Beginning, Previous Section, Section XXVVIII, Next Section

By the time Elisabeth, Jenna and Ruth arrived at Charlie’s parents’ house, everyone knew what Lydia had done. Elisabeth was sure of it because when they walked into the kitchen, the room got quiet, as if no one knew what to say to her because of what had happened. Perhaps it was just as well, since she wasn’t sure what she would say in response. “Oh, well, these things happen?” No, they didn’t. They only seemed to happen to her.

Bennet’s Bloody Law strikes again.

Elisabeth was tempted to tell all of them that there was no point in doing her hair and makeup, because the wedding couldn’t go on. She wasn’t getting married without a wedding dress, and thanks to Lydia, she no longer had one.

Aunt Amanda, not surprisingly, was the first to approach her and give her a hug. “We’re so sorry, sweetie,” she whispered in Elisabeth’s ear.

Elisabeth mumbled, “Thanks.”

“You shouldn’t be sorry, Grandma,” Charlie said. “It’s not like you did anything to the dress. It’s the fault of that conniving little...”

“Charlie,” Heather Lucas said to her daughter in admonishment.

“Well, it’s true.”

“All the same, Lydia is still Elisabeth’s sister and Ruth’s daughter and reflecting on what she’s done isn’t going to help anything. Or solve the problem.”

“I don’t see how the problem can be solved,” Elisabeth said. “I had a wedding dress, and now I don’t.”

“Heather and I have been talking about that,” Aunt Amanda said. “I think we have a workable solution. When Jenna called us and we suggested it to her, she said your mother’s wedding dress wouldn’t do, but mine might.”

“Yours?” Elisabeth thought back to the two pictures she’d seen of her aunt’s wedding dress. While she wouldn’t want to hurt her feelings, and she was in no position to be picky at the moment, she really didn’t want to wear that dress.

“That’s quite generous of you, Amanda,” Ruth said. “I’m sure Elisabeth is appreciative of your offer. Aren’t you, Ellie?”

Elisabeth cleared her throat and hoped that her thoughts about the idea hadn’t been obvious to anyone. “I guess I could try,” she said.

Amanda gave her a shrewd look. “Not what you were hoping for today, but better than nothing, right?”

Elisabeth nodded gamely. Over her aunt’s shoulder, she saw Charlie shake her head furiously, as if to say that nothing would be better. But she really had no other alternative. “Where is it?” she asked.

“We sent Andie to go get it,” Heather said. “She should be back soon.”

“What if it doesn’t fit?” Elisabeth asked, knowing in her heart that it would. It was turning out to be that kind of a day for her.

“Then we’ll have to go to a bridal shop and see if we can find something in your size,” Ruth said. “Heather, where’s Danielle? She could be doing hair and makeup while we’re waiting for Miranda to get back.”

Heather frowned and listened for something. “I told that girl five minutes ago to get out of the shower because you were on your way. Danielle Lucas!” she shouted. “Get out of the shower now!”

“All right! Jeez, you’d think we were on a time schedule or something!” they heard Danie say from the bathroom down the hall.

“We are on a time schedule,” Ruth said angrily. “And it’s just gotten smaller since we might have to go dress shopping!”

Elisabeth sat down with a thud on one of the kitchen chairs. She felt tears coming on again and turned away from Ruth to avoid a reprimand about puffy eyes. She closed her eyes and tried to block out the image of her ruined dress, which was impossible to escape.

Dimly, Elisabeth felt Charlie put an arm around her and say something which was supposed to comfort her. She didn’t hear much of it, merely nodding when it seemed appropriate as she twisted her engagement ring around her finger. Danie walked into the room, took one look at Elisabeth, and announced that she would be the last to have her makeup done since she’d need time for her eyes to get back to normal. Elisabeth wound up earning the reprimand after all, because she hadn’t realized she’d started crying again.

As Danie busily worked on Ruth’s hair and Jenna pounced on Danie’s makeup supplies in order to do her face, Elisabeth was ordered to lay on the couch with tea bags wrapped in tissue on her eyes to bring down the puffiness. She lay with her eyes closed, trying to block out the sounds of merriment around her because it only made her mad. Why was everyone so cheerful when her wedding day had been ruined?

She heard a car pull into the driveway. She figured it had to be Andie with the dress until she heard Ginger’s voice.

“Sorry I’m late, but I overslept my alarm and then took too long in the shower,” Ginger said. “Then I ran into Grandma and Grandpa at the hotel and they invited me to breakfast. I figured you guys would have enough to do with Elisabeth and the others, so I’ll just go last. Where is Elisabeth, anyway?”

“In the living room,” Charlie said. Her voice lowered as she told Ginger about the dress. Since Elisabeth heard nothing about Lydia's true reason, she guessed Jenna had opted not to tell anyone about that.

“Oh, my God,” Elisabeth heard Ginger say. “Was she that upset about her husband not being invited to the wedding? Because if it really became that much of an issue, I would’ve told Darcy that I could’ve put up with him for a day. There would’ve been enough people at the reception that I could’ve easily avoided him. And if it was done for my well-being, I appreciate the thought but I’m tougher than that. Seeing him wasn’t going to make me fall apart.”

“No, but it might’ve made Darcy mad enough to shove his head into a punch bowl,” Jenna said. “And if Darcy hadn’t done it, Elisabeth might’ve. There was no guarantee that George make trouble somehow. He’s good at making trouble.”

“Tell me about it,” Ginger said wryly. “So what’s Elisabeth going to do about the dress?”

“She’s going to borrow my grandmother’s dress, provided it fits,” Charlie said. “I don’t know about this, Gran. I think it might be a bit small.”

