"Those who God has joined together let no man put asunder," the priest said. He kept talking after that, but Louisa was no longer able to even feign paying attention to him. She was married.
There had been a moment when the priest had asked - with honest fear in his eyes - whether anyone had any objections and someone had dropped something at the back of the chapel. She had a vision of Lady Bettie barging through the doors to demand her fiancée and her wedding back.
Was it wrong that she had not known in that moment whether she would be relieved or not?
Louisa looked out over the crowd and saw her family smiling back at her, every face creased with concern behind those smiles. Just before the wedding Alexandra had pressed her to her chest and kissed her cheek and said, "This is a wonderful chance for you, dear sister. I am certain all will be well."
Alexandra had never lied to her before.
Penelope had squeezed her hands and talked about the weather for five minutes, which was even more proof that her family was desperately concerned about her. Penelope never talked about the weather except when she was trying very hard not to say something terrible but true.
Louisa closed her eyes for a moment and then when she opened them her new husband was right before her, holding her hand and ready to escort her to the door of the chapel where they would get in a carriage to their wedding breakfast.
"Thank you," she said softly, barely above a whisper.
Cedric bowed his head slightly, the picture of elegance. He was even more handsome than he had been three days ago, wearing a different suit and standing as though he were carved from stone, the perfect example of a gentleman.
However was she going to manage this? When he was so much more composed than her and it made her want to hide her face and kick him in the shin at the same time?
"Oh I say, that's particularly good ham, let me carve you some more, my dear."
"I thought I would die when Mrs. Darlington dropped her bag at the chapel, why we might have been trapped in an endless cycle of weddings! No, no, please, I'll only have a little of the cake. My health is too delicate for all this rich stuff."
"Oh is that chocolate? I haven't had chocolate since the dinner party that Lord Redgrave threw last summer. I shall have at least three cups!"
"Never you mind, my dear, two weddings in one week with only one cake might be a little disappointing but we have gotten to the cake at last."
"Louisa!"
Louisa blinked a little, looking up to see Alexandra standing next to her chair trying to speak with her. She had been sitting absolutely still for some time now, just listening to what everyone who had been to her wedding thought about her and the breakfast that should have belonged to Lady Bettie.
Perhaps if she sat still enough no one would remember that she existed.
"You have barely eaten a thing," Alexandra said, smiling a little. Her lips were turned up but there was a crease on her brow. "Let me get you a roll and some ham. There is a lovely selection of meats and some tongue as well. Let me put together a plate for you."
Louisa smiled back, her lips pinched together against a rush of nausea. "Bless you, my dear, but I am not hungry with the excitement. Perhaps a little cup of coffee and an egg will settle my nerves?"
To her left was Cedric, speaking with Theodore and Margaret about some matter happening at Thornfield. He was the picture of ease, drinking and eating and laughing with his friends.
It wasn't fair! How could he be so unaffected by what was happening to the two of them? He had married a stranger instead of a woman he loved and all in the matter of a couple of days, yet it was as though nothing had changed!
"Here you are," Alexandra said, sliding the plate in front of her. "I stole the sugar rose from the cake, I remember how much you love those."
When they had been children, Alexandra and Louisa had once hidden beneath a table when their father and mother had thrown a great party. While all the guests were dancing and speaking with each other, they had stolen every single sugar flower off a cake that their mother had arranged to display. They had eaten them all and become terribly ill.
"Oh you shouldn't have," Louisa laughed a little. "I cannot even look at it! You must take it away and give it to Penelope or hide it beneath your fan."
Alexandra laughed as well, making the offending flower disappear with some cunning movement of her hands. "There, I knew it would make you smile. Take a sip of this coffee and a little food and you will soon feel better."
She went back to her seat, and as she sat, Gabriel leaned in from where he was seated at Louisa's right and murmured. "You look very well today, Louisa. I am sure that you and Cedric will be very happy."
Everyone was very keen on saying so, even Cedric was keen on acting like it was so and yet Louisa could not understand why! She turned her gaze to her husband thoughtfully, her mind a tangle of confusion. Perhaps once they were alone they would finally be able to talk about everything that had happened and what that meant for them now.
"This is St Vincent," Cedric said crisply as they walked up the sweeping front steps to the grand front doors of the beautiful old building. It was a picture perfect house, elegant and regal with ivy climbing the walls and fascinating little towers that crept up towards the sky under peaked roofs. There was an expanse of woodland just beyond the main estate buildings that gave the area a majestic appearance.
It was so different to her own home that Louisa didn't catch breath until they were standing in the entrance and Cedric was instructing one of the footmen to take her bags and another to summon the housekeeper, a Mrs. Brooks, to 'take his new wife to her rooms and then take charge of showing her the estate'.
Was this it? Was he simply going to leave her here with the servants without a word to her about how they were nowmarried??
