Marriage by Law (5 page)

I stared at the ceiling, not even a crack visible to divert my attention as I tried not to pay attention to her words. Just tell me this was a dream, a bad one, a nightmare. Marry a man I had never met, only for him to disappear for six months.

"What do you say, Ivory?" asked my father, coughing, as he stood up looking uncomfortable.

Present Time

             By the time I woke up, it was Sunday and I groaned, feeling my face puff from too much sleep and the fact that all of Saturday was gone.

I rolled over in bed squinting at the sun that was probably still rising. I must have forgotten to close the curtains. I blinked, trying to go back to sleep but I was wide-awake and my stomach was grumbling, a reminder that I had skipped dinner. What happened to my hot cross buns? I looked beside my bed. Nope, even the soup was gone.

I struggled out of bed but I did it for the food I can eat and rubbed my eyes, walking across the room. It was Sunday, which meant there was probably some boring party to attend. And this time I have the amazing company of my husband who didn’t even remember my name.

I scoffed. Metal. I would even understand if he called me a colour. Ivory was a colour but where on earth did he get Aluminium from?

Then again he was probably mingling with the other men talking business, or whatever he does.

Margaret walked in just as I was about to open the door and smiled.

"Hope you slept well, dearie. You were out all night." She walked to the other end tying the curtains up more securely and opening the windows.

"I think I was just tired or something," I said, yawning as I watched her. I wobbled on my feet and my vision dazed and I stopped blinking till it returned to normal. That was weird. I blinked again, nothing.

"Indeed. Darius has sent me to remind you of the afternoon party today. It will be both your first appearance as a couple so I had Charles bring by some new dresses you can try on, darling. We can try them after you get a good breakfast."

"Alright. I'll be down in a second, Ma," I said. Margaret nodded and left me alone to get ready quickly.

Walking downstairs, I could smell something amazing. It smelt more like lunch than breakfast but looking at the clock, I saw that it was only half past ten.
Way too early for breakfast,
I thought sarcastically.

"What's happening?" I asked Margaret as I walked into the private dining room. She was setting up plates and I helped serve the water. She shot me a look and I shrugged. He wasn't here so he wouldn't know I helped.

"Darius doesn't like the food at the party and so he usually eats in the morning. Just be careful with what they give you, dearie. Miss Alvin cooks it herself and it's known that her pastries can make you quite sick."

I let out a small laugh, nodding. "Alright. I'll try to keep that in mind," I said. Personally, I thought it was mean that everyone knew it but no one told her anything. Won’t she be offended when she realises no one has touched her food?

But I couldn’t talk. I was a horrible cook.

I rubbed my eyes, leaning back in my chair as the chef came out with the food and served it on the table. I grimaced. He noticed my face and sent me an apologetic look.

"I can make o-"

"It's fine, don't worry," I assured him trying, to put on a strong face. He had made all this food and I didn’t want him to make more. He nodded and left and Darius came in and I stared at my plate in shock.

Seafood.

If there was one thing I hated, it was seafood. Great. Just perfect.

I stared at my plate longer and pushed the edible pieces to the side, which happened to be the vegetables in the sauce. The smell of the fish and prawns was overpowering and I tried not to show that I was sick.

I looked up and saw Darius staring and quickly grabbed a spoonful and shoved it in my mouth chewing. As soon as he looked away, I grabbed the napkin and placed it near my mouth, spitting whatever it was out.

It probably tasted good but for as long as I knew, I disliked the taste of seafood. There was a bowl of bread rolls and I grabbed one, taking a bite out of it. At least this was edible.

Margaret came into the room and looked around to see how things were going and then saw my plate and her eyes widened.

"Oh, Ivory, Charles has come. Would you like to go now or in a while?"

"Now's fine," I said quickly before she finished and shot up, a bit too soon, and threw my roll into my plate. I sent a quick smile around the room and rushed out with Margaret hot on my tails.

The moment I was in my bedroom, I rushed to the bathroom and brushed my teeth again, trying not to vomit.

"Oh, I am so sorry. I completely forgot you don’t eat seafood."

"Its fine," I said with a mouthful of toothpaste, probably something my mother would kill me and have a heart attack for.
So very unlady like
, she would say,
this is not how I raised you!
Well, she never did raise me. My nanny did and she did a terrible job.

I walked back into my bedroom and froze, looking at the new dresses on the bed and silently groaning.

Let the trials begin.

