The Princess Bride

Chapter 11

One of the best things about my impending wedding was the opportunity to have all of my family with me beforehand.

My father's side, as well as Uncle Jeremy and his family lived nearby of course, so I typically saw them more often, but aside from Aunt Keira's semi frequent visits due to her position with the king, I only saw my mother's family every few years. And never had they all come here. My two grandmothers had never even met one another.

But now they were honored guests and it felt wonderful to have them here. It was also a little shocking to note just how large my family was. I'd realized it of course. One of the first things I'd wondered upon meeting my mother's large family as a child, was how I would ever remember all their names. And that was before they'd all married and had children. It was just so much more notable when they were all together this way with Papa's family. Alex, who was normally so adept at remembering names and details about the people he met, was even beginning to get a little confused.

A week before the wedding was to take place, the castle was simply bursting with visitors. Aside from my family, there were several dignitaries and even members of the royal families from the other kingdoms.

I'd been aware that Alex's wedding would be the most important, and therefore the largest event the kingdom had seen since the High King's coronation, but I hadn't realized it would include quite so many important people from outside the kingdom. It made sense I suppose, but it was pretty overwhelming to think of so many more people watching me and judging me. I expected a good number of them to find fault in what they saw. Especially the members of the royal families. None of them had looked friendly or even approachable and it wasn't hard to imagine that they disliked me on principle since one day Alex would be their High King, and in a way, I would outrank them. Beyond that, I had a feeling that the majority of them wouldn't like my ideas about things like the class system. The structure of the various kingdoms were all slightly different from one another, but they all shared that common thread.

Thankfully, I didn't have to interact with them very much. There were so many last minute wedding preparations that there wasn't much time for socializing. What little time I had, I devoted to my family.

Of course, given the current event that my female relatives had trapped me into, I almost wished to be spending this time with those people. At least that way I wouldn't be blushing five shades of red right now.

I'd intended to have a nice, relaxing afternoon with most of my family and Alex. Instead, as soon as we had arrived in the sitting room, Alex abandoned me with an evil glint in his eye. When I'd curiously turned back to the room, I realized that none of the men or children were here as I'd expected. A second later I understood that this was apparently my bridal shower.

Bridal showers weren't done here. At least not for the upper class since the women rarely needed anything when they married. So I really wasn't expecting a shower, but my aunts insisted on it. They knew I didn't really need anything either, but they wanted to torture me with 'fun' gifts and advice for my wedding night.

I'd been so unsuspecting at first, thinking that my family would want to give me sweet little meaningful things to start my new life with, but I'd been wrong. Horribly wrong.

When Aunt Charlotte handed me the first gift, I smiled and untied the innocent looking ribbon before opening the box and pulling out a small, very soft bit of fabric. It was so tiny, I assumed it was a scarf or something similar. When I unfolded it and held it up, I turned bright red - interestingly enough, the same shade of red as the delicate and very very small nightdress.

Mortified, I dropped the nightdress into the box and turned to Aunt Charlotte, shocked. Which of course made my aunt and everyone else laugh hysterically.

Aunt Keira took the box from my lap and handed me another just like it.

Nervously I glanced at the new box in my lap and then at the stack of similar ones off to the side, understanding that this was going to be a long string of one embarrassing gift after another.

I gave Aunt Keira a pleading look, but she only smirked and moved out of the way so as not to obstruct anyone's view of my humiliation.

Covering my face briefly, I groaned into my hands before looking down at the seemingly harmless box like it might explode.

"It won't bite," Mother said with a laugh.

Taking a deep breath, I decided to just get it over with as quickly as possible. I tore off the ribbon and opened the box, feeling my cheeks glow again as I pulled out the next little piece of fabric and held it up. Deep blue this time.

"Ooh, Alex loves blue," Isabelle said, causing everyone to laugh again and my face to flame even hotter.

The torture continued and I recieved scandalous little nightgowns in every color of the rainbow. Some of them couldn't even be called nightgowns. There simply wasn't enough fabric. I was shocked that the worst ones came from my grandmothers.

Feeling enormously relieved, I opened the very last box and held up a light pink nightdress with delicate lace on the edges. I glanced incredulously at Aunt Susan for her choice. It was common knowledge that I hated pink. Lace was not something that I loved either.

"It's for the prince, not you," she said making my face burn one last time.

As my family laughed again, I shoved the nightdress back in the box, shaking my head and unable to help a small smile.

"Thank you everyone," I forced myself to say, grateful it was over and extremely grateful that Alex hadn't witnessed any of it. I seriously doubted that I'd ever have the nerve to actually wear any of my new things in front of him.

Everyone began coming over to hug me and some like Aunt Charlotte made a few more comments to make me blush. Mother was the last one to hug me as everyone became absorbed in conversations or organizing my gifts.

"That was terribly embarrassing," I said so only she could hear.

"I know." Mother attempted to look sympathetic, but she was fighting a smile. She also looked like she had something else to say.

"What?" I asked a little nervous due to the look in her eye.

"Come with me," she said, leading me away from everyone else. "We need to have a little talk."

Curious about her timing as well as what she wanted to say, I followed without argument. A few moments later, I was very glad that she'd thought to have the conversation of what to expect on my wedding night, privately.

I wondered if I would ever stop blushing.