Chapter Nineteen
<^> <^> <^>
Axel stood on the platform next to his best man, Cam, waiting for the maid of honor and the bride to walk down the aisle. Earlier, Cam had tried to cheer him up as they dressed in their wedding finery.
“You’ll be okay, right?” Cam asked. His brother wore a look that said he didn’t want to be chasing Axel down to drag him back to marry the wrong woman.
“Guess I’ll have to be.”
“I’m sorry you don’t get to have a choice.”
“I am, too, but I made a promise to someone I love, and I will abide by it.”
Cam shook his head and said under his breath, “You’re a better man than me.”
“I doubt that, but I appreciate that you said it out loud, Bro.”
“Francine is a very lovely woman.”
“Yes. She is. Any man would be lucky to have her as a wife.”
“I hope things will go smoothly once you’re wed.”
“So do I.” There were many things to think about once he and Francine got married. Her parents had not relented on pressuring the newlyweds to move to Alpha-Prime. Every time he got close enough to hear them talking, the conversation had to do with “sweetening the offer” or “what leverage can be used against the groom and his family” and the like. They were persistent, he’d give them that.
Axel was watching for Valene. She told him once she slipped into the back of the seating area and made her way to her seat, she’d signal the pianist to begin playing the wedding march.
Butterflies dive-bombed his belly as he waited. Waiting was the hardest part. Well, until he married the wrong woman. Then that might be the hardest thing. When the appointed time came, he held his breath, watching for his little sister to signal and set in motion the doom of the rest of his life.
At a minute past the hour, the assembled crowd got a little restless. He checked his watch a couple of times and then every five seconds until two minutes after they were supposed to start.
He saw the bride’s mother frown and start to stand. Valene darted into view. She ran up the sidewalk toward the assembled crowd in rows of chairs and waved at the pianist as she slid around the back and came up the groom’s side. She gave him a big grin and a thumbs-up.
The pianist started the wedding march. The maid of honor came into view, walking slowly and carefully down the center aisle. As soon as she got to the front, she turned and walked away from the groom and best man and stopped several feet away without acknowledging them. He couldn’t blame her.
Axel knew he wasn’t supposed to look at the maid of honor, but he couldn’t help it. The veil she wore was heavily laced, mostly translucent. He couldn’t even make out her facial features. She did not look his way, not even a quick peek.
The maid of honor stared straight ahead, looking across the beautiful view of woods and the Alienn water tower in the distance with Maxwell the Martian hanging off the edge, grinning like he was forever on his greatest adventure.
A hush fell over the guests and Axel’s attention was drawn down the aisle toward the bride. She stood at the end of the center aisle. Her veil was nearly opaque with lace. Valene told him two places were lacy but thin enough for the bride to see through. From this distance, he couldn’t see her eyes or tell whether she was blinded by the lace.
He’d been surprised when her father had declined to walk her down the aisle, Earther style. Harrison Duvall didn’t want to participate in what he considered the less important wedding ceremony, so Valene hadn’t pushed it.
Francine would have to do the best she could with her opaque veil. He hoped she didn’t walk into a post or any wedding guests along her way.
The pianist started the opening bars of “Here Comes the Bride.” The guests, led by the groom’s family, stood up as the bride walked down the aisle toward him.
It was unnerving not to be able to see her face beneath the heavy veil, but that was the point. This was an arranged marriage. It didn’t matter whether he could see his bride during the ceremony until it was too late and they were already married.
Both Duvall parents had fervently insisted on including the Alpha-Prime custom of the signing of the vows as part of the Earther ceremony. They didn’t want Francine or Axel to be able to change their minds once the Earther ceremony was complete. After the Earther ceremony, he’d be wed to her forevermore.
His bride made her way slowly and carefully down the aisle to him. Once she stood next to him, he looped his arm through hers and together they stepped onto the platform. The officiate, a man selected from a few choices in the basement facility for couples wanting to officially marry on a colony planet, stepped forward.
The maid of honor and best man also stepped up onto the small platform and the officiate began his program.
Francine’s dress was beautiful. So was Lucy’s. They were very similar in style, but Francine’s was fancier with more lace and a longer train.
Axel took a deep breath and pushed it out, trying not to think about the future or how he’d make it work. The picture of Lucy’s face telling him she couldn’t hurt her sister was what he held in his mind.
He didn’t want to hurt Francine either. She didn’t deserve it. She’d been nothing but kind, friendly and happy throughout the last several weeks of preparation.
Axel glanced down at his bride-to-be. She held a beautiful bouquet of flowers in both hands at waist level. The blossoms she’d selected were simple, colorful and beautiful.
She wore lacy gloves that gripped the stems of the flowers, possibly showing her nervousness at this official occasion.
He glanced down at her hands again in time to see the bride press her thumbs together hard for a count of three. She did it again and then a third time.
Axel smiled. She always did that when she was nervous.
He froze. No. Wait.
Did Francine also do that when she was worried?
<^> <^> <^>
Fifteen minutes before the wedding ceremony
Lucy did her best to keep her mother away from Francine when she came back from getting her hair, makeup and nails done, but Adeline Duvall had a few more barbs of advice to share with her second daughter.
“You have to start working on him immediately after this ceremony, Francine. You don’t want to end up on this horrid planet for a lifetime, do you?”
“I already told you many times that I will talk to him, Mother. How many more reminders are you going give me?” It wasn’t like Francine to snap at anyone, let alone their mother. Apparently, she’d hit her limit.
