The Queen of Kane and her brother agreed to attend the Kingdom of Bow’s Royal Ball. They arrived with six white horses pulling the black carriage. Joanna spent the day before her ball entertaining them and a few of the others who had never been to her castle before.
William, the Duke of Seine, had declined her invitation. He told her in a letter that he was content to be marrying. The note was formal in tone except the signature said:
“May I wish for you happiness in your life’s journey. I pray this never changes.”
Joanna wrote him back wishing him a happy marriage. She thanked him for his kind remarks that Maria conveyed to her. She wrote:
“I must acknowledge the joy I felt when your letter arrived. I believe your upcoming marriage will certainly be met with success as you, dearest William, will be the best of husbands, as you will it.”
*
The morning of the ball a wind blew, clearing the rain clouds from her kingdom. The day of the ball, the Grand Duke arrived and so did the pretty Lady Laura from the Kingdom of Ott. Joanna wondered if she was the reason Samuel stopped writing to her. She missed Samuel. Joanna did not see the Prince of Ott among the arriving guests. She looked for him but he had not arrived. He accepted the invitation and it would be unlike Samuel to not keep a promise. Joanna fretted because the ball was that evening yet he still had not arrived by the late afternoon, and she assumed he was not coming. She could not worry over it as she had to attend to her guests.
The entire kingdom was excited by the ball and the fireworks that were planned for the evening. Queen Joanna had ordered fireworks to be set off in every region. The Older Royals attended her ball, but the fashionable young ones did not. She thought that Princess Ella must have told her friends to stay away.
*
The staff served the guests a fine dinner, and the white marble-topped tables and silver bowls and platters made the dining room elegant. The guests were treated to the finest beef from the town’s butchers and game from the castle’s hunters. For dessert, the chef had made an elegant honey tart and topped it in a sweet cream. After dinner, Joanna had to change from her dinner attire into her evening gown.
She had chosen an ivory colored dress with an expensive gold trim. Maria expressed how beautiful she looked and Joanna confessed that this dress was her favorite. She had sought out a dress maker from a distant town called Randele as she admired his skill when she wore one of his dresses one Christmas.
Her ladies-in-waiting helped her fix her hair. Maria took a key from Joanna’s hand and opened the box on the desk. She took out a gold necklace and placed it on the Queen, and then closed the clasp.
Joanna took out her favorite lip balm and dabbed it onto her lips and looked at herself in the full length mirror in her bed chamber. She looked like a royal queen. Maria made her way to the Ballroom and informed the staff that Queen Joanna was ready for the ball to begin. She had news to report when she returned.
“I understand a certain Prince from Ott has arrived. I knew he would come!”
“I am happy he has arrived,” Joanna confided. She felt a tremble as his name was mentioned and then the feeling was gone.
The ball began when the Queen arrived. The couples on the dance floor swirled around like water caught in an unseen current. The large room looked majestic with a dark wood floor against the white wall as a backdrop to the dancers. Samuel took off his travel coat and waited until the first official dance of the night was over before he entered the ball room. He saw that Joanna was dancing with her uncle, the Grand Duke from Cline. Prince Samuel began the evening by dancing with his cousin, Lady Laura, who wore a black evening dress.
Joanna noticed Samuel on the dance floor. He looked well but tired, she decided. He wore a black jacket and he looked dashing. He did not dance much the rest of the night.
Joanna danced many dances as it was her ball and she had to ensure an equal amount of attention for her guests. She remained at the ball later than expected because she had not spoken with Samuel and she waited for him.
At the late hour, Prince Samuel finally approached. He bowed to her and kissed her hand in an elegant gesture. She was surprised as he had never acted so formally to her before. Samuel stared at her and his eyes reminded her of the turbulent sea.
“May I have a dance, Your Royal Highness?”
“I would be honored.” She took his hand and followed him to the dance floor.
The orchestra played a song from long ago — the melody once discovered was familiar in a moment.
“You look regal tonight.”
“And this is a compliment?” Her pulse beat steady as they danced.
“I am on my best behavior tonight; I have something I must tell you,” he said.
“I am happy that you have finally asked me to dance. This is our first dance together.”
“I am afraid we will not have many other dances.”
She noticed her pulse beat quickly as he spoke.
“Why not?”
