Chapter 21
Cissy knew it was soon going to be time for her to host her own dinner party as mistress of the Malfoy manor. After all, she and Lucius were young, and a rather handsome couple. Due to their wealth they were going to be among the natural leaders of pure blood society from that day on – she has known that when she had married him.
But now it did seem a little daunting.
It was what she had dreamed of ever since she had been a small girl – to be a leader of pureblood society; it has seemed to her was to be a princess.
Or that was the way her mother had made it sound.
But suddenly now she was old enough, and she had seen how some people behaved at them, she was no longer so sure. She cast her mind back to the way her own husband had been when the two of them had been at Bella's.
She did not think she would be able to handle that so well as her sister had if someone was insufferable at her dinner party as her rather temperamental husband had been that night. It was hardly gracious, was it?
Nevertheless, she smiled, for when she thought of that night it was not the argument she remembered but the making up.
The longer she was married the more it seemed to her that she enjoyed being a wife.
But she knew there was a lot more to being a wife than wearing pretty dresses and enjoying her darling's caresses. She had known that for a long time.
In public, she had to put on a display on how much dignity she had and how proud she was to be a Malfoy. It seemed silly to her, as a private being, but then that was the way it was.
And so instead of putting it off as she knew she had been so far, she decided to do the sensible thing and called Izzy over. Having not seen her friend in quite some time, just the two of them, she decided it would be the right time to call her over. She felt as if she had plenty to confide in her.
Quite asides that she felt Izzy's tastes were far more like her own than her sisters, Bella just like her husband was so temperamental. She had to be in the right kind of mood to deal with her sister. And she did not think she was just then.
But with her best friend, she knew how she was going to be and what she was going to say to her even a lot of the time. And yet it was very pleasant to be with her still, despite the predictability.
"So the two of you are quite recoiled then?" asked Izzy once the two of them had mulled over the events of the dinner party.
Narcissa nodded.
"We are – pray god through our marriage all the argument we shall have shall end so quickly." She said with a smile. She was no fool. She knew there were going to be plenty more between the two of them. For all they were Malfoy's, they were at the end of the day only human. Of course they were going to clash from time to time.
"Indeed." Izzy nodded.
"So you are at last to preside over your own dinner?" she said and the young bride nodded.
"I am," she sighed. "And that is the reason why I asked you to hear. I need all your help to get ready for it old friend, to work on the guest list, the menu – I think I now begin to understand just how much my mother did when I was growing up." she told her. It was only now when she was gone, she found she really begun to understand her mama.
And how sad it was when she found she needed her more than ever now she was grown, now that her mother was gone. She wanted her to be there for her as a friend as much as she did a mother – she missed her council more than ever.
"I fear that is the way it goes for many."
Cissy could only nod in agreement.
"If only we all knew what we had when we had it, I think this world would be an infinitely better place." But then she shook her head, not wishing to be so morbid. "But come my friend it is time we look to the future and not the past," she smiled linking their arms together.
Going back into the house, from where the two of them had been walking in the ground, they made their way to Cissy's parlour where they begun to make their plans.
The menu was a task which could only be worked upon when the guest list was arranged; and so that was where they begun – until they got to the difficult question of whether it would be wisdom or folly for Narcissa to invite Christopher.
"He is as a brother to me and I do not want to lose him – but Lucius is more important to me now – more important than anything. But then it would cause a scandal if we were not to invite him."
"Send out an invite to him Cissy, but we'll try and arrange it so he is somewhat indisposed, shall we?" Izzy said with the mischievous glint in her which she knew so well. Narcissa nodded. "But not yet – I think we can kill two birds with one stone here."
Isabelle was a lot more scheming than she looked – Narcissa entrusted the matter of Christopher to her with a nod. Cissy had no idea what she was going on about but she trusted her and she knew she would always trust her. "Then I leave it in your capable hands."
()()()
That week as Narcissa discussed what she was going to do for their first dinner party as a married couple incessantly, Lucius came in just five or ten minutes later to enjoy a little peace before he was subjected to her babbling.
But as the week came to an end and he came into find her lying on the bed, he wished he had got back sooner.
She was curled up in bed with a book in her hand but she showed no signs of reading it – she looked quite far away.
"Darling are you unwell?" he said as he wondered over where she lay and sat by her side. Her eyes observed him gently as she shook her head.
There was something bothering her though – he knew it even as she tried her best to deny it.
"I am well, sweetheart – just a little tired."
She did not like lying to him but she did not want to tell him and then be wrong.
But then she was not sure if she wanted to carry this – secret – on her own. And why should it be secret from him? It was just as much his as hers.
But there was something holding her back and she did not know why. She had to double check before she said anything – she had to be sure.
But she had been sick; she felt faint; she had craved strawberries in pumpkin source!
She had to be with child, didn't she?
Cupping his face, she smiled. She did not think she was ever going to stop being glad the two of them had found one another; that he had pursued her.
He had been right. They were going to make one another very happy indeed. There could never have been another for her.
