Chapter 252

"What is going on?" Pearl asked. Maggie hesitated and asked for a drink. The flight attendant poured her a glass of wine and Maggie sat in her seat, buckling her belt.

"Maggie. Tell me what's going on or I am getting off this jet before it leaves." Pearl said.

"Sit down, Pearl, I have a story to tell you, and the flight is a little over an hour so buckle up." Maggie said.

"Where are we going?" Pearl asked.

"That all part of the story." Maggie said, sipping her wine.

Pearl thought about it for a moment and decided to sit down. The door closed and the pilot prepared for take off.

"Ok. I'm sitting. Talk." Pearl said.

"For centuries, royals have had secret weddings and arrangements out of the public eye. Small churches where these secret unions were held,

all for the purpose of love and not the crown or the people." Maggie began.

"Ok. Yes. I am aware of the history. What does that have to do with anything?" Pearl asked.

"Now I want to tell you a story I was told recently, about a girl. A girl I thought I knew but realized I knew very little about, had no idea of the perilous journey her life had been."

Maggie said.

The plane began to take off.

"What an incredible girl she was. So full of heartache and poetry, the kind of girl who would always try to save wolves instead of running away from them." Maggie said, looking off in the distance. "The abuse she suffered at the hands of her father. Then, because of that conditioning, she found a man just like him when she grew up, and married him. She was cheated on, ridiculed and gas lighted for so long she forgot her worth. Or never knew it, more like it." Maggie said. Pearl felt tears falling down her cheek. She wanted to stop her but knew she couldn't find words right now.

"Then one day, something sparked inside of her. The beautiful soul, the light, came alive again. She found a way to crawl out of the darkness. She lost everything but gained herself again. And yet, she still fell victim to the ugliness of the human condition, because of her pure heart. She was still lied to, used. And treated like a thing, like a possession. I am familiar with some of her story myself. But then, she meets a man that loves her. The crown prince of a nation. And he falls in love with her, for who she is and his biggest fear is that because of the last, she won't believe him. He knows he will have to spend much of his life convincing her not only if her worth but of his own truth in loving her and because he would do anything for her, he decides she is worth it. So, when their wedding day comes, a day that is supposed to be the greatest day of their life, a day to validate their love and forever commitment to one another, and it becomes another people pleasing tool to make her yet another thing to used, he decides she deserves more." Maggie said. Pearl looked at her, quizzically.

"The man that loves her thinks about the history of the princes before him. He thinks about the books she loves. The poetry. The songs. And how no one deserves this fairly tale more than she. And he decides that because this is no ordinary woman, she cannot have an ordinary love. Or an ordinary wedding. A televised wedding. A show. No. He will give her something the Brontës could write about. Something Keats could put into poetry. Something people have died for in history. He decides he will take her to a small church in Scotland, in the middle of a field in the dead of night, and make her his wife. Against all rules, with no eyes watching them, he will give himself to her, and only to her, with no one else around. Their love and vows, given intimately and only to them." Maggie said, finishing her wine and looking over at Pearl, who was practically sobbing at this point.

Maggie looked at her and smiled. "There's a dress in the back cabin. Put it on and put yourself together. Tonight, my dearest friend and biggest supporter, you marry your prince." Maggie said with a big smile.