Julie Clary, Imperial Princess

Julie looked at the mirror with horror that grew with every second. She was in a beautiful white dress, embroidered with silver and gold, with a low neckline and a high waist. Julie wore earrings that matched and to complete the ensemble, there was a gold coronet on top of her dark hair. As her maids told her, she was beautiful and looked like the princess she was.

She hated it.

Julie had never wanted to be a princess. She had been completely fine with being a silk merchant's daughter and would have been perfectly happy if that was all she remained to be. Well, okay, she had wanted to get married but she would have been content if Joseph had for some reason decided to be a silk merchant like her father and brother. Julie also would have been content if Joseph had remained a clerk in the town hall, or at least had been promoted to some higher position there, like a deputy. Thanks to her dowry and his ambition, they likely would never had to worry about their finances.

They could have been happy. Julie had been so sure of it during those days when they chatted together in her backyard, alone, lovingly gazing into each other’s eyes.

But those years had long since passed, only a distant memory.

And any chance of a happy and relatively simple life was destroyed by ambition and greed.

Ambition and greed that was not Joseph’s. And definitely not hers.

What was done was done though. As much Julie wanted to scream and wail with anxiety and despair, to run away from the cathedral, she knew what was expected of her. It had been ingrained into her from a young age to act ladylike and she did not plan to divert from those teachings now.

Especially when it could mean her head. And possibly Joseph’s, though chances were high that he would only get exiled. And only if he wasn’t quick to agree to divorce such a traitorous wife. Her daughters...would probably be safe. They were only very little girls, and Julie knew that even he wasn’t so despicable as to punish little children for a parent’s offense.

But if everything went well, if Julie managed to keep her cool, there would be no need to worry about such a hypothetical situation.

It wasn’t like Julie was alone anyway.

Julie looked across the crowded waiting room and saw her sister, younger than her by six years. Unlike Julie, Désirée wore a sky-blue dress that was accompanied by earrings given by the Empress herself. And better yet, there was no gold coronet upon her head.

Unlike Julie, Désirée was not an Imperial princess, just a marshal’s wife. The only reason why Désirée was given the special honor of carrying the lace handkerchief on a cushion today was because she was Julie’s sister. Well, that and the fact that she used to be his fiancee.

It was times like these that Julie was forever grateful that the engagement fell through. That he chose another woman due to her social connections, social connections that they did not quite have, despite their papa’s influence as a wealthy silk merchant. Her beauty too, the Empress's looks were legendary after all. Perhaps though, he did have some actual love and affection for her. There had to be some reason the two were still married even though they had been unable to bear children of their own. And the countless love affairs. On both sides.

Either way, Julie couldn’t help but feel grateful her little sister didn’t get married to that awful man while another woman took the bullet.

Of course, Julie could never say that out loud. Especially when her job today was to help carry that woman’s train.

Then Désirée, who had been looking at the lace handkerchief in her hands with a deep frown, looked up and met Julie’s eyes. Désirée smiled slightly, which made Julie smile slightly too while she remembered her own words from earlier.

"If only everything goes well".

Their mama used to say things like that. A part of Julie wished that their mama was still alive, so she could turn to her when it was too much like she used to. But the other part was glad their mama was in heaven with their papa, so they didn’t have to live through something like this.

What would they say if they saw their daughters now?

Julie wasn’t sure she wanted the answer to that question.

A hand suddenly made itself known on her shoulder.

“Get ready, we’re about to move,” Joseph said briefly, barely looking at her in the eyes. He gave her shoulder the smallest of squeezes before he left to go to his own place in the procession behind her. Julie looked after him for a moment and sighed.

There had been little love in that exchange if one could call that an exchange. If there had been any love at all. Julie was not deaf to the rumors, nor was she blind to her husband’s behavior.

She may not know quite when it started but she knew that Joseph had been having an affair for a while now. Oh, excuse her, affairs.

Well, at least she had her two little girls.

Julie then looked away from her unfaithful husband and picked up the train that lay on the ground in front of her. With how big it was, the train was very heavy though it quickly became manageable and lighter when the three other women helping her picked up a part of the train as well. When the Empress sighed with relief, Julie realized they should have helped her with the weight of her purple robe sooner.

Oops. Oh well.

Then the doors opened and the trumpets blared ceremoniously. People began marching out into the chapel. First the heralds and the pages wearing green. Then the Master of Ceremonies and sixteen marshals’ wives. Serurier with a cushion that the Emperor’s ring laid on walked out next, then Murat with the Empress’s crown. Désirée was next to leave the room, walking the Empress’s handkerchief through Notre Dame.

Julie couldn’t help but gulp as she quickly checked the coronet on her head. When she was satisfied that it wasn’t crooked, Julie went back to holding the purple train with both hands. And just in time too, because it was finally their turn to make an entrance.

Butterflies fluttered in her stomach and her throat became almost parched with anxiety as they walked into the chapel. Each step took them ever closer to the altar, the choir, and last, but unfortunately not least, the two gold thrones.

Once again, Julie felt the urge to run. Deep down inside, Julie knew that once she helped the Empress reach those steps to her throne, there was no turning back. But just as quickly as the urge appeared, Julie squashed it down.

There was already no turning back. Josephine was already the Empress, and he was already the Emperor. This was just a ceremony to make things official, to show the world what they were.

To help show the world that he was powerful.

But he had surely already done that, with all the land that he had fought over and won.

Sure, he may have done some good things, like promoting people based on ability rather than their family background. But did a few good deeds really compare to all the bloodshed and war that he had caused?

He said it was all for France, but was it?

Then they reached the stairs. Minutes stretched on for what seemed like an eternity before the organ started to play La Marseillaise triumphantly. Not long after that, but it still didn’t seem like that to Julie, the Emperor walked up to his wife’s side and stopped.

Emperor Napoleon, the man who named her an Imperial Princess yet simultaneously ruined her life.

Her brother-in-law.