Legend

I helped Alfred a little in the kitchen preparing for Thanksgiving, mostly prep work. There were a lot of vegetables to peel. "I'm sorry I never asked about your family, Alfred," I said, picking up another potato.

"You have nothing to apologize for, Miss Alex," he said, pulling out a tray of croutons from the oven. "I rarely talk about my nieces because I regret the circumstances of my estrangement from my brother. But they are nice girls and I hope to assist them building their futures." He efficiently tipped a tray of cooled croutons into the food processor and pulsed until they became crumbs, destined for the stuffing. "I speak with them often, but I can't say that I know them well. I am hoping that perhaps the eldest, Nora, will wish to attend college in this area. I could get to know her better, evaluate her suitability for the position."

"Are you sick, Alfred?"

He smiled at me. "No, Miss Alex, I am in excellent health. But one must keep an eye on the future. Eventually, I will need a replacement, and that person must be chosen carefully as the Waynes require more than someone to simply answer the door and prepare the meals. My niece is young, but she has promise. And she may choose otherwise. But I would first like to consider family."

"How much younger is the younger girl?" I asked, agreeing with him.

"Two years younger than her sister. She is interested in attending flight school, becoming a pilot."

"Bruce has that private jet," I said thoughtfully, and he smiled.

"Exactly so, Miss Alex."

Mom, Dad, and J came for Thanksgiving, and together with Dick and Barbara, it was the largest table we'd had since I came to live at the mansion. The food was excellent as always and the conversation was lively. J stayed a few more days and I was sorry when he went back to school. But the next week I made room in my schedule to go dress shopping with Aslyn, her mom, sister, and grandma, and a few other friends who could take the day off, including Karen. It was a lot more fun than I'd expected. There was something kind of bonding about helping Aslyn choose a dress to mark this monumental next step in her life. And when we had lunch next, she asked me to be a bridesmaid. Her maid of honor would be her sister, and I'd be joining Rill, Karen, and a couple of her newer friends. The colors were light green, robin's egg blue, and gold, which was nice; I looked good in green and blue.

It started to get cold and dreary right after that, with snow starting to accumulate as holiday parties started. Damian and I went to our share, including his company party and mine, and he came with me to meet the plane when it brought my grandma over for the holidays. She was a little surprised by the house and the butler, but it took about three seconds for her to strike up a firm friendship with Alfred and she liked Bruce. Whew. Mom and Dad came a couple days early for my engagement party and J made it up the day of, just after finals. After J arrived, Damian and I went upstairs to get ready. I chose a silver and green brocade dress that had a full tea-length skirt, long sleeves, and a simple V neck. It made me feel pretty. I didn't have a necklace to match, but the dress was special enough without one, and I wore my pearl earrings. The double strand of pearls was just too much with the dress. "I'll have to think about what kind of necklace to get you next," Damian said, touching the base of my throat gently. "Maybe a diamond pendant."

"You keep this up and I'll have a collection to rival Elizabeth Taylor's," I said lightly, but this backfired as it seemed to have given him ideas. Shit. We went down before I could do more damage and joined the family in the library. Bucky and Emma had arrived while we were upstairs.

Alfred served Champagne and Bruce stood, coming over to stand by his son and me. "I'd like to thank you all for being here, not just for the engagement party, but also for Christmas. I'm enjoying getting to know you all better and I'm very pleased that my son is marrying into such a wonderful family. I think that Alex and Damian are an excellent match; they complement each other beautifully and they give each other strength, support, and joy in abundance. I couldn't ask for a better daughter-in-law." He picked up a case from the desk and handed it to me. "I'd like to mark this occasion by giving Alex something significant from my family. It was my mother's most cherished possession, after my father, and I look forward to seeing another exceptional woman wearing it." I opened the case and saw a beautiful single strand of pearls, with deep luster and orient, the white softly washed with pink. He took it out of the case and fastened it around my neck.

"Thank you, Bruce, they're exquisite," I said, touching the smooth spheres. He gave me a brief hug and patted his son's shoulder.

"Bruce mentioned that he was going to give that to Alex," my grandma said, standing up and coming over to us. "So I thought it would be appropriate to give Damian a gift from Alex's family as well." She handed him a box. Inside was a silver tank watch with a black leather band; it looked vintage. I peered at it closer, it was a Rolex. "My uncle won that in a card game from a Yank officer shortly before Operation Overlord was launched. It was apparently quite a game."

"Wow," Damian said. He took it out of the box and I put it on for him. "This is lovely."

"Rolex used to make them for everyday wear, so it's not very high end," she warned, but he just smiled.

