“Duke Jaspar Rosenberg and Lady Maude Holloway,” the man who was announcing all of the people who came into the ball as they passed through the double doors onto a grand staircase’s landing. On the ballroom floor below were nobles of the Aulbert kingdom milling about, or looking up as people came in. People seemed to look up at the sound of her name. Curiosity seemed to be on the majority of the faces who were looking up at her, but she noticed some glances of contempt as well. A particular pair of blue eyes caught Maude’s own, and she recognized Fronica Von Wicken looking up at her, her face full of hostility.

Maude shivered a bit, and then glanced at Jaspar who smiled back at her. Tonight I’m not alone with Fronica Von Wickten, she thought. Tonight I’m with the man who Fronica Von Wicten thinks belongs to her.

Jaspar and Maude made it to the bottom of the staircase. Maude had tried her best to smile all the way down the stairs, so when she looked at Jaspar, she was still smiling.

“Why don’t we get a little bit to eat?” Jaspar suggested, gently tugging Maude away from the staircase.

“That sounds lovely,” Maude replied. The music hadn’t started yet, so the hall was filled with the sound of all of the noble’s voices. A woman laughed loudly and shrilly by Maude. A man who’s voice sounded rumbly and gravelly was talking very loudly to someone else. Maude was pretty sure she’d never been in a room with so many people ever before in her life.

Jaspar carefully led her over to the tables with all of the food on them. Most of the foods were things that Maude had never tried before. “What are these round pretty things?” Maude asked, pointing to beautifully decorated pink and green…almost orbs, but with a flat bottom.

“These are…cupcakes,” Jaspar replied, glaring at her, clearly confused.

“What is that?” Maude asked.

“Uh, have you ever had cake?” he asked.

Maude shook her head. “No, but I’ve heard it’s very sweet,” she replied.

Jaspar nodded. “Cake is very sweet,” he said. “And cupcakes are just basically small, round slices of cake.”

“Interesting,” Maude replied, grabbing a green one off a tray. “Hopefully I like it,” she said. She took a small bite. Sweet, vanilla, moist bread filled her mouth and explosion of delightful flavor burst in her mouth.

She felt her eyes widen, and she looked down at the cupcake in wonder. Jaspar had a curious smile on his face. “This is incredible!” she exclaimed, raising it up to take another bite.

“I’m surprised you’ve never tried cake before,” he said. “Normally all sorts of desserts are popular with all of the ladies.”

Maude nodded. “I tried some desserts when I met up with my one friend in the empire, but not very many. She had a propensity to get the same desserts every time I came.”

“Well then there’s a whole table here of desserts for you to try,” Jaspar said gesturing at the table. Maude’s eyes widened even further.

“These are all desserts?” she asked.

“All of them,” Jaspar said with a nod, picking up something that was round, colorful and small, two of them, to be exact, with some kind of paste in the middle holding them together. He took a bite out of it, and it had a soft, yet satisfying crunch sound that went along with it.

Maude stared at Jaspar with curiosity. “What does it taste like?” she asked.

“It’s sweet and light,” he said. “I don’t like heavy desserts like cake. It tastes like…” he paused, taking another bite out of it and rolling the food around in his mouth. “Nutty, I’d say,” he said. “Nutty but sweet.”

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Maude picked up a yellow one of the same food. She took a small bite. A burst of lemon flavor assaulted her nose and mouth. She felt her eyes widening again. “I didn’t even know food could taste like this,” she said.

Jaspar laughed. “Have you ever tried wine?” he asked. He gestured to the people milling about the ballroom. There were servers holding round trays, all holding several glasses of red or slightly yellowish liquid.

Maude shook her head. “Never,” she said.

Jaspar made a small gesture at one of the waitstaff who stopped and let him grab two glasses of wine. He grabbed one of the glasses filled with the ruby liquid, and one filled with the off-white, yellowish toned liquid. “Thank you,” he told the server. The server nodded and then walked away.

“Here,” Jaspar said, handing her the glass of the slightly yellowish liquid. “Typically white wines are sweeter. Try it and let me know what you think.”

Maude smiled and took the delicate wine glass from Jaspar. She took a small sip. The liquid was bitter in comparison to the food she’d been eating.

“It’s pretty good,” she replied with a small nod.

“Would you care to try the red and see which you like better?” he offered.

“Sure,” she replied, switching wine glasses with Jaspar.

She took a sip of the red wine. The liquid, rather than being quenching seemed to dry her mouth right up, and burned on the way down.

“Eugh,” she said, unable to hold back a look of disgust on her face. “I definitely liked the white better.”

Jaspar laughed at her face. “I am not surprised at all!” He switched glasses with her again.

“What was that burn as it went down?” Maude asked.

Jaspar swished the liquid in the glass, gave it a good whiff and then took a sip of it. Maude felt her heart skip a beat. He drank out of one of the same glasses as me, she thought.

“That burn is the alcohol,” Jaspar replied.

“There’s alcohol in this?” Maude exclaimed.

Jaspar cocked his head as though he was confused. “Of course there’s alcohol in it. Wine has alcohol in it.”

“Oh,” Maude replied, taking another sip of the white wine. “This one doesn’t have that burn in it the way the other does.”

Jaspar shrugged. “Not all types of alcohol burn,” he replied. “Ones that taste less of alcohol are more dangerous. They force you to lose yourself more quickly and easily.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Maude replied, taking another sip.

Didn’t expect to be trying alcohol for the first time tonight, Maude thought. I suppose we will see how this goes.

She stood next to Jaspar, sipping her wine and stealing some desserts off the table occasionally, as Jaspar pointed out people throughout the crowd, and told her who was who and what they did for their living in Aulbert. As they were scanning the crowd together, she saw Melissa and Cristyne. She waved at them when they looked in the direction of the pair. Cristyne excitedly waved back, and Melissa had just grinned.

I’m sure she’s just as smug as can be,” Maude thought, Since I came with the duke.

Maude finished her glass of wine, and felt as though her head was a bit looser on her shoulders than she was used to. Jaspar took her glass and put it on a tray of a passing waiter.

Finally, Maude heard the orchestra warming up to start playing the music for dancing. She started picking at her fingernails. This was the part of the evening that she had least been looking forward to. Jaspar had never said he was or wasn’t going to ask her to dance, so she really wasn’t sure what his expectations were. They had practiced dancing together when she’d had her etiquette lessons, but that was practice. It was now time to actually perform.

Maude also knew, based on the information that she’d heard through her friends, that Jaspar was one of the most desired partners in high society. It was also possible that women would begin to descend on the two of them, like vultures fighting over food.

Jaspar turned to look at Maude, and turned his body away from any potential incoming distractions. “Have you continued to practice dancing?” he asked her, taking the last sip of his own wine.

“A little bit,” Maude replied. “It’s a little difficult to do since the way that you taught me how to do it well is to read my partner’s movement rather than to reproduce the movement on my own.”

Jaspar chuckled. “Well, are you ready for your final trial to being a full fledged ballroom dancer?” he asked.

Maude swallowed hard, hearing her heart starting to beat faster in her chest. Is he about to ask me to dance? She wondered. Will I not have to wait for another man to ask me to dance with him after all?

“Probably not,” she admitted. Jaspar looked crestfallen, so she added, “But I’m at least willing to give it a shot.”

He seemed to perk a bit back up at that comment. He bowed and reached his hand out to her the same way that he had done all those weeks ago in her etiquette class. Her heart felt like it was trying to find a way out of her chest. Thu-thunk, thu-thunk. The music swelled, and Jaspar said, “Lady Maude, will you allow me the honor of this dance?”