Cold All the Way Through, But Warming

The Wedding Night

AN: Thanks to Sparky-She-Demon for helping with Charles's toast, and to all of you readers. Never thought I'd write something longer than a Tolstoy novel, but here we are. And this is the wedding night, with all that it entails, but it is far from the end of this story.

The carriage made its way slowly through the streets of New York, partly so that we could have the random passerby on the street raise their hat to us in congratulations, and partly so that the servants could get back to the Fifth Avenue house and have everything prepared by the time we arrived. Sure enough, Louise and Cindy were there to greet me as I tried to maneuver my way out of the carriage. If not for Cindy's timely intervention, I might have torn the veil. Instead, she gently twisted it around and disentangled it before removing the combs from my hair and the train from my skirt. Louise helped adjust my skirt to lay properly before Will returned from where Reggie had whisked him off to. I looked him up and down. "Nothing's changed."

He shrugged, "My gloves have."

"Oh, my what a struggle." I rolled my eyes, glad that both our hands were bare now. Louise took my gloves and my bouquet off to wherever she was packing things, I hardly cared at the moment. All I cared about was that I could feel Will's hand as he took mine, the slightly rough calluses sliding over my palm as he twisted his fingers through mine. I chuckled as he led us toward the formal dining room, "I'm surprised you made it down in time for everything."

"Mind your words, wife." Will stopped, turning to look at me. "Or else I might be tempted to take my marital rights sooner rather than later."

An impish grin spread across my face. "Well, I know that we're supposed to be spending the night in our new bedroom, but if you really want to bed me in a coat closet, well, I'm game." He was spluttering and red faced by the time we reached the dining room, set to feed the huge amount of guests that we had. A cluster of footmen, formally powdered and breeched, were moving from table to table as they placed down the new set of silver. It had been a gift from Mrs. Brown, to match the porcelain she had gifted us with for the engagement. She had also gifted fine crystal to go with it, all of it shined and polished as it glittered at the tables, sitting on top of the ivory damask tablecloths.

Her gifts, aside from Charles's plate that had been given a place of pride at the head table, were the only ones on display here. The others had been collected into a series of side rooms; paintings and sculptures, furniture and fine fabrics, rare books and plants, a number of ship models and there was even a set of keys to a small cottage down in Vermont, yet another gift from the Unsinkable Molly Brown. And it actually was a cottage, unlike the Newport palaces. Small and snug, with a portrait of the quaint little structure among the trees. According to her, it had a small farm and dairy with it, managed by a reliable family and could make a small income if we wanted. When we had first seen it, I had mentioned something to Will about how he could hunt if he wanted, but he had shook his head. "It's a perfect little place, don't let all that death spoil it."

"I certainly hope the cook is prepared." I muttered, looking at the massive amounts of plates at each setting. A salad of spring greens, grown in a hothouse just for this occasions, a cool pea soup, filets of salmon and oysters Rockefeller, a rack of lamb crusted in garlic and rosemary, filets of beef and roasted potatoes, chicken breasts seasoned with lemon and pepper, duck with roasted mushrooms and asparagus, before all the plates were cleaned away and bowls of ice cream were provided to accompany the wedding cake. It was a four tiered triumph of confectionary sugar, swags of icing and actual flowers studded outside it. The inside was a light vanilla crumb, with a liberal helping of brandy applied to provide a slight bite.

Will snorted as we took our positions at the dining room entrance from the side rooms with the gifts. "I just hope the wine cellar isn't drunk dry." I pursed my lips at that, because everyone was certainly going to get rather lubricated tonight. Well, aside from Harold. Sherry and Madeira were provided for aperitif wines, with rich and full bodied reds for the the meats, and light and fruity whites for the poultry and fish. Ice cream and cake were to be accompanied by a delightful Tokay. Champagne, from bruts to douxs, were already sitting in innumerable ice buckets, with more prepared in the pantries. The servants were all getting a rather large bonus after all of this, Mother had already set it aside.