The Non British Princess

Part 43

King William and his wife Queen Cathrine announced the start of the ballroom dances, and we were all told to partner up.
I looked to find Thomas, hoping we could dance like we had in the lessons together, but when my eyes fell on him I saw he already had a partner.

The girl he was with was one I hadn't seen before, but she was tall and gorgeous. The girl had long dark brown hair and held herself with confidence. The dress she was in was dark blue, as close to black as you could get and she stood out amongst the sea of silver, white and blue.

I could see as she laughed at the prince, light and enticing, putting a hand on his chest as she pulled him onto the dance floor.

"A little jealous of Natalia?"

I turned to Archie, seeing him watch as I had been staring at Thomas and the girl on his arm.

Archie took my hand to dance and effortlessly started to sway to the music, "Who is she? She's not in the selection." I ask and eye the girl cautiously.

"Natalia is the French Princess. She's such a flirt and has been crushing on Thomas for years. But it's nothing to worry about he's not interested in her." Archie explained and we turned around so I could see them again, seeing Thomas smiling at the girl who looked like she was about to pull him in for a kiss.

I scowled and looked back at Archie, "Doesn't look that way."

"Trust me, they would have got together ages ago if he did. Natalia knows he's doing the selection, I think she's acting out of jealousy." Archie explained, but it didn't make me feel any better.

I look over to her dancing with the prince, "She's so pretty."

Of course there has to be a French Princess clawing for Thomas's attention. And she has to be just as drop dead gorgeous as him.

"But Thomas thinks your prettier." Archie says and the compliment takes me by surprise.

"I don't think so." I say quietly and purse my lips, seeing Natalia push her head to his chest.

"It's ok to be jealous, I know you like Thomas a lot." Archie says and I sigh knowingly.

I nod, "I do, I really do." I say truthfully, but Archie seems to have his attention elsewhere. He is eyeing something, or someone behind us.

"Archie? Who are you looking-" I turn around and see the girl he'd been looking at throughout our dance who was also looking back at him with a blush across her cheeks, "Lola?!"

Archie quickly gripped me tighter to shut me up and I saw his eyes light up at her name. I can tell I was right by the way he squirmed.

"You and Lola? Seriously? That's so cute, I didn't think you were the type to date." I say in an excited whisper to him and he shrugs.

"That's the thing, I'm not. I dunno, she's just..." He glances over to where Lola's dancing with a guard, "Different."

"What about the selection? Is that even allowed?" I ask, wondering how Thomas would react to this. Did Lola even like Thomas, or did she only like the prince I was dancing with currently.

"I don't know." Archie's face looked concerned now, "Thomas will probably kill me if he knew I had been flirting with one of the selected."

"But you flirted with me, how is it any different?" I ask, trying to understand their situation. Archie had done some playful flirting with most of the selected girls and it didn't seem to matter.

"Thomas knew I wasn't serious then, I didn't actually like you like that, or any of the other selected really, it's just my personality. It's different with Lola." His voice was soft, quiet as he didn't want anyone catching on to our conversation.