Edward seemed to beam at her words, his movements good and the work of many hours of practice. All the royal children could dance, as could the court, because they knew it would be important.
"You really should dress like this more often," he continued with obvious enjoyment, moving among the other dancers with ease. "It quite becomes you."
At the sides, several young ladies were watching them through narrowed eyes, though if Edward had looked over they would have transformed into smiles and giggles. He liked to be the center of attention, and having Alessandra as a partner was certainly drawing attention, but as future king he expected nothing less.
"Are you having a good time?" he asked as they swirled.

Avril stood at the side of the floor, feeling lost and forlorn. She couldn't be angry at Alessandra, for Edward clearly wasn't waiting for an answer. She just felt disconsolate at Stephen's obvious (at least to her) distressed countenance. It was alright for Edward, who assumed every girl would just at the chance to dance with him. Stephen had finally gotten up the courage to ask someone, okay with her assistance, and Edward had snatched them away.
The problem was that Stephen didn't seem to know what to do when he didn't want to do something, or didn't want something to happen. He was selfless to a fault, which made him easy to overlook.
Avril moved to a seat by a wall and crossed her hands on her lap. Beside her was a guard, who she told that any young man who approached was to be [i]politely[/i] told that she was not interested in dancing at this time.
She couldn't see Edward and Alessandra from here and didn't want to, but she couldn't leave the party, as she suspected Stephen had. She was the princess and her best friend was here. To leave would not only have been rude, but against her own nature.
She really wished, sometimes, that she could stamp her foot and just have [b]a moment[/b], but a Princess was to be calm and the only way she could be angry was to be extremely cold and polite to people, which she struggled to do. 
So she sat in silence where her parents couldn't see her and silently tried to remember that she loved both her brothers.
Then a thought struck her. If Stephen [i]hadn't[/i] left the party, he might have gone back to the balcony. It was a long shot, but she needed to look. She wanted to speak to him.
She stood and headed up the stairs, her back to the merriment of the dancers.