Chapter 154 - A hungry stomach and too much make-up

It was not a sunny day, but exactly the right weather that her grand-mère had hoped for, as if she had personally called Peter to pass on her order. Thick fluffy snowflakes trickled down from the sky to cover the land around the French town of Chenonceaux under a white blanket, as if coated with icing sugar. A fine layer of ice glittered on the waters of the Cher, which surrounded a fairy tale moated castle.

Lily and her wedding ensemble had already arrived at Château Chenonceau the evening before with all their bags and luggage. The week before, her mother-in-law and grandmother had already arrived in the idyllic Château des Dames, as the castle was affectionately known in the vernacular. With joyful anticipation, the ladies and the lady of the castle devoted themselves to the final wedding preparations until the longed-for day.

Since the early hours of the morning, the stylists seemed to be pushing their craft to its peak, as if they were going to perform their work like artists on Lily. The girl wondered if her grandmother or perhaps Lady Isabelle de Valois had mixed some kind of stimulant into the drinks of the stylists, which caused them to go into this state of ecstasy.

The bride felt as if there were headlights on her. She felt a thousand eyes pierce her back. She knew the number would grow throughout the day. Lily became quite uncomfortable at the thought. She wished she could hide under a blanket in a dark corner far from humanity. She knew herself that her bias was idiotic. She was simply not used to being the center of attention.

"Um, mademoiselle, could you please raise your head a little?"

Lily's eyes met the reflection of the smiling eyes of her hair stylists in the mirror. She immediately followed her instruction. Only her stomach hums in protest! Since she got up, the organizers of this wedding drama had forbidden her any food consumption. If she had known that, she would have stuffed herself up to the hilt with food the night before. Unfortunately, she was no fortune teller and was now at the losing end. She personally could not understand why her grandmother and mother-in-law made such a fuss about this wedding. She herself hoped the spectacle would soon be over, although it had not even begun.

The small armada of stylists that swarmed around her scared the hell out of Lily. Somehow lost, she sat in her chair and waited patiently while a make-up artist drew the contours of her cheeks with some powder.

She knew this was only the beginning. Lily would be sent to this room another four times that day to relive the artistic spectacle over and over again. She sighed. Just the mere thought of powder, creams, lipstick, hairspray and tulle dresses gave her a cold shiver. As the bride surrendered to her fate, she listened to the clatter of plastic, the taps of feet, the rustling of cloth and the faint conversations in the background. Somehow there was something meditative about it that Lily quickly forgot the time. Her thoughts swayed to something more beautiful. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, dreaming of a paradise in the South Seas. Alexander had not yet told her where their honeymoon would lead. It was going to be a surprise. Lily wasn't really worried about where it would go either. In her tropical paradise beside the turquoise sea, far away from all the wedding hustle and bustle, she already buried her feet in the white sand. Repressed and forgotten. She had left the wedding theater long behind. Imagine building small sandcastles with Adrien and sipping sweet cocktails.

The vibration of her mobile phone pulled her abruptly out of her dream world and back into reality. She shuddered. Touching for her mobile phone, which had gone missing somewhere between powders, creams and lipsticks on the dressing table. The whole table seemed to vibrate with her phone and knocked over some of the lipsticks. The girl who was doing her make-up quickly came to her aid and handed Lily the phone. Lily peeked at the screen. She couldn't help but smile.

'See you at the altar, Love.'

Flickered his message in black letters on the screen. Lately, Alexandre was sending her lots of text messages. Often he just wanted to know how she was, where she was or what she was doing. But sometimes he would also send her little poems. These messages had this special effect on her - suddenly she was very calm, all worries seemed trivial. She was aware that most of her fears were meaningless, she just had to overcome herself. After all, there was nothing wrong with being in the center of attention at some point in her life. She could not hide all the time. Not in the position she officially occupied from today - Duchess de Valois. Her position required her to become one of the central figures in society. Nevertheless, she had some very legitimate concerns. The high heels and the heavy dresses made of several layers of tulle and metre-long trains, this was a completely different dimension of obstacles. It could become quite tricky. One wrong step and she would kiss the ground. Certainly this would be a welcome change for the distinguished guest list, but for Lily it would be her worst nightmare.