Chapter Three: Wedding of Hate

 

            *Everything was nice. Not perfect, not hideous, but nice. The last of the snow had melted less than a month ago, and now life was returning to the countryside. The trees had budding green sprouts. The gardens were quickly filling with flowers and the fields were filled with the plows that would begin to till them the next day. The inner courtyard of the Blue Crest fief was the same as it always was- filled with people and bustling with activity. But the activity the serfs and slaves were busy with this day was quite the contrary of any other they usually preformed. Today was the first of May, the holiday of May Day.

            The children of the fief were dancing and playing freely, none of their parents had the time to watch them and give them chores to do. The women of the fief were busy slaving over the cooking fires and their spits, while the men were busy preparing themselves for the arrival of a group of very important people. Inside the inner most keep of the fief, Hiiro sat, brooding over the events that were advancing with each passing minute.

 Looking out the window Hiiro watched as the children danced around each other while the bards his advisor had hired tuned their instruments. Today was the first of May, his wedding day. Though he had first taken this minor detail called a wedding as nothing more than a mere duty as a Lord of a fief, he was slowly coming to the realization that it was more. This was a huge sacrifice on his part. He had to give up his freedom; the quality time he got to spend alone was going to be shared with another person now. Not to mention he would have t worry about keeping this new wife of his in line. From the way her father had spoken of her, this woman whom he was to marry would be a handful. No matter. Nothing was too much for Hiiro Yui. He was adapt and adjust like he always did when thrown into a new situation.

“Hiiro.” An older woman stepped into the room from the hall. Hiiro turned to look at her.

“Rachel.” He nodded in acknowledgment. This was the only woman he thought was worthwhile on the planet. She had a good, smart head on her shoulders and for some reason, understood him better than anyone else. Rachel had been the woman who had cared for him as a child; when he had tripped, she had picked him up. When he had struggled with remembering dates in his history lessons she had drilled him, and when he had found out that his fathers was dead, she had consoled him. She was as smart as they came, woman-wise.

“Nervous about your wedding?” She asked him, smiling.

“No. Just tired of waiting.” He lied.

“Maybe your new wife won’t be as helpless as you think all woman are. Maybe she’ll be better.”

“Maybe. But perhaps she is worse?” He countered, furrowing his eyebrows and darkening his eyes.

“It is a possibility that she is worse. But Hiiro, maybe she can be trained.”

“You’re trying to make me feel better.” Hiiro caught onto the older woman’s trick. She smiled. He was still the same observant boy she had grown to love over the last sixteen years. But she wished he would open up. His father had been so considerate and polite, not to mention friendly to everyone he had met. But Hiiro seemed the opposite. Thought he had the trust of those around him, he had earned it through solidarity, not through friendship. This created an ache in her heart more than anything else.

Rachel wanted for nothing more than her ‘son’, as she had come to call him privately, to grow to be happy. Hiiro seemed to be troubled in a deep sense, one that no one, she feared, would ever be able to cure. And now today, on what was supposed to be a joyful day, he was sitting inside the tower, sulking about what his new bride was going to change in his daily routine. All she could hope for was that this wife would be a good thing for Hiiro. Hope and pray that she would be a good thing for her son.

“Hiiro, I…” A horn blared and Hiiro shot up out f his bored position in his chair. Peering out the window, he saw a procession riding up his north field. His bride was here.

Rachel too, moved to look out the window. Seeing the procession, her heart both rose and sank at the same time. Today her son would leave her care and enter his wife’s. But today was the day that he might meet the one who could cure the emptiness inside of him. She smiled through teary eyes.

“Are you ready to meet your bride Hiiro?”

“Yes.” He nodded. Then he turned on his heel and stormed down the stairs, leaving a crying Rachel behind. She quickly gathered herself and followed him down the stairs and outside.

As Hiiro entered the crowded and busy courtyard, everything became silent. He was vaguely aware of the silence that had befallen his workers, yet said nothing to send them on their way. Making his way towards the Earl of Walden, he spied a group of young woman. Was one of them his wife to be? None of them were particularly different looking than any other woman he had ever seen. Well, time would tell all.

