Chapter Sixteen
My mother showed up for my second wedding. Their Royal Majesties were instantly in awe of Duchess Lily, but my husbands stared at her suspiciously. Still, she was welcomed, and it was my mother who helped me dress for the ceremony.
She swathed me in fairy silk and diamonds again, though this gown was even more elaborate than the last. I wore a tiara over my long veil, and I had a train attached to my waist, which had me concerned that I wouldn't be strong enough to pull down the aisle after me. Mother disappeared when a servant came in bearing a gift from my husbands: a set of diamond jewelry. The girl was still helping me don the jewels when my mother returned.
“I'll finish that, sweetie,” she said to the servant, and the girl hurried out.
My mother was holding a box, one that looked familiar. She set it down on the four-poster bed and threw back the lid. Inside it was my lost slipper, gleaming in the low light.
“Perhaps the time has come to tell them the whole truth,” Mother said.
“I'm way ahead of you.” I smirked as I lifted my skirts and revealed the other shoe.
She laughed and brought the slipper over to me, bending down to help me into it. Then she stood and helped me to stand as well. Mother looked me over from top to bottom and then nodded in satisfaction. I was surprised to see a tear in her eye.
“Mother?”
“You're so lovely, my Maddie,” she whispered and hugged me. “I wish that I could stay with you forever, but I'm already feeling the drain of this world.”
“It's okay, Mother,” I said. “I understand.”
“But I will return often, and make sure that no one harms my daughter ever again.”
“I'll look forward to your visits.”
“And I'm not leaving until I place your hand in theirs,” she said firmly. “Are you ready, darling?”
“I am.”
We walked out of the bedroom arm in arm, and our attendants pulled back and directed us down to the royal chapel. The castle was full of guests, but a path was quickly made for us, and I met the happy stares around us with one of my own. A pair of servants opened the chapel doors for us, and we strode in.
Trumpets sounded, and then a woman began playing a harp. I looked up the long aisle to the dais at the end, where my husbands waited for me with the same priest who had already married us. They smiled broadly when they saw me, and I smiled back.
Mother and I walked up the white satin runner, between overflowing pews, but I couldn't look away from my gorgeous husbands. All I could see were their eyes, sparkling like jewels: smoky quartz, emerald, and sapphire. They were more precious to me than any amount of treasure.
When my mother and I were just a few feet away from the dais, we stopped, and my mother smiled softly at me, giving me an encouraging nod. I looked up at my husbands, and then slowly lifted the hem of my skirts until they could see the glass slippers upon my feet. The King and Queen, seated on their thrones behind the priest, gasped in shock, but my husbands just smiled wider and nodded.
I blinked in surprise at their reaction, and then my mother escorted me up the steps and placed my hand in Ashton's. The priest gave me a conspiratorial wink, and we began the ceremony. This one was much more elaborate than our last, and when it was over, the priest presented us first to the King and Queen and then turned us to face the crowd.
“Your Princes and their Princess: Their Royal Highnesses Prince Ashton, Prince Weston, Prince Braxton, and Her Royal Highness, Princess Madelyn!” The priest said in a booming voice that I hadn't thought him capable of.
Then we walked down the aisle together and stepped out to greet the guests who couldn't fit into the chapel.
Chapter Seventeen
“You knew?” I asked my husbands as soon as we were seated at the high table.
“We suspected,” Ashton said.
“We knew,” Weston huffed. “What kind of fools do you take us for,Lily?”
“A little dirt can't hide your beauty,” Braxton chided me.
“Why didn't you say something?” I asked. “You deliberately said things to make me think otherwise.”
“You obviously didn't want to be found.” Ashton shrugged.
“I figured that you wanted us to get to know you more slowly, without the trappings of royalty,” Weston added. “And the more we talked to you, the more we appreciated your hesitation.”
