The other servants entered as Juliet and I exited and began the long task of cleaning up the party. After we dealt with Lord Capulet—after everything that happened, I don’t remember what he wanted—we hurried up to Juliet’s room. It was past midnight.

As soon as we were alone, I rounded on her. “What were you thinking? Have you completely lost your mind? How could you kiss a guy when you didn’t even know his name?”

“I don’t know,” Juliet said. “He came up to me and spoke to me--flirting with me, and he was…oh…just dreamy and I could tell he had fallen in love with me…and then I didn’t think anymore. I felt so different around him than around Paris...it was like an enchantment had come over me.”

“Hold on,” I said. “What do you mean, he’s in love with you? He’s never even seen you before tonight!”

“Don’t you believe in love at first sight?” Juliet asked.

“No,” I said. “Not really, no. Not real love. Attraction is different, of course. You were strongly attracted to each other. Apparently.”

“I’m in love with him!” Juliet declared. “And he’s a Montague--oh, Nurse, what am I going to do?”

“Shh!” I said. “You’re going to get us killed. You are not in love with him! Love takes time, Juliet, more than a few minutes. There’s a bond—a spark, sometimes—and it grows over time, the more time you spend with him…and then one day you realize that you’re in love.”

“What do you know about love?” Juliet demanded, tears welling up in her eyes. “Your heart’s as cold as stone!”

I groaned, but my groan turned into a huge yawn. “Ugh. I don’t have the energy for this, Juliet. Perhaps your senses will be restored after a good night’s sleep.”

I curtsied and left her room, then stumbled wearily down the hall to my bedroom. My tired brain refused to understand any more of the situation. I collapsed onto the bed in my party dress, ready for sleep. Broken thoughts drifted through my mind…Benvolio’s dazzling grin… candlesticks…dishes…Juliet’s endless errands…this idiot Romeo…slipping through the garden gate…

The gate! Did I lock the gate when I came in this afternoon? Frantically I forced my tired brain into action, trying to remember. Anthony, who usually locked up, was imprisoned in the kitchen washing innumerable dishes from the party. I couldn’t remember locking the gate at all. Groaning, I pulled myself up out of bed and fumbled in the darkness for a candle. Finding none, I made my way out of my bedroom and through the rest of the darkened house. I crept down the back stairs and out into the garden. The stars cast a faint light, just enough to see the way, but the gate itself was plunged in deep shadow. When I reached the shadow, I stretched my arm out to where the gate should have been, but felt only empty air. The gate was wide open. Moaning, I groped in the darkness for the gate—and touched something warm and alive.

I opened my mouth to scream, but someone pressed their hand over my mouth and held me fast with their other arm. Panicking, I tried to free myself, but he only held me closer.

“Hush!” came the frantic whisper. “You’ll get us both killed! It’s me, Elena--it’s Benvolio.”

He turned me around to face him, still holding me close. “If you scream, the Capulets will come and skewer us. Understand?”

My eyes wide, I nodded as much as I could with his hand covering my mouth. He was still wearing the mask from the party.

He moved his hand away from my mouth and put his now free arm around me.

I was wide awake now, and utterly terrified. “What in heaven and earth are you doing here?” I demanded.

“I’m following Romeo,” he whispered. “He slipped away from us after we left the party. I thought I’d better find him.”

“What do you mean?”

“He climbed over the wall into the garden,” Benvolio said. He relaxed his grip and led me further into the garden, until we had a clear view of Juliet’s balcony.

“No!” I gasped. Juliet was leaning over the balcony, her arms outstretched towards Romeo. I tried to run towards them, but Benvolio held me fast.

“It won’t do any good,” he said. “He won’t get any closer, I promise.”

I struggled to get out of his grasp. “Oh, no he won’t, not if I have anything to say about it! He climbed over the wall to talk with a young girl at her bedroom window and you expect me to think that he’s honorable? How could you let him do this?”

