Ch. 8 Swings (Gregory)

After I had said goodnight to Anjanique, I went back to my rooms and fell flat on my bed. I laid there for a few minutes before there was a rap on my door. "Gregory, may I come in? I want to talk to you about tomorrow." It was Mother standing at the door. What was I suppose to do? Tell her 'No. Go away.'? I sat up and told the door man to let her in.

She came in and I stood. "Yes Mother?" I asked her.

"Gregory, tomorrow afternoon I would like you to go to Anjanique's etiquette class with her. They are going to be working on dance, and she will need a partner. I have already talked to Simeon and he is fine with you missing your afternoon lessons for one maybe two days."

My mind was spinning. It wasn't that I had never been that close to a girl, because I had; there had been plenty of other balls. It was that I had never been that close to Anjanique, and she wasn't really one of those people who just let other people touch her. I counted to ten in my head to keep myself from screaming and then calmly—or at least I think it was calmly—said "Yes Mother. Of course Mother." I was being very formal and I knew it but it was one of those times when I just sort of had to be.

"Thank you Gregory." Mother said as she put her hand on my shoulder. "I thought that Anjanique might feel a little bit more at ease if she was learning to dance with someone she knows fairly well, rather than someone she doesn't know at all." Mother was right; Anne would feel more at ease if she was with someone she knew. At least I hoped she would be. "I also want you to make sure she doesn't over do it on that ankle that she sprained. I know Anjanique can be one of those people who hides pain to please people and I know it is probably sore after that hunt the three of you went on today. Alright Gregory?"

I wondered if I should tell Mother that I had seen Anne not ten minutes ago and that she had said that her ankle was purple. I decided against it and just said "Yes Mother. Help her learn to dance and don't let her over do it on her foot."

"Thank you Gregory. I will see you at breakfast in the morning." I guess in Mother's eyes I was a little kid because she kissed my forehead and said "Good night," before leaving my room. I fell back onto my bed and sighed. I was going to be helping Anjanique learn how to dance. Could I handle that? Could she handle that? Or was this going to ruin everything?



I woke up the next morning, almost dreading that afternoon. I was excited to get to dance with Anjanique, but I didn't know if it was going to make her mad or make her think that I was involved with things I wasn't again. I got dressed brushed my hair and then headed off to get Anjanique for breakfast.

I knocked on her door and Colleen answered it. "She's almost ready you're Highness. Just a moment please sir." She said performing the standard curtsies and such.
Just a minute later Anjanique came out of her room wearing a full length dress. It was a very simple blue dress that laced up the sides and then it was over a simple white over dress that was laced at her wrists.

I kept my mouth shut. The last time I had said anything about what she was wearing I got punched. She took the arm I put out to her, and we started walking to the library for morning lessons. "How's the ankle?" I asked her when I could feel the very slight limp that she giving onto my arm.

"Still purple." I thought about telling her that she didn't have to go to dance lessons and then I decided against it. I knew she would just say it was fine and it was no big deal and that her ankle didn't hurt that bad that it didn't hurt at all, but I had my mind made up. The second she started limping through the dances, whether or not she wanted to stop, I was going to make her. I already felt responsible enough as it is for the sprain, I really, really didn't want it to get any worse.

We walked into the library and I pulled out her chair for her, and she sat. That was the end of ever maybe even getting to talk to her a little bit. Simeon jumped right into our lessons saying that we were going to be studying math today. Unlike history and politics, I suck at math, but Anjanique, that's another story. She was amazing at math and could figure anything out from simple numbers to geometry and word problems. I figured that she was having an enjoyable time showing off to my tutor.

Simeon was impressed. I could tell when they got into a heated battle of multiplication. Simeon would say two numbers and then Anjanique would multiply them in her head and then give the answer back to him. The numbers weren't little either they were big like 67 times 34. Numbers like that. Nothing I could do in my head. I stuck to working from the book Simeon pushed in front of me at the beginning of the lesson and kept quiet until lunch.

When we went down to lunch Anjanique wasn't limping anymore, so maybe she would make it through the dance lesson. We ate in silence. Anjanique did once apologize for what happened during the math lesson and for taking my teacher away from me. She said that it wasn't fair and that it wouldn't happen again. I told her it was fine and not a big deal. It wasn't like I was always going to be sharing a tutor with her. That must have struck a nerve because she didn't say anything else through the rest of lunch.

Not only that, she didn't say anything on the way to her dance lesson either. In fact she barely spoke to me for the next hour and a half. She kept her mouth shut through the first hour of the lesson and only spoke when spoken to.

We went through the motions of the dances that were always done during the Balls that my parents held; dances that court children started learning when they were six. The teacher was surprised at how well Anjanique was picking them up, so she let us go at the hour and a half mark.

Anjanique didn't wait for me. She picked up her skirts and ran out the door. And I mean ran. I tried to follow after her but I completely lost her. I tried her room, but when no one answered and I went in, her room was empty. I didn't even look like she had been back after the dance lesson. I tried to think of where she could have gone. And then it hit me.

I practically ran out of her room, down the stairs, through the kitchen and out the side door of the palace. The side door lead to dirt clearing with a well and a tree with a swing hanging from it. That's where I found her. Sitting on the swing but not really swinging. She was looking at the ground when I walked up to her. I squatted down in front of her and made her look at me. "Hey, are you okay? You ran off really fast."

She looked at me; not smiling but not frowning either. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Anne, you know I know you better than that. Come on what's wrong?" I carefully grabbed her chin and made her look up and not at the ground.

"I…." She was stuttering. I had never heard her do that before. "Its… just….I don't know. I don't know what's wrong with me. And I don't know why I ran out like that. I just did." She almost looked like she was going to cry.

I stood up. "Don't go anywhere. Stay there." I turned and walked back into the kitchen. When I came back out she was still on the swing and I was carrying two cups of hot chocolate.

"Here." I said handing one of them to her. She took it and sipped from it. And then she smiled.

"Thanks." She said as she kept sipping from the cup. I sat down on the ground in front of her.

"Better now?" I asked as I drank from my cup.

"Yeah." She said smiling. She looked up at the sky and then said, "Remember when we used to sit out here for hours while my father was out hunting with your brothers before you were old enough? Swinging and playing marbles?"

I laughed, while standing and taking the cup from her hands. I placed both cups on a bench nearby and walked behind her. I grabbed the ropes that tied the swing to the tree and pulled her back. I leaned in close to her ear before letting her go and whispered "Yes." I let go of the swing and she laughed. I was glad I was making her happy.
I kept pushing her back and forth until cook came out of the kitchen.

"Gregory your Highness, Miss Anjanique," she curtsied and continued. "Supper is almost ready, I would suggest that you two hurry and go change."

As the swing came back to me I grabbed the ropes and slowed Anne to a stop. She slid off the swing and started walking into the palace, and I hurried to catch up with her.

As I caught up with Anjanique I laced my fingers through hers and to my surprise she didn't flinch or pull away like I thought she would. Her eyes darted down to our hands and then back up to me and smiled softly. I walked her back to her room so she could change into dinner attire. Before she walked into her room she turned to me, bit her lip, and then she did something completely unexpected. She kissed me lightly on my cheek, and then ran into her room. I ran quickly off to my room to change, because I knew that the sooner I did, the sooner I could see Anjanique again.