Charles yawns as he looks out over the Gala guests dancing and drinking, the fancy gowns moving by in a rainbow blur of color broken only by the black and white of their dates’ suits. His father was always throwing grand balls and gala events because he liked to show off just how rich they were. Of course, he had to have every wealthy person in the kingdom at all of his parties, so Charles knows everybody present barring the few females who were invited as a plus one. He also knows that striking up a conversation with most of them would be even more boring than standing alone on the edge of the dance floor and watching the swirl of colors.

With another sigh of boredom, Charles gets up to go for a walk and backs his chair straight into someone. He immediately begins to apologize before looking up to see that the person he had backed into was a woman he had never seen before. She is wearing a red velvet ball gown of a design that Charles has never seen before. It drapes down just short of her ankle, cinching at the waist and then flaring out. The sleeves were cinched with black lace and the bosom was raised conservatively to her neck. “No, no,” she says with a voice that almost squeaks, “it’s my fault, I wasn’t paying attention. All the colors on the dance floor, they’re quite dazzling.”

Charles shakes his head and smiles before replying. “Yes, they are. My name is Charles Ward,” he introduces himself with a slight bow, as he raises her hand to his lips, “I don’t think we’ve met.”

The woman smiles politely, her eyes shimmering to match the smile, “I don’t think we have. My name is Laurel.”

“And how came you to be here, Lady Laurel? I thought for sure I would know everybody at this party.” Charles asked, releasing her hand. Laurel gets a slight look of panic on her face and Charles laughs, “A crasher then? Well, I can’t say I blame you, everybody wants to be at my father’s parties, I personally find them to be rather dull.”

“You aren’t going to have me arrested?” Laurel whispered so softly that Charles could barely hear her.

"Not at all, my lady. In fact, I was hoping you would go for a walk with me. I’ve grown bored watching all these people dancing, and for lack of conversation.” Charles moves towards the front door, looking back to see if Laurel was following, giving her a smile when he sees her standing still with shock. He holds his hand out and she snaps out of it, placing her hand in his and letting him lead her to the outdoor gardens.

Once outside, Charles takes a deep breath of fresh air and Laurel looks at him curiously. “You seem like you don’t enjoy these parties, why is that? I always thought they were pretty magical, all the pretty clothes and the music and the dancing.” She looks lost in thought as these words pour out of her. Charles looks at her amusedly, “They can be all of that and more, but when you’ve been to as many as I have, they get pretty mundane.” Charles sighs, “I usually have my best friend to help me get through it but he couldn’t make it tonight.”

Laurel gives a mischievous smile and asks “Well, what would you and your friend be doing right now if he were here?”

Charles laughs thinking about last weeks’ party. “He likes to use magic illusions to trick the party goers. Just last week he used an illusion to make one of my father’s friends think he was talking to a beautiful woman and when he leaned in to kiss her the illusion dropped and he was left kissing a column!”

Laurel giggles at the image, “That poor man must have thought he had lost his mind.”

“I think he left shortly after, mumbling something about too much wine,” Charles replied with a light-hearted laugh. “I could never quite master illusions myself, I was born with a natural affinity for earth magic.” Charles reaches out to a closed flower bud on a nearby bush, brushing it with his fingers and the flower blooms spectacularly, he nimbly plucked it from the bush and presented it to Laurel, who accepted it with a blush, her eyes extended downward.

“It’s beautiful,” she says with an air of awe in her voice.

“They’re called morning blossoms because they only bloom for a couple of hours after the sun rises,” explains Charles.

“I bet you know everything there is to know about every plant in this garden,” Laurel teases with a knowing smile.

“You would win that bet, I planted this garden myself and it’s my magic that makes it grow and bloom even in the winter. There are few things as precious to me as this garden,” replies Charles, his eyes glazing over as he recalls long nights and longer days bringing his garden into being, carefully molding each bush and tree to perfection, coaxing each new blossom into life.

“Tell me about them?” asks Laurel, her arms wrapped around Charles’ arm. Needing no further encouragement, Charles leads her through the garden pointing out each new flower blooming, each tree lovingly tended, telling her everything he knows about each one. From the roses of every color and their meanings in the language of flowers to the apple tree at the center of the garden that sprouts a different type of apple every year. From the Morning Blossoms blooming with the rise of the sun to the Winter Daisies that bloom in the freshly fallen snow. The longer Charles goes on, the more Laurel can see the love he holds in his heart for all things brought forth from the earth.