Benvolio shook his head. “I didn’t let him—I came through the open gate after I saw him go over the wall. By the time I came in I was too late to stop him.”

“If he gets one foot on that balcony I’m going to kill him,” I said.

“Believe me, I’ll help you,” said Benvolio. “But Juliet might kill us after that.”

In spite of the situation, I snickered. “Juliet barely knows which end of a sword to hold.”

“I mean she’ll send her cousin to kill us,” Benvolio said. “Oh, wait, he’s already tried that.”

I began shaking with suppressed laughter.

“Shhh,” he whispered, more gently this time. “If we disturb them, the other Capulets will hear.”

I glanced at Romeo and Juliet again, and quickly grew serious. “We have to do something.”

“I don’t think there’s anything we can do at the moment,” Benvolio said, glancing at them. “Perhaps we can make them see reason in the morning. I’m sorry, Elena. This is all my fault.”

“No, it’s partly my fault. It’s my job to keep an eye on her,” I said.

Benvolio shook his head. “Don’t be ridiculous. Her own mother doesn’t even know what happened. Hopefully she’ll never find out. It’s my fault. Forgive me, Elena.”

I took a few deep breaths, suddenly conscious of how fast my heart was beating. Why was he still holding me? This was way closer than dancing. “It’s hard to stay angry with you for very long. And I’m not angry with you, exactly, except for scaring me to death. You’ve got to stop sneaking up on me.”

“Fair enough,” said Benvolio. “If it’s any consolation, I was just as surprised as you were. I was hoping you wouldn’t see me, but now…” He ran his fingers through my hair. “I’m really glad you did.”

“Why?” I asked, hoping that I knew the answer. I didn’t know that it was possible to be ecstatically happy and to be completely panicking at the same time, but apparently it is.

He slipped off his mask. “I don’t believe in love at first sight. But when I met you, I thought there was—something—and I had to find out what it was, what it could be. For a long time, I wasn’t sure, and then I was sure and then I was scared. What I’m trying to say is— I love you.” He leaned in closer, and I realized he was going to kiss me.

There was a slight tinge of fear to it, a thrill. It was completely reckless, yet I wanted him to kiss me. It was brash, ridiculous, utterly impractical and I wanted it with every inch of my being. What little distance there was left between us dissolved, and there was no clear thinking after that.

When I opened my eyes again, everything looked different, as if there was a whole spectrum of colors that I had been blind to before. We stared at each other, breathless, dizzy with this strange happiness in the midst of a complete mess. I probably should have said something, but there were no words left in me or wit left to say them. We didn’t really want it to end, not yet, not ever, but we were already tempting fate.

“I’ll find you in the morning,” he said. “One way or another.”

“Okay,” was all I could manage.

He gave me a quick, fierce embrace, then disappeared into the night.

I wandered back inside in a daze. He loved me? Could he really? Morning seemed far away, but compared to weeks and months of waiting it was almost nothing. Dimly, I remembered the disastrous couple on the balcony. I shook myself, trying to focus, and went to Juliet’s room for damage control. I wonder if I looked as foolish as Juliet did when I called her inside.

“They say the night air is bad for one’s health, Juliet,” I said when she floated in from the balcony. “Although from the looks of it I would say you found it quite invigorating.”

“What?” she asked. Clearly her mind was still out on the balcony, as much as mine was in the garden.

“Who were you talking with, Juliet?” I asked.

“Oh, the stars,” she said dreamily. “They’re more sympathetic listeners than you are.”

“Probably. Especially since I imagine that two of them bore a striking resemblance to Romeo Montague’s eyes.”

With that, I left her room and went back to bed. All my weariness had left me. My mind was wide awake, on fire. Every few minutes I would find myself smiling. I reveled in every moment, remembering every word. I could almost feel the kiss still lingering. I don’t remember falling asleep. I did sleep, though, for I remember awakening to the sun streaming through my window.