"I love it. The styling is so Art Deco, which is my favorite. It means more because it's an heirloom from your family," he said, kissing her cheek.

"I'd like to propose a toast," my dad said. "To Alex and Damian, may they have a lifetime of happiness together. A successful marriage takes work and compassion as well as joy, and these qualities are most needed when they're hardest to give. I wish for you both every good thing life has to offer." I got a little misty at that. Then the guests began to arrive, my friends and Damian's as well as some of Mom and Dad's and Bruce's, Selina, Tony, Mindy and Sam, of course. It was a lovely party with Champagne and delicious petits fours. As predicted, people came, they congratulated us and had a nice time, and they left after a decent amount of time to do their own Christmas preparations. It was genius.

When Damian and I were back up in our room, changing afterward, I said to him, "I know you're not wild about me having these pearls."

"I wasn't," he said with a sigh. "But Dad gave them to you because his mom loved wearing them. They have a different meaning for him than me. And they are beautiful, and beautiful on you," he conceded, touching them. "It saves me the trouble of buying a single strand for you, so I can move on to other jewels," he said, brightening. I shook my head. "It made Dad happy that you liked them." He snorted cynically. "It's not like you're going to be getting anything nice from my mother." He frowned. "If you do get any strange packages or if she shows up and tries to give you anything, don't take it. Call me or Dad immediately."

"She's more likely to try to stab me in a dark corner," I said. "But I will call immediately if I see her." I hung up my dress and turned to see him stroking his new watch. "Do you really like it?"

"I do," he said, looking at it. "But won't your brother be mad she gave it to me?"

"Naw; he hates having things on his wrist and he'd never remember to wind it." I laughed. "She asked me if you'd like it; she wanted something from our family to welcome you."

"I'm glad she did," Damian said softly. "It really makes me feel like I'm joining your family too."

"Well, you are," I pointed out, wrapping my arms around him and melting into him. "Grandma thinks very highly of you, my folks love you, J likes you, you get along well with Bucky and Emma. They all like your dad, too, and who doesn't love Alfred? He's a second dad to you." He held me close and rested his cheek on the top of my head.

"I really hit the jackpot with you," he murmured. We stood like that for awhile until I got chilly--he was still fully clothed--then finished changing. I kept the pearls on even though they were too splendid for the slacks and blouse. I think Bruce was pleased that I liked them so much.

A couple days after the party, Alfred's niece arrived. She was petite, a few inches shorter than me, pretty, not very talkative but interested in everything and nice. I felt that she was a little shy, but mostly that she was watching the dynamics in the group. I did the same thing, so I felt some kinship with her.

Christmas was wonderful--Damian gave me an antique Faberge pendant, the gold and platinum setting around the hexagonal aquamarine had little arrows encircling the stone. "Cupid's arrows," he murmured in my ear.

"You spend way too much on jewelry," I told him, then smiled. "I love it, though." How could I not? He just smiled and shrugged.

"You're going to be my wife. I like to see you in things that are almost as beautiful as you are." Kinda hard to argue with that. And the pendant was lovely. I brightened. I could wear it to the New Years Eve party we were going to. I had a slinky black dress that it would look stunning with.

The rest of the day was lovely and I was thrilled to spend it with my family. After the extraordinary dinner--Alfred had outdone himself--and a suitable amount of lazy socializing after, Damian and I went upstairs. He lit the fire in the fireplace and we settled down on the rug in front of it. I was starting to hope for a little canoodlin', but he passed me a manila envelope instead. I opened it to find a legal document.

"It's the prenup you wanted," he said peaceably before I opened it. "Got the valuation of my personal financial situation done and delivered just yesterday morning. So in exchange for doing this for you, I want a favor from you."

"Ok, what?" I asked.

"I've made provisions giving you access to my assets and additionally giving you a sum of money for your own use each year, no questions, no accounting. It's old fashioned, but I don't want you to have to ask me for money to buy a dress for one of our social engagements, for example. I'm open to negotiation on any terms in the agreement but that. I know you have your salary from work, but you shouldn't have to spend it all keeping up with our social whirl." I looked at him; his features were set. This was a hard line for him, and I only briefly thought about arguing about it. But he'd done this for me although he really didn't want to, so I figured I could compromise here.

"OK," I said, and he relaxed. I opened the document, just scanning. I had a lawyer lined up for this; Tony and Bruce had both recommended firms that would provide me with an independent analysis. "Holy shit, Damian," I blurted out when I saw his net worth. He smiled complacently.