As they near the end of the garden tour, Charles realizes that he has been monopolizing the conversation, so he turns the conversation towards Laurel. “I’m afraid I’ve been a terrible host, spending all this time talking about me and my garden, I never thought to ask anything of you,” he exclaims. “Besides being a party crasher, how did you come to be here?”

Laurel looks away, apparently lost in deep thought. Finally, she speaks up with “My parents don’t know I’m here, and if they did, they would not approve. That’s why I had to sneak in, I just really wanted to dance!”

“Well then, perhaps we should get you back inside so you can get a dance in before the Gala is ended,” declares Charles. Arm in arm, he leads her back towards the entrance of the gardens and as they’re passing through he hears a ripping sound. He looks back to see the look of horror in Laurel’s eyes as she looks down at her newly ripped dress snagged on a bush. He drops down in front of her and looks at the tear. It’s not entirely through to her legs and he exclaims as such to her, “My nana can fix this no problem.”

He leads her through the front entrance and up some stairs down the hallway, away from the ballroom. He knocks on a door and an elderly woman with a kind smile opens the door. When she sees Charles she looks surprised, “Shouldn’t you be at the Gala with everyone else dear heart?” she asks.

Charles replies, “We were headed back to the ballroom when we had a dress emergency, my new friend’s gown was torn by a bush in the gardens.” He pushes Laurel to the front so that the woman can get a good look at the tear.

“Oh dear, oh dear, that is an emergency, and such a nice dress too,” the woman tsks. “Come in child and have a seat, I’ll have this sewn up in no time at all.” The woman goes searching in her closet for her sewing kit while Laurel takes a seat in a chair next to the bed. Charles kneels down beside her and looks up into her eyes with an apologetic look, “I’m so sorry about this, I should have known better than to take a ball gown into a garden.”

Laurel places her hand on Charles’ cheek and gives a light laugh, “You couldn’t have known I would catch that bush and besides, I’ve had a good time tonight. Listening to you talk about your plants, it reminded me of my best friend. You’re so passionate about the things you love that you could talk all day and I wouldn’t get bored.”

“Tell me a little about yourself while nana sews you up? With all the time we spent in the garden, you barely spoke, so content you were listening to me,” asks Charles.

Just as last time he asked, Laurel hesitated. She grew a look of contemplation as though trying to decide how much to tell him. Finally, she looks back at him and says, “There’s not much to tell really, I come from the next town over, Attlesburgh. My family is not entirely wealthy, having grown up poor, but they worked for what they have. I had to make this dress myself because they would never buy me one.”

“That’s a real shame,” replies Charles. “You look amazing in a dress. And this dress, in particular, is one of the best I’ve seen. You must be really talented with a needle.” With that, the elderly woman interrupts with, “All done child, and may I say that Charles is quite right, the stitch work on this dress is immaculate. Laurel looks down with a blush and whispers softly, “Thank you.”

“You two had best get back to the ballroom, the Gala will be ending soon,” says the woman with a knowing smile as she looks at Charles slyly. “You might have time to get one dance in if you hurry.”

Charles stands and holds a hand out for Laurel who places her hand in his and follows him out into the hallway, calling back into the room with a “Thank you, for fixing my dress.”

“No problem dear, come back anytime,” the woman calls back.

Charles leads Laurel back to the ballroom where the band has just announced this will be the last song of the night. As they strike up a familiar slow tune, Charles looks over at Laurel and asks, “May I have this dance?”

Laurel gives an affirmative nod and a smile as Charles leads her on to the dance floor. He places his hands on her hips and she places her arms around his neck, linking her hands behind him. Holding this position, they dance in time to the song as the night winds down. While Charles shows himself to be quite the dancer, Laurel steps on his toes more than once. Charles doesn't mind though. “I hope you have enjoyed this night,” whispers Charles. Laurel whispers back, “It was better than I could have hoped.”

The song comes to an end and the guests begin to disperse through the front entrance. Charles holds Laurels hand as they exit with the rest of the guests. At the front gate, Laurel hails a taxi and turns back to Charles to give him a kiss on the cheek before climbing in. Charles calls out to her, “When will I get to see you again?” He receives no answer as the carriage pulls away.