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Alcina almost couldn’t believe that she was really waiting to walk her eldest daughter down the aisle. The past week had been a whirlwind of chaos between getting the castle grounds ready for the wedding and helping to make sure that Donna’s home was suitable for Bela to live in. Alcina would always keep an open invitation extended towards her daughter and daughter-in-law to be, but Bela thought it was important to do this on her own. It was the first time in Bela’s life that she had been adamant about being away from her mother, and while Alcina found herself devastated, she couldn’t have been prouder of her eldest daughter. Her little girl had come a long way from the little girl who had hid under her mother’s skirt from the pretty girl from the butcher’s shop.
“Thank you for coming with me to the market today, Bela. I really need my best helper,” Alcina said with a smile as she looked down at her daughter. She was met with the wide and excitable golden eyes of a very happy Bela Dimitrescu. Alcina had felt guilty lately, knowing that the usual alone time she spent with Bela hadn’t been received due to her younger daughters. Between getting Cassandra ready to start her schooling and Daniela having recently learned how to walk and run around the castle, Bela had taken a bit of a backburner in the Dimitrescu household.
“Am I really your best helper?” Bela asked as she skipped around her mother’s legs. Alcina was careful not to trip on her daughter or accidentally trip the little girl either. As they approached the butcher’s shop, Bela got increasingly antsy. Alcina had noticed it a few times before on their trips to the village market, but Bela was enough of an anxious child that Alcina hadn’t connected any dots yet. However, today, Bela had asked if she could wear one of her nicer dresses out to the market when Alcina told her where they were going for the afternoon.
“Of course you are darling,” Alcina told her. Bela beamed at that; her smile as bright as Alcina had ever seen it. Alcina placed her hand on her daughter’s shoulder and ushered her forward. They got a few little things before making the final stop at the butcher’s shop. And if they stopped for a treat, just the two of them, it stayed between them.
“Well, hello there Bela,” Helena, the butcher’s daughter, greeted as the small blonde ran into the butcher’s shop. Alcina walked in just as Helena leaned down and brushed a strand of Bela’s hair behind her ear. At that moment, Alcina found herself pleasantly surprised as she watched her daughter interact with this older girl. Helena was a nice girl, sweet to all of the customers and the children that followed their parents in. Alcina had expected for Bela’s little crush to be the butcher’s apprentice, a handsome, dark haired, young man who always came out to greet Lady Dimitrescu along with the butcher himself. Alcina had to admit that Bela did seem to have good taste, even if she knew that her daughter’s affections wouldn’t be reciprocated.
“Hi,” Bela said shyly. Alcina smiled fondly at her daughter before turning her attention over to Helena. The teenager stood up fully and moved behind the counter to write down Alcina’s order for the week. As she did that, Bela stood behind her mother, clutching at her skirt as she peeked out to steal glances at Helena.
“Will that be all Lady Dimitrescu?” Helena asked.
“It will, thank you. If you wouldn’t mind having Marcus deliver it up before sundown tonight.” With that, Alcina turned around and Bela gave Helena a shy wave before scurrying away to catch up with her mother. “You were awfully quiet in there. Are you sure I didn’t forget anything?”
“No ma’am. The whole list,” Bela answered surely. “Can I come with you next week too?”
“Of course you can honey,” Alcina told her. The two of them walked to the edge of the market, where their carriage was waiting to take them back to the castle. Alcina wanted to ask Bela about the butcher shop girl, but she knew that her questions would only instill an unnecessary fear in her daughter. She wanted Bela to be as happy with her feelings as she could be before the girl grew up and had to face the world.
Teenage years had come with more tears than Alcina thought were ever possible. Most nights, it was Cassandra’s fault. Alcina loved all three of her daughters with all of her heart, but the middle one had a mean streak a mile wide. Bela was more sensitive than her sisters and less prone to lash out at one of Cassandra’s verbal jabs than Daniela was. Daniela, despite being the youngest and a few years younger than Cassandra, was proving to be quite the challenge for the brunette. Usually, Bela’s tears were Cassandra’s fault, so when Alcina had seen her oldest daughter running through the house crying, she had gone straight into Cassandra’s art studio.
“What did you say to her?” Alcina hissed as she slammed the door behind her. Cassandra jumped, nearly knocking over the knife she was sharpening. It didn’t take a genius to know that Cassandra was in trouble, even if the brunette had no clue what it was about yet. “You have a minute to confess before I go to Bela. Trust me, you want this chance to come clean first.”
“I didn’t do anything to her,” Cassandra said. Alcina sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. She pulled a chair up and sat down, sensing that she was going to be there for a long time. “I swear, I haven’t seen Bela since she started getting ready for her date with that village boy.”
“What village boy?” Alcina asked. Cassandra shrugged and went back to her knife, hoping that was sufficient explanation to get her mother off of her back. She honestly hadn’t said anything to her sister, not to warrant that much anger from her mother. “And you didn’t put any ideas in her head beforehand?”
“No, I told her to have a good time. Mother, she really likes this boy. Maybe he fucked up, did you ever think of that?” Cassandra asked. She started to get a little louder as she caught a tangent she knew she could work. Alcina motioned for her daughter to stop talking and Cassandra fell silent.