“My uncle, the King of Ott, is a calculating man. I am sure you would not know, it is a secret, the wealth of our nation is not as it was in the past. I married my late wife to help my uncle gain more gold. The King has informed me that I must marry again.”
Joanna thought, Marry? Images of Princess Ella and then Lady Laura with Samuel danced across her mind.
“Which princess does he intend for you to wed?”
“I am to marry Princess Kay of Atonia whom I have met twice. I saw her last year at my relation’s wedding. She is around my age and because her father has died, she is looking for a husband.”
The words pierced her like a hunter’s arrow.
“You say it so matter-of-factly. May you refuse?”
“I may, but the King has made some excellent points in favor of the marriage.”
The beat of her pulse betrayed her but Samuel did not listen.
“And this is how we are to live our lives?”
“I am not a ruler. I am a soldier. I do as I am told, Joanna.”
Samuel was blameless; it was an order from the King.
“Would it help if I gave you some of my gold?” she asked.
“It might, but why would you do that?”
Samuel would be married off by the King. He would wed. Her lips parted as if they would reveal her love.
“I hate to see a friend treated so terribly.”
“Is that all I am to you?”
Throbbing, beating, her pulse raced.
“I cannot bear for you to marry!”
Joanna looked at Samuel, who studied her like a gardener cultivated his flower.
“Once, a long while ago, I thought, I hoped you were falling in love with me. I realized this was not the case when I saw you with the Duke that day in the courtyard.”
“He is marrying Princess Ella, the very one you refused to marry.”
Pounding, pulsing, fearing heart! Marry me?
“I would not marry her because I did not love her like I love you! I would have married her until I saw you behind the glass. I could not marry her after I saw you. You are so lovely. I fell in love with you at first sight. The day I kissed your lips with the balm that I made, I prayed to God to let you live, that I might gaze upon you alive.”
“But I loved another.”
“How I love you and I thought that if I could spend time with you, then somehow you would grow to love me.”
Marry me.
“I think that I have.”
The Prince from Ott stopped dancing and pulled her closer — pulsing, racing, his heart beating.
Marry me!
Samuel whispered to Joanna, “You are the most beautiful woman that I have ever seen. Your hair is so dark, and your skin so white. It is like the first snow, snow white.”
“Only one other person has called me snow white.” Joanna closed her eyes.
“Was it David?”
“Yes,” she answered as she looked at him.
“I envy him. I wish that I could gain your love. I would marry you.”
The words vibrated from his throat as a hunter’s arrow vibrated in his bow.
“Are you asking me?”
“Yes.” He paused then added, “You could save me from a miserable life.”
“Like your kiss saved me.”
“I would not have you marry me for pity.”
“Nor would I marry you unless I love you, my Samuel!”
Her heart drummed, raced, beating rapidly.
Samuel stopped the dance as he studied her eyes. “Are you telling me that you love me?”
“Yes! I want to marry you!”
“Then you agree to be my bride?”
“Yes! I want to marry you tonight!”
“You have made me the happiest man!”
Samuel disregarded protocol as he kissed her lips. His kiss began anew the pulsing of his heart — racing, drumming, and aching. The target had been within his sight for so long.
Her kiss returned desire mingled with love, ignited by his own. She became his the moment his kiss saved her soul from its solitude. Joanna understood their love had been awakening since he kissed her at the first moment they met. The feeling of discovery surprised her because the feeling of familiarity blinded her for so long.
Joanna listened to the music of his heart which matched the beat of her pulse.
*
Prince Samuel and Queen Joanna were united in marriage during the Christmas season when the first snow covered the ground. He knew that she belonged to him and he belonged to her, which was what he prayed for the moment his lips touched hers so long ago. Love penetrated their hearts as an unyielding example of the reign of God.
The kiss he bestowed on her lips when he saw her without the glass between them was his promise to love her for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, forsaking all others, until death would they part. When Samuel made these vows and his love for Joanna was professed, he realized that when God breathed life into man, He reserved love until Adam kissed Eve’s lips. His desire fulfilled seared her into him — branded in undying love. The breath of their kiss was the power of their love sealed with the kiss of life itself. The rapid pulsing of their hearts became as one as his lips touched hers. A thousand words of love became “I do.” True love, like power, was given, not taken.