"May I ask, what are you doing in here alone while my dear cousin is out there in the rose garden…" Joni said
as he closed the door behind him. "without anyone to be with?"

"Can a lady have some time on her own?" Carmen asked jokingly as Joni laughed softly. "What are you doing
in here too when you could entertain your cousin?" Carmen asked as Joni walked over to the window, where he
could view Gumpan and the rose garden.

"Certainly." Joni answered her without moving his gaze.

"May I ask you something?" Carmen questioned Joni, without moving away from the window Joni nodded as
he took off his gloves and held them in his hands. "Does Gumpan really love…" Carmen paused as she stop to
think about what she was saying, if she should say Kelly or me. "me?" Carmen finally said as Joni look at her in
shock.

"Why, of course." Joni answered her as he walked over to the seat just a couple of feet away from the desk.
"He talks about marrying you someday and finally meeting you, sometimes before you got here, he rereads
your letters over and over. He’s in love with you, crazy is the word I would use." Joni laughed as Carmen softly
laughed after him. "He keeps in –the letters- in his drawers next to his bed, every single one of them. He even
got mad at one of his servants when they were cleaning his room and replaced the letters and he couldn’t find
them."

So that’s where he puts the letter, Carmen thought as she just nodded and listened to what Joni was saying.

"Do you?" Joni asked as Carmen looked up at him.

"Do I what?" she replied back.

"Do you truly love Gumpan or are you just pretending after all these times?" Joni asked, and Carmen could felt
a shiver going through her as if Joni knew something about her that no one in this mansion know.

"Of course I do." Carmen answered him and could felt a bit of guilt as the words came out of her mouth, but she
did love him and that was true. Joni kept on his smile; the smile that tells Carmen that maybe Joni was on to
something, but how can he know when Carmen hadn’t said a word to anyone about it. "What makes you think
that I wouldn’t, I just didn’t come all the way here from America just to see him and say that I don’t love him."
Carmen leaned back as Joni got up to leave, but before leaving the room; Joni gave her a bow as being a
gentleman. Carmen watched him as he closed the door behind him and she than took a deep breath, sighed,
almost lost everything there.

Walking down the long white hallway, Carmen could not think that what she is doing is invading someone else’s
privacy. She did need more information so that she would not mess things up and it seemed that no one knows
Kelly better than her letters that she wrote to Gumpan. She wasn’t going to read all of it, maybe just a couple of
the letters to get her going. Making sure that no one was there with her in the hallway, Carmen quickly grabbed
the doorknob and opened the door. Carefully she stepped into Gumpan’s room. She could see that his room
was huge with an open window into a balcony, there was a bathroom to the left –that Gumpan had left the door
opened- and than she spotted the desk drawer next to his bed. She had no guilt as she opened the drawer and
could see piles of letters in there, but they were neatly tied together with a yellow ribbon. Slowly Carmen took
the pile of letters out and placed on top of his bed, but thinking that if she read the letters here Gumpan would
be back any minute and sees her. So grabbing the letters into her arms as she pushed the drawer close, and
than Carmen walked out of his room carefully.

At this time of the day, no one was really inside the mansion. Even servants and maids were out taking some
fresh air and having some time for a little bit of talk, quickly she made her way to the study room where Gumpan
does most of his study or just to be alone. Finding herself sitting at his desk, Carmen pulled the ribbon and out
spilled all over the desk was all the letters that Kelly wrote to Gumpan.

Okay, how am I going to do this? She thought as she picked up a letter that was still in the envelope; Carmen
took out the letter and start reading it. The date was almost two years ago, so Carmen thought that it must be
one of the older letters from when they first start connecting with each other. After read about three to four
letters Carmen thought that she knew Kelly well enough to be her. But after reading them Carmen thought about
telling Gumpan the truth and stop with this lie, she now know that Gumpan loved this girl very much and hope to
wed her not Carmen.

Carmen was so much into reading the letters and thinking that she was going to tell Gumpan the truth that she
didn’t hear the door open.

"Well there you are Kelly." A voice said from ahead of her, Carmen jerked her head up in shock to look to see
who it was. "What are you doing Child?" Ning asked as she walked over to Carmen.

"Just reading…" Carmen said as Ning picked up one of the letter that was sitting at the corner of the desk.

"You’re reading your own letters?" Ning asked with her gentle smile.

"Can a lady read her own letters?" Carmen laughed softly, "I just wanted to read what I’ve said in my letters that
made Gumpan…"

"Fall head over heals for you?" Ning finished for her as Carmen blushed, but it wasn’t because of what Ning
said it was because she knew that half of everything that was going on was true. Gumpan was in love with
Carmen and he had said so himself though she knew that he’s been trying to tell her that all along. "Come, we
have to get your gown ready for the ball." Ning said as she gathered the letters together.

"The ball?" Carmen questioned in a blink way as she knew nothing about it.

"Yes, the ball. Its only in a couple of days, we must have to prepare, Gumpan will be announcing your
engagement there." Ning finished as she tied the ribbon back onto the letters.

"Our engagement." Carmen repeated her as Ning looked up.

"Yes, now don’t act like you have amnesia dear, we have to hurry." Ning said as Carmen nodded and got up after Ning. On their way out of the study room, Ning handed the letters to one of the servants and asked her to put it back in the desk drawer next to Gumpan’s bed, where it belongs.


..........TO BE CONTINUED ....