“I’m sorry for coming out here and accusing you, but surely you know where I am coming from. Now, I’d like for you to clean this up and be prepared in case she doesn’t want to talk with me about this. Cassandra, you make fun of her for being sensitive, but it isn’t a weakness like you think it is. She’s got a big heart,” Alcina said. Cassandra nodded, eyes downcast with a sudden sense of shame. “But that’s not to say that you are careless. Don’t think I can’t see that blanket scrap over there.”
“Blanket scrap?” Cassandra whipped her head around to see a scrap of her childhood blankie pinned over a hole in the wall. Rather than confess that she’d put Daniela’s head through the wall during a fight and then paid the redhead off to keep quiet, Cassandra just blushed and ducked away a little. “Can you get out of here please?”
“Of course.” Alcina walked calmly out of her daughter’s little art studio and straight to Bela’s room. She knocked a couple of times and without pause, Bela opened up the door and flung herself into her mother’s arms. Alcina soothingly rubbed Bela’s back while reassuring her that everything would work out okay.
“He’s such an ass! I gave him everything and he said it meant nothing!” Bela cried. Alcina felt a rage bubble up inside of her at the thought of someone believing they were worthy of hurting one of her daughters in such a way. Bela didn’t need anger tonight, so Alcina buried it down and promised to speak with Mother Miranda about checking in on this boy and his family. If they took a little vacation for the rest of their lives to the bottom of Moreau’s pond, who was she to stop them.
Bela cried and cried into Alcina’s dress that night. Alcina had never seen her daughter so upset and she swore that night to always protect each of her girls’ hearts. Bela didn’t deserve to feel so worthless and unlovable. Teenage romances weren’t supposed to last forever, but Bela had waited for so long to let herself feel something for someone that this devastated her. By the time that the sun was starting to rise, Bela was all cried out and had fallen asleep against her mother, who hadn’t slept a wink all night.
Alcina couldn’t tell who was more nervous, Bela or Bela’s date, Donna. Truthfully, Alcina understood both of their nerves. Bela had invited Donna to eat dinner at the castle, where Alcina, Cassandra, and Daniela would all be as well. Cassandra and Daniela could be a lot on their own, but Alcina was feared and respected all throughout the village as one of the four lords under Miranda’s rule. Donna was a lord as well, a proud descendant of the Beneviento family, but Donna had yet to really come into her own yet.
“Are they just going to stand there?” Daniela asked Cassandra. Alcina shot a glare to her daughters, who were definitely now whispering quietly enough for Donna and Bela not to hear them. “You guys wanna take a seat?”
“Oh, um, erm,” Donna stammered. Bela wrapped her arm around Donna’s back and ushered her forward. Alcina was glad that her daughter took the initiative, unsure of how long those girls were planning on standing there. “It’s very nice to formally meet you Lady Dimitrescu.”
“Lady Beneviento,” Alcina greeted. She took Donna’s hand in hers, shaking it lightly. Donna’s hands were much smaller than Alcina’s. “These are my other daughters, Daniela and Cassandra.”
“It’s my pleasure,” Donna said quietly. Daniela excitedly shook Donna’s hand, glad to have a new face inside of the castle. Cassandra took a different approach to greeting Donna, intent on pissing off her older sister and making a lasting impression.
“Oh no, it’s mine, I assure you,” Cassandra husked as she pulled Donna’s hand up to her lips. She pressed a kiss to the back of her hand before slowly dropping it. Bela’s eyes narrowed as she glared daggers at Cassandra. Alcina was glad that Bela had the restraint to not cause a scene, which would surely have embarrassed Donna.
“Mother, would it be alright if I gave Donna a tour of the castle?” Bela asked and Alcina allowed her to go. Alcina kept her other daughters downstairs and away from their sister. Cassandra could sense her mother’s disapproving stare, but ignored it in favor of planning more little ways to drive Bela crazy.
Her plans worked well enough. The invitation that Bela had planned on extending to Donna was long forgotten after the fourth time Bela caught Cassandra’s eyes on her. Once the stares failed to garner the right reaction, Cassandra moved onto flirting. Each comment became increasingly obvious until Bela called for an early end to their night. She escorted Donna back to Beneviento Manor and then rode right back to Dimitrescu Castle for the night.
“Cassandra!” Bela called out. Daniela peeked her head out from behind the couch as Cassandra walked out of the dining hall. Without a warning, Bela punched her sister directly in the face. Cassandra fell backwards, surprised by the sheer force of the hit. Bela had always been the scrawny one, and not once did Cassandra ever think that Bela could knock her on her ass. “Pull any of it again and my fist will be the least of your worries. Do you understand?”
“Mother!” Cassandra called out, panicked. Alcina, having been watching from the top of the stairs, just laughed as she looked down at her daughters.
“Figure this out yourselves girls. I do think you owe Bela an apology though,” Alcina said. She turned away and retreated into her study. She couldn’t explain it, but Alcina knew that Donna was a special one. The girl was quiet and reserved, but obviously being around her made Bela very happy. There weren’t a lot of worthy candidates for her daughters in the village, but Donna Beneviento was definitely one of them.
“Are you ready?” Bela asked as she linked her arm with her mother’s.
“As I’ll ever be I suppose,” Alcina answered honestly. The music started to play and the doors opened for the two of them to walk out together. Alcina walked Bela down the aisle before handing her off to Donna, who looked at Bela as if she had put the sun in the sky.
“You’re never really ready for them to grow up,” Miranda whispered as she offered Alcina a tissue to wipe her tears.
“No, you’re not.”