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Rapunzel sucked in her stomach as the the servants finished buttoning up the back of her dress. As small as she was, she still had to make herself even smaller in order to get all of the buttons done. The dress didn't feel as tight once she actually got it on, but putting it on was an adventure within itself. Finally, it was completely buttoned and Rapunzel relaxed. The servants gingerly placed the veil atop her head.
She turned around and looked at her reflection in that large vanity mirror. It was a very beautiful dress, there was no denying that. The bodice was cut into a sweetheart neckline (her favorite) and was embroidered with what seemed like thousands of white beads. The skirt moved with even the slightest twitch yet there were layers and layers and layers of endless fabric. Rapunzel thought that there was more fabric on her wedding dress than there was on all of her other dresses combined.
She adjusted the sleeves as she continued to look at herself in the mirror. The sleeves were made of the same material as her veil and they hung loosely down her arms and stopped just past her elbows. Her shoulders were barely visible through them.
She fingered her hair, ignoring the servants flinching as she did so. It was curled for the occasion since it was too short to do anything else to it. The perfect little ringlets hung loosely around her face. She did not like the curls as much as her regular style, but the servants had insisted that she would look absolutely gorgeous with them, so she obliged them.
There was suddenly a knock at the door. "Come in!" Rapunzel called, not taking her eyes off her reflection.
The door opened and her mother entered. "I thought I would check in," she explained, moving to Rapunzel's side, "How are you feeling, dear?"
Rapunzel nodded at the servants and they hastily left the room. "Alright," Rapunzel replied as soon as they were gone, "I'm pretty nervous."
Elinor nodded. "That's not unusual. I'd be concerned if you weren't nervous."
Rapunzel forced a smile. It wasn't the ceremony she was concerned about. She had other matters pressing on her mind.
"You look very beautiful," the queen remarked. Rapunzel hung her head a bit with a shy smile. The queen unexpectedly wrapped her arms around Rapunzel in a tight embrace. "I just want you to know that I'm very proud of you."
"For what?" Rapunzel wondered.
"For being so brave. You are sacrificing your happiness in order to save your kingdom. It's a very noble act, putting others before yourself."
"My happiness?" Rapunzel pretended to be oblivious to her mother's meaning.
Elinor nodded. "I know you still have lingering feelings for your thief. It must be difficult to marry someone you hardly know when you are in love with someone else."
It was true. Rapunzel sighed, "I couldn't be with him anyways since he is..." she couldn't bring herself to say the word. Dead.
"I know, but it still hurts right?"
More than anything anyone could imagine, it did. Rapunzel just nodded. Elinor hugged her again. "Good luck," she whispered.
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Eugene leaned against the wall and tapped his foot. It didn't make any noise, but he was getting used to that. He looked out at all the people crowded in the palace chapel. The people of Corona sat on one side and the guests from Faldonia sat on the other. There was a significant difference in the apparel of both sides. The people of Faldonia wore much finer, more elaborate clothing than the people of Corona.
Levi stood on the opposite side of the room with a couple other soldiers. He occasionally threw Eugene a glance, but would always quickly look away with a flinch. It was probably because of the decaying. Eugene actually had absolutely no desire to know what he looked like. He was sure it was terrible. He wanted to spend eternity with the memory of his once handsome face. His time was almost up, he was soon going to heaven or hell. And he sure did not want to waste his last bit of time.
He thought about the plan at hand. He had planted rope by the door like Levi had instructed. Now he stood back against the wall and scanned the rows of wedding guests. He spotted Sir Radcliffe and Lady Vivian sitting near the front at the end of their row. Lady Vivian's elaborate dress took up two entire extra spaces. Eugene had to wonder how she managed to move in such a massive piece of work, she probably couldn't... not very fast at least. He was sure that even Rapunzel's wedding dress would not be as big as Vivian's.
