Chapter 9 – Rosalie – The Wedding and What Followed

"Rosie, you look absolutely gorgeous!" Kitty, wearing her best green dress, came over to me and clasped my hands and kissed me on the cheek. Anne and Lacy followed suit.

"Your dress is amazing!" Anne touched the lace on my sleeve and tugged a crease out of my veil.

"The service was beautiful, and Royce looks so handsome." Lacy glanced across the room at Royce, who was shaking hands with some of his father's associates.

I couldn't stop smiling. The wedding service had been beautiful, and my silk gown with the lace sleeves and the veil with its delicate embroidery looked glorious. I had never felt more beautiful, and I knew everyone watching would have seen it.

I would have loved to stay and gossip with my friends about all the guests, and their clothes and hairstyles, but Mother came and pulled me away. I had to greet and thank everyone who had come, and accept their compliments and congratulations. I loved all the attention, but I was getting tired and my feet were aching in my new wedding shoes when Royce came up behind me and put his arms around me.

"Hello, my beautiful wife," he murmured into my ear, following it up with a kiss on my neck.

I giggled and turned to face him. "Hello husband," I said, a little shyly, before I burst out laughing. "I can't believe we're actually married!"

Royce looked as smug the cat who'd got the cream. "Lucky me." He kissed me again, this time on the mouth.

I let him for a moment, and then put my hands flat on his chest and pushed him away. "Not in front of all the guests."

"Then let's tell them all to leave," Royce murmured, kissing me again and running a hand slowly down my back.

I could feel my cheeks heating up with embarrassment as I saw the surreptitious glances and sly smiles of some of the guests nearby. "Wait until later," I said, feeling the heat in my face deepen. "Once everyone is gone, and we're alone…"

Royce's eyes glittered and I ducked my head, mortified at having been so bold. Royce put a hand under my chin and lifted my face until he could give me a kiss on the forehead. "Oh, I'm looking forward to that," he promised. "Very much looking forward to that! But I'll behave myself until then Princess…let's go and lead the way into dinner."

Sitting at the head table with Royce on one side of me and his father on the other I felt almost overwhelmed with the heady excitement of the day. I also felt half drunk on the glasses of champagne I had swallowed throughout the toasts, especially since I'd barely eaten anything. My nerves over the night looming ahead of me seemed very far away. After all, what could possible go wrong on this most perfect of days?

Royce was as relaxed and playful as I'd ever seen him. He laughed as he fed me strawberries and champagne, and when it was time for our first dance as husband and wife he whirled me around the floor with consummate skill. Everyone was watching, even some of the waiting staff had paused in what they were doing to stare, and I loved it. I laughed and stood on my tiptoes to kiss Royce, and he kissed me back as other people began moving out on to the dance floor too.

This is it. I have almost everything I ever wanted, and it's as perfect as I always planned.

My father came and took me from Royce's arms, and I smiled at him affectionately as we danced much more slowly. "Thank you for my wedding Daddy."

He kissed my forehead. "Anything for my Princess…everything for my Princess!" He looked around at the ornate King hall and shook his head. "You're a lucky girl Rosalie. All of this is what your mother and I wanted for you, and now it's yours. "

"I know, Daddy." I rested my head against his shoulder for a moment, as though I were his little girl again. "I'm grateful for all you and Mother did to make it possible."

"You deserve it." Father hugged me. "You make sure you work at it though, Princess! You be a good girl and a good wife."

"I intend to be," I said, my voice determined. "I know what you all expect of me, and I won't let you down. I promise."

When it was time, Mother took me up to the spare bedroom where my things were, and helped me take off the beautiful wedding gown so I could dress in my going away clothes. As nice as my red skirt and jacket were, I looked wistfully at my wedding dress as it was hung in the closet. It was so beautiful, I wished I could wear it every day.

"Get dressed Rosalie, they'll be wondering what you're doing!"

Realising I was just sitting on the bed in my underwear, daydreaming, I shook myself and began dressing. Mother took the veil and folded it back into the box, layers of tissue paper between each delicate layer of lace.