If I thought dinner and lunch times were awkward, sharing a limousine ride with this man would probably be worse.

Seated opposite each other, both of us stared out the window, not even a word of conversation. Did my parents even know who they married me to?

I finally gave a cheer of happiness when I saw the place but it soon died out when I saw how many people were going in. A lot.

Most of them were more lavishly dressed than me with jewelry and some of the weirdest dresses I had ever seen. I, on the other hand, was in a simple deep blue ink dress that make my skin look bright and glowing, and it wasn’t from the anger inside.

Margaret had pinned my hair up into an elegant bun with braids and decorated pearl clips that held up my thick wavy black hair that even I couldn’t tame.

Seeing all the makeup the ladies had on, I was suddenly feeling under-
made
with only lipstick on.

The door opened and I struggled to get up elegantly and winced as I got out, pretty sure something stabbed my foot. Darius followed. Whoever invented dresses definitely didn’t try getting out of a limo in one. I looked around taking in the view as I followed him to the entry. As soon as we were in the crowd, I felt his arm on my back and I bit my lip to keep from telling him to take it off. So now he wanted to act like the perfect husband?

He placed a hand on my lower back and I reached behind to move it higher, trying not to giggle. He looked down at me, confused, his eyebrows knotting.

"I'm ticklish!" I said. He ignored me and moved his hand in that exact spot and I shook my head, right like he would care. I walked a tiny bit faster, trying to maintain distance so he wouldn’t have any excuse, but a camera flashed in my face, making me halt.

There were cameras?

"How does it feel being married at-"

There were more flashes and I felt myself being pushed through a crowd to get in and I really hoped I didn’t look like a goldfish. All I saw were black suits and flashes before finally I saw decorated lights and a ballroom.

I squinted, trying to get my eyes used to the natural bright light in here. This didn’t look like a normal ballroom. Instead, it looked like a kid’s birthday party, a ten-year–old’s, in fact. Maybe this was what people meant when they said Miss Alvin was an odd one in the bunch, but for me it reminded me of being a kid, and that made me smile.

Darius led me to our table and pulled my chair out. I sat down looking over my shoulder at the stairs where a lady was dressed in a massive gold dress with what I think were card symbols sewed all over her bottom half.

Quite a dress.

"That's Miss Alvin," whispered a voice in my ear and I nodded, staring at the woman. She was a plump lady but seemed very friendly and childish with her ways, especially her dress. Her movements seemed over exaggerated as she waved her hand around talking very animatedly.

I decided then and there that I liked her. She didn’t seem like she fit in, just like me, but at least she made it look fun.  I looked back at the table and saw the pastries Margaret mentioned about and smiled. You can tell they were made by her by the uneven crust and the uneven coloring of the pastry but they looked absolutely adorable. Kudos to her effort.

It was hard to believe these things were poisonous.

"Darius my man!" I looked up as a younger man came around the table and hugged Darius. I was surprised.
People hug him? People talk to him? People actually like him? Calm down, Ivory, that was a bit harsh.

"Whatcha up to, couz," he said as he looked around Darius and flashed me a toothy grin. "And this must be the beautiful wife. Sorry, I would have come to the wedding but I wasn’t invited," he said as he grabbed my hand and placed a kiss on it, a very long kiss, and I pulled it out of his grasp as it felt uncomfortable.

"That's Al- Go-" he looked at me and I sighed.

"Ivory," I said, trying not to roll my eyes.

"Beautiful name for a beautiful lady. I am Adrian," he replied with a wink. He sat on the other side of Darius and I watched them both talk, listening in every now and then.

"No girl this time?" asked Darius, a smile on his face. I hadn't seen one in ages. Actually, I don't think I have seen one on him at all. He was always grumpy or glaring or emotionless at home, at me anyways. The last time he looked this happy was when he thanked Margaret for dinner.

"Nope, I think I'll pick up some lovely lady," he said, smiling and looking around. "There seems to be plenty here," he said, winking at me. Darius shook his head like he was used to all this and I raised an eyebrow, looking away.

I smiled and greeted the people as they stopped to say hi to us and made small talk as the rest of the table was filled up. I was glad both Mr. and Mrs. Cartwell were in my table. They were two people I got along with in the other parties.

"Oh, Ivory, it's so good to see you!" said Alicia Cartwell, practically running to our table and hugging me. I could smell her flowery scent as she sat down. Mr. Cartwell smiled before he joined the boys on my other side and I turned to Alicia.