Of Fairytales and Happy Endings

Chapter 27. Mamma Takes Action.

Desperate people are the most dangerous. ~ Frank Herbert.

Chapter 27.

Mamma Takes Action.

It was a card party. One of those boring events that Charles attended only because he was a man of society and men of society for some reason or another did these sort of things. Today he was also attending because he knew little Catrin Llewelyn was going to be there. And as usual she was surrounded by a host of suitors.

Charles grumbled under his breath. He needed to get Catrin alone. How could he ask her the questions he wanted if there were all these other gentlemen around? He wanted to sit in a nice, quiet corner and chat with Miss Llewelyn. Much as he had with Miss Morton when she had been here.

Only while it had been surprisingly easy to get Miss Morton to sit and talk, it wasn't quite the same with Miss Llewelyn.

"It's just like all of fate is against me," Charles grumbled. Right from the start, right from the moment he had met this Cinderella, it was impossible to really get close to her. Midnight always struck before he realized it and she was running off.

"I wonder if the Prince in the story had more trouble trying to find her with only a shoe," he concluded. If Charles were to behave as he usually behaved he would have just given up, accepted defeated, and moved on. But not this time. He didn't want to accept defeat this time. Miss Llewelyn was far too interesting to make him accept defeat. He would get to know her better, even if he had to walk through hell or high water...or in this case walk through a crowd of gentlemen.

Dancing was announced in an adjoining room and Charles decided the only way to get Catrin alone was to ask her to dance. Then maybe they could play chess, a game that was sure to keep anyone else out, and talk nicely without other people interrupting them. He was a little too slow in asking her, and had to wait a whole three rounds of dances before it finally was his turn. When her last partner walked her to a bench, it was all Charles could do to keep from running up before someone else did. He kept his pace quick, but not fast enough to make it obvious how desperate he was.

"Miss Llewelyn," he said when he was near her. "May I have the honor of the next dance."

As usual, she blushed when he came up. It seemed to be a habit of hers. He only had to look at her and she started coloring up. That said something.

"Of course, Your Lordship," she stammered out.

They walked out to the dance floor and joined in.

"I was thinking about what you said the other day while we were standing at St. Paul's." Charles began.

There, she blushed again.

"Really?"

"Yes," he nodded. "You said you wanted to make the ugly parts of the world beautiful. How exactly do you plan to do that? Throw flowers everywhere?"

"Maybe not throw them," Catrin laughed. "Maybe plant them, it would make more sense, don't you think? Flowers growing in places you least expect them does add color to the world."

She had a very pretty laugh. It sounded like thousands of little silver bells all ringing a merry tune. It was an innocent sort of laugh, and Charles wanted to keep listening to it. He should come up with things to say that were funny and have her continue laughing. Only he was a rather dull man and wasn't good at coming up with funny things.

In fact he couldn't come up with anything to say at all. Which was strange because only a few minutes ago he was bursting with questions and now his mind went blank. Maybe it was those big brown eyes that made him forget all the thoughts in his head. She didn't seem to be much of a talker either at the moment and the rest of the dance was silent.