Brides and Prejudice

Lock and Key pt.1

Jean hesitantly smiled as the makeup artists began to work on her.

"Absolutely stunning skin!" One of them couldn't help but compliment.

"You could have this skin too Lissa,"

"Blah," Lissa responded immediately. "You know I'm too lazy to moisturize more than once in a blue moon." She joked with the women who were Elisa's personal makeup artists. At first Jean had frozen, the last time she'd had makeup artists paint her face had been her wedding day. But unlike her no longer soon to be sister in law Carolynn's makeup artists, these women were matronly and anything but haughty. Jean had warmed up quickly as they bantered with her sister. She'd already had one break down earlier that Lissa had coaxed her out with promises of 80s music and gelato. Their eye brow tech was now singing to "Take Me Home Tonight " as Lissa punctuated every other lyric with an owe from the plucking.

A good hour and a half later, the girls were finally buffed, hair shining, faces contoured, and looking more Italian than they ever had in their lives, especially Lissa. The gold filigree strapless bustier dress with the high slit and burgundy train paid homage to the ancient romans all the while complimenting Lissa's dark feature. While Lissa's dark features were highlighted, Jean's were lightened. The hairdressers had lightened Jean's brutally black locks to a more natural dark sheen with the slightest hint of dark brown mixed in. The hairdressers had tried to get Jean's hair back to the natural blonde that it was, but were stopped by Jean's head shakes. Still they highlighted Jean's eyes with a silver eyeliner and a rose red lip. As they helped her into her lace blue, the stylists could not help but sigh as they imagined Jean with her natural blonde hair in the gorgeous dress.

Lissa could not stop staring at her dress as she fingered the burgundy silk. Elisa went way overboard... Lissa did not want to know the price tag of the beautiful dress that fit her like a glove.

"You look so beautiful," Jean smiled softly as she watched her sister.

Lissa whirled around, her feet almost getting caught on the train of her gown. The action would've worried her if she wasn't so caught up in the beauty of her eldest sister. How could any man leave behind a woman like Jean? Wherever Chase was, not that Lissa cared but, she knew that he was a miserable sot probably making his river a dam of alcohol.

!-!-!

Meanwhile in Switzerland...

Carolynn Brigham was leafing through another page of the latest Cosmopolitan when her hotel door was unceremoniously flung open and a tall statuesque blonde woman that uncannily looked like Carolynn's former to be sister in law, strode in. The woman's white casual but still business like column dress was wrinkled in all the right places to Carolynn's amusement. And Will thought she didn't understand men...

"I don't even want your money. I barely understand what just happened but that man in the other room is not okay," The woman said in a heavily put on American accent while handing Carolynn back her stack of pounds before Carolynn could ask any questions. "I can usually deal with just about every man that I've ever had as a client but even for me that was a first. Sickos, submissives, dominants, lonely, old, young, you can name it."

Carolynn could feel a headache coming. "And just what happened in my brother's room?" She asked, although her brain was telling her that she really did not need to know.

"Everything was going great at first upon entering. He couldn't take his eyes off me but then when I got closer to kiss him, he went in to hug me and kept saying I'm so sorry before he fell to his knees still hugging me all the while crying. He kept repeating he didn't deserve an angel like me in between apologies. For an hour. I finally just put him on the bed and had to sneak out..."