Will smiled a bit oddly. "I would not like to be the person you're angry with right now."
I laughed and I smothered my laugh with the back of my hand to my lips. Will smiled in an oddly victorious fashion.
"Alas! She cracks! This is a great accomplishment" my giggled simmered down and he leaned against the door frame. "I've made you laugh!"
"Don't expect an award to come along with it, Princy"
He smiled at me. "Your laughter is prize enough, my darling"
I looked at him and thought over everything I heard the girls say about him. Alma said Junebug loved him, Junebug said he was a good man, Esmeralda basically glorified him, Alma agreed, Junebug nodded. So I suppose in the way that he smiled it wasn't so hard to believe all those things they said about him. I mimicked his stance, leaning on the other side of the door frame, crossing my arms, and thought about my endless childhood crush on him. I really had excellent taste.
"What brings you to my humble dwelling?" I asked.
"I was hoping you were still dressed," he said and pulled a rose out from behind him. "I've come to whisk you away. I suggest you put some shoes on"
I don't want to be whisked away.
My head said.
Shut up and go get a pair of shoes.
My heart said.
I think you all have a pretty good idea as to what happened. I slipped on the closet pair of flats and thought that maybe it wouldn't be so bad to get whisked away. Besides, I won't be here much longer anyway.
***
"Where are we going?" I was reaching out into the darkness with the rose in my hand unable to decipher directions.
"That's it. When is your next birthday?" WIll declared. "I shall buy you a dictionary."
My eyebrows furrowed. "What do I need a dictionary for?"
"So that you can look up the definition of the word 'surprise' because its obvious you're oblivious to its implication"
I made a face I'm pretty sure he didn't see and continued walking. Will had his hands over my eyes and while I was confident he wasn't leading me to certain death I wasn't very certain he was stearing me away from objects that would result in my tripping, falling, or bumping into. Will refused to tell me where we were going until we got there and the curiosity was driving me insane.
"How do I know you're not planing on killing him"
He laughed. "You think I'm leading to certain death"
"You never know"
Will chuckled. "Well then," he said quietly. "If you insist"
He removed his hands from my eyes and I was taken back by the sight of the library at night. It looked like this magical, mysterious, yet ominous look to it. The only light came from the moon through the numerous windows scattered across the library walls.
"Why are we here?" I asked.
Will walked over to one of the book shelves and ran his fingers across several bindings. "I need to find something here first"
"Like what?" I walked over to one of the books shelves.
"It would not a surprise now would it?"
A shelf on the far side of the library caught my eye. It sat to the left of one of the enormous windows and I looked up, scanning what must have been hundreds of book bindings. I thumbed them their bindings running my fingers down the shelves.
"Why do you insist on only going out at night?" I asked.
"Because," he sounded like he was trying to move something. "I like being with you when no one else is around"
I pulled out a leather bound book.
"It makes it easier. Besdies, there's just something about you that makes it easy to be around."
I stopped, waiting for him to continue.
"Its quite hard to explain you see," Will continued. "I'm a very private person but I feel as though its easy to share the very private parts of me. You've seen me ride my horse in the middle of the night. You've met my grandparents, whom I nearly worship. I do not know. There is just something about you Alessa that makes it easy to be myself around."
I bit my nail and snuck a look behind me. He was moving around some books on a shelf.
'Where is that bloody book?" he muttered.
I didn't exactly know how to feel about what he said. So I sat on the nearest arm chair and opened up the book I picked out. I smiled immediately. It was a book of fairytales. I loved fairytales. I loved Beauty and the Beast, I read the French version once, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, all of them. Every single one of them.
As a little girl Leslie had a big book of fairytales with beautiful water color pictures. I used to stare at it all day. Unto a flood happened around five years back and the book was destroyed.
"What's that?" I looked up and Will had a book in his hands.
He walked over to me and I picked it up so he could see the cover and smiled.
"Its book of fairytales."
He raised an eyebrow. "You like fairytales?" he inquired.
"Oh I love them," i stroked the pages of the book. "Every single one of them."
"You mean Jack and the Giant Beanstalk, Aladdin, Pinnochio, Aurore and Aimee, The Frog Prince tyype thing?"
I nodded.
He smiled a bit and opened up his book. "You have such child like interests."
"Do not!"
He laughed and pulled a set of keys from the book. "Do too"
"How did you do that?"
"Do what"
I pointed. 'The keys"
"Oh" he showed the book to me which didn't look much like a book at all on the inside. It was hollow. "Its not a real book"
"That's genius"
Will grinned. "My idea"
"Calm down Princy before I pop your head to get the air out"
"Come," he said. "I have yet to show you your surprise"
****
I felt the walls around me, cold and hard like stone. The steps beneath me felt like they were turning and Will continued to keep his hands over my eyes. It was dark where ever we were.
