The cursed prince

Once upon a time there was a Prince who, through no fault of his own
was cast under a spell by an evil witch. The curse was that the
Prince could speak only one word each year. However, he could save up
the words so that if he did not speak for a whole year, then the
following year he was allowed to speak two words.(This was before the
time of letter writing or sign language.)One day he met a beautiful
princess (ruby lips, golden hair, sapphire eyes,) and fell madly in
love. With the greatest difficulty he decided to refrain from
speaking for two whole years so that he could look at her and say "my
darling". But at the end of the two years he wished to tell her that
he loved her.
Because of this he waited three more years without speaking (bringing
the total number of silent years to 5).But at the end of these five
years he realized that he had to ask her to marry him. So he waited
ANOTHER four years without speaking. Finally as the ninth year of
silence ended, his joy knew no bounds. Leading the lovely princess to
the most secluded and romantic place in that beautiful royal garden
the prince heaped a hundred red roses on her lap, knelt before her,
and taking her hand in his, said huskily,"My darling,I love you! Will
you marry me?"And the princess tucked a strand of golden hair behind
a dainty ear, opened her sapphire eyes in wonder, and parting her
ruby lips, said:

......Well, guess what she said ..........

...........well, she said..............

"Pardon?"