Page 14 of To No End

I prayed she wouldn’t ask me to guess.

She scoffed. “Of course this one,” she exclaimed, pointing at the simpler of the two.

I sighed in relief. “I completely agree, go with that one.”

She threw both pieces of paper up in the air exasperated. “It’s not…loud enough,” she proclaimed. “This is the joining of two prominent families, one of which will make the other’s son High Fae. Two families of new money. You know how we will be judged if we do not appear to honor tradition and if we don’t make a spectacle of ourselves. He, and likely his parents, are expecting it of me.”

I understood what she meant, and it finally dawned upon me why she was obsessed over every little detail. She was doing her best to bring honor to our house’s name.

As part of the merchants guild, my father did not inherit his wealth nor was he born of Royal blood. He built a fortune of his own making, as did the family my sister was betrothed into. Even though the Royal bloodlines would be invited, it would be a shock if they actually attended. But that didn’t mean the gossip wouldn’t spread and they’d hear if the wedding had respected the old ways or not.

I’m sure our dear mother had opinions on all of this, but she was likely doing her best to give Versa the illusion of choice while she made decisions behind the scenes that would be in keeping with trying to impress all the High Houses. One such example would be making sure that only the best dressmaker was hired. One who had several commissions from the Royals and would be loose-lipped during their many encounters with the High Ladies.

I put my hand on hers. “Why not choose both?” She looked at me with confusion. “What says wealth and regalness more than wearing not one, but two wedding dresses?”

She was starting to understand what I was alluding to and a sly smile began to form across her face, stretching ear to pointed ear as her eyes widened with excitement.

I continued, “Wear the heavy gown during the ceremony at the beginning of the evening, until your first dance. Slip away in secrecy and change into the other dress that you love. Wear that for your first dance.”

By now my suggestion had her glowing with delight. “Don’t tell your betrothed; only Mother and Father must know. It should be a complete surprise, and I assure you there won’t be a gossiper within a hundred miles that won’t have your name spouting from their tongue for weeks to come.”

She clutched the two sketches in her hand, now staring at them with admiration and wonder.

She whispered to herself, “I will be the most talked about bride in ages, and the little Fae girls will remember the bride who refused to choose, who was both traditional and modern.”

In her excitement, she turned to me with a giddy squeal. “Oh, Cress, do you think it will start a trend? Do you think someday they will all start wearing two dresses?”

What had started as a mere suggestion to help my sister get out of an indecisive slump had now become her mission to make her mark on the wedding scene of the High Fae. I rolled my eyes at her and she nudged my shoulder playfully.

Finally, she looked at me. Really looked at me, for the first time since I had entered the room. It did not surprise me since her wedding distractions were constant.

“Something about you is different,” she posed. She began squinting her eyes at me and tilting her head with assessment. “Why do you look so happy? You never smile this much. And you’re helping me with wedding stuff.”

Her accusations about my appearance made me want to hide and cover my face immediately. Before I could pull away, sheclutched my arm tightly and gave me that accusatory use of my full name, “Cressida Blackthorn…”

“I’ve been with Gris.” I stated plainly.

A perplexed expression spread across her face, because she knew Gris was practically like a brother to us, a lifelong friend and nothing more.

“What do you mean you’ve ‘been with Gris,’ is that where you went earlier? Oh, did you go to say goodbye to him?”

Ugh, sometimes my sister could be so dense.

“No, Versa, I’vebeenwith Gris…” I elongated my words, trying to make a point.

My sister’s eyes widened like saucers as she realized what I meant. “You can’t be serious? You slept with Gris. Gris was your first?”

I didn’t know if she was saying it like it was a bad thing, or if she truly couldn’t believe that Gris was the one to secure my maidenhead after all this time.

“Yes, it’s true. I called in our bargain. You know, that silly one we made about being with one another after our one hundredth name day.”

I had told Versa about this in passing, and she always thought it humorous and pointless as she said neither of us would end up alone after that many years.

Puzzled, Versa pried further, “Don’t get me wrong, he is gorgeous and you certainly could have done worse. But why Gris, why now?”

The answer to that seemed obvious to me, and yet my sister was still oblivious to the reality of what was happening to me since she was engulfed with wedding planning. This distraction worked in my favor, and it was probably the only thing keeping her from noticing anything was off about me and our parents.

“Well, I’m going to be at sea for a long time and amongst strangers. I just wanted to get it over with,” I lied as best I could, weaving small truths into the narrative.

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