Epilogue #2
“Please,” I say sardonically and make my way to the door. We’ll get married at a castle near the manor, in Inverness, because Victoria had to invite half of the world.
There will be people, many, many people. Known people. Even the media. Because I am getting married to bloody Victoria Grace Fitzroy.
I am an idiot.
Henry waits for me in the entrance hall, both cats on his arm, clinging to him for their dear life. I am sure Victoria left Henry with me because she knows I am close to snapping.
Bella is next to him. She’s my bridesmaid and looks absolutely stunning.
Behind them, our sweet old neighbour lady, whom I invited instead of my mother. She has had the wonderful idea to be my stand-in mother.
I look at the three of them, and love spreads through my chest. I didn’t want this whole day. I am doing this for Victoria, but they’re here, and it’s actually quite nice.
“Look at you,” says Bella from downstairs, mouth half open.
“Don’t,” I hiss. “Not one word. Shut up and swallow it down.”
Bella closes her mouth and snorts out, just like Henry. I eye them angrily.
“Ready?” he asks, changing the topic.
“No,” I say as I carefully walk down the stairs with my heels, trying not to slip.
Of course, I do slip on the last step.
“Urgh,” I curse as my ankle throbs.
“Hate, hate, hate these shoes!” I shout.
“Breathe, love,” says Bella. “Breathe and pet your cat.”
“Give her to me,” I say to Henry, pointing at Pebbles.
“Nope, not happening. You’re not going to marry with cat hair on your clothes.”
“Urgh!!” I shout again, groaning.
I am sitting in a black Range Rover with Bella, Henry, my stand-in mother, and my dressed-up cats. Of all the things, this is the wildest moment of my life so far.
We arrive at the venue.
My heart stumbles with every second beat.
My hands are sweaty.
Daisies everywhere.
Daisies.
My favourite flowers.
Victoria really thought of everything.
Henry walks down the aisle with the cats.
Bella walks.
Then I have to follow.
I see all the people.
Staring at me.
All I want to do is run.
My stand-in mother, her walking stick in hand, pushes me down the aisle.
Victoria waits for me in a white suit at the end.
Everything is such a blur.
She says something.
I say something.
Rings.
I blink, and suddenly her hand is on my chin.
She kisses me.
Her whisper against my lips.
“I promise to love you every day for the rest of our lives together, twice as much on the days you forget how wonderful you are.”
And I am me for the first time on this day.
Her touch.
It’s just us.
Her and I.
And—
“Ouch!” I shout as claws dig into my leg.
Far away, people laugh as I glance down. Pebbles hangs from my leg, clinging to me as if I am the only safe place in the world.
I pick her up, lift her in my arms, where she snuggles at my chest, as always. My eyes wander from Pebbles up into Victoria’s eyes.
Victoria, who is now my wife.
And I am hers.
My wife.
I cup her cheek with my free hand and kiss her. Not with cat hair on my clothes, but an entire cat on my arm.
It’s a kiss that is only meant for her. To say all the things I can’t say right now.
Thank you, Mistress, I tell her in my mind.
“I have a surprise for you,” I whisper in her ear when we end the kiss and walk up the aisle to the exit of the ceremony room towards the ballroom.
Of all the things I have imagined, walking down the aisle with one of my cats on my arm and my wife’s hand in mine, to the clicking noise and flashes of several photographers, is so far-fetched that it feels like a dream.
“And when will I learn what it is?” she asks me.
“The moment you tell all these people to bugger off,” I say, and her mouth curves into a smile. A moment I wish to never end, but it does. Because people come to congratulate us. Famous people I have heard of. After all this time, I’m still not used to it.
“You think that cat will let go of you anytime soon?” she asks me after I have been damned to hug several hundred people with a cat clinging to me. Pebbles is just as exhausted as I am, because every second sentence was “Oh, such a cutie,” or a derivative of it, followed by touching.
“I don’t think so,” I say, and when I try to pull Pebbles off, she digs her claws into me.
Victoria sighs.
“Well,” she says, “Dance with a cat it is then. May I please have this dance, Mia Emilia Fitzroy?” she asks me.
I look at her, and right this moment, after all the fictional books I’ve read telling the tales of love, I finally know what love really is.
This is.
This is love.
Dancing with your wife, who has a frightened, clingy cat on her arm on your wedding day and not making her put it down, but respecting it.
