The bride looked lovely in her dress and veil. Very--um--aristocratic, but I have to say, my mind was not so much on her as on her escort.

I knew that face, but where? It was going to bug me, I was sure. He didn't look quite like the usual of this crowd and I had to wonder why she'd chosen him. Though he looked very distinguished in his tux, he also looked vaguely uncomfortable and out of place. Like he was no happier to have all of us staring at him than I was to be here.

It was then that I actually first saw Edgar St. James. I had heard about him--both from Charlie--and actually from my father--he and Fitz-John had been good friends for a while--though I had heard something about a falling out between the two of them about the time that Edgar and Margarathe had gotten married.

It's probably a good thing it was a lovely ceremony, because it was also frightfully long. The reverend--or whatever he was--talked for what seemed like weeks.

While I was trying not to fidget, I spent part of the time looking around the church. It was a surprisingly small gathering considering how many people I knew the St. James knew. I was going to have to ask Charlie about that. Something though caught my eye. Another familiar face in the crowd.

I might not have even noticed him, except the ringbearer had dropped the rings at some point, racing after the flower girl, and he had to go back and get them. Sitting in the back row on the side of the church opposite Charlie and I, was him Fitz-John. The man who had destroyed my father's life. My head was screaming at me, run! before he notices you too, but leaving the ceremony--right in the middle--was actually the best way to get him to notice me and I really didn't want that.

When the ceremony was finally over, Charlie and I were among the first outside. We were talking a little bit and I asked him who the man who had given away the bride was. He said Henry, Margarathe's cousin. Henry? That ought to have triggered some memory--but of course it wasn't, so while I was puzzling that, I heard the huge doors of the church open.

It was Aries Warder, I knew him from school. He was one of those guys who was always a jerk. He mocked people in public, pushed around anyone he thought he could get away with pushing around, and fancied himself a ladies man. What I thought of him isn't repeatable.
"So," He smirked. "Is there something we should know about?" His eyes raked over me leaving behind an oily feeling on my skin.
"Leave off, Aries." Charlie replied angrily.
"Well--it's just, I'm sure your father will love hearing about this. You and your little dockside tart here." He said something pretty vile then, I think the nicest thing in it was when he called me a whore. But the gist of the conversation was that I wasn't the sort of person you brought to your father's wedding. I was the sort of girl you did--other things with. I honestly thought Charlie was going to hit him.

Then the doors opened again and Alice Reed came out. I wanted to hide, literally. Alice is to girls what Aries is to boys, and even more cruel in her own honey coated way.