Hardly a Lady

XXIV

I've attached the link to the 'Kingdom Dance' from Tangled, which is the dance I imagine Ash, Giselle, Elsa and Will dancing to later in this chapter. I've also attached a picture of the dress I imagined Giselle wearing.

Enjoy!

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The Queen did not attend the wedding of the Duke of Cordus and his new bride, sending a message full of her regrets but insisting she was too sick with illness to move from her bed. The King, of course, attended the wedding he had engineered, watching from the royal box as Ash and Elsa were joined in matrimony forever.

The new Duchess of Cordus looked ravishing, every account told. Dressed in a gown of white silk with pearls embroidered all over the bodice, skirts and train, she looked every bit the virginal bride which she was not. Her blonde hair had been piled up on top of her head intricately; a diadem of pearls rested upon them and matched the string she wore around her slender neck. The King felt envy as he watched Ash - who was wearing a fine silver doublet to match his new bride - take Elsa's hand, exchange the holy vows and bring her under his control and protection forevermore.

That morning, Giselle dismissed all but one of her ladies - her faithful Kendra, who had served her longer and better than any of the others - and spent the hours sat in her bath, staring out to sea and dreaming of climbing aboard a ship and sailing far from this place. The castle would be practically empty - everybody of importance was at the wedding - and so perhaps this was her opportunity to finally be free of this place. 

No, she soon realised with a heavy heart. She was not the young girl she had been when she first came to this place; now she was a Queen anointed, and a mother too. There was no place she could run where she might escape her maternal duty, and no place where she could be safe.

For a while, Giselle sobbed, longing for the youth and innocence she had once possessed. The Queen was not old by any means; she had barely entered her twenties, and yet there was something about motherhood and monarchy which aged the soul. She longed for the days when she had played by her father's lake in a gown that was too small for her, enjoying the company of her truest friends Jakson and Kendra, and with her brother close at hand to protect. Had she been given her time again, would she have tried harder to resist Ash's charms? Would she have protected her heart better - as she had promised and failed to do - and perhaps now she would not be suffering as she was?

No, she came to that decision too. Even if she were given a chance to travel back to the moment she had first departed Forest Castle for Samarus, she would have still allowed herself to fall in love with the handsome Captain. Despite the sorrow she suffered now, Ash had brought her much joy over the years, namely in the gift of her son, who had been the salvation of her daughters and she. Had it not been for Ash, perhaps she would be dead for her inability to give Will a son, and Elsa would rule in her place.

When the clock chimed midday, the Queen rose from her bath and requested that Kendra dress her in a simple gown; a simple white chemise de la reine with a pink satin sash tied around the waist. The Queen braided her own hair and fastened it with a matching piece of pink ribbon, and then she bid her friend follow her to the nursery, where the children were all sweetly playing.

Giselle and Kendra seated themselves by the large window in the play room of the nursery, and Kendra busied herself by being given a tour of the Princess' dolls house by Elienna. Thea clambered onto her mother's lap and sat quietly as the Queen fed Prince Edward, who was completely oblivious to the fact that his true father was leaving him behind. Poor little lamb, Giselle thought to herself as Edward drank and then slept soundly in her arms. 

"Mother?" Elienna said, turning away from the dolls house and instead moving to sit herself down on Kendra's lap. "Yes, my darling?" Giselle replied, looking fondly at her beautiful blonde daughter.