The Lost Princess - A 'Selection' spinoff

CHAPTER 33

"You ready, old chap?" Aurora asked her nervous cousin.

"Me? Leaving bachelorhood and settling with one woman?" Lucian asked wryly. "Of course I'm not ready!".

Aurora stared at him.

"I'm ready!" he said.

"Alright, time for you to go," Eric said, patting his cousin's back, and pushing him to the dance floor.

No one dancing - they had all gone to have a bite of the fresh appetizers.

The soft music of a waltz drifted across the ballroom.

Lucian switched on the mic attached to his shirt and said, "May I have your attention please?".

"Oh my God. Please tell me he's not doing something stupid," she heard Kate say from behind her.

Adelaide pushed her near Aurora and answered, "Sorry Kate. Can't promise you anything".

"Throughout my life, I've always been a Prince, not a spoiled brat, but I was a person who no one had ever said no to," Lucian said. "That is, until I met a girl on this very dance floor to this very same music".

Aurora gently pushed Kate such that she was standing in front of Lucian. The lights had been switched off around the ballroom, and a Lucian and Kate alone had a spotlight on them.

Servants immediately came forward from nowhere and placed a ring of potted plants blooming with red poppies around them.

Kate had cupped her mouth with her hand, and was looking at Lucian with wide eyes.

"I still remember my conversation with her - the first thing I told her was that her cheeks were as red as poppies, which she had angrily answered to that they were her favorite flowers," he said, pointing to the flowers around them.

"Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god," Kate was muttering.

"We fell in love over a series of comical incidents, and when I proposed to her, in the most unromantic way, without our parents' permission, she said no. That was practically the first time someone said no to me," Lucian said, chuckling.

"Hear hear," Elena said, standing near her husband and Kate's beaming mother, holding a cup of wine in her hand.

"So let me try this again - and Ella, please don't interrupt us this time," Lucian added.

"You proposed when I was having a nervous breakdown!" Aurora called out, smiling.

"Yeah, hopefully you're not having one now," Lucian said.

"Keep talking like that and she'll have one," Eric said.

"Luke! You were proposing to a certain someone, as I recall?" Aurora said, mock glaring at her brother and cousin.

The crowd laughed together.

"Right. Let's try this once again," Lucian said, falling on one knee, and opening a small velvet box to reveal the family engagement ring. "Lady Katherine Harris. My Katie. You are the love of my life, the song of my soul, the music of my mind. And I would love to spend the rest of my life with you, that is, if you'll have me. Will you marry me?".

Kate looked at Elena and Vincenzo who gave her a thumbs up, and her mother who nodded.

"Yes," she squealed, tears falling from her eyes.

The crowd cheered, and Kate held Lucian's face, and kissed him.

Eric hooted, and they broke apart, both of their faces red.

Aurora rushed to Kate and hugged her.

"We're going to be sisters!" she squealed, and the two of them jumped up and down as they embraced.