"You really did look beautiful today, darling," Mother said, coming over to me and buttoning my jacket and twitching my clothes into place. "I do hope you'll be very happy."

"I will be." I said confidently. I had no doubt in that moment that it was true. Royce and I would be one of the most popular and celebrated couples in the city society, rich and privileged, and I would be happy. "It's going to be wonderful."

"I've got your handbag here," Mother fussed, fetching it from the dresser. "I've put in your lipstick and a handkerchief and your coin purse. Your suitcases are already in the car and they have everything you need for tonight, and then for your honeymoon in New York. Now…"

"Mother!" I interrupted in exasperation. "I'll be fine! Thank you for my bag. It really is time for me to go."

Quite out of character, Mother wrapped her arms around me and kissed my cheek. "I really am happy for you. Now, be a good girl and…" She gave a shaky laugh. "I suppose it's not my place to say that anymore. You're a wife now, and it will be Royce that you answer to in future."

I hugged her back. "I'll make you proud of me Mother, I promise I will."

I gave her a final kiss on the cheek and then ran lightly down the stairs to the sound of clapping and people's well-wishes. At the bottom of the stairs Royce waited, his face split wide in a grin as he took me by my waist and swung me down the last steps. "Let's go Princess."

Under a shower of rice we dashed for the limo, and I collapsed into it laughing as the driver closed the door behind us. Royce was laughing too, and he wasted no time in pulling me over to sit on his lap, touching me with a whole new kind of assurance.

"I'm glad that's over!" he exclaimed.

I pouted. "But it was our wedding! It was wonderful."

"You're wonderful," Royce murmured against my lips. "And if a wedding means a wedding night, I'll get married every day." He kissed me deeply.

My heart pounded. Partly because of what he was doing, partly because of what he was going to do, and partly because of the period of time between one and the other, which I had no idea how to navigate!

For a moment I surrendered to the kissing, which was something I had always liked. His lips and tongue, his hands holding my face to his...it all felt different now that we were finally married. But then Royce's hands began wandering, and we were back to the same argument.

"Not here!" I hissed, arching my head back. I grabbed his wrist and tried ineffectually to stop him from undoing my buttons. "Not with the driver right there Royce!"

I glanced ahead of me. It wasn't Lachlan, the Kings' usual driver there, but someone taller, and with curly dark hair. My face burned with humiliation as Royce managed to undo enough buttons to pull my blouse open. The driver couldn't see me, but he would know what was going on... "Royce, please!"

"I like hearing you say please," he murmured, kissing the top of my breasts.

I forcefully shoved his head away and before he react I was sitting against the far door of the car, rapidly buttoning my clothes and putting myself back together. "You've waited this long, please just wait a little longer until we're alone."

Much to my relief Royce laughed, and stretched languidly. "Very well then Princess. I'll wait til we get to the hotel. But don't forget you're mine now!"

I smiled back at him. Right then I wanted to be his, I wanted his name and his babies and, above all else, his love. I wanted it all, and I believed I had it.

We spent our first night at a hotel in Rochester. It was far more opulent than any I'd stayed in before, but I simply held my head high and tried to not to look too impressed as the driver opened the door and then the bellboys took in the luggage. Royce had a quick word with our driver and then took my arm and escorted me to the elevator and then upstairs to our penthouse suite.

The drapes were still open and I went and stood for a moment, silently looking across all the city lights of Rochester. It was so pretty, and I wondered how it compared to the lights of New York City, which was where Royce and I were spending the next two weeks.

"A little bird told me that your friends gave you a present for tonight," Royce said, his voice light and amused. "I'm going to get myself a drink from the bar, but why don't you go into the bedroom and get yourself ready?"

Blushing dark red, I obeyed. The nightgown my friends had given me made my mouth drop once I put it on and realised how sheer it really was, but once I was looking at myself in the full length mirror I paused. Slightly shocking it might be, but it was also incredibly flattering. The way it draped over my curves was beautiful, and it was with a heightened sense of confidence that I sat down at the dresser and began to unpin and brush out my hair.

