Chapter 7: Caressa's Wedding

Caressa's POV

Caressa woke on the morning of her marriage to the warm feeling of sunshine on her face. She took in a deep breath and was surprised to be greeted by the sweet smell of her favorite orange lilies.

"Rise and shine!" She heard her aunt's almost shrill voice sing from the doorway. "Michyle sent over twelve dozen lilies to fill your room and bathroom, and he also left you a message. I put it on the night table. Hurry down to breakfast. The wedding crew will be here midday to get you dressed and ready. "

Caressa opened her eyes. The vibrant red in the calm plants that filled her room sent her heart racing. She reached over and picked up the note that was left for her. She sat on the edge of the bed and opened a folded piece of paper to be greeted by an audio recording.

"Good morning." Caressa smiled at how calm and reassuring his voice always seemed to be, but also took note of the tiny bit of insecurity that managed to seep through. "I wanted to see you this morning and reaffirm that you were going to meet me this afternoon at the altar. It occurred to me that I will not be able to see or even speak to you until the end of the day. Do you realize there has not been a day in the last three months since our meeting that we've not spoken? Strange to me, it seems as if somehow it has been my entire life that I've known you. I imagine that I will be a wreck until I am able to set eyes on your calm beauty once again."

Caressa smiled, beside herself. It was a love message: the first one she had ever received, and it was perfect. It took several weeks for Michyle to pick up on the fact that there was nothing special he had to do to make her marry him. He was kind and attentive. He treated her like a person; that was enough. In fact, she'd almost been frustrated by the shows of flowers and showering her with seemingly disingenuous compliments. It all made him seem so false. At last, she told him to stop the seduction altogether, that it wasn't necessary. After a half a day of near silence, he politely told her he could not stop.

"If you plan to be married to me, get used to it."

Caressa hadn't expected that. She felt herself melt remembering those words and listening to his message. She had to admit to herself she never expected to fall in love. She also never expected a man like Michyle to fall in love with a woman like her.

"I have sent you twelve dozen lilies, your favorite. One dozen for every hour that I will be missing you today. As you walk down the aisle, if you get nervous, remember I am at the other end, smiling, and waiting."

Caressa closed the message and stood up and walked to an arrangement of lilies. She looked at them through the lenses in her eyes. She pulled one from the bunch, smiling as she carried it through the Sovereign's apartment and to the dining room.

"It seems like a waste of money to buy flowers for a blind girl," she heard her aunt say just before she stepped into the dining room. Caressa paused, nonplussed at such a callous comment.

"It's his money to waste," Caressa replied as she tucked the lily in her hair behind her ear. Caressa could see her aunt frown at the comment, knowing that it was a dig at the money her father had left which her aunt and uncle had squandered on the extravagances of their position as her guardians while neglecting the colony as a whole.

"Every girl deserves to be treated like a princess on her wedding day," her Uncle Harold reasoned, trying to ease the sudden tension. "It was a wonderful gesture of romance."

"Yes." Caressa smiled. "It certainly was."

She tried not to worry about the money that her aunt and uncle had spent. However, she'd never liked being treated like a burden, especially knowing that her father had left enough for her future and the future of the colony with or without marriage. But, now that the money was gone, her marriage to Michyle would set things right. This was why she had gone to see the matchmaker more than a year ago.

When the matchmaker mentioned a possible connection with Michyle, Caressa's first impulse had been to shrug it off as impossible. With all that he had, why would he travel the distance just to see if marriage to the acting Sovereign of a poor colony could be possible? However, at the matchmaker's insistence, she said if he were willing to see her, she would not be opposed to a meeting. Michyle arrived three months after that.

What she knew of his colony was very little. There were big flashy cities, a large beautiful countryside, and everything in between. Michyle was a businessman with a country house and what he called a sky deck apartment, where he could land and take off in his sky transport. The only thing she was used to in the village was the massive compound that housed everybody.

Caressa did not truly understand the term "businessman" because her colony, Elle Star, was simple, barely sustaining itself with agriculture and textiles. She knew they would spend most of the time in the city on Michyle's home planet of Mars. He told her this is where the bulk of the technology she would want to have on her colony would be.

"It's going to take a long time to bring those things to Elle Star." Caressa had sighed at the enormous task.

"Well, we do have a lifetime to do it," Michyle reminded her.

After a day of preparation and dressing, Caressa found herself at the doors just before the aisle that she would walk down to get married. Her dress, a loose fitting sleeveless gown of white trimmed with gold thread, flowed beautifully around her body as she walked. She was scared. She thought about the lake. She thought about running. She heard the music as the doors swung open. Her uncle stepped to her side and held her arm, guiding her carefully and steadily towards the altar.

She was calm when she saw it: Michyle's smile. It outshone everything in her line of sight. They made it to the end of the aisle and she stood next to her soon-to-be husband.