“It’s too bad Grace couldn't be persuaded to give up Granny Bess’s dress,” Heather said. “It would’ve been perfect, and it was so beautiful.”

“Did you think so? I never thought it looked so great in the pictures,” Ruth said with disdain. “It was some sort of frilly concoction, wasn’t it? All lace and bows and sleeves so wide you couldn’t fit through a door.”

There was a long silence in the kitchen. Then Amanda said, “You’ve just described my dress, Ruth, although not as I would’ve.”

Elisabeth heard muffled laughter. She felt a stab of envy, because they could laugh about this and she couldn’t. She was the one who was going to have to wear that monstrosity if it fit, and if it didn’t...if it didn’t...

She wasn’t going to worry about that just then. The time to worry would be when Andie showed up with the dress.

“Granny Bess’s dress was stunning,” Heather said. “It had satin that glowed in the light and gold beads and pearls and this lovely veil...I don’t know how they ever afforded it. Was no one able to talk Grace and Bethany into at least loaning it to Elisabeth?”

“No,” Ruth grumbled. “Grace said Elisabeth couldn’t be trusted with something so special, and Bethany had no say in whether or not Elisabeth could use it even though the gown was in her possession.”

“Well, once Aunt Grace said no, Bethany wasn’t going to go against her,” Jenna said. “Perfect Little Bethany wouldn’t want to upset her grandmother and have her think she was less than perfect.”

“I wish you girls would stop calling her that,” Ruth said. “It’s disrespectful.”

“Yes, very disrespectful,” Aunt Amanda said. “Even if it’s true. Bethany won’t loan it even though...”

“You’re not helping, Amanda.”

The sound of another car pulling into the drive had Danie saying, “That’ll be Andie. I recognize the rattle of her engine.” Elisabeth tossed the tea bags into a trash can and got off the couch. She walked into the kitchen just as the door opened and Andie, clutching a garment bag, opened the door.

“Here it is!” Andie announced. “I checked it before I brought it back, and it doesn’t look so bad, Gran. No moth holes that I could see.”

“It shouldn’t have anything wrong with it. I packed it myself after offering it to my girls, not that either of them took me up on it. I can’t understand why, since it’s a gorgeous dress and wearing it would’ve helped keep the costs of their weddings down.” Aunt Amanda stood up and took the bag from Andie. She smiled as she offered it to Elisabeth, who hesitated. “Well, what are you waiting for? Go try it on.”

“Yes, Aunt Amanda,” Elisabeth said listlessly, going to Andie’s bedroom with Charlie two steps behind her. Although she wanted complete privacy and a few more minutes to cry, Charlie insisted on being with her. Thankfully, she also insisted on locking Ruth out of her bedroom.

“You’ll need someone to hook the back,” Charlie said. “I’ve seen this dress, and it’s got about fifty buttons down the back. I swear, when I get married, my dress is going to have a zipper.”

“Mine had a zipper,” Elisabeth said absently.

Charlie didn’t say anything as Elisabeth got undressed. She took the gown out of the bag and grimaced. “Ugh. I hate to say this, El, but I’d rather wear a paper bag than this dress. Thank God I’m too heavy to ever be offered it.”

“You could have it altered.”

“If you mention that to my grandmother, I’ll kill you. Anyway, once you wear it, it’s yours to keep, so be sure to find an incinerator once the wedding pictures are taken and throw it in.”

“I was under the impression that I was just borrowing this dress. Aunt Amanda said nothing about my getting to keep it,” Elisabeth said as she stepped into the gown.

“Well, who else is she going to give it to?” Charlie waited until Elisabeth had put her arms through the ridiculous sleeves before she started to button it up.

“And here I was going to consider it as my ‘something old’ and ‘something borrowed.’ Since Lydia destroyed my original dress, I was going to be the ‘something blue,’ which just left me with ‘something new.’”

“And the lucky penny in your shoe.”

Elisabeth snorted. “The way my day’s gone so far, I want more than one penny. How’s it coming?”

“About as well as could be expected,” Charlie said.

“In other words, it fits perfectly.”

“Uh-huh. I’ve just about got it done...there. How does it feel?”

Elisabeth stared at herself in Andie’s full-length mirror, a sob rising in her throat. She looked awful, and it wasn’t just because she was so unhappy. The gown was tight in the chest, but not tight enough that she could complain that it wouldn’t do. She turned to Charlie, who immediately put her arms around her as Elisabeth started crying.

When Elisabeth went to put her arms around Charlie, she heard a loud rip. Charlie gasped as Elisabeth pulled back, trying to figure out where it had torn.

“It’s the sleeves,” Charlie said quietly, turning Elisabeth back to face the mirror. “Both of them. Look.”

Elisabeth stared at the huge rip in the sleeves and knew there wouldn’t be time to fix them before the ceremony. She pressed a hand to her chest, as if that could take away the pain she felt. She might not have liked the idea of wearing Aunt Amanda’s wedding dress, but it had been better than nothing.

Now she didn’t even have that.

“Elisabeth? Have you got the dress on? Does it fit?” Ruth called from the closed door. Charlie walked over to the door and unlocked it, allowing Ruth to come in. Ruth took one look at Elisabeth and the dress and said, “We’re going to need more tea bags.”

Chapter Seventy-Eight

Posted on Monday, 5 January 2004

In order for Elisabeth to have time to shop for a wedding dress, Ruth had insisted that Danie stop doing Charlie’s hair and start working on Elisabeth’s. It was a tall order, given that there was no veil to be put in place and no guarantee that there would be one. Ruth insisted that Danie go with the hairstyle she and Elisabeth had perfected beforehand, and once Elisabeth’s hair was done and her makeup applied, Ruth shoved Elisabeth into her car and left the others to get to the church on their own.