Lucy—already standing beside Francine—straightened the train of the beautiful bride’s dress and moved closer. “Mother? Give it a rest. I’ve heard you say the same thing three times in the last half hour.”
“I’m just trying to help,” their mother said. She frowned at the dress. “This dress is too plain. I want to fall asleep with boredom every time I look at it.”
“What?” Francine and Lucy said at the same time.
“I love this dress,” Francine said. She stroked her hand down the front, brushing non-existent wrinkles out of it.
“I love this dress, too,” Lucy added.
Their mother rolled her eyes. Her mouth opened, but they were saved from another acerbic comment by Valene rushing into the room.
“Okay. Let’s get this show on the road. Everyone out!”
“Maybe I should stay in here with you,” their mother said, eyeing the wedding dress as she shook her head as if pitying the choice.
“No can do,” Lucy said quickly. “Everything is set up for the video pictures to start after all the guests are seated. If you don’t go now, you’ll spend the ceremony in this room.”
“Fine.” Their mother rolled her eyes, gesturing at Valene as though she were the problem. She wasn’t.
As soon as the door closed and only Valene, Lucy and Francine remained, Lucy heard the lock click into place on the double doors.
“Why did you lock us in?” Lucy asked.
“Because we don’t want anyone to see what we’re doing,” Valene said.
Lucy frowned. “What are we doing besides putting the veils in place?”
Valene and Francine grinned at each other wildly. “There has been a change in the agenda,” Valene said, walking straight toward her. She stepped behind Lucy, grasped the long zipper on the back of her dress and drew it down from neck to waist in one quick zip. “You’re going to need to hurry and get out of this dress.”
“What?” Lucy stared at them both like they were lunatics.
Valene went next to the carefully tended wedding dress and unzipped Francine, too. Francine stepped from the dress with Valene’s help. Her sister reached out to pull the maid of honor dress from Lucy’s shoulders.
She clutched the neckline to her chest, barely keeping it in place. “Have you gone mad?”
Her favorite sister huffed. “Did you really think I didn’t know that you were in love with Axel?”
Lucy shot a hot gaze at Valene, still holding the bridal dress up. “I don’t understand. Who told you?”
“I knew the moment Axel entered the room and we met for the first time. The both of you look at each other like breathing would be difficult if you weren’t together forever.
“I selected you as my wedding director because I knew with a little help from one other person—” she smiled at Valene, who dropped one sleeve of the wedding dress to salute them “—we could trade places and you can be the one to marry the man you love.”
Lucy’s mouth fell open. “You knew? All this time?”
“Of course I knew, silly. You’re my best friend in the world. I knew the second Axel saw me and you together he’d already made his choice.”
“I told him that I could never hurt you. I told him that if you knew, you would never agree to the wedding.”
“And you’re right.” Numb with shock, Lucy let Francine help her out of the maid of honor dress and into the lovely wedding dress she’d secretly wanted to wear more than anything. “Something you don’t know, Lucy. Before we left Alpha-Prime, I told Mother and Father that I wasn’t interested in the arranged marriage they’d selected for me.”
“Is it because you’re in love with someone else?”
Her sister nodded.
Lucy stepped into the bride’s dress and Valene zipped her up. It fit perfectly. “The mysterious H.R.?”
Francine didn’t answer. Lucy chewed her lower lip. “I want to marry Axel. But I don’t want you to be hurt when this blows up after the ceremony.”
Her sister shook her head. “Don’t worry about me, Lucy. I decided a long time ago it would be better to be alone than to face a lifetime married to someone I didn’t love. Mother and Father were certain that I’d come around when they offered me extra boons for marrying a second born man with links to a noble family. They were further convinced that I’d fall in line with their long-planned legend of second born arranged marriage. But they were wrong.”
“What do you think they will do?”
“I don’t know. But I also don’t care. Turns out they can’t make me do what I don’t want to after all.”
Lucy frowned again. “If I can help you in any way, I surely will.”
Francine hugged her. “I know. Don’t worry. Likely they’ll just find some other second-born man from a better family to force the issue, but I have news for them. If I can’t have H.R.—and I can’t—then at this point in time, I don’t want anyone.”
“Why can’t you have H.R.?” Lucy asked.
“He did not love me. Well, he didn’t love me enough. He married someone with lots of power, wealth, and more status. If we’d married, his parents would have disowned us and he was unwilling to give up his wealth for love or for me. He wasn’t the man I thought he was.”
“I’m so sorry, Francine.”
“Don’t worry about me, Lucy. I’ve made my peace with my choices. I’d rather be single forever than to trust another man with my heart. But right now, our parents can’t force me to wed for any reason. So, you go marry your true love and we’ll just worry about everything else later.”
“Thank you so much, Francine.”
“Be happy, Lucy. You deserve it.”
Valene handed each of them their veils and helped straighten them and get them in to place.
“We’re running a couple of minutes late, ladies. Let’s get going before our big plan is discovered and thwarted. Remember, come back to this room right after the ceremony. They’ve added the signing into the ceremony, so Axel will have the scroll in hand when you walk down the aisle. The photographer will already be in here, but most importantly, we can lock the door from the inside.”
“Then we can both live happily ever after,” Francine said.
Lucy could hear her sister’s smile even from beneath the heavy, difficult-to-see-through veil. She pressed her thumbs together hard as nerves roiled through her. She was about to marry Axel Grey. He wouldn’t know until he lifted her veil for the obligatory Earther kiss.
Wouldn’t he be surprised?