String of Fate

Chapter Ninety Four

I stepped back to look at the mannequin, looking at the dress that was on it. It was a pale purple and I thought that it looked more like a mess of materials rather than a dress, let alone a dress that was fit for me to wear to a wedding. I had to look good in this wedding as I was the maid of honour, but I couldn't be too good. This dress, though, was just all wrong. I didn't know how I could fix it.

The door to my room was opened and Lola walked in, carrying the washing basket. I was a little surprised that she was carrying the washing basket since she hadn't been a maid in the palace for over a year, since Archibald and I had celebrated our eighteenth birthday and we had revealed to our parents that they were joined by a string. Lola had grown up with us, so, it hadn't been surprising to us. She had tried to deny it as much as possible, though, since she had thought that the status fiasco was cared about in this family. "Lola, why are you carrying the washing in?"

"I just passed the maid on my way here and thought I'd help since I was on my way here anyway." Lola explained, placing the basket on the chest at the foot of my bed. Then, she came to stand next to me, looking at the dress. "What are you trying to design now?"

"My bridesmaid dress." I told her, still looking at the dress. "I have been working on it all morning, but I just cannot get it right. It's the most frustrating dress that I have ever tried to design. I just can't get the material to sit right. It's torture. I had expected your wedding dress to be difficult but designs for you always come easily to me. It's my own dresses that I can never get right."

"If you're struggling, why don't you take a break?" Lola suggested. She linked her arm through mine and started pulling me in the direction of the bedroom door. "You will be able to come back to the design with a fresh eye. In the meantime, we're going to have lunch with Archie and your parents in the dining hall, and then we can go for a little walk around the garden. You've spent the last two days in your room working on your dress, so, you need a break."

"If you think that's a good idea." I laughed, letting her lead me down to the dining room. Even after all this time, she was still nervous around my parents and she was also a little nervous around Archie too since she was just starting to get used to actually being with him. She liked it when I was around to help the situation. I didn't mind and maybe a break from the dress would be a good thing. As we walked down the hallway, I heard my stomach growl. Lola stopped and looked at me. "Let's go and get some food."

She laughed and we quickly walked to the dining room.

A couple of hours later, after a great lunch and a quick stroll through the garden with Lola, I left her in the library with Archie and headed into my room. The maid had come up and put the washing away and the basket was gone. I headed over to my vanity that I had turned into a desk and looked at my rough sketches for the design for the dress. Then, I glanced at the mannequin and an idea popped into my head.

I picked up my pin bag and immediately strode over to the mannequin, liking the sound my heels made on the floor as I moved. I moved the material, pinning it in place. I had to take a whole piece of material off before moving it to a different place and pinning it back in three places. I stepped back to take a quick look, thinking over the changes, before stepping back up to it and adding another pin.

Once I decided that the placement of all the material was perfect, I grabbed my sewing kit and pulled out my drawer of cotton reels. Over the years, I had been trying to collect all the different colours of cotton reels but I thought that I was still missing a few. They were now all in my drawer, and I had made sure that they were in a particular order so they made it look like a rainbow, with the shades of green on the right hand side. I pulled out a couple that look the correct shade, and then I brought them over to the dress.