“I love you,” I say as I take her hand and we improvise our dance.
At some point, Bella takes her place, and Victoria dances with an old friend of hers.
“It’s the day,” Bella says.
“What day?”
“The day you said would never come,” she says. “We’re partying together. You’re bloody married!”
“Shut up and dance,” I hiss at her.
When the day finally becomes a night, and we’re released from all the people, I have a moment to reconcile. I sit in the Range Rover with Pebbles on my arm still, and I watch Victoria laughing with the neighbour lady. My stand-in mother. The stranger, who loved me more than my own mother.
It’s the moment I realise my mother really did not attend the wedding.
My mother, with whom I had a fallout over the relationship with Victoria.
My mother, who called me names and stupid for not being a teacher anymore, but pursuing an acting career.
My mother, who is not here, because I don’t want her here.
I decided. I. Not she. And I am finally free of her.
I have everything I ever needed right here.
“Ready?” asks Henry from the driver's seat, Porridge on his lap, when Victoria sits down and closes the door.
“Yes,” she says and adds with a glance at me. “There is something I cannot wait to do.”
“Wait, where is Bella?” I ask.
“She has um—“ begins Henry, but I don’t need him to finish.
“Who?” I ask, rolling my eyes.
“Leo,” Henry says.
“No, she didn’t,” I say.
“Pretty sure she did,” says Henry. “Walked in on them.”
I groan.
Whatever.
Bella will be Bella.
“You know what,” I say. “Let her have the time of her life. She finally got to bang the man she always dreamed of.”
Henry does want to say something, but he restrains himself.
We’re back at Glenmere half an hour later. Back in my room, I free Pebbles from her train and place her on my blanket. She is finally ready to let go in the comfort of her known home.
“You are awaited downstairs,” Henry tells me, who has brought up Porridge and a big cardboard box with a ribbon. “You're supposed to wear this.”
I grin and open the box.
Black leather, harness, bra. I close the box. Although he might have been the one who bought it, I don’t need him watch me put it on.
“Mia,” he says. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you. For everything,” I say and pat him on the shoulder. He is quite alright.
He smirks. “You can also thank me for the most epic wedding pictures the world has seen,” he says.
“Oh no,” I say.
“Here,” he says and holds up his phone with a headline and a photo.
“Victoria Fitzroy marries the cat lady,” I read. “They’re ever so nice, aren’t they?”
I look at a photo of our kiss, with Pebbles and her train on my arm. I crack into laughter. “That’s actually pretty epic,” I say.
“It is,” he says and leaves.
I put on the clothes from the box, which takes me a moment to figure out. But when I do—
Bloody hell.
Never, ever have I felt sexier than right now.
I grin at myself and get downstairs, taking my small box with me, the one with my surprise for her.
I open the door to our new pleasure room. Since we are here at Glenmere most of the time, we both found it quite necessary to have.
Victoria sits leaned back in the armchair, dressed in black leather.
I bite my bottom lip the moment I see her. It is the most erotic thing I have ever seen.
“Come here, Princess,” she says. “Kneel.”
I do as told.
“Is that the surprise?” she asks me.
“Yes, Mistress,” I say and hand it to her.
She opens it, and my heart beats into my throat the very moment.
She pulls out the collar I have set Henry on to organise from a special manufacturer. A collar for me. She also pulls out a leash with diamonds on it, in Victoria’s favourite colour—yellow. Henry, you little meddler, I curse in my mind, while I love him for it.
“You better put it on and accustom me to it if you are to introduce me to your club, Mistress.”
“Does that mean you are saying yes to joining me?” she asks incredulously.
“My lovely wife and Mistress,” I say. “What do you think it means?”
I have rarely seen her speechless, and I know it's something she wanted for the past two years, something I have always declined.
“The next event is on July 8th,” she says, a wonderful smile on her face. “The Temple of Liberation.”
“Sounds about right, doesn’t it?” I say, and my eyes wander to the floor.
“You are such a good girl,” she says, her hands caressing my skin as she fixes the collar around my neck.
Her hand brushes over my hair and I close my eyes.
“My beautiful Princess,” she says. “Mine.”
Yes, I am yours.
My mistress.
My guidance.
My safe place.
My heart.
My soul.
My love.
THE END