I Now Pronounce You

Your welcome…was that the term commonly used when people said thank you? Huh, she would have to try and remember that for future reference so she wouldn’t offend anybody. The food was good, different but it was good. She ate half the lamb before she started on the vegetables, this time just stabbing them with the fork and popping them in her mouth before chewing quietly. Everything about her was quiet, even when she moved in her seat she really didn’t make much noise at all. She looked at him when he spoke, but her brow furrowed some. Settling didn’t seem like it would be easy at all, she felt it would take years before she was even an ounce of happy living here with him but she just nodded solemnly and went back to her food.

She nodded again to his suggestion “Alright” She whispered and once again went back to her food. She ate slowly so he would finish eating first and once he did she quickly finished then got up, grabbing his plate then hers and take it to the sink. She also didn’t have sinks back home, they washed things in the river, but she had seen Evelyn use a sink already and knew how to function it. She turned the water on and immediately began cleaning the plates, wanting to be useful somehow and show him she was in fact a good house wife. Once she finished she turned to look at him then went over and picked up one of her boxes and glanced at Andre again before going upstairs to unpack.

Once her boxes were upstairs she put them on the bed and began taking things out and spreading them out on the bed, not knowing where Andre wanted her to put them. She had a few pieces of clothing and little knick knacks, but that was it from home. Evelyn had bought her a toothbrush, hair brush, deodorant, underwear and other essentials she didn’t have. Once she got everything out of the boxes she trained on one item from home. It was a blanket, the blanket her mother had made her when she was a baby and the blanket she was meant to use for her own children. She picked it up and held it against herself tightly, tears quickly filling her eyes and falling. She missed her mother…she wanted her here.

“Cleaning” Was he simple reply to his question. What else did he think she was doing? She was doing her job as a wife. He had cooked; she could hardly make him clean the dishes, goodness no. Maybe he was used of being a bachelor too long, used to doing things on his own. But she wanted to show him now that he had a wife, she was the one to take over the trivial things a man really wasn’t meant to do. When he reached to stop her though she froze like he was going to hit her and she stared straight forward, holding her breath. “But…they are dirty” She whispered finally after she felt he wasn’t angry at her “They…I must…wash them…” She didn’t understand why he tried to stop her from cleaning them. Was he going to let her do anything she was supposed to? The fear of sitting around doing nothing seemed to be more of a reality every moment.

When she heard Andre she gasped, doing her usual freezing behavior and she quickly put the blanket down on the bed. She wiped at her tears hastily and looked down, trying to use her hair to mask her face. She shook her head and fiddled with some of the things on the bed, not knowing what to tell him “I don’t…know where to put things…” She muttered, keeping her face hidden because some stray tears were still falling. She sniffled and wiped at her eyes again then glanced to him discreetly before back to the gifts he brought then looked back to all her items on the bed, especially the blanket she had been holding when he came in. She tried to swallow back her sorrow and looked at him better “What are the gifts?” She asked, her voice a little hoarse.

She shook her head, really wanting to refuse him to do the dishes. Of course if he kept persisting or got angry with her she would immediately move away from the sink but for now he wasn’t getting cross or trying to push her away, so she was going to stand there and do the dishes like her mother had told her she needed to do as a wife. It had been a long day and all she wanted was to sleep, she hadn’t slept since she left her village and she was in dire need of rest. But she had a feeling even if she tried to sleep, she wouldn’t, not with him lying beside her all night. She would be too afraid to let her guard down and it was too foreign here. Perhaps she would sleep if he left the house, but maybe not even then.

Her home? Didn’t feel like it. Everything here was him, his home. His house, his bed, his decorations, his things, she felt very awkward being told to put things wherever. But she couldn’t leave it all on the bed so very slowly she picked one thing as a time and looked around the room and tried to match it with other things he had. When he offered her the fruit she took it but put it on the bed for the time being as she uncertainty moved around the room. She put her clothes in the closet, little trinkets on the dresser and the bathroom things she just put next to his. But every time she went to place something she would stop and look at him for permission, to make sure he was alright with her putting it there. It took a while but eventually she got everything off the bed, except her mother’s blanket.

When she was finished she went back over to the bed and sat at the very edge of it near the gifts. She looked at the gifts then took the one he offered her and slowly unwrapped it. Inside was a [Only admins are allowed to see this link] of a couple. It was exactly her style and her eyes lit up to see it, gently holding it in her hands and running her fingertips over it. She loved it, it was very beautiful and she was suddenly excited to open the other gifts. At his question though she pouted some and gently put the figurine beside her and glanced at her blanket “I miss my mother” She whispered sadly before taking another gift to open.

The next gift was a fancy photo album and she admired it for a moment before picking another. When she unwrapped it she was excited to see it was a book. She couldn’t read, but didn’t mean she didn’t like books. The cover was just black with red words, and since Adella couldn’t read well, she couldn’t read the very straightforward title of 365 Sex Positions: A New Way Every Day for a Steamy, Erotic Year. So she opened it curiously in the middle…and her jaw dropped when she saw the explicit photo of a couple in a very compromising position. She gasped and quickly closed the book and dropped it, her face as bright as a Christmas tree. She was stunned...absolutely stunned and she just stared down at the book in horror. What kind of book was that?! She looked to Andre in shock and just hoped she didn’t get in trouble for looking at it.

