Dear Diary, you'll never guess what I have learned.  And since you can’t reply, I’ll go ahead and tell you.  I now know why I haven’t seen Carmine recently.  Carmine is at the academy.

My brother sent me a letter to catch me up on his life at the academy and ask how I’ve been.  In it he mentioned that Carmine is taking lessons now.  Maybe the story is back on track.  It does seem like this was part of the story.  To become useful to Lucia, she sent him to the academy when he proposed so he could begin to contend for the dukedom.  I assume he proposed to her and that's why he's there.

For being a minor character, my brother talks about him more than I'd have thought… in that he mentions him at all.  But I suppose everyone would admire the leads from afar.  I don't actually remember if my brother was even mentioned in the book, but I suppose he would notice Carmine even if Carmine never noticed him.  Carmine is the male lead, after all, and has an impressive presence.

Anyway, good for Carmine.  I'm glad to know I didn't throw the story too far off track.  He can still marry Lucia, win his position as duke, and live happily ever after.

It’s nice to know, too, that he’s doing well.  That my presence didn’t ruin his story.  I’m thankful to have that confirmation and not just be left to wonder what happened to him.

Around here it's been pretty much the same: the occasional ball, outings with my friends for tea and/or shopping, painting parties.  Although the painting party fad is dying down.  Now charades is the hot new thing.

Well, of course it’s not new to me, but it’s not exactly new in this world either, Diary.  I think the queen played it recently or something and it’s caught on again.  Arianna is better at it than the painting, so she’s glad to have moved on to something else.  Which is not to say she’s great at it, but better.  It doesn’t sound like she’s in a battle to the death with charades like it did while she was attacking her canvas while painting.  That doesn’t mean that we can guess what she’s acting out every time, so there are still some frustrated grunts from her, but less.

Speaking of Arianna, Arianna's partner of three dances from the last ball I wrote about has still been seeking her out.  His name is Sir Stronner and he is indeed a knight.  As the second son of a count, not the son inheriting the title, that's what he chose for his profession.  From what Arianna’s told us, he’s very good at it.

Of course the rest of us are preparing for the wedding and the three children that they’ll have (they’ll need enough children for each of us to be a godparent of course).  We didn’t get as far as naming all the children, because Arianna insists that Sir Stronner is not interested in courting her.  Of course she’s wrong, but we stopped discussing names and their impending marriage to humor her… for now.  It doesn’t seem like she’s trying to discourage him, especially since he’s everything she’s ever wanted in a partner, so we can’t see anything that would actually hinder it.  That just means we’ll get to say “told you so” when it happens.  We’ve decided to temper how annoying we are to her for now, so that we can increase it even more later.

To all of our surprises, Emma's partner of two dances has also continued seeking her out.  Exactly two dances, every ball.  It's not enough for us to be sure of his intentions, but we guess that it's his way of showing interest.

At first we didn't think Emma liked him.  We just thought she was being polite, and probably felt like she shouldn’t reject him.  After the third ball, when she still accepted him without any complaint to us, we became less sure.  She doesn't seem smitten with him, but she also doesn't discourage him at all.

He's not a bad match.  The son of an earl, set to inherit the title.  Pleasant, although not much more than that.  He seems like he would be a dependable husband, but not the romantic that Emma has always claimed to desire.

If she does choose him, of course we would all support her.  It's definitely not a bad decision.  We're all just a little shocked that she might be considering him.

I always thought that when she found someone she liked she would gush over him and how chivalrous he was, but she hasn’t done that with this gentleman.  It just makes it hard to tell if she actually likes him, if she’s afraid of hurting him by rejecting him, or if she doesn’t think well of her marriage prospects and is settling.  Of course we’ll be glad for her if she does like him.  We’re all just a little concerned that she might not though.

That's all I have to catch you up on for now, Diary.  Carmine’s story is back on track, and so is mine.  I'll add the letter that Alvize sent me between your pages.