Ruth drove maniacally from Charlie’s parents’ house to the church, but Elisabeth hardly noticed. She’d tried her best to let despair sink in about the wedding dress, but now that she was at the church with nothing to wear, she felt like crying. Only she couldn’t cry because her mother would kill her if she ruined her makeup.

Things might not have been so bad for her if her mother hadn’t felt compelled to talk nonstop about Lydia. She was mad at Lydia. She wished Lydia hadn’t done it. She had started to say that Lydia must’ve had a reason for doing it, but Elisabeth had turned the radio up full blast when the words started to come out of Ruth’s mouth so she didn’t have to hear it. Elisabeth just wanted to forget about Lydia because if she thought about Lydia, she thought about the dress, and that brought her right back to the crux of her problem.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been madder at that girl in my life,” Ruth said as they pulled into the church parking lot. “What she did to your dress is unforgivable. But worse than that, who are you going to get to replace Lydia as bridesmaid? You’re not going to be able to find anyone who can wear her dress because she’s so thin.”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Elisabeth snapped for the sixth time as her mother swung viciously into a parking space, nearly hitting the car to right of them. As it was, she’d barely left Elisabeth enough room to slither out of the car. “You can’t honestly expect me to let that little viper remain in the wedding party after she ruined my dress.” Elisabeth still couldn’t speak of it without tears forming in her eyes.

“Well, we’ll figure out something. Maybe that pretty little sister of Darcy’s best man could step in. Well, she’s not little, which is for the good since Liddy’s so tall. The dress would probably fit her.” Ruth got out of the car and dragged out the garment bags containing her dress and Lydia’s, as if anyone was going to be wearing that one.

“No, it wouldn’t. Mallory actually has a figure. Lydia doesn’t. Besides, how could I ask her to wear a dress that was specially made for someone else? Especially since that person...since...” Elisabeth’s face crumpled again.

“Don’t you dare cry, Elisabeth Cathleen. You’ll ruin your makeup.”

“Oh, what do I care?” Elisabeth said dejectedly. “What’s ruined makeup when you compare it to a ruined wedding dress? What am I going to wear? A nightgown?”

Ruth checked her watch. “We could go to the bridal shop here in town. You’re not likely to find anything that you like, especially given how picky you were about choosing a dress in the first place, but surely you’ll find something that will do.”

“I don’t want something that will do! I want my dress!”

“Well, thanks to your sister, you no longer have a dress. It’s whatever we can find at the bridal shop or nothing.” Ruth checked her watch again. “Let’s go. Get back in the car.”

Elisabeth shook her head. “I’m not going. I don’t want to go. I just want to...you know what? You go. You pick out a dress that you think will do, or a burlap sack or whatever. I don’t care anymore.”

“You will care when the pictures come back and you’re miserable,” Ruth said. “But you have to come along to try on the dress.”

“Aunt Ruth!” Her cousin Bethany was walking over to them, carrying a large garment bag in her arms.

Elisabeth didn’t bother smothering the groan that rose in her throat. Just what I need, Perfect little Bethany showing up and being smug because my wedding’s been shot to hell. She started to walk toward the church so she could avoid having to talk to her.

“Hello, Bethany,” Ruth said. “Elisabeth, aren’t you going to say hello to your cousin?”

“Hi,” Elisabeth said shortly, not bothering to stop walking.

“Well, wait a minute! You might want this. Aunt Amanda called Grandma and told her what Lydia had done to your dress.”

“So?”

“So Aunt Amanda told Grandma to stop being selfish and let you have this dress.”

That made Elisabeth stop walking and turn back to look at Bethany, for the first time taking serious note of the bag she was holding. “What is that?” she asked.

Bethany smiled. “It’s Granny Bess’s wedding gown. Grandma thinks you’re probably too tall for it, but Granny Bess used to say that she was five-five before she started shrinking in her old age, and you’re about that tall.”

Elisabeth slowly walked back to the car, where Ruth and Bethany stood. “I’m five-six. But she said I couldn’t have it because she was the oldest daughter and it should stay in her family,” Elisabeth said.

“Well, she still thinks that. It took a lot of talking on Aunt Amanda’s part to convince her to let you have it, and I never thought I’d see the day when someone could outtalk Grandma, but that’s just what Aunt Amanda did. She said that Granny Bess’s dress was made for someone whose figure was fuller than anyone in our family would ever have, and she was sure that Granny Bess would want you to have it because you were her namesake.”

“If she’d thought that, it would’ve been left to me in her will,” Elisabeth said. “So that’s what convinced her?”

“Well, if it wasn’t that, it was the sly mention of the fact that you named your daughter after her that won the day. She agreed to give you the dress. Technically speaking, it was my dress to give since Grandma offered it to me when I got married and it’s been at my house ever since, but I wouldn’t have done it without her permission.”

“Of course not, but could we go back to the part where Aunt Amanda said I named my daughter after Aunt Grace? Because that’s not true and I wouldn’t want her thinking it is.”

“Oh, I know that. You named her Charlotte, after all. But her middle name is Grace and that’s what you call her and...well, it got you the dress.”

“It might fit her,” Ruth said, her face brightening.

“No, it won’t. Granny Bess was smaller than I was. You’ve seen the wedding portrait. No way will I fit into her dress.”

“You might be surprised,” Bethany said. “You’re bigger in the bust because you’ve had a baby, but other than that, you’re probably close to the size she was on her wedding day. It might be a tight fit, but it should be okay. And the veil is in here and everything and it’s in pristine condition. You won’t know until you try it on, so come on. If it doesn’t fit, you’ll still have time to find something else before the ceremony.”

