Word Count: 48,074
Summary of Events:
Éoin greeted Alina when she arrived and took her on a tour of the property before offering to take her on a ride and being appalled to learn she didn't know how to ride a horse. He helped Alina into the saddle and got her comfortable sitting on a horse before leading her around on a tour of the countryside that included a stop in the market where the people of Derwynton were more than pleased to see her. Later that evening at the ball Éoin asked Alina for a dance, and she accepted . . .
Excerpt of the Day:
Her gaze was focused on him; Éoin couldn't help but return her gaze and examine the intricacies of her blue eyes.
They were a rich blue, a dark blue, not the pale blue he'd heard horses eyes could get if they were of bicoloured stock. There was texture to them, it wasn't a constant shade of blue, but there was a deep dark blue, light almost sky blue, and a perfect mixture of the two, and they all mixed like drawn lines that weren't necessarily straight, but criss-crossed over each other.
Éoin didn't know if he'd ever seen a more lovely shade of blue than her eyes, which remained fixed on his eyes throughout the whole dance.
Only once they'd finished did Éoin break gaze with her and discover to his astonishment that they had been the only couple who'd danced. He felt warmth rush to his face, everyone had seen his gaze riveted on hers for the whole dance.
It was almost as if his mortification at having been watched by everyone else wakened his whole body to things that had drifted into oblivion over the course of the dance: his heart was pounding, almost as if it were ready to burst out of his ribcage, throbbing deep in his ears, his sides were heaving as if he'd danced twenty jigs; he didn't know what was going on, but a simple lively waltz had never had this effect on him before.
He looked at Queen Alina, whose face was also flushed. She didn't look at him.
"Should you like to walk about and cool off Your Majesty?" Éoin asked.
"Yes please," Queen Alina replied. She didn't look at him and she sounded breathless.
Éoin guided her out of the ballroom. She slid away from his hand as soon as they were outside. He felt like he ought to say something to her, but he had no clue what to say at all. He felt rather mortified himself and completely disinclined to return to the festive atmosphere of the ballroom.
He followed her at a distance as she walked about the main floor for a time before they ended up on the second floor in the Upper East Stateroom. She sat down on one of the couches and looked at him.
"I've never been so exhausted by one dance," Éoin whispered.
Queen Alina nodded.
Éoin took a seat beside her on the couch. He wanted to grab her hand, but yet he didn't think that would be terribly appropriate, and he didn't even know why.
After some time Queen Alina's head sagged and she tried to rest it on the couch somewhere. Éoin brought his arm around behind her and guided her head onto his shoulder.
He couldn't help but be acutely aware of where her head was pressing on his shoulder, and if she didn't seem so positively weary he might've pushed her away and fled the room.
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