“Lord Yui.” Richard greeted his new son in law.

“Earl Walden.” Hiiro greeted his new father in law. Then both stood in an uncomfortable silence, not knowing what to do o say next.

“My Lords, I am Friar Joseph, the clergy member who will be binding the marriage today.” A humble looking monk stepped into the middle of the two men. A warm smile decorated his face, and mirth twinkled within his warm brown eyes.

“Very well.” Hiiro spoke darkly. “Shall we commence the ceremony?” One of the women that had been standing in the group stepped up to Richard. After bowing slightly, she whispered something into his ear. He nodded, then turned back to Hiiro.

“Lord Yui, my daughter would like a few minutes to- prepare- herself for the ceremony.”

“Of course. She may be shown to a room to the keep. Rachel.” Hiiro agreed. He didn’t feel this woman should need anytime to prepare herself- she had, after all, known about this marriage for three months, however woman were fickle in that manner.

“Shall I show her to the blue room my Lord?” Rachel asked Hiiro, bowing her head slightly. Hiiro thought of her question for a moment. The blue room? Why not?

“Yes. To the blue room Rachel. While we wait, shall we go through the dowry once more?”

“Of course.” Richard agreed, watching the woman whom Hiiro had called Rachel escort his daughter and her ‘friends’, his serf’s daughters, to this ‘blue room’. He missed he already.

>>>)(<<<

            Rachel lead the group of plain women in, through the inner hall, through the central quad of the citadel and into the main keep. Up the stairs the group climbed until finally they reached a small hallway. Rachel lead them down the hallway to the last room on the right. Opening the heavy wooden door, she hustled the women in and closed and locked the door behind them.

            “Our friend thanks you for leading us here.” One of the women spoke.

            “Oh? And can your friend not speak for herself?” Rachel laughed good-naturedly, assuming the ‘friend’ was the one to marry her son. The women all remained silent and stoic. One stood from the center of the group.

            “I can speak very well thank you.” Rachel looked hard at the girl. She seemed to be just another one of the serf’s daughters. A plain, dirty whitish dress with a brown apron over the front. A cloak of brown covered her head and shoulders, and she was thin in form. This was the woman her son was to marry? She was sorely disappointed.

            “You look disappointed in me.” The girl spoke, sarcasm dripping in her voice.

            “I wanted my Lord to marry someone who would make him happy.” Rachel found her voice.

            “And I wanted to marry someone that would make me happy. But we can’t always get everything we want, can we now?”

            “Of course not. You sound so bitter dear.” Rachel quipped as she made herself comfortable in the chair near the window.

            “I am. I was not informed I would have to marry my Lord at such a young age, not to mention not even know his name before the wedding.” The girl, too, sat in a chair near Rachel. Her friends gathered around her, sitting themselves on the floor.

            “He had no knowledge of your name either child.”

            “And he shall continue to be in the dark until I decide otherwise.” Rachel could practically see the woman in front of her smirk.

            “And why is that?”

            “As much as you may love him, whatever is name may be, I do not. I do not love him, I do not know him, and I do not trust him. I will most likely end up hating him, as he will me, and our marriage will be a bitter unhappy one. I will never bare him a child, and I will not obey him.” Rachel’s heart sank. This girl was not the one. Her son would be forever trapped in his misery, his depressed state.

            “And what if you perhaps do grow to love him, or he you? The  what will happen?” Rachel questioned, keeping her heartbreak to herself.

            “It will not be an issue.” The woman said. The girls around her, for the first time, giggled. Rachel was appalled. What was this demon of a woman? Who was she? An ugly, spoiled, brat who would cause problems around the home, that much was definite.

            “Very well. We should be leaving to join my Lord soon, he is expecting us.” Rachel chided harshly.

            “Then what do we wait for? We mustn’t keep my Lord waiting.” The girls giggled again. Rachel turned away and rolled her eyes. This was not good.

>>>)(<<<

            Hiiro watched as a grim Rachel lead the group of women down from the blue room. His mother’s old room, before she had passed on. They were exactly the same as before, plain, messy, and quiet. Hiiro wondered which of them he was to wed. What a pity. And he had been told his wife was beautiful. Richard had lied. Well, no matter now. But why did Rachel look so unhappy? Was his wife to be not hat she had expected? Probably another frivolous and spoiled brat of a woman. Wonderful. Well. It was too late to argue now. The sheep were already intermingled, and the money had already been collected and stored. Marriage needed to go on as planned.

