- The next morning Azalea dresses extra nicely, and her sisters tease her over breakfast. Then the girls bring Mr. Bradford on a tour of the palace, and in the gallery, he and Azalea dance.
- Mr. Bradford's actually a really good dancer, and Azalea loves how it feels to dance with him. He addresses her as "Princess Azalea," too, meaning he knows who she actually is.
- All the girls join in when they start a polka, and then Hollyhock knocks into the glass case where the sword is. It breaks. No one's hurt, but when the King shows up, Azalea begs him to take the sword to be mended stat.
- That night there's a knock at the door again as the girls are getting ready to dance—everyone feels like something's wrong or just weird, and Hollyhock thinks that someone stepped on her shawl. Azalea goes to look at it, and bumps into someone, or something. Eek.
- The girls all start shrieking about a ghost, and Azalea almost has them convinced to turn back when Keeper shows up, saying they should go back so he can finish preparing for the ball tomorrow night.
- But first, he asks a dance of Azalea. The girls try to make excuses of her, saying she's not feeling well, but Azalea agrees to dance the Entwine with Keeper again (the last time they'd danced it, they got cut short).
- They dance furiously, and Keeper ensnares Azalea with the sash. He leans in to kiss her (which she definitely doesn't want)… but suddenly his head is jerked back.
- Freed from the sash, Azalea rushes back to her sisters, who didn't really see exactly what was happening, but know it's bad. They all dash out of there.