A Woman's Empire

V

CHAPTER FIVE

With quiet footsteps, Audrielle wandered down the large staircase as she made her way into the foyer where her mother was busy talking to Charlotte who was the family's seamstress. Just as Audrielle contemplated about running back up the stairs and to the comfort of her room, Mrs. Harrington gasped and plastered a smile on her fake face, opening her arms for her daughter.

"Audrielle, sweetie! You remember Charlotte, right?" Maria asked and Audrielle simply nodded her head as she sent a small smile to the seamstress. After a few minutes of bickering, they finally broke the chatter to a halt and walked down one of the long hallways towards one of the numerous spare guest bedrooms that the Harrington estate had. The room was quite bland compared to Audrielle's. The walls were a cream colour and the bedding was a light grey. There was no floor to ceiling bookshelf like in Audrielle's room and it hardly had any furniture except for a couple of set of drawers. The guest bedroom did have a en-suite but not a walk in wardrobe like Audrielle's room.

When they entered the room, Audrielle realised that the maids must've came in earlier to set everything up. On a portable clothes rack hung half a dozen dresses, most of them a ball gown shape with the puffy skirt. On the bed were a couple petticoats and stashed away in the corner of the room were dozens of rolls of fabrics.

"Audrielle, do you know what style you want or do you want to try on some ideas?" Charlotte asked as Maria sat down on the ottoman with a glass of tea in her hands.

"Um, I'd like to try some on please." Audrielle mumbled as she started making her way to the bathroom to get undressed. As she closed the door behind her, Audrielle pulled off her dress before putting a robe that was hanging on the door, around her body. Audrielle was self conscious of her body, especially around her mother. However, Audrielle had a body of a super model. She was slim, tall and had curves in all the right places. Her cleavage wasn't as large as her mother's but with the help of a push up bra, Audrielle had a more than average size. Her stomach was flat and her hair was wavy and long. But Mrs. Harrington was harsh towards her daughter when it came to fashion. She would always expect Audrielle to dress up, even if it was just for a simple stroll around the estate.

Taking a quick glance in the mirror, Audrielle wiped under her eyes and sighed tiredly before making her way back out where she found her first dress ready for her. Unwrapping her robe and placing it on the chair beside her, Charlotte helped Audrielle put the dress on. The first dress was a long sleeved, lace A- line styled dress that had a deep neckline at the front. As Charlotte was buttoning up the back of the dress, Mrs. Harrington sent Audrielle a disapproving look.

"Do you like this one Audrielle?" Charlotte asked. Just as Audrielle was going to reply, Maria butt in.

"I don't think this is the right dress. First of all, it has pockets and that's just not traditional. The sleeves cover up too much and it's not a puffy as we'd like it. Plus she needs something that can show her curves. After all, she is getting married to one of the richest men in the world."

Audrielle sighed and sent an apologetic smile to Charlotte from the mirror as she started to undo the buttons. On the other hand, Maria was busy rummaging through the dresses, picking out which one she liked the most.

After twenty minutes of discussing fabrics and a small argument over the style of the dress, Mrs. Harrington finally picked out a dress.

The one Audrielle disliked.

It was a ball gown style and had a corset. There were too many crystals beaded onto the dress and quite frankly, Audrielle didn't like it.

Before slipping the dress on, Audrielle had to wear a petticoat in order for the dress to have more volume. She didn't want to have a corset. Sure they might make you look sexy, but they weren't comfortable. Audrielle remembered when she wore her first one. She was fifteen and her parents were holding a special event. For the whole night, she could hardly sit properly and only picked at her entree as she told guests that she was 'watching her weight'.

But being in the public's eye and always being watched, Audrielle had to learn how to live up to expectations; even if it meant crushing her organs for a few hours a night. At the age of seventeen, Audrielle learnt how to loosen the corset, giving her stomach enough room to digest a full meal but unfortunately not a full three meal course. With the help of maids, who she would secretly tip them a hundred dollar bill if they would help her and didn't tell her parents, especially her mother, Audrielle would loosen the corset and breath in deep breaths instead of short, quick ones which made her almost hyperventilate.

As Charlotte wrapped the corset around Audrielle's already petite body, she sucked in, knowing the routine off by heart. Just as she felt the ribbon being tightened, she held her breath as she sucked in a big deep breath. Charlotte tied the ribbon up into a tight bow and then grabbed a measuring tape, wrapping it around Audrielle's waist to see how small her waist had become.

"Twenty two inches Maria." Charlotte smiled at Mrs. Harrington, and by the look on her mother's face, Audrielle could tell she was upset.

Shaking her head in disappointment, Mrs. Harrington got up from the ottoman and started to loosen the ribbon on the corset. "Twenty two inches. That's too big I want it 20 inches at least." Breathing out heavily, Audrielle sucked in once more when she felt her mother tug at the ribbon again, redoing the whole corset again.

"Have you eaten anything in the past twelve hours, Audrielle?" Maria asked and Audrielle dropped her head in shame. She knew her mother's rules when it came to fittings and eating food before them was a big no-no. Audrielle instantly regretted having a small breakfast with Mr. Amour because now she had to face the consequences.

"Yes, I did mother. I had a cup of jasmine tea and a couple of bites of my fruit salad this morning for breakfast." Audrielle said in the best confident voice she could muster. Through the mirror, Audrielle could see the anger on her mother's face. An ugly snarl took over Maria's face and her bold red lipstick made her even more scarier.

Pulling tightly on the ribbon, Mrs. Harrington muttered silly nonsense in the air and all Audrielle could do was suck in, hold her breath and not cry. "Have I not told you about my strict rules when it comes to fittings, Audrielle?" Mrs Harrington snapped, tightening the ribbon as she worked down each row.

"Or, do you think that since you are getting married in a month, that you can suddenly rebel against your father and I? Hm?"

Audrielle gasped when her mother pulled too tight. Pain eruppertured through her body and she started to breath less. Short, quick breaths, short, quick breaths. "I'm sorry - mother." Audrielle croaked, her voice almost a whisper. Mrs. Harrington only huffed in response as she snatched the measuring tape off of Charlotte, completely taking over the sole reason why Charlotte was there in the first place.

"Twenty inches. Hmm... You need to start watching what your eating Audrielle, or you won't be fitting into your wedding dress and you do not want to let your husband down on the big day, no?"

Audrielle bit her lip as she held back the tears, blood shooting to the sore parts on her back.

"Who said I liked this dress? I might prefer number three and not this one." Audrielle suddenly bit back and Mrs. Harrington turned so quickly that she could've gotten whiplash.

"I am your mother. What I say, goes."

"And this is my wedding. What I want, goes. After all I am the one getting married to a complete fucking stranger." Audrielle snapped.

Charlotte gasped as she stood back away from the family feud brewing quickly in front of her.

"Don't you dare talk to me like that Audrielle. We are trying to sell you to this man so he can hopefully think that maybe marrying you won't be so bad. You need to learn how to be the perfect wife for a man with such great power and talking back to him definitely isn't going to make you a great one either." Maria vocalized, unhappy with her daughter's outburst.

"After all, we don't want your father to have to fly back home only because his daughter is being a spoilt little brat."

Anger bubbled through Audrielle's veins like adrenaline bubbled through thoroughbred horses on race day. After asking Charlotte to kindly undo the corset that was killing Audrielle's back, she wrapped her white robe around her and stomped off into the bathroom, putting her dress back on while her evil mother and Charlotte talked about fabrics over cups of tea.