The Runaway Princess

Chapter 26

“I ask you to pass through life at my side—to be my second self, and best earthly companion.” Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

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Chapter Twenty – Six

Thinking about proposing, and then actually proposing, were two very different things. The first made David feel excited about his future with Elena. The second made him feel physically sick. He knew that she would accept, but what would he say? How would he find the words? He was not terribly romantic, nor was he well versed in poetry or sonnets.

He suddenly wished that he was home. His mother and sisters would be useful for such a feat as this. They probably would have written him a script.

But David was on his own, sweating through his clothing, stressing over the silly words he needed to say to make Elena accept him as her husband for the rest of her life. There was absolutely no pressure at all.

The week after Carlos and Marisol’s wedding was very chaotic. Elena was busy helping Marisol to pack ready to depart Spain for Portugal, whilst also spending time with her mother. Elena was still very hesitant around Lupe, but David could see that having a relationship with her mother was something that was very important to her. Exactly one week after the wedding, Carlos and Marisol left the palace.

Elena was a mess of tears, as was Marisol, but the two friends promised to write each other often. David could not help but smile when Elena told Marisol to send her letters to England.

Upon their arrival in Portugal, Carlos and Marisol would marry again before the Portuguese royal family, and then they would commence their lives as future rulers. David believed that Marisol would do well. Given this opportunity, he could see that she was a very poised, graceful and compassionate woman.

But now that Marisol was gone, there was nothing keeping them in Spain. The only thing left to do was propose.

David anxiously paced the length of his lavish palace bedchamber while fidgeting with Elena’s mother’s ring. “It is just four words, David,” he scolded himself. “Just spit them out and be done with it.”

David needed to think logically. First, where would he propose? He had an entire palace of rooms to propose in. Which would Elena like most? He soon settled on the rose garden. Elena loved her mother’s rose garden.

David did not waste a minute of time as he dashed downstairs and out into the courtyard that housed the rose garden. He ignored the several ‘Salvaje’ greetings he received from the Court members who were walking about the palace. Joaquín’s name for him had found its way into the Court and it had stuck. While Elena’s family understood the humorous side to the name, there were a few who greeted ‘Señor Salvaje’ with a certain amount of fear, just in case the man was anything like his name.

David frantically walked about the rose garden, searching for the perfect spot. As he was searching around, he had an idea that even he though was romantic. He could hide the ring inside the petals of a rose, present it to Elena, and then propose when she found it.

“That was not so difficult,” he murmured to himself. Perhaps he could be romantic when he tried. David found a stone bench in the centre of the garden and then selected the largest rose so that he could find it again when he brought Elena to the garden. He pushed the ring inside the rose and then willed it to stay there.

The ideas were coming quickly. The garden would be lit with torches come nightfall so David would bring Elena outside after nightfall, after dinner perhaps. He would take her to the bench, pick the rose from the shrub, avoiding the thorns, of course, and then he would hand it to her. When she found the ring, he would propose to her, she would accept, and that would be that.