With all the notified parties informed, Charles and Elise traveled back to Cornwall two days later promising they would make an extended visit after the wedding. Nicolette was not happy with the date, but she and Meg had already made a long start on a dress for Elise that required a fitting, so his wife-to-be was whisked off post-haste only a few minutes after they returned. Within another couple of days, people friends and family started arriving so that the Institute was soon packed to the rafters with loud children and friends who were all intrigued by "the New American" as they called him. Pretty soon, Charles started seeking refuge in the kitchen with Hattie hiding him whenever someone came looking for more stories.
Many of the incoming Shadowhunters had brought their own staff to augment the Cornwall workers and Hattie was soon presiding over a small army of cooks and pastry chefs and it became impossible to hide the groom any longer.
Stiles found him the day before the wedding and showed him a refurbished suit that had been in the back of his closet for 31 years. "Your father wore it to my wedding," he said. Megan has worked on it and believes it should do nicely, if you would like to wear it."
Like many moments of late, the gesture brought uncontrolled tears to his eyes and his uncle hugged him tightly while he sobbed into the big man's shoulder. "Your father's departure was the worst moment of my entire life," said Stiles. "We fought about it. I said things I would always regret. It was like having one of my arms cut off."
The suit fit him almost without alteration and he wandered about the Institute looking for Elise, but she was nearly impossible to find and completely impossible to separate from Megan and Nicolette. He finally gave up and hope he would have his wife to himself on their wedding night.
He did not sleep much, as he suspected might be the case, but he dressed that morning after Hattie brought him a nice breakfast in his room. She had personally cut his hair the day before, showing yet another of her many talents. He shaved slowly and carefully and then looked in the mirror. He imagined his father had looked very similar more than thirty years ago when his uncle had married and neither would have suspected the upcoming separation they would experience. He found it strange and wonderful how being kind to a group of downcast foreigners in a faraway wilderness had led him to a new family and a new life.
He wished his grandmother could attend, but he knew that would be stretching the newly formed bonds he was creating within the Nephilim community. He would have to visit as soon as was possible. Since the Institute had started life as a church, there was always a place to hold wedding, funerals and family gatherings and he soon found himself standing up in front of a modest crowd, flanked by Christopher, Willem and Richard. Nicolette was positively beaming on the front row and Stiles and Aunt Meg wore similar expressions.
All four of them had broken down when he walked up the aisle and he assumed the resemblance to his father was uncanny enough to unsettle them all, but now the tears were gone and everyone just looked happy to be there. When the music started, little Megita led the procession followed by a timid Florina, a solemn Jennie—who nevertheless winked at her "Uncle Charles" when she walked by and then a lovely Dellia who likely caught the eye of every eligible young man in the room.
"Do not throw up now," urged Christopher and Charles supposed he must have looked a little green. Richard chuckled before he could help himself and then Lamar appeared with Elise on his arm.
Charles could not accurately describe anything that happened or was said in the next few hours but he could always remember the smile on Elise's face when she unveiled her face and kissed him. He did remember that his hand was trembling when they exchanged runes of love and commitment, first over the heart and then the arm. The fact that a stele in his hand was no longer a surprise to him showed how far he had come.
Since the building itself had very little open space, the subsequent celebration took place out of doors for several hours before rainstorms forced them inside with much squealing and cries of dismay. The food was rescued, however and they adjourned to the only open space available, the armory and training floor where the musicians set up again and the dancing went on in the hallways and the training areas.
Charles danced with his wife often enough, but also his mother, Meg, his sisters-in-law, Dellia once or twice and a few other women and girls he did not even recognize. Jennie had made him promise he would save one for her, so he went looking at the food table and found her sampling a little bit of each item when no one was watching.
As the celebration went on unchecked, Hattie found him, looking positively lovely in a blue dress and unstained at that, and led him off to find his wife waiting for him in a closet that had a false back. She giggled as she took his hand and they crawled through the dust and cobwebs before re-emerging in a quiet hallway in the basement.
"You have a cobweb in your veil dear wife of mine," he said.
She smeared dust on his nose and then kissed him long and languorously.
"Hattie has made us up a quiet room where no one will come looking for us, my dear husband," she said after she had finished.
"Then let us make haste," he said and could not control a very unmanly giggle.
Elise led him to a small room at the very back of the basement, that, when lit, had been meticulously cleaned, decorated and prepared.
"Your cook is a queen among women," said Charles.
"She is, is she not?" agreed Elise.
Charles did his best to sweep her off her feet, but she was a strong, not-small woman and his grunt of effort betrayed him.
He more dropped her than set her on the bed before returning to bar the door.