No marriage is happy ever after - On VERY temporary hold!

Preparation

The wedding day is supposed to be the happiest day in a woman's life. To Lady Louisa Wightwick it was probably the worst.

She stood in her bed chamber, staring straight into the air as her personal maid laid out the train of the white wedding dress. Louisa had deliberately put herself with her back towards the mirror making her unable to see what she looked like. She could not be any less interested.

She knew without seeing herself that she looked as gorgeous as her features would allow. Her mother was no woman without fashion and she had picked out the dress after long, painstakingly hours of searching out the right one. Louisa knew that her long, hazelnut hair had been plaited after the latest fashion, resting on the top of her head from where the veil fell behind her back, meeting the vast train.

But to Louisa every beautiful frill and every elegant lace felt like one more shackle binding her for the rest of her life. She had seen brides smiling and laughing with anticipation and joy, adding extra beauty to their finery whereas she herself felt utterly lost and definitely did not live up to the beauty of her wedding attire.

Right now she was almost content that her face had never been one of great beauty. Other young women had fine little noses, straight teeth, eyelashes that could fan away anyone and rosy cheeks like cherry blossoms. Louisa was not a plain person but she was not beautiful either. Her eyes, a dull green, lacked that certain luster, her mouth was a thin line in her face and her cheeks were rarely tinted red in any way, giving them an appearance of being made of wax.

This had vexed her mother greatly and she had made very certain that the only truly beautiful feature on Louisa, her luxurious hair, had been set up as elaborate and stylish as possible. It had taken more than an hour and for each minute passing, Louisa had been all the more eager to pull out every single strand from the plaits in a futile attempt to ruin the preparations for the day.

In the end Louisa knew that she could not hinder what was going to happen and so she endured the entire morning, trying not to think too hard about her future life.

The future. Lady Louisa had never entertained the dreams of marrying purely out of love as depicted in so many fairy tales. Her station was too elevated and her dowry too large to squander on any man she might fall for. However she had never expected her parents to sell her like a piece of cattle the way they had. The arrangement between her parents and the parents of her future husband had been swift and the only reason they had not been married the very next day was to prepare for a grand wedding.

"There, now, miss," the young maid, Ashley, said as she had smoothed out the last folds of the train. She tried hard to sound happy and encouraging, but Louisa could easily hear the sadness lying underneath the words. Though only being assigned to Louisa for the last six months, Ashley had won the heart of her lady and she had been a loyal friend during these terrible months of the engagement. Louisa would surely miss her when she moved to her new home.

When Louisa did not utter a word, Ashley patted her right arm gently. "Lady Wightwick, you ought to take a look at yourself. I have never seen you looking so refined. I wish I could look so beautiful, if I should ever get married."

Louisa wanted to shout at the maid, shout that these lace restrictions were nothing to envy but she knew that Ashley was indeed only trying to comfort her and cheer her up. She sighed and put her hand on top of Ashley's. "I am sorry, my dear, but I just cannot do it. I cannot look at this and pretend to enjoy it."

Ashley squeezed her arm gently. "I do not pretend to know how you feel and I admit that I hope I will never come to do so. But it might be that Lord Hiddleston turns out to be a fine husband."