I completely forgot about the bedding ceremony, it just flew out of my mind…

In modern times when couples get married, they usually spend their first night as a husband and wife embracing each other, while it has just a simple symbolic gesture that two bodies are one and united, but here the bedding ceremony is just as serious as the wedding itself.

Firstly, the bedding ceremony would start with a priest blessing the bed to ensure the fertility of the couple, exorcise the evil spirits that could prevent it, and proclaiming the honor of the bride’s family by demonstrating her virginity, it was the most important factor as it shows that the bride is pure and her virginity acts like legitimization to the children that would be born from the union. Legitimacy was essential if that child was to be accepted as the rightful heir.

Next, it acts as an ego booster to the parents who married off their children as showing the sheet or the bride’s gown stained with blood to both families and to the community provided indisputable proof that her father or mother had proper control over his/her household, especially over his/her daughters. His/Her honor as their protector was at stake as he/she handed his/her daughters over to another protector. Though in some cultures the bride is checked beforehand if she has her virginity intact, how it was in France I didn’t know and I didn’t want to ask.

But it all pales to the fact that most of the time the bedding ceremony is watched by others. This fact just creeps me out as I’m not into exhibitionism and having a 14-year-old as a partner, even if she is treated as an adult here. It just contradicts with the morals that I have from modern times.

The case was that I wasn’t looking forward to it and I’m definitely not ready, but alas we were already at the door of Marie’s room. With servant quickly opening the door at our arrival I was quickly pushed into the room against my will by a mob of nobles behind me.

The Archbishop of Reims as already present in the room, saying his last prayers before the brown king size bed with four columns and red curtains, the bed itself had white blanked, pillows and bedsheet.

‘’It is done, your Majesty.’’

The Bishop said to the king.

‘’Good, then we can start right away.’’

He said and mentioned for a servant to give him a white cloth while a noblewoman went towards Marie.

He then picked up the white cloth from the servants and presented it to me, it was a white nightshirt.

‘’Here go change.’’

He said and I nodded, sadly I was not in a position to object as this isn’t the time where a man has equal rights, freedom of religion, and personal freedom. I didn’t want to do this, but I had to because I’m the heir of France, and Marie’s and mine families honor and reputation were at stake.  I’m pretty sure if I refused I would be immediately be disowned and in a couple of days I would be met with an accident that just so proved to be fatal or I would be exiled if the King would be in a good mood. That was definitely not the way I want to go.

So with the help of some servants, I quickly undressed my clothes and put on the king's nightshirt. It was definitely on the larger side as it ended below my knees almost at my shin and the sleeves were quite long too as I had to roll them up. I felt like I was more in a bag than in a nightshirt.

While I was dressing the King came to me and whispered into my ear.

“Let me give you a piece of advice when you will do it use your hips it will be more pleasurable this way and it will drive her crazy.’’

I recoiled a bit. Did he seriously just offer me sex advice?

‘’I will keep that in mind.’’

Only if you knew… In my time tentacle porn is real with every other fetish impossible that if I told you about them you would faint and go crazy, so I think I know a lot more about sexual intercourse than you do pal.

‘’Good, now go and do something useful.’’

He said and shoved me towards the bed.

As I neared the bed I saw Marie standing her hair still in a bun with a white nightgown with red cuffs at the ending of the nightgown.

Her pale skin was showing and she looked beautiful, then she avoiding my gaze went under the blanket and I followed.

Next, the Bishop blessed us and wished us well along other people gathered here.

‘’Well then, let’s leave them here and go celebrate this union!’’

King said and with a round of applause, everyone quickly left leaving me and Marie alone I bed. Thank god that at least they left me alone and didn’t stay to see the act.

With the doors closing and leaving us alone I had nothing better to do just looked around the room.

Well, it was definitely the same size as mine, but Marie’s room had more stuff starting with a giant brown wardrobe Infront of us with a mirror in the middle of it, next to my left were three square windows with red curtains and on the same side almost next to the bed stood a table with a mirror and a lot of makeup and small boxes on it coming in every color and size.

On the right side, there were a lot of cabins with golden engravings and a small table near the bed with a white vase on it which had a couple of flowers two white ones and one red.

All in all, it was a nice room as expected from royalty not lacking in good craftsmanship items and occasional gold or silver here and there, definitely a fitting room for Marie.

