twenty-four #2
Graella and Lewin were married in the eyes of the Temple.
Mira politely clapped as the couple turned to the audience and bowed before exchanging a chaste kiss.
Lewin surprised even his new bride as he lifted her into his arms and carried her down the aisle, her bouquet of pink flowers and greenery nearly hitting the ground before Sulim leaped to catch it.
She fixed it up while exchanging a cheeky look with Mira.
A photographer caught it all, and Lewin’s parents were blubbering messes as they followed the couple out into the town square, where those not attending the reception cheered and threw wildflower seeds onto the cobblestones.
The Gardiahs followed, Jacelah as stoic as ever, and Vern taking her arm as if it were another day in the Temple.
Sonall followed them with Sulim slightly lagging, arms laden with more bouquets that had been left behind.
She was adorable, and Mira would hound the photographer for a copy of the still he took when Sulim looked his way.
The couple was helped up into a carriage led by two Gardiah horses.
They waved to the public before departing for Gardiah Estate for their reception.
The groom’s family was loaded into their own carriage to follow, as well as Sulim and one of Graella’s other female friends, who were on hand in case anything happened on the journey back.
Since the Gardiahs had plenty to see to before the party arrived, Jacelah, Vern, and Sonall got into an automobile that would take a back road to ensure they got back within ten minutes.
“Well!” Joiya appeared by her daughter’s side when she got up to stand in the aisle. “How did I do? I managed not to blurt out that she was pregnant.”
It was a good thing she said that in Julah, since there were still other witnesses sorting out their transportation back to the estate. Mira had assumed that she would be teleported there alongside her mother, but there was no point in discussing it now that they were all distracted.
“Is it true you got jealous when Uncle Ramaron tried to court a girl at the Academy?”
Ramaron conveniently disappeared when Mira asked her mother that. Joiya, on the other hand, smacked her daughter on the back and pinched her cheek before calling for Kanhith.
The reception spanned the sunny backyard, where a music stage, dance floor, and cooling tent had been set up two days before.
The doors to the ballroom were also opened to allow guests a place to eat from the banquet table or to hide if they desired.
There were only about a hundred people at the reception, but even Mira was shoulder-to-shoulder in the line to the privy before remembering she could use the one attached to her guest room upstairs.
Look at her go. She thought that about her mother, who didn’t stop dancing the moment the live music started on the stage.
When she hadn’t pulled Ramaron into a dance, she absconded with Kanhith—who had a drink in his hand—and even insisted on dancing with the groom after the couple’s introduction on the floor.
The bridal party had a place of honor beneath the tent, where an open bar was available well into the evening.
Mira took advantage of this while her mother spun by her in the arms of Marco.
The gold in her dress glittered in the bright sunlight, and she lost one of her butterfly clasps at her daughter’s foot.
“Here.” Mira said that when she sat with Sulim at the bridal party’s table. She and Lewin’s parents were the only other ones there, and it wasn’t like anyone questioned the friendship between Mira and Sulim by that point. “I think you need one of these.”
Sulim was dubious while Mira pinned the clip into her lover’s hair, right above her left ear, since Sulim did not have enough hair to use as originally directed. After Sulim smoothed down the spot around the clasp, she asked, “Enjoying yourself?”
“It’s a wedding.”
“I concur. It is a wedding.”
“The house is about to get quite empty.”
Sulim nodded. “It will be strange to not have Graella around anymore. But even stranger to be without Jacelah for a few weeks.”
“Good for us, though.”
Sulim nudged her. “Stop it. Someone might hear you.”
“Let them. I’m so in love with you that I’ll deal with whatever comes our way.”
“You’re quite confident.”
“And you haven’t been danced with yet.” Mira gestured toward the dance floor, where her mother had a line of townsfolk ready to dance with her. “At this rate, my mother will dance with you before I do.”
“She is the opposite of us. Loves a wedding, huh?”
“To be fair, my mother would be even more beautifully insufferable at my own very queer wedding, should I ever have one.” Mira looked right at Sulim when she said that.
“If I’m still alive, invite me.”
“Sulim…”
If she knew what Mira was on about, she played it coolly ignorant. It was also at that point that Sonall approached, and Mira knew that she would not be the first to dance with the future Lady Gardiah, much to her chagrin.
