Look Beyond What You See

Matron of Honor

My dear sister Kyla,

Your last letter has greatly disconcerted me. I find it strange that one such as you, who always scorned the things of God and the Church, should now so strongly turn to faith for solace. Understand, I have no objection to your faith, but rather to your circumstances. Does not your dear Weston have any power to protect you from his parents? Dearest sister, I implore you, charge him with this: If he truly loves you, he will do everything he can to protect you from such misery as that which I fear you must currently experience. Please do not be angry with me for encouraging this course of action; I am simply concerned about you, as any sister and friend would be after receiving a letter from you such as your last one.

On a slightly brighter note, the revelations brought to me in your last letter, about how your marriage came about, where you are, what your in-laws' social standing is, and the like were most welcome, though I do deplore that their scorn towards you originates from some haughtiness pertaining to class and circumstances of birth. My fiancé, Dmitri, and I are trying to piece together the tangled web our grandparents have woven, and such information has been most helpful in our endeavors. But now an enormous distraction has come up, and I fear we will not be able to continue piecing this puzzle together for some time.

Dearest sister, have you heard that the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria has been assassinated by a Serb? As well connected as your family is, I have little reason to believe that this is new to you, but have they discussed in front of you what implications this may have? Oh, Kyla, the entire world could go to war, if all of the alliances that entangle Europe are called upon to resolve this conflict and all of those countries determine to drag their colonies into things, which would of course be the intelligent thing to do strategically. You must promise to keep me informed of whatever the British decide to do with India, should a war break out, and what your family's role in this disaster, should it indeed erupt in warfare and therefore disaster, will be.

As for my family's role, that remains uncertain. Dmitri's mother is Russian nobility and his father British nobility. I believe, after studying the network of alliances, that they shall fight on the same side if war breaks out, and fight they will, for this is a family of warriors, of a sort. We currently reside in Switzerland, traditionally a neutral territory, so I do not fear overmuch for our safety, at least until we are called to battle. Thus far the only thing that is certain is that our--my and Dmitri's--wedding will be postponed.

As far as I know, we have not yet begun on invitations or a guest list. Dmitri and I have only just last week managed to wrest the planning process from his mother's grip into our own hands. She means well, his mother does, but she has terribly antiquated ideas about women, which is ironic, considering that she herself belongs to the fairer sex. We haven't made much progress yet. The ceremony will be held in the family chapel, and our decorations will be in a theme of fire and water, and we've more or less selected a menu for the party after the ceremony. I believe Dmitri and I will be interviewing men of God sometime this week to select one for the honour of marrying us. I wish you could be here to help us plan. You've always been good at things like this, so much better than I am. I've never been much for ceremonies and pomp and circumstance of any kind.

But I will not push my luck. The one thing I want for my wedding, more than anything else, is that you would deign to become my Matron of Honour. I can think of no better way to get anyone to agree to our seeing each other, and I do miss you so. Please, dearest sister and friend, please speak with your husband and find a way to accept my request, and if you can, keep this information from our dear relatives back at Grandmother's chateau, and certainly from our grandparents. I intend that none of them will be present in any capacity at my wedding, if their presence can be avoided. I mistrust them deeply, especially Grandmother. Did you know that she is a sorceress? One of no small talent or ability, I'm told, and she has used her power as well as her wit to protect Grandfather from the natural consequences of his gambling problem.