Never Leave Me Alone

Chapter 12

Katniss

I watch as my wedding dress is laid out on  my bed as my maids prepare me for my first fitting. It is a traditional Seam gown, with purple Embroidery and lace as opposed to the traditional black due to my status as a Royal. There is a panel in the front of the skirt and bodice of a pale lilac and dark lace crisscrossing them too. The embroidery is of vines and leaves to represent fertility across the white silk and satin. A purple lace edges the hems and a dark ribbon ties up the back with a long train flowing down from the skirt. The under garments are slightly thick to fill the skirt and I suck in as the corset is tightened to my waist.

"You're luckier than most, Your Magesty" the seamstress  says.

"Why is that, seamstress?" I ask.

"You're used to wearing your clothes so tightly so your ribs are in the correct position without causing you pain," she says. "You'll definitely look your best for His Highness in a fortnight." At the mention of the actual wedding, my stomach does a flip.

The undying devotion of the prince through the hardship of my life, I can't help but start to feel for him. I kissed him, being impulsive for once in my life. And I felt it. For the first time, I think I really did. I felt that devotion back, that I wouldn't be able to rest of he really had been hurt away in Seam. The need to know that each night he is just down the hall rather than fighting for my crown across the water, in a land so hostile I no longer recognize it as my Homeland.

I want him safe. I want him close. I barely slept last night because I wished he would hold me, and make me feel safe as he had when he came home with my mother's final letter. As she had said, if I were to trust anyone in my new life, let myself love anyone in my new life, it should and would have to be Peeta. I press my legs together a moment and try to stop my trembling body.

"Your Majesty!" One of my maids taps me on the shoulder. My head snaps over to her. "We were asking if you were ready."

"Oh," I say quietly. "Yes, I suppose the sooner it's on, the sooner it can be made ready for my wedding day." They nod and carefully lay the long skirt over my head and tie it to my waist, tightly.

It flows down my legs, the pleats seaming like flower petals. I remember an orchid from the garden that resembled the purple and white patterning and half wonder if I should look to have them with me for my ceremony as my arms are slid into the sleeves of the gown's bodice. The sleeves bell out and hang down a from my wrist. The bodice sets firmly against me as it too is tied to my body. I look down at the topiary crossing my long body.

I feel like it isn't me. I am not sure that I am going to truly give the impression of a proper bride. I look up at the girl in the mirror. She looks pretty, I guess. But sad. Sadness just won't leave the face of the woman in the mirror. Perhaps she has just seen to much sorrow in the last days to be happy right now.

"Oh, Your Majesty," Primrose gasps and I turn to see Peeta's sisters standing in the doorway to my den. "You're such a beautiful bride." I can't help but smile at the young girl.

"Thank you, Princess," I say. "But I'm sure you and Her Grace will be much more beautiful standing beside me on your brothers wedding day." Johanna looks at me and I feel a little uncomfortable under the intense gaze of the eldest royal sibling.

"You'll do for my brother, I guess," she says. "He's already infatuated enough to sit sketching you all day in his drawing room." I feel the blood raise to my face as she says this. He draws me? I'm that engraved into his mind?

"I can only hope that I can please him as his wife and you as my sisters," is my reply as I turn back to the mirror. A veil of lavender silk is pined into my hair as my crown is set on my head and I feel myself shift a little. I remember vividly my mother in a grand dress like this one, this same crown on her head as she danced at a grand ball with my father. I was just five and...