Happily Ever After (Or Not)
 

Elinor huffed a bit as she and her sister walked out of their dance lesson.

"Well, today hasn't been a total loss," she muttered. "At least Natalie has sympathy." Because she may or may not have been grumbling to their dance instructor/friend about their mother's conniving and trying to promise them off to men they didn't like and hardly knew. "At least we have something fun to look forward to soon. Just one more week."

"It's so close," Aria replied, nodding. She wrung her hands a bit. "I guess I see why a marriage with our neighbors would be good for us politically, but..." She shook her head and sighed. "I don't want to go. I don't want to leave our kingdom."

"It's possible that Father will talk some sense into Mother," Elinor offered, although she rather doubted it. She made a face. "Although at this point I'm not sure what will be worse: Leaving the kingdom, or having to live with that prat of a cousin."

Aria made a face.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "I forgot about him. Since when is he important to the line of succession, anyways?"

"Since he's a male relative close enough to be in the political know but not close enough for it to be icky to marry him." Elinor made a face. "At least according to Mother." She sighed. "At least Father is on our side."

"I'm glad Father is on our side, but I don't know if he'll be able to talk Mother out of this one," Aria said with a sigh. "At least the ball will be a nice distraction."

"Yes, it will," Elinor said with a grin. "We've got fittings in the morning, to make sure the dresses fit, and tomorrow afternoon I think we're going over the finger foods again." She liked the planning of balls almost as much as the actual balls themselves.

Aria grinned.

"I still think the little cucumber sandwiches are a good idea," she said.

"They are a good idea, but they are kind of tea snacks. But we'll have some anyway." Elinor grinned. "Everyone likes those little tea sandwiches."

"Hey, it's our ball, we can have tea snacks if we want to," Aria pointed out, grinning. "Besides, I agreed to that weird little thing you wanted for finger foods. What exactly was it?"

"Not the truffles, you like those too," Elinor said with a grin. "Are you talking about the little mini tartlets? Because those are far too tasty to not have."

"No, it was something savory you mentioned," Aria replied, shaking her head. She wrinkled her nose a bit. "Some sort of tiny savory pastry."

"I don't remember but I'm sure it'll be delicious," Elinor said with a grin. "Now, we've got some time before dinner. I think I'm going to head to the gardens, if you want to come."

"Sure," Aria replied, nodding. "The gardens sound lovely." She smiled. "The lilacs are all blooming right now, I believe."

"Should be," Elinor agreed. "The roses, too, at least some of them." She grinned and headed for the gardens.

Meanwhile, down by the docks, two young men were just getting off work and heading back for their small house.

"Sure you're okay, Buck?" Steve asked, trying very hard not to fuss. That had been a heavy crate that had been accidentally dropped on Bucky's foot, after all. And it had been an accident. Those other two workers had been tripping over themselves to apologize.

"Promise, Stevie, I'm fine," Bucky replied, waving Steve off. "Just some bruising, I swear." He was still limping a bit, but his foot didn't feel broken. Tender and swollen, sure, but still in one piece.

Steve huffed but backed off a bit. He unlocked and opened the door, letting Bucky in first.

"Go sit and put your foot up, it'll help with the swelling," Steve told him.

"Get me some ice, would you?" Bucky asked as he worked on getting his boots off.

"Working on it," Steve said, going to the cool cellar and fishing out some of the ice they had on hand. He slapped a towel around it before handing it over to Bucky. "I'll have to venture out for food, I'm not cooking."

"You do that," Bucky said, propping his foot up and resting the ice on top of it. "I'm staying right here."

Steve flapped a hand at him and headed out again briefly. He came back with food for both of them, handing Bucky's over before starting on his own.

"People seem pretty excited about the ball coming up."

"Not surprised," Bucky said as he accepted the food. "It's a party. People always like hearing about parties."

Steve snorted. "Yeah, but it's just a party. There's at least one a year, even here." He shrugged. He didn't usually see the appeal, but then, he didn't dance very often.

"Is there something different about this one, then?" Bucky asked. He hadn't bothered looking at any of the posters that had been put up in town about it.

"Not sure. The signs say something about the princesses and other royalty, looked like mostly the normal stuff to me." Steve shrugged. "I'll take a closer look next time, see if there's anything in particular about this one."