Chapter 7

White Roses

It was another day of digging through mountains of homework. Brianna, who was seated on Danielle’s bed reading, snickered when she groaned a third time.

Danielle was working on painting a still-life…. She didn’t like still-lifes. In truth, she preferred painting landscapes, people or any other living creature. Painting inanimate objects on a table bored her. And her heart wasn’t in it, which was showing in her work. Just get the grade, she kept telling herself. She’d thought choosing a subject she liked would help as she’d gathered up some of Aunt Charlotte’s things for tea and arranged them artistically for a model. Still she struggled with getting the shape of the teapot and teacup correct. It took much longer than usual. Rubbing her temples she considered the flaws and how to fix them another time.

Unfortunately for her, there were other reasons she couldn’t seem to concentrate. Celeste and Lucas were constantly lurking in the back of her mind. Would they do something to her family to get at her? Her gaze wandered to Brianna, and a stab of guilt severed her nerves. They can’t hurt her, she pondered with panic slicing through her gut. She couldn’t live with herself if they did. And now she had a bellyache, she thought as she rubbed at her midsection.

Danielle jumped when the doorbell rang. Brianna noticed. “Are you okay, Dannie? You seem skittish.”

“I’m all right.”

Brianna’s brows knitted together, and Danielle knew her cousin hadn’t bought it.

Aunt Charlotte called up from the bottom of the stairs, “Danielle, it’s Ethan. He wants to study with you.”

“Send him up,” she called back, relieved. He’d said he would tell her his plan today. She really needed to know what it was, and hoped it would help settle her nerves and rioting stomach.

Ethan entered, strolled to the desk and dropped a huge stack of books on top of it.

“What’s all that for?” she asked, experiencing another spike of pain.

“It’s your homework,” he said, standing next to her now as he considered her crappy artwork.

Fighting an urge to cover it, and wanting to say, don’t look at that mess, she instead said, “I’m sorry ... what?”

He leaned down placing his lips to her ear. “You’re testing out.”

“Excuse me?”

He took her arm, tugged her to the desk, forced her to sit, then dropped to one knee in front of her. Again, he spoke softly into her ear, “We need to get married sooner. It’s the easiest way to protect you … us … and they’ll have to leave us alone. No more interruptions.”

“But—but— How do you expect me to get through all of this? I already have way too much homework as it is!” Her eyes narrowed on the stack of textbooks and then shifted to the previously existing pile next to it. The pains inside twisted and she wondered if she might actually vomit.

“Forget that. If you test out, you won’t have to do it.”

“But—what about my artwork?” Danielle tossed a despairing look at the mess of a painting called a still-life. “That’s part of it.”

“They can judge by your past works, and I have the tests from Beon. I know what you need to know. So…” Ethan stood, grabbed the chair next to her fireplace, slid it up next to her, and settled into it. “Let’s get started.” He then snatched the first book and flipped it open.

Danielle stared at him. “So this is your plan.”

“Yes, it’s the best I could come up with.” Ethan leaned closer so Brianna couldn’t hear him. “Unless you’d rather elope, which I don’t think would go over very well, though it certainly is an option.”

“Elopement sounds much more appealing.”

“I was jesting before, that’s not really an option. You can do this. I’ll help.”

“I’m not convinced I can do it, Ethan. What if I fail?”

“Will you please just try?”

Brianna was watching this from the bed, and apparently her curiosity got the better of her because she asked, “What in the world is going on?”

“Uh … well, Ethan’s too impatient. Wanting to get married sooner, he thinks if I can test out, then we can tie the knot now rather than later.”

Danielle didn’t even want to look at Ethan to see the look on his face after that comment. So she kept her gaze fixed on her cousin, which turned out to almost be worse.

Because Brianna pulled a face and said, “What?”

“It can be done,” Ethan said between clenched teeth. “Danielle, listen to me,” he ordered in a soft but stern tone.

Biting her lip, she let her eyes trail back to him, and found that he did look a bit angry and frustrated with her. “But, I don’t see how I can do this?” Her gaze returned to the pile of books he’d dumped on her desk. “Ethan, how do you expect me to get through eight thick volumes?”

“Oh, ye of little faith,” Ethan grumbled.

“But,” Danielle began.

Ethan ignored her to look at Brianna. “I’m guessing you’re going to be Danielle’s maid of honor?”

“Yes,” Brianna replied slowly.

“Good, I suggest you start with the wedding plans. I’ll have the wedding planner call you. Her name is Veronica.”

Brianna’s eyes popped, then she and Danielle’s jaws dropped simultaneously.

“You hired a wedding planner?” Danielle asked.

