Patricia was terribly excited about the upcoming baptism. The prospect of visiting the Countess's castle, wearing the silver gown and mixing with nobles was almost too much for her. She became manic. She went through her jewellery collection and decided nothing she currently had would do. She also needed new footwear, even though her feet would not be seen under her long gown. She spent time researching the latest hairstyles and arranged for an acquaintance who had been a maid of the former duchess to come around on the morning before the baptism to do hair and makeup in the style that the late Duchess and her daughters (who had not been heard of) had adopted.
In the end Simon agreed that she could buy some silver slippers and was able to talk her out of spending all their recent profits on jewellery. As he said, the dress and Patricia's natural beauty was all that was needed.
In contrast Jasper was very apprehensive about the big day. It was in her interests to attend, look alluring and put herself onto the marriage market. This was her chance to get out of her current situation and potentially get an opportunity to gain an escorted trip through the war zone, to the Eastern Hills, Wind Grove and Anya. The ultimate goal being to regain her old body and become the Crown Prince once more.
She wasn't totally sure about anything any more. She really didn't want to put herself onto the marriage market. She didn't want to look alluring. She didn't want to appeal to men. Her body was attractive enough in a wet nurses uniform to cause her problems. Wearing a beautiful gold dress, getting her hair and makeup done, was only going to make her situation worse. She was a man after all and men shouldn't need to do such things
Yet at the same time she craved the idea of being noble once more, even if it was only for a day. Mixing with some of her own class of people, even if she had to be a female. Prince Jasper had been wearing the "Jasmine" disguise for over a month now, living the life of a peasant. It would be nice to have servants waiting on her once more.
All these thoughts were constantly on Jasper's mind. On top of this she was overly tired, rarely getting more than a couple of hours sleep at a time and her breasts were constantly sore. It was almost impossible to get all three babies to sleep at the same time. But then if they slept too long her breasts would fill and ache, causing her to wish one of the babies would wake. Perhaps she should cut back on how much of Betsy's vegetable soup she consumed? It really did taste ghastly and she didn't need to boost her milk supply.
Betsy, Chelsea and Damon were also excited about the upcoming visit to the Countess's castle. Betsy and Chelsea spent time making sure their maid uniforms were in impeccable. They would attend to Patricia at the baptism. They had also cleaned up the baptism gown Master Simon had worn as a child, and from somewhere had acquired a lace gown for Bry. Simon had purchased a new suit for himself and passed on his old suit to Damon. It was the first suit Damon had ever possessed.
6 days prior to the wedding the seamstress called for Patricia and "Jasmine" to call in for a fitting. This time Betsy volunteered to watch the babies who were all thoroughly sated when Jasper departed.