Eugene suddenly lost himself as he imagined what Rapunzel would look like when she arrived. She always looked beautiful and wedding dresses hardly ever failed to make even the plainest looking woman to glow. Eugene could only imagine what it would do for Rapunzel.
Music suddenly began to play. The ceremony was about to begin. Eugene watched as Prince Nathaniel stood at the front, dressed up in his wedding attire. His hands were firmly clasped behind his back and he stared straight ahead.
Everyone stood up and looked towards the back. Eugene looked as well and his heart nearly stopped. Rapunzel was slowly and ceremoniously making her way down the aisle. And she looked absolutely stunning. He couldn't really see her face because of the veil, but everything else about her seemed so majestic. He had to force himself to think rationally because his mind had gone blank when he saw her. He pressed himself against the wall so that she wouldn't be able to see him. As far as he knew, she did not know that he had been at the castle for the past few days.
Rapunzel was handed off to Nathaniel by King Jonathan, then Nathaniel led her to the minister. Everyone sat down as the minister began to speak. Eugene looked at Levi who tapped his nose three times. The signal. Eugene walked around to the door and retrieved the rope he had hidden. He pushed it along the floor with his foot so as not to call attention to it.
He continued to push it until he was next to Sir Radcliffe and Lady Vivian. They were both staring at the minister, Radcliffe looking rather tense and Vivian looking extremely bored. Radcliffe kept fidgeting with his coat. He would reach into it for a moment then remove his hand again, empty. He did this continually.
Eugene crouched down beside them and carefully strung the rope around Radcliffe's ankles. Luckily he had thick black boots on so it made Eugene's job much easier to fulfill. He carefully wove the rope into several knots, just tight enough that Radcliffe would not be able to remove his feet from them, but loose enough that he would not notice them until he tried to walk. Eugene decided not to even attempt to get to Vivian's feet since they were buried somewhere beneath her massive dress, but he figured she would not get very far anyway because of the dress. In a way, she had trapped herself.
As Eugene stood up, he saw that Radcliffe was still sticking his hand into his jacket. Eugene leaned forward and put his face close to the coat. The next time Radcliffe put up his hand to open the coat, Eugene saw a glint of something long and sharp inside. The dagger!
Eugene slunk back to the rear of the chapel and watched. He gave Levi a thumbs up when he looked at him, then folded his arms and waited. The minister was beginning to wrap it up. It was almost time.
"...and do you, Princess Rapunzel of Corona, take this prince to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love and to cherish through sickness and health until death do you part?"
Everyone watched Rapunzel with anticipation. Rapunzel looked at Nathaniel, then at the minister, then at the congregation. "I..." she began. She took a breath and then said loudly, "I don't!"
Everyone gasped and some muttering began amongst the crowd, mostly on Faldonia's side. Rapunzel turned towards them, her hands on her hips. "This marriage in unnecessary!" she announced boldly.
"What do you mean?" King Jonathan asked, "We need to secure-"
"Corona is not in debt," Rapunzel cut him off, flinging her veil over her head so that her face could be seen, "We do not owe any money to any kingdom."
"How do you know?" Jonathan asked.
Rapunzel removed a piece of paper from the back of her dress. "This," she said, holding the paper in the air for all to see, "is a letter from the kingdom of Krinton. It was intercepted before it reached Corona and then was hidden away so that we would believe that Corona was still in debt. This letter informs us that our debt has been paid off. And I know for a fact that there are more of these letters from other kingdoms that we were unable to secure before now."
Jonathan and Robert stood up and skeptically walked up to her. Elinor stood up as well, but she just stood in the aisle, watching. Jonathan took the paper from his daughter and read it with Robert looking over his shoulder. "It seems legitimate," he said after a moment, "But what about the letters we got that made claims for money?"
"They were forged," Rapunzel explained, "Corona and Faldonia are the two richest kingdoms in the area. If they united, the riches and wealth would be unimaginable. The people who intercepted the letters and forged the debt papers wanted this to happen. Once the kingdoms were united, they planned on killing King Robert so that Nathaniel would become king."
