Chapter Three
Days past since the argument, and I found my Mother and I feeling more distant from each other than ever. All we had was a cold, brittle relationship – no strings attached.
I sat awkwardly at our long dining room table, my Mother and Father sat at opposite ends of it and Royce and I sat parallel to each other on either side. The dining room, one of the grandest areas in the house held portraits of our whole family on its walls. It knew more of my family than I did. It had a royal red carpet, that was thick and decades old. Its honey coloured panelled walls were polished to perfect speck and it had various pottery collections on shelves around the room. An awkward silence hung in the room, it was deafening. My Mother, a snake in a human's body eyed Royce like he was her prey… fresh, tasty and ready to kill. She clearly did not like him, at all.
"So Royce, young fellow, do tell me what you do for hobbies?" My Father questioned, breaking the silence.
"Well, Mr Hale, I spend a lot of my time with your darling daughter Rose, of course. But other than that I do enjoy going out to my Mothers holiday home and doing a spot of fishing and hunting now and then." Royce smiled warmly at my Father, who smiled warmly back at him. My Mother glared at him, taking in everything he said and turning it into something she could add to her horrible judgement of my perfect man. I swear, if it wasn't considered rude she'd be sitting with an ink pen and notebook taking bullet points about him. Most of them would be negative.
"Royce, do tell them about your plans for the future…" I pressed.
"Oh yes, well next year I plan to travel by boat to England and I'm planning to stay there for a good few months, I've been invited over by the bank of England to work for them for a while." He said, not being afraid to show off his good news.
"I did hear of this from a colleague in the bank. Good job my chap, good job." My Father praised him. My Father and Royce discussed work, hobbies and a whole load of other rubbish that I couldn't possibly understand. Meanwhile, my Mother and I exchanged dirty looks across the table. It was now I realised how ugly she actually was. She had an angled face, which I guess could be considered as attractive, but she had a hooked witch nose and slit like eyes that got even smaller when she scowled. Her lips were almost non-existent and her ears pointed up like something out of an imaginary elf book that I would have read as a child. Her blonde hair was thinning slightly and had a few grey strands in it, she also had a cluster of pimples up her left cheek. She was not attractive, at all.
Royce and Father wandered off to the drawing room to have some whiskey and talk business, which left me in the not so pleasant company of my predator-like mother.. My Mother looked up to me, "Fine, Rosalie. He is okay, not my choice of partner for you, but you may be in a relationship with him. But don't push me over the edge like that again." Before I could reply she stood up, nodded and left. Typical, doesn't even give me my say. But they relief that flourished through my body after hearing her say those words was unreal.
I walked Royce to the door, he smiled warmly, "How did I do?" He had done so well at wooing my Father and Mother over that I had to praise him. He was a wonderful person, and I'm so glad my Father – and my Mother, to a certain extent- could see that.
"You were wonderful my darling, both my parents like you so everything is good. I'm just so happy we can finally relax now and get on with building our relationship." I replied. He smiled, clearly happy he had made the right impression. He stoked my cheek, brushing my stray hairs behind my ear.
"I'm so lucky to have a woman like you," he then mumbled something about his friends being jealous of me but I didn't question it as he clearly changed his mind about me hearing it before he finished. We exchanged a kiss and said our goodbyes, I longed for him to stay longer, but he couldn't as it was getting late and I didn't want him walked home at God knows what hour.
Weeks past, my Mother came to like Royce more and more. This was good, because as much as I hate her I can't bear the horrible looks that she gave me every time I mentioned him. Yet, I still knew she would never be fully happy with my choice in this man. My Father adored Royce, their relationship boomed. They got on so well, and had a lot in common. My Father gave Royce a promotion, which means Royce, will not be going to England next year! Thank the Lord, I was worried about him going.
I sat across from my darling Royce, everything in the restaurant was impeccably clean and made of rich coloured oak. Lazy white sashes hung on the roof like clouds in a midnight sky, it looked beautiful against the navy walls. Royce and I sipped at our glasses of wine, content after our meal. I wore a red velvet dress, which was floor length. My heels were a matt-black and had large diamonds on them. My golden shawl hung over the chair and my necklace was so big and heavy it put strain on my neck.
"Rose, darling Rose…" Royce started.
"Yes, Royce?" I was slightly confused, what was he going to say. Just then Royce stood up, he rummaged around in his pocket for something. I think I went into shock when he got down on one knee and grinned at me showing a perfect set of white teeth. Everyone in the restaurant watched. My heart thudded at double its normal pace, and my blood rushed around my body.
"Rosalie Lillian Hale, my darling…" he spoke, his words like a velvet heaven to my ears. "Will you marry me?" My heart stopped. I'd looked forward to this day my whole life, wondering who it would be, and its Royce King. Royce bloody King! I looked at the crowd of people, awaiting my answer. Royce's smile had faded, he was clearly panicking that I was going to say no after my lengthy pause.
I realised I'd stopped breathing. I gasped for air. "Yes!" I paused, "yes, yes, yes!" I grinned. I hugged Royce tightly, our lips eventually met and we kissed a couple of times before we parted. The other people in the restaurant cheered and clapped for us. We left, still with grins on our faces.
As we walked home, we spoke of times we'd spent together. Then something hit me, I'd said yes without my Fathers permission. What if he would disapprove? I was still young, young enough to do more before a life of being a housewife. But I knew this is what I wanted, could he take this away from me with a simple no? "OH, shoot, Royce, you never asked my Father?" I could feel my eyes welling up already, I knew my Father liked Royce… but what if he felt he wasn't the one for me to marry?
"Beat you to it." He grinned.
"What?" I asked, confused by this.
"I already asked him if I could propose, he was over the moon!" Royce replied.
Oh my goodness, he had thought of everything. I couldn't wait! I was going to marry Royce. When we parted, Royce and I kissed each other twice and he gave me a tight hug before speeding off and walking home.
I climbed the steps, stopping at the top to sigh in contentment. Oh my Lord, I was so happy.
I lay in bed the night, questioning what had happened. As I did most nights after I had spent time with Royce. I couldn't believe I was getting married to that beautiful man, he was all mine, all mine. I had my very own man, who I was to marry. Could my life be any more perfect?
Royce King… Rosalie King… did it work? Yes, it must have. Rosalie King. It had a certain ring to it, I liked it. I was to be, Rosalie King. Nothing was stopping me on my way to my perfect life now, nothing. Not even my wretched and horrid, daughter of the devil Mother.
Rosalie King I repeated, before drifting off into a dream filled sleep.
