The maidens passed by him and marched into their chairs, scattering white petals on the red carpet beneath them. He wasn’t going to trip them up this time. This time, he only had eyes for one person in the Ballroom.
He watched her as she came down the aisle, her face radiant with happiness and more beautiful than he had ever seen it. She carried a bouquet of white roses and there was a sprinkling of forget-me-nots the color of her eyes peeking from her honey-colored hair. The blue rose pendant nestled at the hollow of her throat. Their eyes met, and she smiled at him, a smile of promise and of joy. In a few moments…
"Do you love her?" Balcos asked, nervously hooking a finger under his stiff collar, a gesture uncharacteristic of a prince.
Keith held back a chuckle. "Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that question?" he asked Balcos wryly.
"I wouldn’t be standing here if I didn’t love her with all my heart." Balcos answered, gazing at Allura as she gave Hunk a small curtsy when he kissed her hand.
Keith shot him a glance then looked pointedly back at Allura. "You better not be talking about that ‘her,’" he said.
Balcos held back a chuckle of his own. "Don’t worry. I know exactly who it is I want." He frowned, remembering how he almost lost Kayla just five days ago, then placed a hand on Keith’s shoulder. "Thank you, Keith."
Then Allura was before Keith and he was
kneeling down and kissing her hand. He looked up to find her eyes twinkling
with laughter. He returned her smile and escorted her to her place by the
altar. After giving her elbow a gentle squeeze, he returned to his place
by Balcos and watched the entrance of the beautiful bride, Kayla, on the
arm of her proud father.
"Um," Lance answered, chewing thoughtfully on a cream puff. "But of course, as usual, we were much smarter."
He looked around at the Ballroom. The chairs had been cleared away during the banquet at the dining hall, and the dancing had begun. Admiral Tagor had swept a protesting Nanny into a waltz, much to Leland’s chuckling amusement. Hunk was laughing right along with Leland where they both stood beside the buffet table. Coran was grinning at them as well.
In the middle of the dance floor, the newlyweds, Kayla and Balcos danced a magical waltz of their own. They were staring into each others’ eyes, eyes shining with love.
Allura was standing alone on the edge of the dance
floor, watching the pair with a wistful look in her eyes. Lance frowned
thoughtfully then grinned to himself as he saw who was approaching the
Princess from behind.
"That was you?" she asked, covering her mouth as she chuckled at the memory of the falling maidens. She sobered, trying to read his eyes. "You knew about Balcos, didn’t you?"
He nodded at her solemnly.
"Why didn’t you tell me anything? I didn’t even know about Kayla," she said reproachfully, turning her face away from him.
"Because up to the very end, none of us were really sure about anything," he pointed out. "We had no proof." He paused, hesitating. "Worried much?"
"No," she said, finally breaking into a smile and facing him to gaze earnestly into his eyes. "I trusted you. I knew you would do something to make things right. You always do."
Touched more than he cared to admit, Keith carefully cleared his throat, emotion threatening to make his voice croak. "Would you trust me to lead you into a waltz without humiliating the both of us in front of all these people?" he asked, taking her hand and bowing before her.
She laughed. "Only if you promise to keep your toes out of the way!"
"You’re on!" he quipped, finally giving into the
urge to sweep her into his arms and whirl her to the music – if he was
lucky, maybe, soon enough, for the rest of their lives.
Lance grinned back. "Yep, we did a real good job."