She expected him to sit next to her on the bed, but was far more relaxed when he sat on the trunk instead. Close enough she didn’t feel he was avoiding her like the plague, but far enough that she had her own space and didn’t have to worry every movement he was going to pounce her. The way he looked at her was…well, kind. She wasn’t sure exactly how she expected him to look at her…well alright, yes she did, she expected him to look at her like her father looked at her or even her mother. With disdain, like she was his property, with a frown permanently on his lips and a scowl in his eyes that was ready to snap at her at every mistake she made. But he seemed so nice; he was looking at her like no one had ever looked at her before. It was a bit nerve-wracking, but it wasn’t unpleasant that was for sure.

She shook her head “No…I can never go back. He would never let her come here….I won’t see her again” Her voice cracked and some new tears stung her eyes, but she made herself strong enough to not let them fall as she tried to keep herself occupied with the gifts and eating the odd fruits covered in chocolate. “I can only write to her. But it is not the same” She started to fiddle with her necklace, it was her other comfort next to her mother’s blanket. She had never, ever been separated from her mother in her entire life, and now she’d never see her face again. Her mother had been the only one to ever love her and now…she had no one to love her. No one to talk to or get advice from or sing to her when she had bad dreams. She was alone.

When he picked up the book and looked at it she expected him to be just as appalled, but when he laughed and seemed unbothered she was truly aghast. She didn’t even know how she was supposed to react to the fact her husband was so comfortable looking at pictures of other naked people, so she just blinked and turned back to the gifts, but the image was burned in her mind and she was very uncomfortable about what had just happened. So she stiffly opened the other presents, but now she was extremely wary. They were other nice little wedding gifts but nothing she was drawn to like the willow figurine and nothing else horrendous like the book. She yawned quietly as she opened the last gift then put it down on the bed with the others, picking up the willow figurine to admire it with a small smile.

“No, the King would not allow it. He never wanted me there to begin with. He was glad to be rid of me. I knew when I left, I would not see home again” She and her mother had held each other and sobbed until the King had gotten sick of their display and forced them apart and told Adella she had to leave now. Her mother’s happiness she knew had been solely because of Adella and she feared what her life would now be now that she was gone. Would the King be cruel to her? Would he try to harm her? Would her mother be absolutely miserable and die of a broken heart? These things scared her and yet there was nothing she could do. She would never go back and the thoughts just made her want to cry and cry until she could no longer cry.

She turned to look at him when he moved closer and felt the instinct to move her head back so he couldn’t touch her, but she forced herself to stay put, like she had when he kissed her in the church. His words though shocked her and she stared at him with her sad doe eyes. Did he really mean that? He seemed to mean it, but yet it was so compassionate of him to say such a thing that she almost couldn’t believe it. She pursed her lips and blinked the tears out of her eyes as she gazed at him, feeling a soft flutter of nerves in her stomach as she watched him. He may have been furry and odd looking, but he wasn’t ugly she came to notice then. He had a very handsome face, a surprisingly gentle face up close. She rather liked it.

She watched him clear off the bed then looked hesitant at his suggestion. He was telling her to sleep…that was all, but yet it was still a scary suggestion. She looked down at her lap and fiddled with her nails, nodding slightly “Alright…” She looked back at the bed and then slowly scooted back further onto it, but instead of lying down she sat there on one side of the bed awkwardly, glancing at him a few times before back down to the bed. She supposed she was waiting for him to get on the bed too, to just have whatever he had planned be done with already.

Her home? He may be saying that but she was certain if she started changing things to her tastes he would get upset. His home was beautiful but it wasn’t what she was used too. She would have more plants and a softer color palette and lots of birds, she loved birds. But she wouldn’t dare touch or change his things because they belonged to him and she didn’t feel she had any right to change what was his home. But the gesture was nice enough but she didn’t agree to it, just simply nodded so it didn’t seem like she was ignoring him. But when he brushed her tears away she actually looked touched, her expression finally changing from the frightened lost one she kept carrying around. No one was ever kind to her like this so to her, it was mass amounts and she didn’t know how to take it all in.

She shook her head, avoiding his gaze. What was she supposed to say? She expected him to come to bed but she didn’t want him too, so she didn’t want to mention it. She then shook her head once more, for she was fine sleeping in the dress she was in, any way pajamas weren’t the same here like they were back home and she wasn’t adjusted to them yet. And then big surprise, she shook her head to the water suggestion and fiddled with the bed sheets, but looked surprised when he said he was going to read and not come to bed. Well that was…what was that? “Oh” She finally spoke softly and felt guilty. Did he not want to come to bed because of her? It had to be her. Did she disgust him? She probably did but that could work in her favor. Awkwardly she laid back on the bed then shifted onto her side so her back was facing where he would lay and then stared out, feeling so strange in his bedroom, so very strange.