LIII. Celebration

Blaise resented the fact that he hadn't been allowed to join in with the celebrations. His mother had said that he was too young, he wasn't seventeen yet, but Blaise knew that what she really meant was that he would just get in the way of her special day. Well, she claimed it was special, but Blaise knew that there would be another day like this soon, the only difference being the fact that the groom would be a different man next time.

The groom, the ring and the dress were the only things that changed from time to time; everything else was the same. She always married on a Saturday, the sun was always shining, and the party-goers always came back to the manor's gardens for the celebration after the wedding itself.

But the groom would be gone within a year at the most; the dress rotting away in the back of a dusty cupboard that no one even knew existed; the wedding ring discarded, left in the house only for its value. Not that she cared about that; Blaise had stolen three of his mother's wedding rings already and she hadn't even noticed.

Blaise resented the fact that he hadn't been allowed to join in with the celebrations. He resented the fact that he was stuck alone in his room even though the sun was shining outside. He resented the fact that she got to dance around the rose gardens with a man whilst he had to keep himself hidden away in the dark (just like another discarded wedding gown) whilst everyone else laughed.

Sometimes Blaise really did wonder what he'd done to make his mother so utterly indifferent to his existence.