Page 121 of My Big Fat Vampire Wedding
Well, at least she wouldn’t need to strip down to absolutely nothing in front of her whole family.
Shrugging out of her clothes, she pulled on the new set, then, remembering, put on the earrings that Victor had given her.
New, blue, and old.
She just needed something borrowed.
She made her way out of the room, making Ravenna smile at her.
“Victor is a lucky, lucky man, my dear,” she said, rushing Pandora over to her gown, where she and Ophelia helped her into it.
Finished, Pandora smoothed her hands down the front of the gown before turning to look in the mirror.
For a second, she almost didn’t recognize the woman looking back at her. She looked more like her lovely mother than she ever had before. Perfectly put together, her features on full display, her hair tamed.
Ophelia moved in behind her daughter, giving her a soft smile, then lifting her arms, moving them around Pandora to rest a necklace on her skin.
“Something borrowed,” she said as she clasped it. “Lucy told me she had old handled. And I know you said Victor got you new and blue. I wanted to give you your borrowed.”
“It’s perfect,” Pandora said, reaching up to touch the single teardrop ruby on a delicate black chain that madeit disappear into the dress, leaving the ruby looking a bit like a blood drop on her chest. “Thanks, Mum.”
Next, Lucy, Kora, Maribelle, and Bellatrix all got themselves into their dresses.
“Have I mentioned how much I love you for picking simple black dresses?” Kora asked. “The last wedding I was at made us wear crinolines that I swore were three yards wide. It was insane.”
“The sun is about set,” Henrietta said as she tied the final bowtie on her last male dogs. The girls were wearing little pink tutus.
The other aunts had just barely been able to talk Henrietta out of making Pandora and Victor use her dogs as flower girls and ring bearers.
“So exciting! OK. We have to go and get to our places,” Ravenna said, shooing the women out of the room.
The sudden quiet made Pandora’s ears ring.
“We need more champagne,” Kora said, pouring the bridal party another round as they waited for the knock on the door.
It came twenty minutes later.
Lucy opened the door to find Elias standing there. He was acting as a stand-in for Victor’s side of the bridal party, since the only friend Victor had was Sebastian.
“Look at you,” Elias said, gaze moving over Lucy. “All polished up.”
“Wow,” Lucy said. “Careful, that almost sounded like a compliment. Are we ready?”
“We are.” He offered her his arm.
“Ugh, fine.” Lucy chugged the last of her champagne, then grabbed her flowers and allowed him to lead her from the room.
Bellatrix, largely ignored by everyone all day, save for her own mother, followed next.
Rolling the tension out of her shoulders, Pandora followed Kora and Maribelle out of her room.
The castle was a sprawling place. And with each step, Pandora felt her nerves jangling in her bones.
Suddenly, this didn’t feel right.
Not only lying to her family.
But more so, lying to Victor.
