Emilia made it back to the inn just as her Mother came down the stairs, her face flushed from the early mornings work. "Oh, Emilia I was just looking for you." She said surprised to have run into her coming in through the door so early in the morning. "Have you already been to the markets this morning?" She asked seeing the basket hanging on Emilia's arm, and Emilia nodded keeping the basket so that her Mother couldn't see the mask hidden inside. She didn't know how her Mother would react if she thought Emilia was still thinking of balls and the capital, and she didn't want to ruin the good mood Thomas had put her in.

"Let me put this in my room then I'll be back down to help you." Emilia told her Mother running past her before she could ask what treasures she'd brought back with her. 

"Be careful running!" Her Mother shouted up after her always the worrier. But that didn't stop Emilia from taking the stairs two at a time in a hurry to hide her mask.

                                                                         ****

"So did you ask them?" Emilia's best friend, Margaret who worked at the inn with her asked later that afternoon when things had slowed down a little. They had both slipped outside promising they were going to fetch more water from the well, but really they had just wanted to get out into the fresh air and warm sun.

"Don't even ask." Emilia warned shooting her friend a disappointed look that said it all. But Margaret had always enjoyed drama and insisted on hearing everything, not wanting Emilia to leave anything out.

"There isn't anything to leave out, they said no, very sternly might I add, and that was the end of it." She explained sitting on the edge of the well pulling out the bucket of cold water and placing her fingers upon the cool surface watching as her reflection rippled back at her.

"But its the chance of a lifetime!" Margaret insisted as if Emilia herself didn't already know that. "Surely they must see what an opportunity this could be for you! You could marry the Prince if he was to choose you!" She sighed dreamily slipping away into one of her silly daydreams. Margaret was even more of a dreamer than Emilia herself was.

"The Prince wasn't going to chose me." Emilia said dismissively, her finger still tracing the surface of the water. It was cool to the touch, which was nice after running around so much all morning. "I just wanted to dance." She admitted letting out another sigh running her whole hand through the water now splashing it at Margaret who squealed with laughter from the coldness of it.

"Emilia!" Margaret laughed reaching for the bucket and doing the same, her own movement getting Emilia much more wet than Emilia had done to her and Emilia jumped from the cold, shooting her friend a threatening look before bursting into a fit of laughter, her own echoing Margaret's.

Before long the two were dripping wet, their dresses sticking to them like a wet sock, and their hair was much the same. "Truce!" Margaret finally called digging in her pocket for her handkerchief. She waved it wildly in surrender falling to her knees to catch her breath and Emilia decided to do the same, throwing the bucket not caring where it landed.

"Hey, watch it!" Startled, Emilia and Margaret both rose to their feet, greeted by a stranger, ragged and dirty from his travels. And because of Emilia, now dripping wet.