"Why do I not believe you?" he said with a smile. She seemed in good spirits for all her sorry state.
"Because you have suspicious mind – now will you just cuddle me?" she said with a sigh.
"If you are asking me to cuddle you, then I know there is something wrong."
Even though they were a very affectionate couple, rarely did it seem to him she felt the need to ask for it. But that was because he loved to give it to her.
Settling down on the bed by her side, he kissed her neck and held her close to him. She was not the only one to think how lucky they were they wed.
"Was it a good day?" he asked her tentatively.
She nodded. "People have started to reply to the dinner party and it looks as if we are going to have quite the house full," she said to him with a soft smile. "But I also found out we are not the only hosts having a dinner party that evening."
"Who else is?" he said as his eye brow raised.
He did not like the idea of anyone stealing his wife's thunder when he knew how much effort she had gone to, even thus far to make sure it was going to be a wonderful night.
"Our dear friend Caroline..."
/
Cissy had to admit that the way that Izzy had ensured the two dinner parties were going to run on the same night through a piece of gentle persuasion had been a stroke of genius. Not only did it ensure those who she had to invite and yet did not want at her house, were not going to be there but due to the fact it was Caroline who was hosting the other party, it ensured the cream of society were going to come to them.
But at the same time, she did wish her invite had got to Chris before Caroline's had. The entire plot had been to ensure he was not going to be at her dinner party but the fact was their friendship was so strong she did want him there. And if he wasn't – well, she knew it would not be the same.
They had been so close when they had been at Hogwarts. The fact he was not going to be there only proved to her how much her life really had changed.
But then that was the price she had to pay. It was the price she was willing to pay even.
And really, she knew in truth that should be the last thing on her mind; she had the confirmation of her hopes that she had been waiting for. She was indeed to be a mother.
Save for the time she was worrying over things that did not matter in the least that was all she had been able to think about.
She was going to be a mother – she was going to give her husband an heir. Overnight she felt as if she had grown up – ever since she had found out the news. She was carrying someone else. She had a baby inside of her. And they depended on her and her alone entirely.
Sitting at her vanity, she looked at herself in the mirror.
Was it just her or did she look different? Had she grown up in a heartbeat?
All she did know was she was going to be a mother – and it seemed as if for the first time in a long time her life was falling into place.
All she had to do now was work out when it was going to be the right time to tell Lucius. She knew he was going to be as pleased as she was. All she had to do was pick her moment.
()()()
"Did you help her plan this?"
Izzy had been having a quiet morning when Chris had intruded on her in her mother's drawing room. With his easy charm in had not been hard to get past Izzy's mother – lacking maternal love from the women who had given birth to him, he found many others wanted to mother him.
"Did I help plan what and who do you mean 'her'?"
"Did you and Narcissa arrange it so that I was not going to be on the night of her debut as Mrs. Malfoy?" he said furiously.
When he had got the invite from Caroline he had thought he would rather go to hers than nowhere for the evening.
Then after he had sent his reply to Caroline, he had got an invite to the Malfoy's. He had then got a distressed letter from Caroline saying she had had no idea they were going to have a dinner party on the same night she was. She begged he still come to her rather than go elsewhere as she had already got some ill concealed cancelations, from people who had obviously decided they were going to go to the Malfoy's instead.
And he knew he was a Slytherin but he did have a heart. For all the fact he knew he had been one of the worst for mocking her when they had all had a go, when she was out of ear shot, he did pity the poor girl. She had thought her whole life was mapped out when she had been with Lucius.
And then it had been taken away from her.
You had to feel for her, did you not? But then he knew he felt for her so because he was suffering from a loss as well.
That of a 'sister.'
"We thought I best that you were indisposed. You know how Lucius feels for you and I do not want Cissy to have to go through any more upset." Said Izzy. She knew Chris only wanted to be her friend but there was something about friendship between two girl friends that a man could not understand.
She had seen Cissy go through the biggest changes she had to so far in her life of late and she knew they were only going to keep coming to her now; she had lost her mother and was a wife.
She was not going to see her hurt any more if she was able to protect her.
But to Chris, it felt as if she was turning herself into his enemy. When he thought back to the way they had been when they had been at Hogwarts it seemed mad they were all so far apart now.
"But I want to be there for her – I want to be her friend and I know she is going to be worried about that night. I should be there for her."
"She is going to be with, myself, Lucius and her sister. She is going to be quite fine."
But Chris shook her head. "I do not believe she does not want me there."
He shook his head once more and that was when he did that, Izzy minds went into over drive. She had always known he was close to Cissy but this had to be more than the friendship he was mourning.
"My god... you're in love with her, aren't you?" he said as she got up from where she had been sitting and crossed the room to where he stood.
For the first time ever, she saw tears cascade down his face. Even when he had been talking about his useless mother he had never cried.
But right then as he spoke of Cissy, it seemed he had no choice in the matter.
Yet in her heart of hearts what he had just revealed to her only confirmed that she had done the right thing when he had kept him away from the Malfoy manor.
For if Lucius ever found out, he was bound to kill him.
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