The Unwanted Wedding

Chapter 10--All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go

"If you are reading this then you better have the mind for it. Because my mind may have been as pure and clean as snow until the world of long hot nights, breathtaking bath times and even more scandalous adventure all throughout the day led me to a life frowned upon yet not entirely unpleasant. Enjoy...."

-Book of Encounters 

Reyna

I sighed, it was almost the end of the week and this was the first time I was allowed out of my b- Vincent's bed in days, no including the times maids came to change my rags or bath me. The joys of womanhood, I never quite understand how people think men have a harder life. I rolled my eyes, it wasn't the discomforting pain that made me get up on the wrong side of a pleasant morning, there was a certain male who seemed to make it his life's work to pester me.  Alma threw me an irritated glace, I just scowled back, I was in an edgy mood, there was nothing I could do about it. My corset had to be tied slowly, all the women in the room knew what happens when you're in a cycle and get surprised. 

I wore the new dress I had made, I felt like a needed a change, plus Cierra helped me with the design, well when she wasn't posing for Vin's painting or was it a sculpture? The dress was a sleek black, tight on the midriff, sleeveless straps just ruffling on my shoulders, the dress was thinner than most, I didn't want to wear my panniers underneath, I just let it form a small bell shape, I loved the silky velvet-like satin of it. It was divine. Through much hesitation I grabbed Vin's former wedding present, I have to admit they were quite gorgeous, I even borrowed mother sapphire and diamond bracelet.  I looked doubtfully at me hair; it was too cold to put it up, yet to causal down.  Frowning, I combed it, the shook my hands in it. Yep, I think that'll do.  With a sigh of frustration, I slipped my feet in my silk ebony shoes; they were decorated with silvery thread in vinery patterns. And very tall, I felt more towering in them.  Alma passed me my hooded, wool coat, it hat buttons in military form, yet I left it open. I wasn't that cold yet, and I felt better not have my body to restricted, even it I'm in my ending days, it was still very uncomfortable. Alma must be feeling the mornings chill too; though her blonde was tied in a high bun, she mad sure that her dress was over coated by a warm wool Redwood in colour, with an under layer of creamy white flannel.

She quickly coloured my lips a glossy vermillion before pushing me out the door were my sister waited for me, I promised her I'd go for a walk and show her the wintery forest. I wasn't as excited as she, to wonder around in snow.  She had her burgundy umbrella, and looked younger than usual. Her hair in ringlets tied in a bow with a black silk ribbon. She wore mother's necklace, and shoes. She wore a black shirk under a deep purple corset, her skirt reminded me of a ballerina costume, except in was long and didn't tutu standing. With a raised brow I noted her striped stockings, and the teddy bear she held. I smiled at her but an annoying voice quoted what was spied by a rude gentleman's eye.  She wasn't fat, just...curvaceous and.... chunky, like the vegetable soup we ate for dinner.

Speaking of said rude gentleman; Vincent hadn't shared the bed with me for quite sometime, in fact the night after our quarrel. I wondered where he took his slumber.  In a pigpen, I hope.  A muddy, smelly one. Though every time I glanced at him when he came into his room to retrieve something, I'd notice red, rash-like marks on his neck. I couldn't ask what they were, he ignored me just as I him.  The night after our argument was awkward to the tips, tension filtered the air like a feral stench.  The only time he spoke was to whine about the chance of blood being spilt on his sheets, and to question why I bleed, which lead me to tell him exactly how 'joyful' a women's life was, after that he didn't even breathe a word.  I guess men weren't fully educated on exactly what a woman's monthly courses contained.

We left the large dark-bricked house expeditiously, as if we were in some hushed contest, as I turned to close the door behind me, the snow had turned the gloomy house into a dream-like white mansion of soft-hearted beauty. Flor ignored my requests to put her long coat on, the sight of her made me feel chilled. She seemed to be unaffected by the sneering cold. I breathed in the crisp fresh air, it liquefied me anxieties and tension away to style me cool, calm, collected, like a child born again. I waited until Flor had her umbrella opened before we carried on with our stroll. Standing in the snow felt like a smothering solitude of discomforting soothing, I felt mollified. Absent-mindedly I agreed to let Flor travel off as long as she was in hearing distance and didn't get lost.  She ran off playfully after a handful of whimsical butterflies, before I could get a word out she ran abrupt. I sighed.  Walking slowly along some invisible path, absorbing everything in my surrounding. It was like everything had turned into a white abyss.