13 Witches Cursed ADELAIDE

Chapter 2

Once the excitement of the accident was over, the guests helped themselves to the large offering of food spread throughout the ballroom. Zahn and Adelaide had separately excused themselves to clean up and change. Zahn managed to escape unseen out the side door to where his groom and carriage awaited. He inspected the carriage inch by inch, determining it had been untouched. He suspected that the reason for that was that whoever had sabotaged the initial carriage felt that the second carriage would not be needed, since the first one would have taken care of the intended harm.

Alarmed, Zahn realized that they would strike again. He scurried upstairs to change his clothes, gearing up to play proxy yet again. He would use the time inside the reception to determine if the criminal was amongst the guests.

He was adjusting his neck cloth as he descended down the stairs and nearly collided with Adelaide, who was patiently waiting at the base of the stairs. She had to wait for Zahn, as he was her proxy husband and couldn't enter the room without him.

Zahn's breath caught.

She was a vision.

Her long dark hair was loose, hanging in waves down her back. A wreath of simple white flowers rested delicately on her head. Her dress was plain white and unadorned, clinging to her body in all the right places. Her bosom was barely covered and Zahn silently thanked the God's for the current trend in women's fashion. His face relayed nothing that would indicate to Adelaide that he appreciated her appearance.

"You look very nice." Adelaide said, in an effort to get on his good side.

She had to spend the next few hours pretending to be happily married and felt it would help if her stand-in husband wasn't shooting daggers at her behind her back.

She received another barely audible grunt in return for her compliment.

So, they were back to grunting, she thought, with a heavy, inward sigh. Adelaide was dreading the next few hours. If she could at least have a conversation with him, it would make the time pass a little quicker but he wouldn't even look at her, let alone speak with her.

Zahn extended his arm to Adelaide, who had magically removed all her scars. Her skin was once again flawless, her effortless beauty once again revealed. She took his arm, bracing herself for her wedding reception.

They entered to screams and cheers, walking around the room accepting congratulations. Almost everyone ignored Zahn, much to his pleasure, since really, he was just the stand-in. It also gave him the opportunity to assess everyone's body language. He suspected the saboteur was attending the party. Everyone spoke to Adelaide, and she to them and mostly about the carriage accident. He was just there to be a male, and he was fine with that.

They sat at the head of the table, listening to a few toasts of congratulations. Once the formalities of the reception were over, they went to fill their plates. Zahn was starving and helped himself. Adelaide filled her plate with heaping servings, much to Zahn's surprise.

"I thought women were only supposed to eat small portions." Zahn said softly.

"I like to eat." Adelaide said with a snort, sticking a meatball on the end of her fork into her mouth. She whipped around, returning to the table, not giving him a second glace.

Zahn turned back to the buffet, a small smile on his face. He found he liked her sharp tongue.

Adelaide decided that if he was going to grunt whenever she asked a question, then she wouldn't converse with him either. She didn't understand why she felt so compelled to speak with him when he wasn't even the person she was going to be spending the rest of her life married to.