Adopted by Lams

Chapter 12

Elsie Mae's POV
When I awoke the next morning, I quickly did my morning routine of making my bed and straightening my room up a little bit. I got dressed into the green dress I wore the night of the dinner party then did my hair in its usual ribbon. I looked in the mirror one last time then walked out of my bedroom. When I walked in the kitchen, my fathers were already sitting at the table.
"Good morning Elsie Mae." Alexander smiled widely as I sat in between the two men.
"Good morning."I answered.
"Now, we have most of the wedding planned. I think we are going to have you walk down the aisle with Jacques Lafayette." John said grinning. Did he just say Jacques.
"Uh, yeah. Okay." I said hiding my excitement the best I could.
"Now Eliza will be doing your hair and things like that for the wedding but instead of you getting one of her old dresses, she said she wanted you to stop by tomorrow and she would make you a new one." I jumped up excitedly. A brand new dress? I couldn't wait. I sat down at the table discussing the guests and the ceremony itself. I started daydreaming about walking down the aisle with Jacques in my brand new dress.
"We were also wondering if you would give a speech." Alexander said immediately shaking me from my thoughts.
   "Uh, what?" I stuttered out.
    "Well we thought it would be great if our daughter would give a speech at the reception. But if you don't want to-"
   "No, I'll do it." I said smiling. I would do anything for my parents and a speech wouldn't be hard at all besides.... All of the people.... Staring at me...... Elsie Mae you can do this. I'll just have to pretend I'm doing it for Jacques, Theodosia and Ambrose.
    "Thanks Elise Mae. What would we do without you." Alexander came over to me and ran his hand through my hair. He sat back down and we continued discussing more plans. The wedding was going to be here before I know it so I decided that later on I would begin writing my speech for my fathers.
While my parents were making supper that evening, I excused myself to my room to begin working on my speech. I lit the candle on the desk in the corner of the room and pulled out a piece of paper from one of the dark wood drawers on the side. I dipped my pen in the bottle of ink and tried to write. The problem was I really couldn't think of anything right now. I was more nervous thinking about speaking in front of all of the guests at the wedding.
    "Elsie Mae!" John called. I assumed it was time for supper. I blew out the candle and walked into the kitchen where my fathers were finishing setting the table. I sat in my usual place in between my two fathers and began scooping food onto my plate.
    "Elsie Mae. We have never asked you this. When is your birthday?" Alexander asked as he put a bite of food into his mouth.
   "The twenty sixth of July." I answered.
"That will be here before you know it." John smiled. After dinner I did my usual evening of helping clean the kitchen, then I proceeded to the sitting room where I decided to do a needlework project. I began working on it as my parents walked into the room and sitting down on the couch. I put the beginning of my project down so I could talk to them for a while. We spent the evening laughing and talking about anything that was on our mind. I never wanted to be anywhere else in the world. Before I knew it, I was in my bedroom waiting to be tucked in just like every night. I crawled under my blankets and waited for my parents who entered a few moments later. They both kissed me on the head and soon enough I was drifting off into a deep sleep.