Sisters Three (Completed)

22. Brenna (1/2)

Brenna tried to settle her churning stomach by thinking of anything other than the fact that she was standing in front of a priest dressed in his holy garment. Her mind roved to admiring the effect of her dress, a lovely deep blue with golden trimmings, but from there she remembered it had been given to her by one of the Anjeluund noblewomen upon her arrival in their country. The look of smirking superiority on the woman's face had curdled Brenna's blood, and just knowing that the dress was the only thing suitable for being married upset Brenna even more. If Robbin hadn't made her leave behind all her things she could be standing in front of the priest in a beautiful Ittalan gown, a step above the woman who now no doubt found it simply hilarious that the bride of a Glenfarrow was dressed in a secondhand day-dress.

She glanced over her shoulder to the woman in question, who stood amongst the other ladies of court, and caught their looks of boredom and superiority. Most were young and beautiful, and the one that had given her the dress Brenna had reason to believe had once been Robbin's lover. Her strange and instant hatred for Brenna was enough to support the theory, that was for certain.

Brenna gave the woman a tight smile before returning her gaze to the front of the room. Next to Brenna stood Morna, dressed in a simple shift and with her hair loose. The aunts, arrived just two days ago, were seated on velvet chairs. They all looked slightly out of place among the Angeluund nobility, even though Brenna and Morna had been among them for near on a month. The Ittal fashions were out-of-date and the aunts and Brenna were a little more overt in their dislike of certain people than the Anjeluunds were.

The priest looked to Brenna's other side to where Robert Glenfarrow stood stiffly in his fine clothing. "Are the whereabouts of your son known?" the priest whispered.

Robert scowled. "My men are looking."

Brenna wanted to sigh heavily but she didn't want to give the nobles the satisfaction. So she kept a serene expression and limited her seething to the inside. Mentally, she punched a wall and called Robbin every foul name ever created. The wedding had been scheduled for an hour ago, and they'd been in the small and stuffy front room of the Glenfarrow house ever since. Brenna hadn't even seen her bridegroom since the day before, and apparently neither had his family.

If he'd had second thoughts about marrying her, she'd murder him. She'd wait in this dress in this room until he showed his stupid face and then she'd bash it in with whatever would cause him the most pain. Probably her heeled slipper. That would leave a nice little reminder for him to not desert his bride at the altar.

The priest glanced at her with a pitying look and Brenna fought so hard not to show her teeth to him.

"Confound it, I'm about to go look for him myself," Afton muttered, looking over his shoulder toward the door.

Of course it would end up that the son she had wanted to marry but wasn't allowed to, was the one that showed up, while the son she hadn't wanted was missing.

"Perhaps we should just try again tomorrow?" the priest suggested tentatively.

"No!" Brenna nearly shrieked. She heard the guests ruffle behind her, their wavering attention now solidly focused on her. They'd all be wondering where Robbin was, and delaying the wedding was as good as saying that it wouldn't ever happen. Brenna did not want the simpering Anjeluund ladies to have that triumph. "We can wait a moment yet, can't we? He's probably lost track of time."

The priest dropped the issue, but his look was a mixture of pity and annoyance. He had other things to do, and waiting on a runaway groom for hours on end was not in his plans.

The potential scene now averted, the guests quickly lost interest once again and a murmur of assorted conversations started up. None had the ill manners to be as blatant as to talk directly of Brenna's growing shame, but a few made pointed comments about how some ladies would have no trouble keeping an eye on their intended.