"Are we there now?" I asked, feeling ahead of me,
"Almost Alessa"
I kept walking until I felt my foot stop short. There was a landing and I stopped walking.
"We're here?"
"Yes," Will leaned in and whispered. "Don't you dare open your eyes Miss Alessa"
I smiled. "There goes my evil plan to open my eyes. Will, you've exposed me"
I could sense him smiling. He released his hands from my eyes and I kept them shut, squeezing my eyelids tight. He held my hands gently pulling me closet into what must've been a hallway. I felt him careful touch my wrist then let go of my hands. I kept my eyes shut and felt around me carefully for a wall but I must have been too far. I heard the jingle of keys and a door unlocked.
"Alright," Will took my hands again and guided me further. "When I say open, open. Okay?"
"Okay."
He pulled me further into the room and I already felt the shift in the air. it smelled like burning candles and there was a warm scent roaming about.
"Alright" Will held my hands. "Open"
I lifted my eyelids and immediately the air was knocked from my lungs. My formed an open o but I couldn't muster a proper sentence.
"Oh Will...."
It was a music room. A grand, beautiful music room. There was a row of cellos, and violins. A stunning grand piano, and a beautiful harp. I walked over it and gently touched its strings with my fingers. There was enormous fire place and on its mantle sat picture frames with music sheets inside.
There were beautiful chairs, a couch, and a few little tables spread across the room. A book shelf took up an entire wall and within its shelves were books filled with music sheets and information on famous musicians. The curtains were drawn over the enormous grand windows, they were a dark wine color.
There was a small side table with a vase and next to it, standing up was a violin probably older than me. There were drums, and trumpets, and saxophones. But how unfortunate it all was that everything looked untouched for ages.
"I found this place once," I looked at Will and he thoughtfully waved a hand looking around. "When I was roaming through the palace. The keys were hanging on the door knob. So this was my hideaway as a child before I was old enough to ride away on a horse"
I looked around in awe, still speechless. "Its beautiful Will. I don't know what to say."
"Do you like it?" he asked.
I almost laughed. "I love it"
"Well then its yours"
I looked at him, and Will came over to me as graceful as I'd ever seen him. "What do you mean"
"I mean," Will took my hand and dropped a skeleton key in my palm. "Its yours. You can come up here. Whenever you'd like. Its my gift to you."
I was already shaking my head, handing the key back. "Will I didn't even do anything. I don't deserve this-"
"Are you trying to break my heart?" he asked and though his facial expression was quite seriious and thoughtful there was a glint of amusement in his voice. "Its a gift" he closed my fingers around the key and said no more.
"Why are you giving this to me?"
"For singing so beautifully. And," Will confessed. "For being so kind to my grandparents. It was a true testiment of your character. My grandparents are my world and I cannot express to you with words how much it meant to me that you showed them so much tenderness"
"But isn't that what you're supposed to do?" I told him. "Be kind to everyone you meet"
Will smiled at me and my heart did strange things. "I suppose that's what makes you so special Alessa. What you find as obligation and a given others would find extraordinary and rare. You're truly a gem aren't you?"
"Are you trying to flatter me, Will?"
Will laughed freely and the room was filled with his warmth. "Alas, Alessa can see right through me"
I smiled. "You're like paper, so easy to read."
Will crinkled his nose. It was oddly the cutest thing I'd ever seen I almost laughed. "Paper? I'll have you know I've been referred to as quite attractive."
I laughed and the sound bounced off the walls of the music room. Will was still holding my hands and I felt the edges of the key dig into my palm but for some reason I didn't mind so much. We were both so still, so quiet for a moment. For a second there was nothing else but him and I and the rest of the world didn't exist.
My feelings were shifting and changing. I did not know how to feel. I felt this kind of energy that burning in my heart, too strongly to ignore. I didn't know where it came from all I knew was that it was its strongest when I was around Will.
Tomorrow night I'll be on the Report and that will mark my being here six weeks which means I'll be gone six weeks after. For some reason I felt a shift and a change in my timeline. What if the Prince wanted me to stay longer? What if...what if...what if I wanted to stay longer?
A week from Friday will be the Illean Italian Alliance ball and I was invited. That means that Silvia and Adsila will probably be giving us our challenge tomorrow, little do they know I'm alreayd invited.
I kind of just looked at him and took in his apperance. Dark hair, beautiful eyes that always seemed to change color, tan skin, lovely face. I just.....I just...
I don't know!
I couldn't find any words for me to speak and I couldn't find myself moving, either. Maybe Will felt the same way too, but he looked at me thoughtfully. His eyes went from my eyes to my cheeks to my nose then lingered over my lips until he met my eyes again.