“Why was it here?” Elisabeth asked. “If Aunt Grace wasn’t going to let me use it, why did she bring it? Did she have a sixth sense premonition that my dress would be ruined, or did she figure something would go wrong because it was my wedding?”

“She figured something would go wrong because it was your wedding.” Bethany looked as though she were ignoring Elisabeth’s glare as she hurried past her toward the church entrance. “Come on. We’ve got to make sure it fits, and we don’t have a lot of time.”

“What’s this ‘we’ stuff?” Elisabeth muttered as she trudged along after her cousin. “I don’t remember her being a part of it.” When Ruth didn’t answer her right away, Elisabeth turned and saw her mother watching Bethany walk into the church with a speculative gleam in her eye. “What?”

“I was just thinking that Bethany would probably be able to----”

“No.” Elisabeth picked up the pace as she reached the church door.

“Elisabeth, be reasonable. Where are you going to find someone who could fit into Lydia’s dress this close to the wedding? Bethany’s tall and slender. She’d be perfect.”

“Oh, sure! ‘Perfect Little Bethany’ once again. Forget it. I’m not going to have that smug little...no way. I don’t want her in my wedding. I don’t care if I’m short a bridesmaid. I’d rather have Mallory, even if I don’t like her much more than I like Bethany.”

“That’s an awful thing to say about your own flesh and blood.” Ruth walked faster and caught up to her before she could walk inside.

“Yeah, well, just because we share a couple of chromosomes doesn’t mean I have to be her best pal. Besides, look at the situation my flesh and blood has put me in today, or have you forgotten about that already?” Elisabeth threw the door open and hurried inside. “Is someone making sure Darcy’s not around to see me?”

“Darcy’s not here right now. Stop avoiding the idea. Bethany is letting you use your grandmother’s dress. She didn’t have to do that.”

“So just because they’re doing the right thing now rather than three months ago when I asked if I could have the dress, I should let Bethany be in my wedding? Do you realize that if I’d been planning to wear Granny Bess’s dress all along, Lydia wouldn’t have destroyed it? She might hate my guts, but she loved Granny Bess and she wouldn’t have destroyed something that she knew would bring a world of hurt down on her.”

“Would you like to think about what other measures Lydia might’ve taken if she hadn’t destroyed your wedding dress? At the moment, I wouldn’t. I’ve worked too hard on this wedding for her to ruin it with her childish tantrums. She’s come perilously close to doing so, but Bethany and your aunt have stepped in at the last minute to save everything and the least you could do is show your appreciation.”

“I will. I’ll send Aunt Grace a very nice thank you card when I get back from my honeymoon.” Elisabeth rushed up the stairs that led to the Sunday school rooms and hurried into the nursery, which was where she would finish getting ready. Bethany was already inside with the bag unzipped, leaving Elisabeth to admire her great-grandmother’s dress.

“Elisabeth...” Ruth trailed off, clearly not wanting to continue the conversation with Bethany in the room.

“I didn’t realize that I’d tried to pick a dress like hers,” Elisabeth said as she stepped over to the dress and touched one of the net sleeves. The gown’s material gleamed in the light. “What kind of material is this?”

“Slipper satin,” Bethany said briskly. “Isn’t it gorgeous?”

“It is,” Ruth said. “I never realized what a beautiful dress it was. It looks nothing like Amanda’s dress, nothing at all. Why didn’t you wear it, Bethany? You might have been able to alter it.”

“I’m too tall for it by about six inches. One inch shouldn’t make such a great difference, but six? There was no point in even thinking about trying, even if it could’ve been altered, which I doubt. This one was custom-made for Granny Bess.”

“I don’t know about that collar, though, or the train. That train has to be at least three feet long,” Elisabeth said hesitantly, as she ran a hand across the net covering the bodice from the sweetheart neckline to the high collar. She looked down at the gored skirt with its’ impossible train. “I haven’t practiced walking in it, and I know I’ll end up ruining the train and this is such a beautiful dress that...”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, shut up and get out of those clothes so we can try it on,” Ruth said.

“There’s a wrist loop to help you with the train. And if all else fails, Grandma can find someone who can clean and repair the dress. Although you should take special care of it because she’ll never forgive you if it gets ruined.” Bethany held up the veil with its’ crown headpiece. “Amazing how good it looks after all this time.”

“Bess told me when I first got engaged to your father that she and her family saved for months in order to get the money for the dress,” Ruth said. “She used to say her parents had more pride than common sense, insisting on making her a wedding gown fit for a queen. Did she ever tell you the story, Ellie?”

Elisabeth nodded absently, although she remembered the story had a slightly different slant to it.

“I knew exactly what I wanted, and I got it. Even sold my hair to a wigmaker, which infuriated your grandfather. He loved my hair so much that when I cut it off, he threatened not to marry me.” Granny Bess smiled in memory.

“Weren’t you afraid he might not marry you when you did it?” Elisabeth had asked even though she’d heard the story a hundred times.

“Not at all. Roy was mad about me. Loved me for more than my hair, though I had to remind him of that every day until it grew long enough for him to be happy again. He made me promise never to cut it again and always noticed when I had it trimmed.”

“But you sold your hair and took in as much extra work as you could so you could have the dress.”

“And my sisters and I worked night and day to get it ready. The only thing we bought ready-made was the veil, and that was my fool father’s doing. I told him we could do it, but he would show off for the Bennet family. He wanted them to know that he could turn his daughter out as well as anyone else could, even though they didn’t care about that.”

“But you did get a beautiful dress to marry Grampa Roy in,” Elisabeth said wistfully. “Can I see it?”