“Of course. You and Brianna can’t do everything. Especially you, my dear, you have a lot of studying to do.” His fingers gave her knee a squeeze.

“What? Do you even have a date picked out already too?”

“No, I knew I needed to discuss that with you. But I was thinking sometime soon after your tests would be best.”

“What if I flunk?”

“You’ll do fine.” Ethan patted her knee as he spoke. “You don’t have any plans the end of the month do you? You’re going to Paris to be fitted for your dress.”

“Paris?”

Brianna gasped.

“Yes, the same designer who made your ball gown.”

“Doesn’t he already know my size?” she asked, remembering how the dress fit perfectly without ever having been fitted for it.

“Yes, but this is your wedding gown, Danielle. It needs to be perfect, and I thought you’d like to have a say in the design. Your mother will be here too. I’ve arranged for you to have a wonderful day with the ladies in Paris while you all select gowns for the ceremony.”

“You’re unbelievable…”

“Are you complaining?”

“No, of course not. I just … you’re just … unbelievable.” She fell silent then, because she honestly didn’t know what else to say.

“All right then, artists of the Renaissance,” Ethan turned pages until he got to the beginning of the first chapter. “Take notes, Danielle, there will be a test later.”

Why did he have to say that? Danielle groaned as she reached for a pen and paper—what else could she do?

Ethan was diligent in his quest to help her cram for the tests that were scheduled to take place after a couple short weeks. Danielle was overwhelmed with the task and seemed to have an almost constant headache.

“Danielle, are you all right?” Brianna asked after she’d studied for several grueling hours straight one day.

No doubt the inquiry came because her brows were pinched together, her lips formed a thin line and she had two fingers pressed on each temple. “Hmm?” she mumbled in reply. This pose just wasn’t helping to soothe the pain throbbing in her skull.

“I was wondering if you had a minute. I’ve been talking to Veronica, that wedding planner…”

Her cousin inched her way into Danielle’s bedroom, almost cautiously. It appeared that she thought Danielle was liable to implode at any second. “Um.” She took another step, holding up a binder. “She’s come up with some really nice color combinations. She wants you to go over them.”

Danielle held her hand out to take the binder, sighing. “It’s okay, Bri, I’m fine. I just have a headache. Too much studying…you know…”

“Well, while you look at these, I’ll go get you some pain medication and water.” She left in a rush, as if Danielle might not survive if she didn’t hurry.

“Thanks,” Danielle muttered after her.

Almost mindlessly, she began flipping through pages in the binder, thinking any distraction was extremely welcome at this point. Professional layouts of fabric swatches, floor plans, and detailed menu descriptions filled the book. There were even pictures of wedding cakes, flower arrangements and backdrops. Every detail had been considered. This Vivian or Vanessa, or whatever it was, was quite thorough about her work.

Gratitude filled her over-studied brain. As well as that romance-novel honeymoon, she would have the dream wedding most girls only fantasize about, but could never afford. Her parents did pretty well for themselves, but this was clearly beyond their budget. She knew they were helping with the finances, but also knew Ethan was covering the majority of wedding expenses.

Ethan, who said he’d never considered getting married for over one hundred and fifty years, wanted to go all out with everything. And Danielle wasn’t going to stop him.

All of the designs the wedding planner had come up with were wonderful, and perfect in every way, but one conception caught her eye—the theme of white: varying shades of white swatches, white roses with only a hint of the palest pink, even the cake was white with white fondant roses, rosebuds, and Lilly of the valley blooms. It was exquisite, it was her, and she knew Ethan would love it too.

Her already tender emotions were seized with the reality of it all, and tears streaked down her cheeks. She could hardly believe it. Ethan was a dream come true. The custom designer dress was a dream come true. And this … this fantasy wedding in white, was yet another dream brought to reality. She didn’t care to pick the menu. She’d let Brianna choose that, or maybe Ethan, since his newfound interest in food was obviously important to him.

This gave Danielle new motivation to work harder studying for these tests. Now she wanted it more than eloping, she wanted the dream wedding and the sooner the better. Before, this had seemed somewhat distant, something just out of reach, something she was striving for, but wasn’t able to reach just yet. Now it felt more tangible, more real.

Brianna returned with drugs and water to wash them down. She looked upset when she realized Danielle was crying. “Is it that horrible? I thought some of her ideas were pretty nice.”

Danielle began tapping her finger on the page with the white designs. “This one—this is the one.” She hiccupped.

Brianna laughed. “Oh, those are happy tears. Sheesh, Cousin, stop scaring me like that.”

Turning back to the books, she swallowed and thought, Great, now I can’t concentrate. Or see….