tell.
Shane was silent for a moment, trying to remember. "Oh yes," he said after a while. "The one that interrupted our kiss on the balcony."
Mitchie blushed, remembering that night and that particular moment. "Yes," she told him. "Tess is all about balls and parties and being seen. Her family's very, very wealthy. I'm not really sure how we became friends, but we did. Distant friends, though, in more ways than one." Mitchie shrugged. "I suppose the ocean helped to separate us after she moved, but either way, she was glad to have a traveling companion for her trip that she was going on. That's how we came to be in Paris."
"How did you get invited to that party, though?" Shane asked, and Mitchie could see that the vividness of his dream was starting to dissipate.
Mitchie rolled her eyes. "Tess wrote a note to whoever was in charge asking if there were going to be any balls that we might be able to attend while we were there. She got an almost immediate reply about the masquerade, and it was instantly settled in her mind that we should go."
Shane raised an eyebrow. "You two were invited just like that?" he asked in disbelief.
Mitchie nodded. "Like I said, Tess and her family have a lot of money. It's a ticket into some places. Either way, I almost didn't go. I didn't have a costume, and it was too late to get one. I had to wear an old dress that I could barely get on, much less breath in, but somehow I managed to get into it."
"You had trouble getting into a dress?" Shane asked in disbelief, eyeing Mitchie's slender figure up and down.
Mitchie nodded, grinning. "First time in my life that I've ever had that problem, but yes, it's true. When we got to the ballroom, Tess could barely wait to get to those winding stairs so that she could walk down those steps and be noticed. I would've happily come in some side entrance, but that's not the way Tess does things." Mitchie shrugged.
"I remember that," Shane said softly. "You looked so beautiful."
Mitchie ducked her head in acknowledgement and went on. "I was concentrating on making sure that I didn't fall when I had an urge to look up. When I did look at the crowd, most of them were looking at Tess, but then I looked around and saw you." The sentence trailed off slightly at the end, and Mitchie's eyes took on a faraway look.
"You were standing in the corner," she said softly, "and I think you were the only one looking at me."
"Idiots," Shane muttered. "They missed out."
"Your eyes were what drew me to you in the first place," Mitchie went on. "Even from that far away, your eyes were so beautiful that I couldn't look away." She looked up at him and smiled, patting his right knee. "I was watching you the whole night," she said.
"I know," Shane told her. "I was watching you too."
"I never liked dancing," Mitchie explained, continuing on with her story. "I've always felt awkward and clumsy, even with Mitchell. He'd tried to teach me hundreds of times, but I could never find a rhythm. Dancing with my father was terrible, but dancing with anyone else was brutal. I was always so conscious of trying not to step on someone's toes that I forgot the steps." Mitchie shivered. "Then having to look at someone that close to me always felt too intimate."
"I could tell," Shane told her.
"You could?" Mitchie asked.
Shane nodded. "You looked like you wanted to die when that Frenchman came and asked you to dance."
Mitchie winced. "Yes," she said slowly, "I was about ready to kill Tess for volunteering me like that. Then he pulled me into the study, and I was sure that he was going to succeed when you came in."
"I could've killed him," Shane said through gritted teeth.
"But you didn't," Mitchie pointed out. "You fought him, yes, but you acted like a true gentleman, and that was why I trusted you. When you asked me to dance, I felt that I owed it to you, but then you held me, and you danced with me, and I fell in love with you and dancing."
Shane nodded. "I thought you'd say no," he told her honestly. "I knew how much you disliked dancing, but all I could think of at that moment was being close to you."
"I'm glad you asked me to," Mitchie told him sincerely. "And then, you asked me to walk with you, giving me the option to refuse to be alone with you, and it made me love you even more." She reached out and lovingly tucked a stray strand of hair behind Shane's ear. "And then you took your mask off and almost kissed me," she went on, sighing at the memory.
"And Tess had to ruin the moment," Shane said bitterly.
Mitchie laughed. "Yes, she did, but she apologized profusely on the way home for it. But that night, all I could think of and dream of was you." She pulled one of Shane's hands away from his lap and held it to her heart so that he could feel her heartbeat. "For three months, I thought about you, and fell more and more in love with you." She smiled and said softly, "So you see, from the first moment I met you, you've had my heart." She gave the hand she was holding a slight squeeze. "A few days at court can't take that love away. I will always be yours."
Shane smiled, finally understanding where this story had been heading. His hand lifted from her heart to stroke her cheek lovingly, memorizing her features so that he would remember them when she wasn't at the base.
"And I will always be yours," he promised her. "Forever."
A/N: Aw! *says with stubborness* I'm not going to cry, I'm not going to cry! Either way, I hope you all liked it, and thanks to everyone who reviewed for the last chapter. It means so much to me! Thank you!!