Everyone gasped at this statement. Eugene watched Radcliffe and Vivian fidget nervously, but neither of them moved from their seats. Rapunzel took another deep breath before continuing.
"Supposedly, Nathaniel is weak, a pushover. At least that's what many people see him as, including himself. Therefore he would be easy to overturn or even kill. Then the Faldonia/Corona combination would be without a king."
"Who?" Robert was fuming, his usually good-humored face bright red and twisted into a frown, "Who apprehended the letter? Who forged the papers? Who set all this up?"
Rapunzel jabbed her finger at the second row on Faldonia's side. "It was Radcliffe and Vivian!"
Everyone turned to look at the accused, stunned. "That's prepostrous!" Radcliffe immediately laughed, "Why, she could have found that letter anywhere! How can she prove that it was us?"
Vivian laughed along with him. "Indeed! Why would we want to kill our own family?" she added in her usual, annoying screechy voice.
Rapunzel suddenly did not know what to say. Eugene sprinted over to Levi, staying low so that Rapunzel could not see him. He stood right next to the soldier and whispered, "Radcliffe has a dagger hidden in his coat."
Levi nodded and then stepped forward to Rapunzel's side. "Alright, Sir Radcliffe," Levi said with conviction, "If you are innocent, open your coat and show us what you have inside."
Radcliffe's face dropped, but only for a split second. He scoffed. "Oh please, what would opening my coat do? It won't prove anything!"
"If you have nothing to hide," Nathaniel stepped forward, standing on Rapunzel's other side, "then it shouldn't be a problem, should it?"
Radcliffe scoffed again. "Fine. You want to see what's in my coat?" He reached for the front of his jacket. Vivian was frozen, staring wide eyed at her husband's hands. Radcliffe's hands seemed to move in slow motion as they approached the buttons. He took hold of one side and began to pull it open.
Suddenly, he whipped out the dagger, madness blazing in his dark eyes. He stood up, but made no move towards an exit. Instead he grabbed Queen Elinor from the aisle and held the dagger to her throat. He scowled at Rapunzel, accusingly. "You little urchin! If you had just kept your little nose where it belonged, this would not have happened!"
Elinor was frozen and growing pale as the dagger was held dangerously close to her neck. Rapunzel, Jonathan, Nathaniel, and Robert were all staring in horror at the scene. Levi took a step forward, but Radcliffe held the knife closer to Elinor's throat. "One more step and your queen dies!" he threatened.
Everyone froze. Radcliffe and Vivian both grinned maliciously. "Now," Radcliffe said calmly, "We will be on our way. If anybody tries to follow us, the queen dies."
Radcliffe went to take a step, but found that his foot would not obey. Instead, only his upper body moved forward and he released Elinor in order to catch his balance. It was time enough for Elinor to scramble away. Radcliffe's arms flailed as he desperately fought for balance. He began to tip over. Vivian grabbed his sleeve, hoping to pull him back, but instead they both toppled over, face first into the stone floor. Vivian's legs stuck up straight in the air and her dress lopped over the tangled couple, entrapping them in yards of fabric.
The soldiers immediately rushed forward and quickly dug through Vivian's dress until they found the two humans. Radcliffe and Vivian were pulled to their feet and then dragged away to be dealt with later. Everyone applauded as Elinor joined the others up by the altar. The kingdom was saved.
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Pfft! What a cliche ending phrase, but it's not over yet. Reviews= love and joy.
NOTE: School is threatening to rule my life all day tomorrow. I'm in the school play and we've got rehearsals, then I've got this huge project to finish so I might not be able to update tomorrow. (Aaah! Don't hurt me, I'm sorry! *whimpers*) I'm really bummed because I've really been enjoying writing this story and it's so close to being done. I'll try my hardest to get something up tomorrow, but don't count on it.