Rowena's claim was met with silence, as the awkward feeling inside her grew and a mild wind picked up around them. As the small gust moved her hair, she almost sighed, thinking about how much she wanted to leave.
Alan cleared his throat and put a hand on his father's shoulder. "Since you two made such a good pair in Lodden, I don't see why you shouldn't be allowed to attend together. Isn't that right, Your Grace?"
"Son, I don't know if that's such a good idea, maybe we should send Sir Sean-"
"It is her debut, so she should attend with a proper escort, my dear," Beatrice interjected as she placed a hand on her husband's other shoulder, "there is no harm in letting her make her own decision."
"I suppose you are right, Duchess."
With that, the young woman in question gave her upstanding escort a smile, while her second brother was still busy eyeing the situation skeptically.
"I will be there on time," Lucan spoke softly, "so I hope there is no reason for you to step on my toes again."
He helped her into the carriage and she had to gather up her dress to lift her delicate foot without getting caught in the stiff fabric.
"You think I need a reason for that, Your Highness?" she replied as soon as he approached to help her, not even looking at him before she was settled in the carriage and waiting for her maids to follow.
She could see a cheeky smile on the young man's face and tried not to laugh at what felt like an inside joke to her at this point. Even without pinpointing it or thinking about it, she could tell it was something of a human connection.
For the first time in a long time, she had finally made a friend. Since she had once sworn on her life to never call someone - anyone - a friend again, it made her feel a little queasy. Looking at Norina, Ava and Charlotte, she wondered if it counted if someone was paid to spend time with her.
'I don't want to think about it,' she finally decided as the carriage took off to take her home, where her dress would be waiting to be viewed by her for the first time. 'That is, if he even managed to finish it at all.' One could only hope.
Not that they hadn't checked with the tailor to make sure they would have a dress when the ceremony rolled around, but in the end he hadn't finished the day before and now they were running out of time.
Rowena stepped into her drawing room, knowing that Cain would be waiting for her. He had arrived during her ceremony at the Temple and, as her nanny had informed her, had brought a finished dress with him.
'But is it the one I ordered? I wonder.' She finally managed to walk up the stairs in her impractical gown. 'Maybe he couldn't make it and just took one he had lying around.'
Norina and Ava smiled encouragingly as they opened the door to the salon, not knowing what to expect. It was Silver Cain who was sitting there, unsurprisingly, shadows darkening his eyes, which were bright with excitement despite his unhealthy complexion.
In fact, there was no one in the room who didn't look exhausted and somewhat sickly. Some of them reminded her of her own face just a few months ago.
It wasn't just obvious to Rowena, as she could see the questions on the faces of her own servants. But this mistress was at least self-aware enough to understand what had happened to the employees of The Silverlining - Silver Cain's Dress Shop.
"It is a pleasure to meet you again, Sir Cain. I can see how hard you must have worked these past three days," she said, "you and your assistants deserve great praise."
"Don't mention it, my lady," the designer said, hurrying to her side, "if it hadn't been for the dress you spared me to use as a base, it would have been hard to finish."
'Which means I gave you an absurd job to finish, huh?' She wondered why he didn't just say that and instead tried to play it down, making the effort he'd gone to even more obvious. Or maybe that was the point?
Rowena almost laughed, but decided that her blank face would work better in this kind of conversation. In the middle of her salon was something covered in a white blanket that looked suspiciously like a mannequin.
"Is that my dress?" she asked.
With a beaming smile, Sliver Cain bowed respectfully and opened one arm to point at it, motioning for two of his assistants to begin lifting the sheet.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
"I wanted to make sure no one saw it, not even the servants of the house of Varnhagen, before my lady had this honor," he explained, "as you requested, I used the black dress you had left in your closet, though I must say it still pained me to go to such lengths. I can say I outdid myself with the outcome."
His professional curiosity urged him to see what he could do with the plain garment he had been given by her, and what great things a tailor of his caliber could come up with. He wanted it to shine as brightly as the person who would wear it.
At the same time, it felt cheap to him, not something anyone would ever want to reveal. A dress made from scraps? That was certainly a unique experience for him.
But making a dress out of nothing would have taken longer. There were hardly any seams he had to open to make it fit, although some of her sizes had obviously... adjusted since she had worn it last.
Her mainly kept the skirt, covered it in tull and redid the upper part. The tull covered the fact that the fabric differed and therefore the deepness of the black as well. And since there wasn't much of a demand for black, yet when it was needed, he would have to have it fast, he would always have enough of it in stock.
