Deja Vu

~Year 1840~

The feast started after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's wedding ceremony. And what an extraordinary feast it was.

"What are you doing?" Madame Adélaïde asked his son, who was sitting next to her.

Louis kept glancing at someone every now and then since the very beginning of the feast, but Adélaïde couldn't properly make out who it was.

"Oh, for the love of god!" Adélaïde hissed in a whisper so only Louis could hear. "Qu'est ce qui ne vas pas chez toi?"

But Louis paid no attention to her, what so ever. So Adélaïde cleared her throat rather loudly, out of a lady's manners.

"Avez-vous dit quelque chose?" Louis finally turned around to her mother, asking if she had said something.

"I said," she started, losing her temper a bit. "what's wrong with you?"

"I don't understand–"

"You don't strike me as a fool, boy!" Adélaïde whisper-yelled for only Louis to hear. "Just tell me who the girl is! Princess Augusta? Or Madame Charlotte? Or–"

"–Mother, please–"

"–It's not permissible for a king to just sit there and eye a lady–"

"–You're right!" Louis raised his hands defensively and smiled. "Just sitting there, is not permissible."

And by that, he did the stupidest thing a king could ever do, in the eyes of his mother.

Louis stood up from his seat gently and started walking. All mouths shut and all eyes wandered toward him.

Adélaïde looked down at her plate from shame and her entire face turned red.

Finally, Louis stopped by the seat of the young woman he had spend his whole evening talking to.

"My lady," he bowed his head slightly and raised his hand for the woman to take. "Would you give me the honor, and join me for a walk?"

She hesitated at first, but then smiled and took his hand, raising off her seat.

It was shameful to leave the dinner's table before the king and queen of the castle, but that didn't seem to bother Louis at all.

So, hand in hand in a graceful way, the two left the enormous dining room with everyone's eyes still on them.

"Thank you." Louis said as they stroked the floors of the corridors while they made their way out of the palace. "For not turning down my request and give me the honor."

"Oh, but the honor is all mine, my king."

Louis laced his hands together behind his back and walked through the entrance hall of the palace, approaching the large yard that was embraced by moist green grasses.

"So," Louis started as the walked alongside each other, passing a small yet magnificent fountain. "What are you here for, Madame Irene?"

"Excuse me, but I do not quite understand...?"

"You mentioned earlier this evening, that you do not belong to the royal family of queen Victoria, nor King Albert. So it grabbed my curiosity, even though I'm ashamed to admit, that what brought you to this ceremony tonight."

Irene smiled at Louis's deep french accent, and answered him after a few short seconds of thinking and silence.

"My– my family died in an epic accident when I was merely a child. They burnt in a fire that was never meant to burn. Or at least, that's what I have been told. Although, I have this shameful hunch, that this was no accident to occur."

"So you say that it was a murder?"

"I do not have the right, surely, to accuse anyone from committing such crime. But I'm afraid, I can not help my disturbed thoughts."

"I am truly sorry to hear that, my Lady." he gave a sympathetic smile before continuing, "What happened next?"

"A royal family close to Prince Albert took me in."

"That was very kind of them."

"Indeed." Irene nodded. "I hope it is not rude to ask, my King, but I would love to know your story."

She smiled. So bright and warm that overwhelmed Louis's mind from inside. And so he stopped walking.

What was it about that woman that attracted him to her so much, Louis wondered.

"No one had ever asked for my story." Louis whispered.

"Then will I be honored enough from your majesty to be the first one to hear it?"

"There are many words about my life in the books... Why not read them? Why ask me?"

"There are many books... Many pages... Many stories. But there is only one person who the story belongs to. And what's more honorable and pleasurable to hear the real story from the person himself."

"Believe me... There's nothing interesting about my story. I was just a simple boy from a complicated family. Father died. France fell onto my hands. Duties and responsibilities came after one another. But this is just the good part. You look trustworthy... Which is why I trust to tell you this, that I am incapable of having an heir for myself; no child. So marriage won't do my kingdom any favor. When I shall die, one day, France would be reigned by my younger brother's now newborn son. And that's all I can talk about. That was my whole story. Just like I said; simple. Nothing interesting about it."

"Hmm..."

Irene pursed her lips, thinking, before looking up at Louis with twinkling eyes under the moonlight before saying with a mischievous grin,

"Then perhaps we shall change that."