Down various alleyways, Prince Henry led Ella on a dizzying maze. He seemed to know exactly where he was going which surprised Ella. She assumed him to be nearly as clueless of the actual city layout since he was a wealthy royal who'd never had to maneuver the city like the working class, but he cut corners like he'd done this trek a thousand times.
Ella hurried to keep up. Henry turned around a bend when Ella lost him. The road had five possible paths in the next few yards and that was not counting the alleys. Other people pushed past her as they grunted at her idiotic behavior clogging up traffic. She dodged to the edge of the road. Was this a joke? Did Henry abandon her?
"Ella! Over here," he called from an alleyway partially cover by discarded wares.
When she made her way over to him, he opened a trap near the drainage pipe. He smiled at her surprised look then scuttled down into the dark shoot below leaving Ella to follow. Without hesitating she entered into the darkness.
The street above emitted a soft light in which Ella could make out the stone walls of the claustrophobic tunnel as they glistened with water droplets. It was hauntingly beautiful. Ella picked her her skirts to keep them from the building condensation. She wondered where the tunnel led.
Carefully, she shut the trap door. She strained to make out the rest of the tunnel. Henry waited silently for her a few yards away. He took her hand and they followed it.
Amidst the silence and the cavernous ground, she and the Prince walked spiraling downwards. Neither made a sound. Ella out of nervousness and Henry out of anticipation.
Henry watched Ella as she noticed that slowly the path began to change. Like the sprinkling of rain darkening the sidewalks the stone beneath their feet became speckled with phosphorescent light. Soon their way was lit by glowing false stars.
Between the warmth of the ground and the growing humidity, Ella felt as if she had been transplanted into a tropical oasis. The fears of the city above seemed distant.
"Do you like it?" Henry asked finally speaking up.
"Very much," she admitted, "It's ethereal. Do you know why the stones glow so brightly?"
"No. I never thought to wonder. And I had no one to ask. My mother brought me down here a few times before she died, but I was so little. I hardly remember it," Henry released his hand to rub his neck. He didn't want to talk about his mother. "If you like this, you'll love my favorite part."
Ella understood what he was talking about when they reached a giant lake in the middle of the caverns. The phosphorescence illuminated the massive cave structure with stalactites jutting and bats fluttering. But the water was clear and even the glowing rocks were imbedded on the bottom of the lake.
After Henry stripped down to his underclothes he dived into the water. Ella took his lead and removed her dress to follow him into the lake. Some of her white slip clung to her body while her skirts were like dove's wings gliding wide with each stroke of her arms. The erie stillness of the surface became distorted as they swam. Above and below them the phosphorescent stones shone like stars and the two of them floated among the heavens.
"Henry?" Ella asked.
"Yes."
She asked a question that wouldn't leave her mind since he'd first appeared that evening, "Why me? Why did you bring me here?"
"You really have no idea how beautiful you are." Henry swam over to Ella and gathered her in his arms.
"Stop teasing. I'm being serious. You hardly know me."
"But I do know you. You are the crazy girl who jumped off a waterfall. The brave girl who snuck into the ball. And the loveliest thing I have ever seen."
"You truly like those things about me?"
"I spend my days with people who think to much and do too little. I'd like to use my time living life with people who live it as well. Someone brave and exciting and real. Someone like you." As Ella locked onto his molting brown eyes, her heart began to beat erratically.
"And there you have lost me. How can you not be living as long as you have breathe in your lungs? You've not known hunger or violence or fear. What is there to make you seek some fantasy?" She fretted over his motivations. Is he playing me, Ella wondered, what could he possibly want?
"I'd rather take all the world's ills than to live without choice. Can I cannot choose you? Can I not have my fantasy?" He took her hand in his and ran his lips over her knuckles.
Ella smiled. "I'd give myself to you a thousand times over if only to cure your pain. But I am not a goddess."
"Look around you. Are we not gods right now? As we float among the heavens?"
"And if you--
Henry's lips found on hers in a passionate kiss. As he cut off her words he sent all thoughts running out of her head. Ella was swept up in the purity of the act. She focused on it: her first kiss.
When her senses came around, she pushed herself away from him. "We are not gods. Although we can dream any fantasy we desire. You are a Prince and I am just some girl."
Grabbing her dress, she hurried out of the lake into the tunnel.
"Ella wait!" Henry called after her.
Fleeing the area, she didn't stay to listen. Instead she payed attention to getting out of there as quickly as possible. She couldn't stand to hear his sweet whispers or gaze into his honeyed eyes or taste his kind lips. It would never be real, no matter what her heart said. Her heart! Damn her heart, she could not care for him so deeply already for all this pain to be possible.
With her dress still in hand, she fled through the streets to-- to where? Where was her home? Not their cottage or the apartment. Her mother and Charles were dead. And Thomas might as well be. At least she still had her father. With him she still had a home.
Making her way to Madame Valerie's estate, Ella thought about why she fled the Prince so forcibly. She knew he hadn't done anything wrong. She hadn't done anything wrong either. Still she felt a deep fear stuffed with guilt. The situation was too similar to Charles and the hateful Elizabeth. He'd let his heart run away with him like Ella feared she was doing as well. All her senses told her danger, and that she should remember the axe, the blank look on Elizabeth's face, the chaos afterwards. Yes, Ella could do without love. But that did not mean she could live without fantasy. Henry was hers.
As she approached the estate, she heard music still coming from the ballroom. It no longer intrigued her, although it did mean that Madame Valerie was occupied so Ella would be able to slip unnoticed upstairs. She snuck around the garden to the servants entrance. She paused as she heard laughing.
On the steps before the door, sat Miss Mary and her father sharing a pint. Both looked tipsy but Ella was glad that her father looked more happy than sad drunk. They greeted Ella as she approached.
"Oh look at the state of you! Have you fallen into the river? I guess you won't need a bath," Miss Mary giggled.
"I think--I think Ella went to get and got rebaptized," her father said laughing at his own joke. Miss Mary burst out laughing along with him. Ella smiled glad that they were enjoying themselves.
"Papa, can I talk to you alone?" Ella asked.
Miss Mary nodded and got up with Francis helping her along in his own ineffective drunkenness. She stumbled away giggling.
"She is nice. I like her," her father admitted.
"I do too. But I need to talk to you about something."
"About Lord Emery."
"No! Why? Never mind.
Are you happy here? Is this what you want? To be with Madame Valerie?"
"My sweet angel," he began, "No I really suppose not. But... but I have to pay for my mistakes. Grownups have to do those sort of things. I have to make it right."
"Would mama really want you to do this?"
"She was royalty. She never told anyone but you figure those things. I took her from that life. And I killed her. I killed her child, our child. God, I messed up. I love you so much angel. Trust me, okay? It's all going to work out."
"Okay, papa. We'll stay."
For hours Ella sat with him on the steps. They talked and cried but they also smiled and laughed. They recalled years past before the darkness descended, when their family was whole. It seemed surreally distant like she couldn't remember the girl she once was. Ella started seeing her age. She forgot about happy endings and instead focused on just going on.
Author's Note:
Heads up- next chapter we go to what Robin and Thomas have been up to, but don't worry we'll get back to Ella soon!