"Don't worry, I won't ask you to do this again," she reassured him as the blanket was pulled back by two greatly relieved seamstresses, revealing what they had all worked on in shifts and pieces, just for this moment.
Her breath caught at the sight of the dress. Not because of a piece of clothing, but because it reminded her of something she couldn't remember.
A picture formed in her mind as her eyes followed the flow of the skirt from the waist down, like water rushing down a waterfall; like a piece of ocean falling from a sea of stars.
The plain, black dress that had to go to make this one shine was nowhere to be seen. It might be a black dress, but just as she had wished, it was like the night sky, full of mysteries. This wasn't a dress to be worn to a funeral any longer, no, it was perfect for a rebirth.
Still, there was someone to put to rest today - someone no one even knew had died; someone who didn't have a wake because of her arrival. Today was the day she would officially send her off, all alone, knowing that this place would be her own battlefield from now on. And she wasn't going to lose on it.
In that sense, there was someone else to bury. Celia Smith was no more. She was someone else now. And that someone else had a past that was now gone as well. The old Rowena, the true Rowena - all that would be officially over now.
Norina and Ava helped her out of her ceremonial dress and into her new one, brought in Islette and pulled her hair, which had slowly but steadily grown beyond its original length, into a nice updo.
Her makeup was light, just a few touches here and there, letting the small diamonds on her skirt shine instead. Her upper body was covered in a thin veneer of black fabric that came out from under a top that looked like a corset, but didn't sit as tight on her.
"Nobody will see my scars," she said absentmindedly.
"In my opinion, you would be beautiful even if they were visible."
Surprised, Rowena turned to look at Norina who had said those words, then looked back into the mirror in front of her. "Thanks."
She knew it was something anyone would say, especially to an employer, but it didn't feel bad at all. Even though Islette seemed confused by their conversation, she smiled, noticing the warm atmosphere around them.
Outside the Varnhagen estate, Silver Cain still waited to see her in his creation for the first time. It was hard for him to be patient, but he had no other choice. He wanted to see it as it was meant to be: Complete. And it wasn't complete without the one it was meant to be worn by.
It was already late and he would have to attend in his current attire. He was by no means shabby looking, and from the son of a fallen baron, there was nothing to be expected. But as Silver Cain, he still felt uncomfortable showing up so plain and generally unkempt.
At the same time, he was not the only one waiting. All the other members of the Varnhagen family were standing there, servants and carriages lined up in anticipation. And there was one more, a young man in a high-class carriage, waiting for someone to come out as well.
"If they take any longer, the banquet will begin without them," Colin complained to his father, brother, and stepmother.
"It's an important day for your sister," the Grand Duke called to attention.
"As if she really cared," the young lord said, averting his eyes, "and that only counts for one of them."
Beatrice shook her head at his words, smiling. "A lady needs her time in order to shine."
"I'm here, Mother, Father," Arabella said, almost stumbling as she caught sight of Lodden's Prince, "I respectfully greet Your Imperial Highness."
Of course, she had known that he would be there, but she knew that innocence paid off better in most scenarios. In fact, it had gotten her into the good graces of her own Imperial Prince, even if he hadn't been around much since the deal with her stepsister had fallen through.
The Prince of Lodden just nodded in her direction though, making the younger lady feel disappointed. She was wearing such a beautiful dress, so he could have at least complimented her on it, right? Cain, on the other hand, almost had a heart attack when he saw the younger lady of Varnhagen.
'She gave the dress to her sister? Interesting.' To him, that either meant that their relationship wasn't as bad as everyone thought, or that she must have hated the dress so much that she passed it on to her.
He would have to learn from this dilemma. This muse was quite temperamental, even if she didn't look it.
With that thought in his head, he barely noticed the approaching footsteps, were it not for Prince Lucan's face lighting up next to him. Under the reddish light of the slowly sinking sun, the darkness of the night approached them like the antithesis to the goddess of dawn herself.
Lucan had been waiting for Rowena, dropping to one knee to take her hand. "May I?"
Wondering if he was asking for her hand as an escort, she nodded, for it was clear they were going together.
However, instead of standing up, he kissed the back of her hand, like a gentleman in a movie she never liked to watch. There was a slight blush on her cheeks as he eventually stood to lead her to his carriage.
She could have sworn she heard a few choked coughs behind her, but she decided to ignore it all. This evening was going to be hard enough to get through even if she had nothing else on her mind.