The Sultan's Daughter (Princesses Uncovered #5)

Chapter 55: Wedding

Yaz stood at the altar, beaming at Cemal. He smiled back, his face aglow.

The whole wedding had been thrown together in a matter of weeks, but with Akila’s help, it appeared to have been done in a matter of months.

She looked across the marble dais at her two friends, standing beside them, smiling at each other much the same way as Yaz was smiling at Cemal.

It was a joint wedding, actually. Akila and Fath had begged her to agree to it as soon as they found out that Cemal and Yaz were planning to be wed soon.

After much pleading on the part of their friends, Yaz and Cemal had agreed with matching rueful grins. Akila and Fath made a very persuasive duo.

The wedding decorations were superb. There were blue flowers lining the walls – some sort of foreign flower Akila had seen in her travels. She said they were called hyacinths. Yaz had loved them when Akila had shown them to her, and both women had decided it was the perfect choice. Another foreign white flower – Akila called them roses – mingled with the hyacinths, the perfume of both flowers sweet and fresh.

Blue and white tablecloths covered the massive oaken tables used for celebrations. More hyacinths and white roses waved in the light breeze coming through the window, their green stems showing vibrantly through the clear, swirling glass of the vases lining the tables. Rows of blue and white dishes with fine gold and silver goblets lined the tables, and the chairs were lined up in perfect rows beside the tables in the back of the room.

More rows of chairs and benches sat before the dais, and it was here that the crowds of people sat, watching as the head of ceremonies completed the ceremony.

Yaz stared back at Cemal, and when the head of ceremonies pronounced them man and wife, she happily threw herself into his arms as he brought their lips together in a passionate kiss.

The crowd laughed, clapping and cheering.

She didn’t want to pull away from Cemal, but kissing him in public like this made her feel self conscious. She tried to pull away, but he held her tightly against him, and she felt his smirk against her. He was embarrassing her on purpose!

But after a moment, he did let go, and she moved away, maintaining her hold on his hands and grinning at him, completely content for the first time in months. Nothing overshadowed this day for her. Not even the baby she’d lost.

This was her wedding day.

Well, her second one.

But the first one didn’t count because she’d been struggling not to be sick the whole time as the man she was marrying kissed her and held her hand.

Today there was no such sickness. She felt only the bubbly elation in the pit of her stomach as Cemal led her back to their table.

Akila looked radiant in her resplendent white outfit. Her shirt had loose, flowing sleeves, which slipped off her shoulders to rest just beneath them. The rest of the top was streamlined to her frame, the laces up the sides allowing a light blue chemise to show through. Her gauzy overskirt was in a blue so light it almost matched the white underskirt and white pantaloons she wore. Her slippers were of the same color blue in a delicate silk that matched her top and underskirt.

Yaz looked down at her own outfit.

It was her second wedding, and she was no longer allowed to wear white as a pure, previously unwed woman would. So instead she wore a deep purple outfit. It was similar to Akila’s, but the corset like top laced up the sides to reveal a deep green silk undershirt, and her sleeves were off the shoulder but attached to thick golden arm bands instead of flowing down her arms.