"My grandparents had a provision in their wills that set aside two hundred fifty million dollars expressly for Dad's kids. It was in a trust until I turned 21. Then I took it over, Dick and Jason are fine with me handling it." He was worth almost a billion dollars now. "Dad's worth a little over seven billion, so I have ground to make up." His look was calculating and I would have laughed at his competitiveness, but I was too shocked by the money. He nudged me and I read on. The terms were actually pretty simple. In the event of a divorce, I would receive half of his net worth at the time of the signing of this document and any jewelry and other assets he gave me during our marriage. In the event of children, a separate trust would be created for them to which we would both make contributions. He's too clever by half, he knew that I'd want to contribute although I couldn't put in nearly as much as he could. There were conditions to insure that the Wayne's very generous contributions to worthy causes continued under all circumstances. Additionally, the annual allowance was two million dollars and he would pay the charges on a credit card. I lost the power of speech. He opened a separate envelope and handed me a bank book, debit card, and an American Express Centurion card.

I lost the power of speech. He opened the bank book and showed me the balance, five million. "We've got a wedding coming up," he said calmly. "I want you to have whatever you want.... and additionally, I have a favor to ask." I could only stare at him. "I ran into a guy I knew in high school. Total dipshit, his parents bought his admission to university and he just barely graduated. We've never gotten along. He and his bottle-blond blow-up doll of a girlfriend are going to go to the same New Years Eve party that we are. You're always beautiful, but--"

"You'd like something magnificent," I said, untangling my tongue, and he nodded. "So why do you hate this guy so much? I asked, because this went way past high school.

"A couple years ago, he called ICE and said that I was brought into the country illegally," he said baldly. "Because I'm Middle Eastern. Somehow he knew about Talia. There was a huge flap. The State Department was involved, the CIA, the FBI." I could only guess how humiliating that had been. "It was resolved, but it was... problematical. We tried hard to keep it quiet. His parents are actually really nice people who were appalled by him and cut him off. His grandfather, though, is a racist who thought he did the right thing and when he died this summer left him a big chunk of money and a business. The way he's running through the money means that he won't have it much longer, but I want to personally get some revenge, and part of that is showing him what kind of a woman I've somehow gotten to marry me."

I was still speechless, although with fury this time. This attack on Damian rebooted my brain. "Ok, honey," I finally managed to say, "I guess I'll be putting a dent in that bank balance. Do you want sexy, elegant, something else?" I could totally get behind doing my part to annihilate this guy.

"Any or all of the above," he said, fascinated. "There'll be some press outside the party taking pictures."

I needed help. I texted Aslyn, who had a finer fashion sense that I did, asking her for recommendations. She recommended a couple of designers and gave some ideas about the type of dress to look for for this particular party. I set up some appointments the next day. There wasn't much time.

Finally the day that I was most nervous about came up--dress day. My mom and grandma came with me and we met Aslyn, Karen, Selina and Emma at the store. As the associate slid the first dress over my head, suddenly it hit me. I really felt like I was getting married. Up til that moment, I'd been excited and doing my part to plan the party, but this somehow made it real.

The excitement had faded considerably a couple of hours later. I'd tried on over twenty dresses, and nothing was right. My associate couldn't have been nicer, and was zipping me into one last dress, when a second associate who'd been pressed into helping us (amazing what the Wayne name can conjure) rushed in with another damned dress, breathless. "This literally just came in this past hour," she said, puffing a bit. "It doesn't even have the tags yet, but you've just got to try it on, Alex." I agreed and thanked her for the effort, then went out in the dress I already was in. Nobody really liked that one, so I promised that there was only one left. I wasn't the only one feeling the fatigue.

This dress was interesting; it came in two parts. The basic dress had three-quarter length sleeves, with lace that curved around my shoulders and a mermaid skirt and it fit perfectly. An overskirt was the other part, making the silhouette a little fluffy and a whole lot ethereal and romantic. I could just picture it with the Wayne family pearls. I smiled. The associates smiled, and one set a little tiara on my hair. This time I strode out with confidence. My mom took one look and teared up. My grandma patted her hand and pressed her other hand to her lips. Emma let out a sigh, Selina nodded, and Aslyn and Karen squealed. The associates took off the overskirt, and that brought everybody up to get a closer look. I put in my order while I was standing there. There was a bit of a hiccup since they had to track down the price, but I paid in full without a whimper.

Mom went home the next day, and Grandma had to go a day later. Damian and J went with me to see her off, and we saw her comfortably ensconced in the jet before the last hugs.

And then, finally, it was time to get ready for the new year.