Scenes On A Wedding Day1

This is the second piece I wrote to kelkyag's first prompt "Rune & Franz."  It is followed by Scenes On A Wedding Day 2.
http://rix-scaedu.livejournal.com/117430.html

Rune had spent the night before her wedding in the spare room of her parents’ apartment, the only night she had ever spent under their roof.  After an early breakfast she had jogged to the back entrance of the Sjeldnjar townhouse and slipped in, completely avoiding the press camped out the front of the building.  Once inside she’d gone straight to the suite she called ‘the wedding ready room’ in her head to shower and then submit to hairdressing and makeup.

He bridesmaids and flower girls arrived from wherever they’d stayed for the night and were submitted to the same routine of beautification.  Heiress-presumptive to the throne, Princess Silvana, age seven, was the youngest of the bevy of flower girls that were going to precede Rune and her father down the aisle.  Rune’s friend from the orphanage, And, tried to explain to the Terrencian bridesmaids why her name was a conjunction.

Rune simply tuned it out as background hum and floated through the morning.  She didn’t even look at herself in the mirror until they settled the antique silver Sjeldnjar coronet on her head to hold the veil in place.  It was like the formal photograph, someone had worked magic and she actually looked like a princess.

Archduke Franz had won the argument over what his half of the wedding party was wearing and only his brother and best man, Archduke Dionysus, was in military uniform.  The groom and the other groomsmen were wearing dark, tailored suits without a medal or decoration in sight.  Franz thought he was doing fine until he ruined his tie three times and one of his former squad mates took pity on him and tied it for him.

All too soon it was time to get in the cars to be driven to the cathedral.  One of the groomsmen, Berthold joked, “If you’ve changed your mind, we can take the drivers and make a break for the border in the cars.”

Franz looked around.  “No,” he declared.  “If I miss this appointment it will just upset her.  To say nothing of annoying my uncle and her aunt.  I think we should go to the cathedral.  Besides, Berthold, if we don’t go to the wedding, you won’t get to dance with the bridesmaids.”

“There is that,” conceded Berthold as he opened a car door.  Then they were in the cars and on their way.

Scenes On A Wedding Day 2

This is the first piece I wrote in response to kelkyag's first prompt "Rune and Franz."  The problem is it has no Rune and very little Franz.  It happens after Scenes On A Wedding Day 1 and is dollowed by Scenes On A Wedding Day 3.

Archduchess Marina was slightly and embarrassingly lost.  She had no sooner reached the cathedral for her nephew’s wedding and she’d had to use the bathroom.  The problem was that now she couldn’t find her way back to the main body of the cathedral.  Who would have thought the back corridors of the place could be so confusing?  She was standing at a corridor junction trying to work out where she should go when a dark-skinned boy of about eight came around the corner on the far side of the intersection.  He walked up to her, bowed correctly which made his tight, dusty copper curls bounce, and asked in good if accented Terrencian, “Archduchess Marina, may I be of assistance?”

She curtsied in return.  “I’m afraid that I am lost.  Whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?”

“Prince Terje du Barbaigos, a second cousin of the bride.  I am at Your Imperial and Royal Highness’ service.”  He bowed again with a certain flair, both grave and with a smile as if this were a game they were playing together.

The Archduchess smiled back.  “Prince Terje, could you please escort me back to the main body of the cathedral?”

She wondered for a moment if she had outrun his Terrencian vocabulary but after a second’s thought he replied, “You would like me to take you back to your seat?  I can do that!”  He went as if to offer her his arm but realising the difference in their heights gave her his hand.

With an expert guide it took her only a few moments to return to her seat.  The trick, she discovered was a shadowed section that appeared to be a dead end but was really a tight corner.  Prince Terje answered her words of thanks with, “It was my pleasure and an honour,” bowed again and went to a pew on the other side of the aisle where he sat with Alexandrina, one of the queen’s nieces, and two other boys enough like him to be his brothers.

Her sister-in-law, the groom’s mother, turned discreetly in the front pew and asked, “Who is your young gallant?”

“Prince Terje du Barbaigos, one of Princess Alexandrina’s sons.”  Archduchess Marina smiled.  “He’s going to be a real heart breaker when he’s older.”

“I heard that his father had a great deal of charm, certainly he had no family background as we know it.  Speaking of which, have you seen the Princes Isadora?”

“Princess Isadora, the pregnant one in lavender?”

“Her consorts, they were ushers but they’ve just taken their seats beside her.  They're her official consorts, both of them.”  The two Imperial and Royal matrons turned their heads to look.  “Have you ever seen such extraordinary moustaches?  But beautifully turned out and they tone so well with her outfit.”

Marina regarded the lavender and purple clad trio.  “You do realise they’re both helots?  They might be descended from King Phillipe’s knights but I’d bet my best diamonds on them being helots.”  She sighed a little wistfully, “Our family would never permit some of the options these people seem to think are normal.”

Her sister-in-law squeezed her hand consolingly then said brightly, “Look, Franz and his groomsmen are coming out of their hidey hole.  The Emperor and the Queen must be about to arrive.”