            “Let us begin the ceremony.” Richard clapped Hiiro on the shoulder and laughed. The monk Friar Joseph laughed along with him, and Hiiro simply grunted. One of the women stepped forward and marched up to Richard. Though she was hidden beneath a dark brown cloak, Hiiro could tell she was tense. This had to be his bride to be, for she said a few sharp words to the Earl of Walden before bringing up her hand and slapping him across the cheek. Then she turned and stood next to Hiiro, awaiting the monk to begin the ceremony. Joseph took his cue and began to recite the familiar passage.

            “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to witness the joining of this man and this woman in holy matrimony. They are to be united under the kingdom of God on this day, the first of May. Do you, My Lord, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, from this day forward?”

            “I do.” Hiiro grunted without hesitation.

            “And do you, child, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, honor and obey, in sickness and in health, from this day forward?” A silence fell upon the crowd.

            “I do.” A tiny whisper came from beneath the heavy cloak.

            “Do you have the rings to symbolize your eternal love?” Hiiro brought out two rings. He slipped one onto the woman’s finger, and gave her the other. She slipped it over his finger.

            “Then, by the power invested in me by the Pope Innocent III, you may kiss the bride. Hiiro brushed the cloak’s hood back from the woman’s face and bent forward to finalized the wedding. The crowd, Rachel and the monk included, gasped in disbelief. But the woman simply stood, impassively with a slight frown upon her face, letting Hiiro move in to complete the ceremony. Hiiro quickly brushed his lips against hers and then drew back, knowing he had just sealed his fate. He could not bare to look upon the face of the woman whom he had just married.

            She stood impassively until he brushed his lips against hers. It was over. Though she had tried so hard, acted so harshly, behaved to poorly, she had still ended up trapped in a life that she wished to fly away from. She was the wife of a Lord. Tears began to trickle over, pouring down her pale, smooth face and blurring her vision. Hiding her face within her hands, she quickly tried to wipe the tears away. When she could not, she settled for another quick escape. Picking up her skirts, the sobbing young woman ran from the courtyard of people, she ran up into the fief and back to the room which she had been shown to before the wedding. Throwing herself onto the blue sheets of the bed, she covered her face and cried herself to sleep, knowing that she would never again be free.

            Hiiro stood stunned. It was almost as though he had been jilted, only it was after the wedding had occurred. He hadn’t even caught the name of his new wife. Such a concept, a name. He had nothing to call her now. Wonderful.

            “My Lord?” Rachel asked concerned.

            “Where did she go?” Hiiro asked, almost looking shocked. Rachel had to smile. Never had she thought that her son’s wedding would go quite that way.

            “Most likely to the blue room my Lord.”

            “Rachel, her name?” Hiiro asked.

            “I do not know my Lord, she vowed never to speak her name to you. She seemed very unhappy about this union.”

            “That much is obvious. Not tell me her name indeed. My Lord,” Hiiro addressed Richard. “What does your daughter call herself?”

            “Her name doesn’t not fit her, I’m afraid. I allowed my wife to name her, and she picked the most backwards name she could have for the child. Serenity. Though, if I may inform you, if you call her by her full name, she will be more ornery than before.”

            “Serenity? Serenity.” Hiiro  muttered under his breath. Then he looked up. “Well. It’s over then. My servants will carry her things in.” With that, he turned and strode away, leaving a crowd of whispering servants and slaves. Had their lord even seen his wife? This would make for a more interesting life in the Blue Crest Fief, that much was for sure.*

 

~~~ I was glad to see so many Serry/Hiiro supporters… I had already chosen the couple, but if people had really detested it…. I would have been willing to change. But hey, as one of my reviewers so kindly said: I’m good at writing the Usa/Hiiro stories, why break a good thing? (that was paraphrased) Anyway, R&R, and thanks to all those who are going to stick with me even if you don’t like the couple!

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