On another day I would have called it uncomfortable or weird but now it didn't feel that way.
"Would it be absolutely absurd," he whispered a bit breathlessly. "if I said I wanted to kiss you"
My heart was beating so fast it nearly cracked open my chest.
"I've never kissed anyone before and I kind of don't want to." I amitted.
Will blinked, pulled back a bit and looked at me. I suddenly felt embarrassed. "You're kidding me, right?"
"No," i said, feeling the need to defend my self. "Is there something wrong with that"
"Honestly there shouldn't be I'm just....just surprised"
"Surprised?" I said. "What's so surprising about that?"
Will shook his head. "No I just...Alessa you telling me that a girl like you has never attracted a member of the opposite gender before? Enough for them to want to kiss you?"
I put my hands on my hips, suddenly irritated. 'Yes, many times before I just never let them"
Will's out burst of laughter shocked me and it shocked me even more when he turned away.
"A bit arrogant are we?"
My cheeks flushed. "I'm not arrogant. I didn't mean it like that I-" Will's bemused expression was getting on my nerves. "Well who said I wanted to kiss you anyway! I have better things to kiss!"
He smiled even wider. "Like what? Do tell me my darling"
I walked over to him, grabbing a throw pillow ont he nearest chair and swatted his arm with it.
Still smiling he looked at me. "Ouch"
"Quit calling me that! I'm not your anything!"
Will raised an eyebrow. 'So you keep insisting."
"Don't be a jerk" i scolded him. "its not very attractive"
His shoulders shook and he continued to smile at me, "Do tell me, Alessa. Why haven't you let a man kiss you before?"
I turned my back to him, crossing my arms and glidded to the other side of the room. "Because I never wanted some random boy to come over and decide he wanted kiss me. I wanted it to be spectacular. Magical. Something special. A boy will kiss many girls in his lifetime but a girl only has her first once" I sat in the seat at the piano. "I wanted it to be memorable"
"Seems like reason enough. SO. Fairytales" Will clasped his hands together and rose from his seat. "You like fairytales"
I touched one of the keys to the piano and nodded.
"Do you have a favorite?"
"Beauty and the Beast"
Will walked over and he placed his elbows on the top of the piano. "Why?"
"Because Belle or Beauty or whoever you wish to call her, was an honest character. She loved a man that the world saw only as a hideous beast , yet she saw a beautiful heart. I aspire to be a woman like her." I touched another key. "I have these friends back home that while I love them to bits and pieces and every part of their beautiful hearts its all about caste climbing to them. Sometimes I fell like that is not love. While I'm not found on the idea of love I don't want to marry a man because he's rich"
I rubbed my locket and suddenly thought of Thomas and Emilie.
"I would want to a marry a man that I would love if he were the richest man in the world that drowned me in jewels and luxuries all day or if there wasn't a penny to his name and the only thing he could drown me in were his kisses and unconditional love. I feel like Belle was that kind of woman. I want to be that way. If I'm going to love someone it has to be real."
"You speak so profoundly"
"Well I would hope so," i said. "I feel very strongly about this"
"I know"
It was quiet again and the silence that descended upon the roomwas that of the uncomfortable kind. Finally Will extended his hand to me and said,
"You must be exhausted"
"I am" I said and took his hand.
"I'll bring you back to my room. And on the way back I'll show you how to get here"
And so he did. It turns out that once you leave the library instead of turning right like I always do I turn left and I'll come to this room with four doors, two on either side and a window on another that leads down seperate hallways. I take the one closest to the window and farthest to left and go down tha narrow hallway past a few rooms and at the very last corner turn right, then left and go down the corridor. There's a a secret passage behind what looks like paintin and I go up those stairs. Bam. Music room.
Will didn't release my hand the whole time and I didn't ask him to either. Finally when he brought me back to my bedroom he kissed my cheek and said that his day was filled with meetings and that most likely I wouldn't see him.
I fell asleep that night dreaming of secret palace passages and a Prince with dazzling powers.
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Alas my beautiful readers! Its 12:03 am in NYC but I had to get this chapter up! Have fun with your dosage of Wilessa ;)
Btw its been voted on and I also agree Wilessa is the best ship name! While Wilessandra is adorable and beautiful its far too long. It's a mouthful let's face it. Plus its really cute cuz Will's nickname for her is Alessa, in fact he only calls her that, and we all know Alessandra hates it which makes it even cuter!
Wilessa ppl.
Wilessa?
Wilessa.
Idk its just adorable. Idk idk lol.
SO ily guys thanks again for reading you're my world! Until next time my selectioners!!!!