runaway.

“Do you like to dance?”

“No.”

“I saw you once… dancing in the rain when you thought no one saw,” he says trying to catch the delicate hand, laden with sapphires and pearls.

“It wasn’t me.” Her hand slips through his fingers and she fixes a stray wave of amber that has escaped her intricate braids.

“Who was it then?”

“I don’t know.”

He touches her arm but she jerks away and turns toward the window. Tears burn hot in her eyes but they do not fall. She does not let them.

“Please, Cecilia. Dance with me.”

His hands close around hers. She does not look up at him when he leads her to the middle of the floor and spins her around but a single drop traces its way down her cheek.

When the dance brings her close to him again she whispers, “I have a story to tell you.”

“Tell me.”

“Once there was a girl who no one truly saw, they thought they did but they only saw what they wanted to see and not what she truly was. They told her what to do and what to say and how she must live out her future. And one day, she could not stand it anymore so she decided to leave, to run away. To take on a new name and new life. She never came back.”

“Cecilia –“ She holds up a finger, stopping him.

“It’s Joan now. Maybe you’ll find me again one day."

She kicks off her shoes and runs out the terrace door.

He looks for hours but all he can find is a strand of pearls, abandoned under a maple tree.