Granny Bess snorted. “Wish I could give it to you, but Grace ‘borrowed’ it in the hopes that Bethany could wear it and never gave it back. I could’ve told her that there was no way that dress would look good on the girl----no hips at all, poor thing----but Grace insisted. She said later that it would only be going to her as the oldest girl anyway, so it would just be easier if she took it now. It was easier to agree with her rather than fight, but if you decide you want to wear it when you get married, I’ll fight the devil herself to get it for you.”

“I doubt I ever get married,” Elisabeth grumbled. “All I ever seem to attract are total losers, and I wouldn’t marry them if you paid me.”

“You never know, Elisabeth. Your Prince Charming is probably waiting for you just around the corner.”

This time, Elisabeth snorted. “If my current boyfriend’s anything to judge my tastes by, it’s not likely.”

“Well, you know what you have to do, then. Change your taste in men.”

“You make that sound as easy as changing my socks.”

Granny Bess shrugged. “Your grandpa wasn’t what you would call ‘my type’ when I met him, but I fell in love with him anyway.”

“Elisabeth, are you going to get out of those clothes and try this on? We don’t have a lot of time, you know.”

“Hmm?” Elisabeth blinked and realized that Bethany had unbuttoned the dress in anticipation of Elisabeth trying it on. “Oh, right.” Elisabeth kicked off her shoes and quickly slipped out of the loose-fitting button-down shirt and jeans she’d worn through the morning, taking only a few seconds to smirk as Bethany blushed and turned her back to afford Elisabeth some privacy.

Once free of her street clothes, Elisabeth stood still as her mother took care not to mess up her hair or makeup as she pulled the dress over Elisabeth’s head. Elisabeth thrust her arms into the sleeves as Ruth started buttoning up the back. Elisabeth sucked in her stomach in hopes that it would at least fit at the waist, completely forgetting that she had worn a corset. Feels fine so far, she thought as she closed her eyes and waited for her mother to tell her that the buttons wouldn’t meet. All she felt were Ruth’s nimble fingers continuing to button the dress, and they were getting to the top.

“It is a beautiful gown,” Ruth said.

“Funny. You didn’t think so when I picked out one that was similar to it,” Elisabeth said. “You seemed to think my gown was plain.”

“Compared to this, Elisabeth, your gown was plain. If you’d chosen something like this, we wouldn’t have had nearly as much trouble.”

“If Aunt Grace would’ve been nice enough to let me have it in the first place...didn’t we already have this fight?” Elisabeth wondered if she was imagining her mother’s hands reaching for the buttons at the back of her neck.

“At this point, I think we’ve fought over everything in the universe, which means we’re ready for the second time through. And you’re buttoned up, so you can let go of that breath you’ve been holding and take a look.”

Someone----Elisabeth didn’t know who, nor did she care----had taken the time to set up a full-length mirror in the nursery. Elisabeth faced the mirror and felt her mouth go dry. The dress clung to her curves as if the dress had been made for her instead of her great-grandmother. “Oh, my God,” she breathed, raising a hand to touch her cheek to be sure the person she saw in the mirror was herself.

“Don’t you dare touch your face!” Ruth commanded. “You’ll ruin your makeup.”

Elisabeth looked down at the dress, craning her neck to take a look at the back. “Oh, my God,” she repeated. She could almost picture Granny Bess standing in front of a mirror on her wedding day, hardly believing that her family had been able to afford the dress.

“It’s perfect,” Bethany said. “Almost like it was made for you, only it wasn’t because it was made for Granny Bess.”

Elisabeth looked down at the rest of the dress, looking behind her at the train. She felt a creeping sense of deja vu, but she couldn’t for the life of her think of why. “Oh, God. It may be perfect, but I’m going to feel like I’m swimming in material when I actually have to move. How am I going to do anything in this dress? Say what you want about the other one, Ma, but at least I could move around comfortably.”

As Bethany was showing her how to use the wrist loop, which Elisabeth was convinced was a lost cause, she heard a noise from outside the door, which preceded the arrival of Charlie, Ginger, and Jenna.

“It’s about time you three got here,” Ruth snapped as their laughter died out. “Where have you been?”

“Well, believe it or not, Aunt Ruth, it took Danie some time to get out hair looking as good as yours,” Charlie said sweetly. “And there were three of us. There was only one Elisabeth, and you left as soon as hers was done.”

“Ma, you only left Aunt Heather’s half an hour ago. It hasn’t been that long,” Jenna said in an effort to smooth things over. “Have you had any luck in figuring out what...” Whatever else Jenna planned on saying died out as she got a look at her sister. She gave a soft whistle.

“That’s...that’s Granny Bess’s dress,” Charlie said. “How did you get her dress?”

“Aunt Grace gave it to me,” Elisabeth said. “What do you think?”

“It looks divine,” Ginger said. “You look stunning, El, and Dare is going to need a glass of water when he sees you in it. I guess your aunt’s not such a witch after all, is she?”

Charlie giggled until Jenna jabbed her in the ribs to quiet her. Bethany frowned at Ginger and said, “No, my grandmother isn’t a witch. Not at all. Why would you think that?”

“Bethany, this is Darcy’s sister Ginger. Gin, this is my cousin Bethany Larsen,” Elisabeth said.

“Oh, so this is...Bethany,” Ginger finished weakly. “It’s nice to meet you, Bethany. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“It sounds like you have,” Bethany said a tight smile.

“The dress looks like it was made just for you, Elisabeth,” Jenna said in her continuing role as mediator. “But how did you get it here so fast? I thought you’d just found out this morning about what Lydia did to your wedding dress.”

“Aunt Grace figured something was going to go wrong, so she brought the dress along with her,” Elisabeth said.

“Wasn’t that nice of her to plan ahead?” Charlie rolled her eyes at Jenna, but only once Bethany and Ruth’s backs were turned.