Royce was stark naked when he entered the bedroom, and I had to fight back an almost hysterical desire to giggle. He wasn't laughing though. Royce's eyes glittered as he looked at me, and his face was resolved as he took my hand and bore me onto the bed.

I had thought I had known what to expect. I thought that we would take our time, and that it would be gentle and I would feel loved, but the reality of it was very different. Royce was intent, his tone short when he told me what he wanted me to do. I was awkward and unsure, and Royce's terse orders and heavy hands did nothing to comfort me. Once it was done I lay quietly in bed, fighting back tears and wondering, as I shifted my body and winced, if I was bleeding.

"Royce?" I said tentatively into the darkness, when I was sure I wouldn't cry.

"Mmm?" Royce answered drowsily.

"Was that…what you thought it would be like? You and me?"

Royce laughed. "It was rather like I imagined, yes."

I was glad it was dark as I asked the next question. "And you like it?"

"I like it a lot," he replied lasciviously, his hand groping across the bed and finding my naked flesh.

I cursed myself for bringing the subject up as Royce pushed my hands away and began roughly fondling my breasts.

"I'm glad you liked it," I said cautiously. "But…it hurt me."

"You'll get used to it," Royce said dismissively, and I bit my lip hard to stop myself from making any noise as he kept one hand on my breasts and thrust the other one between my legs.

So that's the way it was. You'll get used to it.

Our honeymoon really began the following day, when we caught the train to New York. We stayed at the Plaza and spent the two weeks going to restaurants and clubs, the theatre and cinema, seeing the sights and shopping. I loved the whirlwind of activity, and Royce laughed at my enthusiasm and indulged me shamelessly. I had only to look at some jewellery or mention something I liked and he would buy it for me. I began to wonder how much extra luggage I would have to buy to transport everything back home. There were long lazy mornings when I sat in my wrap and ate breakfast by the window, looking out at the view, and there were late nights after the theatre, when I wore silk and sparkles and had strawberries and champagne at midnight. It was a wonderful time, with only one thing that marred it.

That was, of course, the sex. Every night I was barely in bed before Royce was right there, telling me what he wanted. How reluctant I was, how sore I was from the last time, didn't seem to matter when it came to his desires and needs.

I thought about it a lot. At first with mild concern, later with increasing despair as I began to wonder if I ever would just "get used to it", or if it would continue to hurt. I didn't talk to Royce about it. I was embarrassed, and if anything would make him belligerent or aggressive it was something I said that he took as criticism. But I thought about the euphemisms I'd heard throughout my life, and wished that what Royce and I did could be described that way. "Being intimate with someone" was the way my friends had always coyly referred to it, even if I hadn't quite realised the extent of what they meant at the time. "Making love" was what Vera had said, but to use that to describe what happened between Royce and I was laughable.

Fucking. Royce taught me that one. "I'm going to fuck you," he would say, and my belly would curl with a mix of anticipation and dread, because when he said that I knew he was going to be rough.

But the next morning there might be one of the distinctive robin's egg blue boxes from Tiffany on my breakfast plate and tickets to a ballet matinee delivered by courier. The housekeepers would change the bloodstained sheet like it had never happened in the first place, and Royce would laugh and kiss me as he helped fasten the new double string of pearls around my neck…and maybe this was just what marriage was.

A/N – That definitely isn't just what marriage is. Royce and Rosalie's relationship is pretty textbook abusive, and all the diamonds and pearls in the world can't change something so fundamentally wrong.

Rosalie doesn't want to see it though. She has what she's always wanted, and she's determined to maintain her belief that it's perfect. She'll ignore or downplay any warning sign that maybe things aren't living up to her fantasy.

And as you saw, Emmett didn't make nearly the impression on Rosalie as she made on him! This romance is definitely going to be a bit of a slow burn, but they will get there in the end.

Thank you to everyone reading, and those reviewing. I can't respond directly to anons, but I appreciate everyone who takes the time to leave me a note!