But she would not let it get to her. She hounded Ramaron for a dance while the man attempted to get some food, and was quite aware that the photographer took the opportunity to shoot them together.
After the song concluded, Ramaron insisted that he get a chance to eat and to drink some wine on his precious day off, leaving Mira open at the edge of the dance floor.
“May I, Young Lady Dunsman?”
It was Marco, refreshed from his dance with Joiya.
She shrugged, supposing that the more people she was seen dancing with before Sulim, the better.
I’ll get my turn, though. She was quite determined to twirl that pretty skirt on the dance floor before finagling a way to make love to her soulmate before the day was over. Somehow. Somewhere.
I still haven’t told her that she’s my soulmate. Mira had that locked and loaded for the perfect moment, though.
“It’s refreshing to see you in a different get-up, my Lady,” he said once they were at the edge of the dance floor. “Even if it’s just a nicer version of the same ol’ thing.”
“I could say the same thing to you,” she wryly commented on his clean trousers and ironed dress shirt, a far cry from the usual grass-stained work clothes that also smelled of horse manure and the Void knew what else.
The man had even shaved and combed down his hair for the occasion of a wedding.
“It must be nice to smell nice for once.”
He was not offended by her sarcasm. “Vern would tell you that it’s the smell of money. He’s a bit singularly focused like that.”
“Yet such extravagance for his daughter’s wedding.” It wasn’t lost on Mira how much everything cost, but then again, the Gardiahs were old-money wealthy. They just didn’t go around broadcasting it to the universe. But like the julah, anything that can be of quality is.
“It’s his only daughter.”
“Did he pay for such a wedding for his son, though?”
“Of course.” Marco twirled her on the floor, Mira catching her balance at the perfect moment before he had to put another hand on her for assistance. “It’s his only son. Although he made it clear to the boy that any other weddings he had would not be as nice.”
“What in the world does that mean?”
Marco shrugged before moving closer to the center of the dance floor. “You must know by now that Sulim’s biggest cheerleaders are her husband and the girl about to leave for good. Their parents have never been much in favor of the marriage.”
“There’s not being in favor of it, and then there’s acting like they think it will end.”
“Well, you’ve been quite cozy with Sulim these past few weeks. What do you think?”
Mira pursed her lips as she allowed him to twirl her once more. Unfortunately, unlike most of the other women on the floor, she was not wearing a skirt and did not have anything to spin around her waist. “I think it’s none of my business,” she said.
Something glimmered in his eyes. “Interesting.”
“Is it?”
“I was under the impression that women talked about these things.”
“Oh, they do, but I am a julah, and she is a human. We talk about other things besides mundanity. She has a healthy interest in the arts and reading, if you haven’t noticed. Quite sharp with technology as well.”
“Yes, I know about her little library in the old barn. I suppose that you do as well.”
From anyone else, that was an innocent comment. From him? Does he know something?
“I just want to say that it’s been a pleasure having you here with us, Mira.”
Marco still held her hand in the end position of the dance as the song faded and people searched for new partners.
The emcee specifically called for men with men and women with women for a traditional dance about friendship, and Mira knew this was her opportunity to openly dance with Sulim without garnering questions.
Besides, she didn’t know this dance and needed someone to show her how to do it.
But Marco still held her hand, and people awkwardly moved around them.
“It’s a shame to lose such a pretty girl like Graella, but your beauty has been noted as well.”
Mira scrunched her nose as he walked away, foregoing the same-sex partner dance in favor of grabbing wine from the bar. He stopped to talk to Sulim for a moment on her way by.
“That guy is weird,” Mira said, arms crossed. “Has he ever made a pass at you?”
Sulim’s eyes widened as the special dance began. “No. Not directly.”
“Directly?”
“When I moved here, he made sure I knew how beautiful I was. I think it’s the only compliment he knows how to give a woman.”
“And he’s single?”
“Rigidly so. I’ve actually never known him to date anyone, man or woman. He’s very fixated on the business.” Sulim held out her hand to Mira. “Well? This is a short dance!”
Mira instantly forgot what she was thinking about. A breathtaking beauty had touched her, and it was over.
Sulim was too tired to dance much, even with Mira, who proved to be a fine partner even when fixated steps were on the line.
It’s the dress. I’ll blame it on this. Sulim had worn very few dresses in her adulthood, with only her wedding day of much note, but for Graella?
She would wear whatever her dear sister-in-law suggested.