‘’I-I’m ready…’’

Marie said almost in a whisper and I turned to her.

Her breath was uneven, her eyes were wide.

I know that I shouldn’t do this, every fiber of my being is against this. I know that we are adults now and I have nothing to say about Marie as she will definitely be a beauty when she matures more, but it’s just revolting to think that my partner in carnal activities is supposed to be a 14-year-old girl.

I couldn’t help but to laugh as I feel like history is repeating itself. It was a well-known fact that Louis XVI didn’t consume his marriage with Marie Antoinette for 7 years since they exchanged their vows it’s only by the help of Joseph II the Holy Roman Emperor and Marie’s elder brother after he traveled to France incognito that they managed to consume their marriage.

While this event wasn’t the spark needed to start of the French Revolution as it was more like a barrel full of explosives which were put in the ever-growing pile of explosives that would signal a new age for the French and it clearly showed Louis XVI weak will and indecisiveness as he with Marie was being mocked and even insulted by people, like saying that they are infertile or that Louis had phimosis, they were even some more gruesome whispers in the streets that Marie was cockblocking Louis and going out with other men.

Those whispers were putting a strain on their marriage and The French monarchy as a whole because people started to see that Louis is weak-minded and indecisive so he wouldn’t be able to bring the French to their former glory as people needed a great leader to unite them under one cause and Louis XVI just wasn’t that kind of man.

This wasn’t a democracy or constitutional monarchy as if one party was weak it could be replaced or in a constitutional monarchy, the parliament could reign in a weak king to prevent him from damaging a country. But France wasn’t anything like that it was a symbol of absolute monarchy as the King was the state so if the King was weak the state was weak as well.

It’s a fit of irony really as here I was boosting how I will never be like the original Louis XVI that I will spit in the face of fate and change it, that I will tackle everything head-on and will come on top and now look at me being stopped to a halt at the first challenge that I have to face and it’s just the beginning of my journey… I’m really pathetic, aren’t I?

Deep down I know that it had to be done even if it’s immoral, wrong and goes against everything I knew about right and wrong until this point, but I knew that if I want to continue I had to get rid of these thoughts and drop my ideals from my old self as they won’t do any good here.

So clearing my head and pushing all thoughts away I slowly got on top of Marie, pushing back the ever surfing thoughts that were keeping me back in the first place, I know that this is wrong, but I knew that it had to be done. Her breath was even more uneven and I could hear her heartbeat loudly as I put my hands at both sides of her bed.

I looked at her and saw her grey-blue eyes staring back at me with a whole storm of emotions in them. It was to be expected as this is her first time with a man, so she doesn’t know what to expect, will it hurt or not? How will I treat her during the act?

‘’I will do it, okay?’’

I asked her and waited for her response after her small nod I began moving down tracing her still developing curves, her smooth white skin, and finally, I made it at the end of her white nightgown.

I slowly lifted it up, purposely making contact with her bare legs with my fingers, slowly going up, and just about I was to reach my destination I heard a voice. It was almost soundless if not for the quiet of the bathroom I definitely would have missed it.

That sound made me stop entirely what was I doing and I looked up to see Marie facing away from me, I slowly got up again staring directly at her while she kept her eyes shut and her face away from me. Then I gently took her chin and turned her to face me.

And I now knew what the sound was, it wasn’t a sound of pleasure or anything like that it was the sound of sadness and fear. A single tear could be seen gently rolling down her cheek leaving a trail behind it.

That single tear rolling down Marie’s cheek managed to crumble my defenses that I set up prior. That single damned tear made me regret my actions and quietly I got off of Marie and returned to my previous place and blankly stared at the ceiling.

I kind of understand her, after all, we only met somewhat two days ago for THE FIRST TIME and immediately got married, we didn’t know almost anything about each other and now we were expected to have sex, well for me it was not as important as to Marie as this was her first time after all, plus her having to leave her family behind to come here to an unknown land, where she didn’t know anybody apart from her servants that came with her, she probably has more questions than answers as to why or how. Sad it is, I know how it feels to leave everything behind to travel to an unknown world, you feel like you lost everything, and all it waits for you is more questions and uncertainty.

‘’Y-your highness?’’

Marie asked confused.

‘’Please call me Louis just like I call you Marie.’’

‘’Okay, Louis, then why?’’

She asked me.