“Don’t just stand there, girls, get dressed,” Ruth said, ignoring Charlie’s remark. “I want to see how your dresses turned out.”

“Ma, you’ve already seen my dress, remember? You were with me and Lyd—I mean, with me when I had my final fitting.”

“I was referring to Charlie and Ginger. I haven’t seen their dresses. Why haven’t I seen your dresses, girls? As mother of the bride, I should’ve been there when you got them to make sure they turned out all right. What if the shade of green you chose is different from the color of Lydia’s dress?”

“Elisabeth chose the fabric, so there’s no way the color of the dresses can be different,” Ginger said. “She sent the material to me in New York for my dress.”

“Oh? I hadn’t been told that. That was smart thinking on your part, Ellie.”

Elisabeth muttered, “At least I’m getting credit for something.” She was still fighting a lost battle with the train of the dress when she heard her mother’s horrified gasp. It was then that she remembered why her mother hadn’t seen Charlie’s dress before now.

“Charlotte Lucas, how...how could you do such a thing? How could you wreck your own cousin’s wedding like this?” Ruth then whirled on Ginger. “And you! It’s your brother getting married today, and you’re sabotaging it!”

“What are you talking about?” Ginger asked innocently, as if she hadn’t known this problem was going to come up.

“That...that is not what Elisabeth chose for you to wear. I have the dress design right here, and that wasn’t what you were supposed to wear.” Ruth ripped the protective bag off of Lydia’s dress, leaving Elisabeth wondering why she’d brought it in the first place since Lydia wasn’t going to be anywhere near the church if she was smart. “You see this? This is what your dress should look like.”

“No offense, Mrs. Atchison, but a sleeveless dress like that only looks good on thin women, like...well, like Bethany. Charlie and I aren’t fat, exactly, but we’ve got a bit more to us and that dress would only accentuate that fact. We’d look hideous and you wouldn’t want that, would you? You’d be stuck looking at Elisabeth’s wedding pictures years down the road and wishing you’d chosen different bridesmaids’ dresses.”

“But...but...I didn’t...” Ruth sputtered.

“I know this wasn’t what you wanted, but I’m sure you can see why it was better that Charlie and I wear something that covers our upper arms.” Ginger smiled wickedly and looked at the daring bodice of her gown. “And exposed what we’ve got to flaunt.”

“Well, I guess you’ve got a point, but I still think...”

“Great, glad you approve. What do you think, El?” Charlie asked as she did a quick pirouette.

“You look great,” Elisabeth said. “Really great.” She continued to practice walking in the dress while her mother changed and was starting to get the hang of it when she thought she heard someone playing the organ. “Oh, God. Oh, my God.”

“Stop blaspheming in church,” Ruth ordered. She frowned. “Is someone playing...Charlie, do any of your sisters play the piano?”

“No. Danie tried but was better at singing, and Andie doesn’t have a musical bone in her body.”

“Then someone...oh, for God’s sake!” Ruth stormed out of the nursery, no doubt heading to stop whoever was playing the organ. When she was gone, Bethany surprised them all by bursting into laughter.

“What’s so funny?” Elisabeth asked.

“I...I know I shouldn’t laugh, but your poor mother! She r-really needs to take a t-tranquilizer!” Bethany continued to laugh.

Elisabeth was torn between being annoyed at Bethany because she was finding this situation amusing and being surprised that Bethany was having what was decidedly an un-Bethany-like reaction to it.

“S-she’s about as bad as my grandmother was w-when I got married,” Bethany said, calming down enough to speak again. “I love Grandma Grace, but she can be so difficult sometimes. Like the dress, for instance. When your mother called her in December and asked if you could have it, she didn’t even hesitate before saying no. I told her that I would be more than happy to give it to you, but she wouldn’t hear of it.” Bethany looked at Elisabeth. “The dress wouldn’t be here at all if I hadn’t packed it at the last minute because I felt you might want it even though you’d already bought one. When Grandma Grace found out what I’d done, she was furious.”

“But you said that the reason the dress was here was because she figured something would go wrong.”

Bethany shook her head. “No, but that’s the excuse I gave her, and it almost wasn’t good enough to get you the dress this morning when we heard what Lydia had done to yours.” She sighed. “Which would’ve been a shame, because I think you were fated to have this dress for your wedding. You look amazing.”

Elisabeth looked at her reflection again, smiled, and then asked Bethany to be her third bridesmaid.

Darcy stared at his reflection in his bathroom mirror. Although it showed that everything was in place, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. He hadn’t been made aware of the brouhaha over Elisabeth’s wedding dress, nor did he know that for a while his wedding had been short a bridesmaid. He didn’t know that Ruth was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, although if he’d been told he would’ve said he’d suspected this for months.

All he knew, instinctively, was that something was wrong.

He’d tried to call Elisabeth’s house earlier, but Ruth wouldn’t let him speak to her. “She’s in the shower. And anyway, it’s bad luck for the bride and groom to talk before the wedding,” she told him.

“I thought it was bad luck if we saw each other,” he replied.

“I’m not taking any chances,” she’d said before hanging up.

He tried calling Elisabeth on her cell phone, but there was no answer. He left a voice mail and hoped she would think to check it, although he held out little hope that she would. It was her wedding day, after all. After leaving the voice mail, he’d left for the church.

Naturally, the first person he’d run into was Ruth, who was tearing into some innocent kid whose only crime, Darcy found out later, was playing the organ.

“If you ever pull another stunt like that again, Martin, I will personally tan your hide until you can’t sit for a week! Do you understand me?”

The five-year-old would-be music prodigy gave Ruth a bewildered nod. The minute Ruth let him go, he scampered off to see what other sorts of trouble he could get into, having not learned his lesson at all.

