Once And Always

Chapter 22

Are you guys ready for this farce of a wedding?

Enjoy reading! (But not too much...) 

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The sky was cloudy and gray as Tae's shiny, black-lacquered coach swayed gently through the crowded Bangkok streets, drawn by four prancing chestnut horses in magnificent silver harness. Six outriders in black velvet livery led the procession, followed by four more mounted, uniformed men behind the coach. Two coachmen sat proudly erect atop the coach and two more clung to the back of the vehicle.

Tee huddled in the deep, luxurious squabs of Tae's coach, wrapped in a suit of incredible beauty and wildly extravagant expense, his thoughts as bleak as the day outside.

"Are you cold, my dear?" Prama asked solicitously from his place across from him.

Tee shook his head, wondering nervously why Tae had insisted upon making such a grand spectacle of their marriage.

A few minutes later he stepped down from the coach, walking slowly up the long shallow steps of the massive golden temple like a child being led to a frightening event by his parent.

He waited beside Prama at the back of the temple, trying not to think of the enormity of what he was about to do, letting his gaze wander aimlessly over the crowds of people. His apprehensive mind fastened haphazardly on the vast differences between the Bangkok aristocrats garbed in silks and fine brocades who had come to witness his wedding and the simple, friendly villagers he had always expected to have near him on his wedding day. He scarcely knew most of these people—some he had never even seen before. Carefully averting his gaze from the building, where Tae, not P'Godt, would soon be waiting for him, he stared at the pews. An empty place, reserved for Prama, was vacant on the first row on the right, but the rest of them were filled with guests. Directly across the aisle on the first row, which would normally have been reserved for his immediate family, there was an elderly lady leaning on an ebony cane, her hair concealed by a vivid purple satin turban.

The turbaned head seemed vaguely familiar, but Tee was much too nervous to remember where he had seen it, and Prama diverted his attention by nodding toward Lord Varodom, who was coming toward them.

"Has Tae arrived?" Prama asked when Kimmon Varodom had reached them.

The khun luang, who was Tae's best man, kissed Tee's hand, smiled reassuringly, and said, "He's here, and he's ready when you are."

Tee's knees began to shake. He wasn't ready. He wasn't ready to do this at all!

Copter straightened the folds of Tee's diamond-studded blue satin suit and smiled at his husband. "Is Khun Luang Tae nervous?"

"He says he isn't," Kimmon said. "But he would like to get this proceeding under way."

How cold, Tee thought, his fear escalating to panic. How unemotional. How Tae.

Prama was fidgety, eager. "We're ready," he said enthusiastically. "Let's begin."

Feeling like a puppet whose strings were being pulled by everyone else, Tee placed his hand on Prama's arm and began the endless walk down the candlelit aisle. He moved through the candlelight in a luxurious swirl of shimmering blue satin with diamonds sparkling like tiny twinkling lights. Somewhere in the background, the choir sang, but Tee didn't hear them. Behind him, moving farther away with each step, were the laughter and carefree days of his boyhood. Ahead of him . .. ahead of him was Tae, dressed in a splendid suit of rich midnight blue velvet. With his face partly shadowed, he looked very tall and dark. As dark as the unknown ... as dark as his future.