"Why?"

It was such a simple, and short question. But the response to this question was typically negative, and so Bash prepared for whatever Adèle was to respond to his question. After Stéphane left for his chambers, Bash pulled her closer near the window, where they hid under the shadows, so that they remained unseen by French court. Filled with great curiosity, Bash pried on her private affairs, and though it irked her, he did not seem to care.

"He is merely a friend, Bash," she replied, chuckling at his childlike jealousy. "We have not met in a very long time, and it is not a crime to reminisce about the childhood you once spent with a once very close friend, isn't it?"

"But you danced,"

"It was one dance, Bash. One dance, and that was all."

Bash's eyes gleamed in the moonlight. He gazed at her, continuously, even though Adèle called out his name for a repeated amount of times. It was as if he was stuck in his own world. "You admitted to me that you still love me, Adèle, and that is something that has been irking my mind lately. We kissed as well, if you don't remember. It is something I can never forget, and you know that,"

"I was completely drunk and I was not thinking properly, Bash. Forget it, please. Let me live my own life and I will let you live yours," She turned away from him and began walking back to the wedding feast, where at least she could not be in one room with Bash.

"You still don't realize it, do you?" asked Bash, who was still standing near the window. Adèle stopped in her tracks, and turned around, only to find him gazing at her like a sad child, longing for something. "I am incapable of not loving you. You may not want to acknowledge it now, but you will soon. And by then I will have been a married man, and you shall be a married woman as well."

"If that is how it will be, then I will find it pleasing to know that you will spend many sleepless nights with me in your mind. But it is no longer a possibility that we can be together, Sebastian. Let us go on with our lives before we were ever betrothed," As she spoke this, he noticed he has grown teary, and his face turned into a shade of red. It was the face of a person suffering from an emotional pain, this she knew.

Bash stepped forward, and grew so close to her that their hands were touching, and their lips were inches apart. "Let us run away," he suggested. "We can escape from all of this, from French court, from Kenna, everything. When do you want to leave?"

"I have not even agreed yet, Bash. If we were to run away, where would we go? I would disappoint Mary and Francis, and my family first of all. And you.. you would disappoint Kenna, and I do not want her loathing me even more,"

What more did she need to say? She had fully explained to him that they cannot be together, and yet here he comes asking her to do something that seemed so impossible, for it would cause her severe consequences. "You claim that you love me, but you do not think of the consequences that may follow if we do run away. I have my own life, Bash. Forgive me. Now go and prepare for your wedding ceremony, you do not have much time to linger."

Instead of fighting back, Bash nodded and kissed her hand and left. As soon as he turned his back on her and began walking to his chambers to prepare, Adèle soon realized that this was the moment he was slipping through her fingers, and they were soon to be strangers once more.