Swear By The Stars

Chapter Nine

Her nose was met with the scent of stale but comforting air of the stone walls that towered into sweeping arches above her and she marveled at the sight of glass masterpieces, of intricate gargoyles that blocked the evil of the outside world. The other scents came from the wildflowers clutched in her hands; another gift from Benoît. From her early history lessons, she knew that kings and queens from ages past were married in such a grand place, but now someone with such humble circumstances as herself was following in the footsteps of royalty. 

Her eyes wandered to Jehan and the couple exchanged the purest of smiles. In all of his nineteen years and her sixteen years, this moment would be the one that they would look back on for as long as they lived. He’d recall her lovely face cloaked behind a veil of grandeur, her careful footsteps down the carpeted aisle towards him and Father Thibault, how her eyes marveled at the structure that encompassed them. 

She’d remember Jehan’s hands adjusting his clothing as he blushed when he gazed at her, how his smile was the most authentic truth she had ever been told. As each step closed the distance between them, she was eager to reach him, to finally bind herself to him. Now was the moment that she never thought she would have. It was now that something new would begin from this night onward. 

As Sylvia stepped towards Jean, he couldn’t retain his words. “You are beautiful, mon cherie.” Even though they were about to be wed, such a comment still brought a dark shade of red to his pallor. Sylvia smiled and found that her eyes were brimming with tears and her hands were shaking as she placed them into Jean’s equally tremulous palms. 

The father spoke in his various proverbs and ordinances, but the couple were both eying each other and contemplating which words deserved to be spoken. Words had never seen more daunting to Jehan until this moment. His tongue failed him on the first few attempts, but Sylvia offered him a gracious smile to encourage him.

“I, Jean Prouvaire, take thee, Sylvia Comtois, to be my lawfully wedded wife. My dear Sylvia, you are the muse that humble poets spend the entirety of their whole lives searching for. It is souls like yours that we desperately attempt to preserve through our words and papers for if the world should ever remember any being, it is you, my love. Regardless of the amount of coins in our pockets or the destination of our homeland, I will follow in your footprints as your loving, devoted, faithful husband. When you grace me with so much as a glance, I feel as if I’m the most wealthy man in France. You are divine and precious and I wish to spend the rest of my life in devotion to you.” 

Again, Sylvia’s heart quickened at such meaningful words and the astounding idea that they were being said to her! Her of all people! She had lived in shadows for a great deal of her life and she was still unaccustomed to having the light shining where she stood. It was even more shocking as Jehan withdrew a silver ring from his pocket, one engrained with patterns of vines and flowers. He slid it onto her finger and she marveled down at the fine piece of jewelry before her. Some might have considered it humble, but to her, it was more grand than any jewel.

She was not so eloquent in the midst of a few moments and she withdrew a piece of parchment with several scrawled statements. 

“I, Sylvia Comtois, take thee, Jean Prouvaire to be my lawfully wedded husband. I sometimes wonder what might have happened if the two of us had not stumbled into each other on that day whence we met. Perhaps we would have simply gone about our days without the idea that we were meant to meet or perhaps we would have felt the absence of what was meant to happen like one feels the presence of an empty stomach. Few girls in positions such as myself are ever this lucky to have a fragment of life outside of the ballet and for so long I didn’t, but now, the ballet is what I consider to be on the side of my life and you are all I can focus on and comprehend. I love you and I hope that you do not ever doubt it and I know that whatever obstacles we face, we may overcome as long as we work in unity. I promise I will dedicate my life to you and our purpose together.”