Five Weddings

The Lord

After that it became easier to claim the mansion's lord attention. She was, at eighteen, a blossoming beauty. He couldn't resist. And if a little magic helped him forget what was suitable for his rank, well...

Oh yes, and her other husband had died from his illness a little while before that, she had forgotten. He had become so useless that she couldn't pinpoint exactly when it happened, but anyway, the end result was the same. She got her second wedding.

This time it was... Better. Not perfect, but better. She was as excited as the last time. It was her wedding after all.

Clementianna was as beautiful as she always was, except that now she finally had suitable clothes. Well, they were a little sober for her taste, but compared to rags, it was suitable. A dress made for the occasion, still too modest and devoid of "unnecessary decorations" as her lord had declared, but the fabric was smooth and shiny. This time, a maid did her hair, and she even got make-up.

The pendant was from the Mirror.

Her new husband wasn't a pretty sight, with his age of... Way-to-old, but he was rich, and he had a title. And he would probably die before she even had the time to understand how he had managed to get that garlic breath when all he ate was onion soup.

The ceremony lasted for fifteen minutes, no longer since her lord didn't want to spent more money than necessary on those "frivolities", but it had a better décor, and there even was a musician. Granted, his interpretation of that... Unrecognizable piece of music on the flute wasn't the best she ever heard, but it would be enough.

For now.

That relationship was in some aspects worse than the last. He was impossible to live with, never giving up any piece of gold without a fight, always arguing that she spent too much. Her first husband was much easier to control, but Clementianna wasn't about to back down from a challenge. She was sharpening her weapon on the old bat's stubbornness.

The Mirror's advices helped.

Clementianna didn't have to wait long indeed for her second husband to pass away. It was such a tragic fall in the stairs. Nothing out of the ordinary though. What else was there to expect after a third refusal of her proposition in investing in some new dresses with more colorful patterns? Not that she pushed him. She simply mentioned to a friend how very fortunate it would be if it ever was to happen.

Clementianna was a young widow of twenty years old, rich, without any distant family member of her late husband asking for inheritance (she made sure they wouldn't be annoying) and of course, the certainty that she was the most beautiful young lady there was. It wouldn't take her long to find another husband. Or so she thought.