The Death of a Bachelor

Chapter Fifty-six

Kieran never knew for sure what to expect from Elena. She just kept surprising him even when he thought he knew her. But this...this was something he’d never imagined.

“Tomorrow!” he exclaimed, echoing his parents’ message.

His mother and father were seated calmly in the pavilion having tea while he stood gawking at them.

“That’s what I said,” his mother drawled and picked a biscuit from the plate, eating it.

“No, that cannot be,” said Kieran, stepping closer to the table. “Are you absolutely certain this was Elena’s wish?”

“Your betrothed herself spoke it,” said his father. He blew on his tea before taking a sip. “She said, and I quote; ‘Either Kieran and I get engaged tomorrow or the whole wedding is off. I will find myself another groom and I shall marry him instead.’ That is what the messenger relayed.”

Kieran’s jaw clenched. He could not pinpoint the emotion he felt at the moment. Anger and frustration at Elena’s brash decision making? Or fear and panic at the fact that he might lose her forever?

“So will you hold off your work and save your marriage?” his mother asked. “Or will you attend to your work and remain a bachelor forever? Because honestly, I can’t see you marrying anyone other than Elena.”

Kieran took a slow breath in and a slow breath out. He didn’t even have to think twice about his answer. “I’ll write to the governor to let him know I won’t be coming. I have an engagement to attend.”

His mother smirked. “That’s my boy.”

**

It was a particularly beautiful morning for Elena. She was gently awoken by her cousins Leticia and Caroline. She could not help her smile when pink flower petals were showered upon her, and she received pecks from each of them as they greeted her. They provided her with breakfast in bed, much to her delight.

It was her engagement day.

And on the engagement day, just like the wedding day, the bride was to be pampered. She was not allowed to do anything on her own.

So Caroline washed her face and brushed her teeth from her private bath chamber, and she and Leticia led her by the arms to the communal bathhouse. Petals of various flowers flooded the hallways, wherever they passed.

The communal bath house was a large chamber with an inbuilt bath tub the size of a small lake or pond. It had already been prepared with warm water, and petals of roses and jasmine floated over the surface. Citronella scented candles were lined up around the square edges of the bath, and Elena breathed in the wonderful scent of nature.

Mara and Anne were already waiting in the bath. They wore single strips of white cloth around their bossoms and white harem pants.

Leticia and Caroline undressed Elena and allowed her to walk down the steps into the waters. There, Anne and Mara lathered her up and scrubbed her clean with sponges. They shampooed her hair and washed it up as well.

Elena was blushing the whole time, partly because it was the first time she was receiving that treatment and partly because well… it was her engagement. The treatment and experience made that fact all the more vivid and clear, and what went through her mind was, ‘Finally.’

She walked back to the steps, rising out of the water, and she was showered with fresh clean water from a bucket as they rinsed her off.

From the bath, Caroline was waiting with a towel. She dried her down gently, like she was a newborn baby. Anne took the towel from her, and as Caroline wrapped a smaller towel around Elena’s hair, Leticia dressed her up in a white robe, tying the knot infront of her.