“Hello, Ruth,” Darcy said cheerfully as his future mother-in-law nearly jumped out of her dress.

“You! What are you doing here?” Ruth snapped.

“Getting married, unless your daughter’s changed her mind and taken off for parts unknown.” The feeling that something was wrong popped up again and caused his stomach to start hurting. “She hasn’t done that, has she?”

“Of course not. Why would you think she’d do a stupid thing like that? If there’s one thing I hoped my daughters learned from me, it’s that you don’t let the good ones get away if at all possible. So far, it seems like Elisabeth was the only one paying attention when I said that. But you shouldn’t be here. You should be off somewhere else, where you can’t see Elisabeth.”

“I know, I know. I’ll go hide in a second.” Darcy took a look at Ruth in her mother-of-the-bride dress and said, “You look lovely, Ruth.”

Ruth looked down at the gown before smiling. “Well, thank you, Darcy. It’s nice of you to say, although by the time a woman gets to be my age, she shouldn’t care as much about such things. I’ve got two daughters who are married and one who should’ve been by now, but I still try to take care of myself as best I can.”

“Of course you do.” Darcy glanced around, hoping in spite of everything to get a glimpse of Elisabeth, just so he could be sure she was all right.

“Darcy?”

“Yes.”

“You’re standing around hoping to see her, aren’t you? Get going. Your cousins and Jack are already here waiting for you, and...”

“Would you tell me if Elisabeth’s all right?” Darcy asked. “I only ask because I’ve been worried all day that something’s wrong with her and it would be a relief to know everything’s fine.”

Ruth gave him a puzzled look. “Don’t tell me that Elisabeth’s belief that she can sense things before they go wrong is rubbing off on you. She didn’t say a word about sensing anything this morning, and after what happened...”

“What happened to Elisabeth?” Darcy asked, chills running down his back.

“Oh, nothing to her, not exactly. It’s just that your wedding is currently short a bridesmaid, although I’m hoping to convince Elisabeth to rectify that matter soon. You see, Lydia...well, I hardly know how any daughter of mine could’ve done something so vicious, especially when I told her half a dozen times how much it was costing Mel and I, but she almost managed to ruin the whole wedding.”

Darcy was confused. If she’d brought George to the wedding, which was the only thing he could think of Lydia doing, how was it costing Mel and Ruth anything?

“...I guess it was just as well, because now Elisabeth is wearing a dress that is ten times better than the one she picked out.”

“The dress? What dress?”

Ruth gave him an annoyed look. “Haven’t you been listening to me? Lydia destroyed Elisabeth’s wedding dress last night, although I have no idea when she could’ve done it because when I know it was in Elisabeth’s closet last night when I went to bed and Elisabeth slept the whole night through.”

Darcy hoped his face wasn’t looking guilty, because he had a pretty good idea of when Elisabeth’s dress had gone missing. “She must’ve been quiet when she stole it,” Darcy said in a strangled voice. “So Elisabeth doesn’t have a dress now?”

“You really weren’t listening. She does have a dress. She has her grandmother’s dress, and it’s lovely. And before too long, we’ll hopefully have a bridesmaid to replace Lydia.”

“I don’t think Lydia’s replaceable,” Darcy said. “And I don’t think we’d want another like her, given what she’s done.”

Ruth was really annoyed now. “I meant to take Lydia’s place in the ceremony,” she said. “Oh, I give up. You’re mooning around in a daze, and there’ll be no getting through to you for a while. Go on, get to the basement, and do your best to avoid anyone wearing white or green.”

“Green? Why green?”

“Because the bridesmaids are in green, and it’s bad luck for the groom to see any of the bridesmaids before the wedding.”

“I thought that only had to do with the bride and groom,” Darcy said.

“I’m not taking any chances. There’s been enough bad luck today as it is. Now go.”

So Darcy had went, and quickly found Jack, Chazz, D.J. and James all waiting for him. They teased him for being so late after he’d been the one to duck out of the bachelor party first. He ignored them as he checked his appearance again. He wished he’d thought to bring something to keep himself occupied----a newspaper, a movie, a beer, anything!

Just as he was about to scream in sheer terror, there was a knock on the door of the room where they were waiting for everything to start.

“I hope that’s not Ruth,” Chazz muttered as he pulled at the collar of his shirt. “Every time she sees me, she says there’s something else wrong with the way I look. I think she knows about me and Jenna.”

“Impossible. If she knew, there’d have been a banner flown across Effingham announcing that Ruth Atchison got all three of her daughters married in one year,” Jack said. “And if she tells me one more time that it’s bad luck for the groomsmen to see a bridesmaid before the wedding, I’m going to shoot her. I’ve been trying to let Charlie know for the past hour that I’ve got our wedding gift for you guys in the car. I’m sure she’s been going crazy because she doesn’t know I have it, but Ruth won’t even let me get within fifty feet of her.”

“Who is it?” D.J. asked, as he was the only one who remembered why the conversation had gone in this direction.

“It’s Ginger. Let me in before Ruth sees me and orders me back to the nursery.”

“Is that where you guys are holed up?” Jack asked as D.J. opened the door and Ginger stepped in. “She wouldn’t say a word, and she didn’t move an inch until I was back down here.”

“Yeah, that’s where we’re at.” Before Ginger could say anything else, Jack and Chazz were gone to spend a few quality minutes with their girlfriends. Darcy wished he could have the same amount of time with Elisabeth, but he’d just as soon avoid Ruth’s ire. When she wanted to be, he thought with a grin, she could be worse than his aunt.

“Ginger, you are absolutely stunning. Did Ruth have much to say about your dress?” D.J. asked.