“Why I didn’t do it? Well, to be honest, I can relate to you, we don’t know each other that well, after all, we know each other for two days and that is too little time to get a feel of another person, plus you didn’t even have had the time to adapt to France so I thought let’s first get to know each other better, let’s you get properly integrated to French society and who knows maybe our feelings will blossom or maybe they won’t, but I promise to you that I will take care of you and respect you, I will never spite or have a grudge against you. You’re beautiful Marie and I definitely would want to make this work, but first I want to learn about the Marie within not the outer shell of Marie, but the real her within that body, what she likes, dislikes, how she feels about mundane things like the rainy weather or the sun, maybe she likes cooked meat than boiled.’’

I let all my thoughts out adopting to say the truth about how I feel and think about this situation that we as chess pieces on the board were put by the players regardless of our thoughts and wishes.

It was sad truth but we now are nothing more than diplomatic tools that were used to create an alliance between two countries. Political marriages were indeed a useful thing for those that aren’t getting married, but for those who were the married ones, it could turn to a living hell as you knew that you had to stay the whole life next to a person that you may not even like, just because somebody said that it is your duty and it will make the respective country better.

‘’But the King and my mother will be angry if we don’t do it, so-‘’

‘’Ohh you mean the evidence of our act?’’

She nodded her head and I already have a plan for it.

‘’Do you have anything sharp?”

I asked her and she looked taken back by my weird request.

‘’Yes I think I have, but why do you need it?”

She asked and I completely ignored her question.

“Great give it to me, it will take just a second.’’

I replied and after some more persuasion from me, Marie finally gave me a weird looking tool from her desk. It was weird it had a golden handle with ornaments engraved and a red ruby on it and it looked like a knife, but it was small almost like a needle, well at least it was sharp and I took the weird tool in my hands.

‘’What are you going to do?”

With the questions asked I did the most suicidal thing in my all life as I cut my finger, but not deep enough, just enough to draw blood.

Damn, it stings!

‘’Louis!”

Marie gasped and quickly jumped to my side.

‘’Don’t worry now I didn’t cut deep, just enough to do this”

I said and stained the bedsheets with my blood to look like I have taken Marie’s virginity, hopefully no guards were present at the doors if not then that’s great no one can’t deny that we didn’t do this.

‘’Looks good.’’

I said and looked at Marie.

‘’Now we have evidence that we did it, so that’s one load off our back and.’’

I said and smiled to her while she looked at my finger and grabbed my hand pulling me out of the bed and near the desk with the mirror on it, and then she made me sit on the chair while she took a small flask with some salve on it and started rubbing it on the spot I have cut.

“It may sting”

She said as she started rubbing it gently and with care.

‘’it’s okay, but what is this?”

I asked her interested.

‘’Oh this is something that the royal doctor made me before I left, I used to be quite clumsy and so I got hurt a lot so after some times the doctor was mad at me and thought me how to treat small wounds myself so he could focus on things that really required his attention.”

She said with a smile, probably remembering her home. I know it’s hard Marie for you and for me both as we both left our homes, but at least you can communicate with them and you know that they’re alive unlike me.

‘’There it’s done.’’

She said as she realized my hand from her tender care, she will definitely be a good mother in the future.

‘’Thank you.’’

I said to her and we both got up and went to bed.

This night ended not like it was supposed to, but that was quite alright, I still wasn’t the king so I wasn’t that important, plus I can downplay without getting an heir for about 4years before the trouble will start brewing, I just hope that until that time comes…

‘’Louis?’’

I heard Marie’s voice, but I ignored it as I wanted to fake sleep and play a little trick on her, but what she said next surprised me.

‘’Thank you.’’

She said quietly and with as many emotions as you could gather in your own voice.

And with a small smile of my own, I now went to sleep for real, knowing that I made a good decision today and I was glad for how it turned out, now I will just focus on the future and with that, I welcomed the night.

A/N: Here it is a short chapter and unedited(if you see mistakes, be sure to point it out!), but here it is.

Don't know what to give as an excuse just that my life is in shambles, this year is one heck of a roller coaster ride, but now everything looks good so far. Btw the beta question is still open as my friend sadly declined as he has too much work now so if one of you wants to beta this fic contact me through PMs or DC.

As always join DC and ask some questions if you have some.

DC:https://discordapp.com/invite/zyvJwMM