Winters' Tales

One White Wedding.

OMG SO I HIT 1,000 FOLLOWERS RECENTLY!! Aaaaahhhh!! In celebration, here's a little insight into one of the happiest days of Alianna Winter's life.
R xx

FIVE YEARS AFTER THE RETURN OF ALIANNA WINTER

I woke up that morning feeling pretty much the same as I always did.

That feeling didn't last for very long.

I fought down the rush of emotions building up in my chest, and got slowly out of the bed I was in. I could faintly smell bread baking, coming in through the crack below the bedroom door.

I crossed to the window and opened the curtains, peering out into the early morning.

Something struck me about the outside world, but I was too befuddled by sleep to work out exactly what it was. I had turned away from the window, and was looking for my dressing gown before it hit me.

It had snowed.

"Izzy!" I called, running out onto the landing of the house that wasn't my own, and, receiving no answer, clattering down the stairs and into the kitchen of a small bakery, which was attached to the house I was staying in. An plump, elderly woman with wild brown hair was busy making bread at the workbench.

"Your sister will be coming to help you get ready at nine, Alianna" Mrs. Smart sighed. "For heaven's sakes, go and get washed..."

"It's snowed!" I blurted out, cutting her off.

"Yes it has. You'll have a lovely white wedding, my dear. It won't half be a sight. Now get a shift on..."

"Allie, what are you shouting about?" a second voice came echoing down from the upstairs.

"Hettie!" I shouted back. "Hettie, it's snowed..."

"I know!" Hettie replied, clattering halfway down the stairs and leaning over the banister. "It's a perfect day for a wedding. Come up here. Mrs. Smart has helped me get a bath for you, and it'll be cold if you don't get in it quickly..."

I smiled at Mrs. Smart, who was glaring at me in a motherly way, and ran back up the stairs with Hettie to one of the other bedrooms upstairs, where, true to her word, there was a huge, steaming metal bath waiting.

"The dresses are in Mrs. Smart's room" Hettie told me. "Isabel will be here at nine. I was going to throw a dress on and go into the village very quickly, to try and get something for Mrs. Smart as a thank you for having us."

"Get something for Toby and Tarquin too" I reminded her. "There's money in my purse. I mean, we have essentially turned them out of their rooms..."

"We couldn't have Smart seeing you before the wedding, Allie!" Hettie reminded me. "It's bad luck! And he was fine with it..."

"He would have said he was fine even if he'd had to sleep in the shed. He's too good to me, sometimes" I sighed, giggling, as Hettie grinned at me and bowed out. I quickly stripped and stepped into the bath. It was a little bit cool, but still pleasant, and it had a rose teinture in it which made it-and me-smell lovely.

The water was just getting properly cold when there was a little knock on the door.

"Allie?"

"Izzy!" I called. "I'm just getting out of the bath-Hettie's gone into the village. She'll be back soon!"

"Be quick!" my sister's voice came through the door. "I've had to leave Pansy with Elijah downstairs. She's awfully excited to be a flower girl, dear child."

"Oh no!" I groaned, as I got out of the bath and threw my dressing gown back on to cover myself. "I'd forgotten about the children..."

"You were a governess for nearly two years of your life, Allie!" Isabel fussed, bustling in and sweeping me off to the master bedroom, where all the dresses had been kept.