“Bella…Bella!” A high pitch voice penetrated the trance I had been in. “Finally, I found you; I’ve been looking all over for you. How long have you been out here?” I tried to remember when exactly I had drifted over to my favorite place on the grounds. I couldn’t quite remember, All I could remember was thinking of his smile, his eyes, and his voice. I couldn’t believe I was in love.

“Alice, you’ll never believe what has happened!”

“Oh! Please tell me it is what I think it is!”

“Yep, he’s going to talk to father tonight and I just know he’s going to say yes!”

“Oh my goodness your getting married!” The thought of me walking down the aisle, brought a goofy smile to my face. I couldn’t even believe my luck. Most girls in my situation had to marry someone 20 or more years older then them. Most girl don’t meet there potential husbands before the wedding, plus Jacob was amazing. He was smart, funny, and handsome. Although I had only met him a handful of times I was in love. Tonight he was going to ask father for my hand and I was sure he would say yes. Jacob had money and he was a duke. Tonight…Tonight… Oh that’s right the ball that’s why Alice was here.

“We’ll talk about it later don’t you have a job to be doing.” I smiled at her, glad that she was sharing my excitement of the future wedding.

“That’s right; I have to get ready for tonight.” Unfortunately that’s when we had to stop talking about my new found love life. For two reasons. One: no one knew about my relationship with Jacob and two, there would be other people helping me getting ready. It seemed to take forever to get ready for the ball. The gown was way too extravagant for my taste and I hated all the make-up that covered my face. Alice offered to go down with me, but I told her I wanted just a few minutes to myself. Finally I got enough courage to go down to where the ball was taking place.

 I turned to thank the person who caught me. My thank you died in my throat when I saw this beautiful stranger. His bright green eyes were memzmorising. By the few red-brown strands that hung beneath the wig a top his head I could tell what a beautiful color it really was. Finally I was able to force a few syllables out of my throat, I could only hope it was something intelligent.