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

The Wedding

The music flowed quietly and elegant through the room as Louisa entered the grand room of the church and proceeded down the nave with her father by her side. A small, timid smile sat perfectly in place on her face which was kept straight forward. Her eyes though, were everywhere else.

The old church was grand, about twenty five feet to the pointed ceiling. The ceiling was covered with wood, the colour of old yellowed pages, laid in an intricate pattern. Crossbeams in the same shade arched from just above the stone arches beside the pews up to about five feet below the point of the ceiling, ten feet between each one. A crescent moon sat on each end of each crossbeam pointing towards the other. Both walls were adorned with arches made by white painted bricks spanning five feet between each column. Beneath every other arch was a leaded window curving at the top and between the other arches stood stone statues of various saints.

Louisa could not look, but she new that the organ was placed behind her, set on a balcony to let the tones from it reach the entire room as it indeed did just now. The pews were of a dark coloured wood, simply built yet each backrest carved with intricate vines. They were rather full at the moment, guests coming from afar to witness the union.

In the sea of heads Louisa could not see her mother or her brothers who would be sitting in he front. She did, however, recognize several of the heads turned backwards to see her progress. Mr. Lincoln, an attorney from the colonies in America, Mr. and Mrs. Holmes, the banker, and more distant relatives than she could possibly count. They were all dressed in their finest and eagerly awaiting what was about to happen.

Louisa wanted to scream. She wanted to yell for just one of them to help her, to stop her in her tracks, to see the madness of this marriage. Alas, no one would come to her aid. This was right. This was as it had to be. The pit formed in her abdomen seemed to be able to engulf her completely. She was no longer moving on her own accord. Her feet moved along as if they were alive themselves and no longer under her command.

She was determined not to look forward. The alter was indeed the most impressing part of the church with the wooden table laid with gold, covered by a white cloth with red trims. Behind the altar were three windows with endless pieces of colourstained glass, creating beautiful images. The left window depicted the fall from Paradise, the middle depicted the Lord hanging on the cross and the right depicted resurrection from the grave to the Heavens.

Louisa knew this beauty by heart. How many sermons had she not spent as a child, looking straight past the preaching clergyman to marvel at the pieces of glass, counting each one of them and studying the beautiful as well as sinister images they made. They had through many years been a welcome distraction from the monotone sermons given by the aging clergyman.

The reason Louisa chose to only remember the sight instead of gazing at the windows was the obstacle between them and herself. Every step she took in perfect, reverent pace only brought her closer to the altar and especially the man standing in front of it to the right. The groom.

She could not for all the riches in the world be persuaded to look at the man who must be despising her more for each step she took. Each step she took towards Lord Hiddleston brought him one step further away from his beloved Ms. Garner. If only she could end both of their misery by simply being swallowed up by the ground beneath her feet. However, they seemed to keep pacing without her bidding. It was as if her body had become detached from her mind and went as steady as a newly winded clock without her own interference.

Instead her eyes turned to observe more of the people sitting in the pews to her left. These were the family and friends of her own family. The pews on the right, to the left side of the vicar overseeing the ceremony, were all invited by the Hiddleston family and Louisa did not expect to see any kind, well known faces on that side.