“Nah. I managed to talk her out of the worst of her anger. Besides, with everything else that’s happened today, bridesmaids dresses that weren’t what she was expecting is nothing.”

“What’s been going on?” James asked.

Ginger explained the situation with the wedding dress, carefully avoiding all the questions about why Lydia had done it, Darcy noted. He'd have to ask Elisabeth for the details later.

“Anyway, I’d better get back, but before I do, I just have to give this to Darcy.” Ginger held up a note she’d been holding. “Elisabeth insisted I give this to you.”

Darcy took the folded piece of paper, thanked his sister, and opened the note. He didn’t notice when Ginger left or when Chazz and Jack returned with Ruth sniping at their heels. He read Elisabeth’s note five times, savoring the words more with each reading.

My darling Dare----

I’m writing this note because my mother is convinced if we see each other, we’ll have nothing but bad luck. There may be something to that, since we saw each other this morning and you’ve no doubt heard what Lydia did. However, being the brave soul that I am, I’m defying her edict that we have nothing to do with each other until we meet at the altar by sending you this. Let bad luck take its’ best shot. Seems to me like it already has, and I’m still here.

It seems strange to realize that the next time I’ll see you, we’ll be standing at the altar about to be married. I know we’re about to stand before God, our guests, and most importantly, my mother, and vow to love each other the rest of our lives, but I wanted to say here, in this note that only you will be reading, just how much love you. I may not have known it, but the best day in my life was the day you walked into Planet Earth Pizza for a job interview. We’ve had our share of bad moments, but they don’t seem as important as they did at the time.

I know our future may not be as bright as we hope it will be. I know we’ll have times of trouble and sorrow. I know we’ll have moments of anger where we won’t speak to each other. What I pray will happen is that our love will be as strong in the future as it is right now, and we’ll be able to get through it. I believe if we’re able to remember how we feel right now, at this moment, we can get through anything. Haven’t we been through so much already?

If you should ever you doubt my love for you, or if you ever think I love you less than you love me, read this letter, and put all your fears away. You are my future, Darcy Williamson. Never forget it.

Love always,

Elisabeth.

P.S. You’re not always Mr. Sunshine in the mornings, either.

Darcy folded the letter when he heard the organ playing for real this time. He stuck it into his pocket and made his way upstairs to wait for the ceremony to begin.

Elisabeth stood at the end of the line, watching as Ruth was escorted down the aisle by Darcy’s cousin Terry. The handkerchief was already in her mother’s hand and was likely to remain there for the entire ceremony. After Ruth came Darcy’s grandparents. Mary stopped just long enough to give Elisabeth one last smile before walking down the aisle.

Katie the flower girl was so nervous that she managed to dump most of the rose petals in the first six steps she took. Elisabeth would’ve laughed if she hadn’t been so nervous. She clung to Mel’s arm a little tighter as Trey ran down the aisle in his capacity as the ring bearer, nearly tripping in his haste. A ripple of laughter went through the chapel. Elisabeth couldn’t see her mother, but she had a good idea of what her expression would be.

The next to walk down the aisle were Charlie and Jack, arm in arm. The sight of Charlie in her tea-length green dress gave Elisabeth a jolt, and she finally realized with a jolt why she kept getting a sense of deja vu.

Dear God, it’s almost like my dream!

Elisabeth was so taken aback by the realization that she barely noticed when Bethany and Chazz started down the aisle, followed by Ginger and James.

Elisabeth’s knees felt weak as she remembered the dream from a year ago. Admittedly, her dress was fantastic and she wasn’t getting married at Planet Earth Pizza or at the mall, but the man waiting for her at the end of the aisle was definitely Darcy Williamson. Charlie had looked so radiant in her green dress and her hair had looked just as she’d imagined that Elisabeth looked around to be sure that she was, in fact, in a church and not at the store.

Jenna took her first few steps down the aisle, causing more than a few young men to gape in her wake. Elisabeth felt a knot in the pit of her stomach and for a second feared that she was going to be sick.

“Are you all right, Elisabeth?” Mel whispered.

Elisabeth nodded infinitesimally. “Just nervous,” she said.

“I remember the feeling when I married your mother. I’d waited so long to find someone like her that I almost couldn’t believe it when she agreed to marry me.”

“How did you know she was the right one? I mean, did you make a list in your head or did you just know?”

Mel shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t have a list of attributes that I wanted in my wife. I don’t think I could be specific about why I love your mother. I just...I just love her. She’s not perfect, but she’s right for me. And I think I’m right for her.”

“What about my father? If you were right for her, what was he?” Elisabeth asked as the music ended.

“Right for her in his own way.” Mel gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “I never knew him, Ellie, but I’m sure if he was here today he’d be very proud of what a beautiful, grown-up young woman you’ve become.”

“You think so?”

“Absolutely. I know I am.” The organist crashed into the opening bars of the wedding march. “Are you ready?”

Elisabeth almost said yes, but before she did, she hugged him. “Thank you,” she said.

“You’re welcome.” When they parted, he took her hand and walked her down the aisle as everyone present stood up.

Darcy had been standing with D.J. and Pastor Criswell at the altar as the wedding party had made their way down the aisle. He would’ve laughed at Katie losing most of the rose petals in one swoop if he hadn’t been so nervous, and the sight of Trey hurrying down the aisle with the rings had everyone else laughing but had him worrying that he’d lose them. They had been sewn onto the pillow with just a couple of loose stitches, so one mishap could send both rings disappearing into the crowd.

As the adults started walking down the aisle, the knot in Darcy’s stomach only grew larger and he feared that he might be sick. Charlie and Jack led the way, Charlie looking much more confident than she’d been when he’d first met her a year ago. There was a lingering sadness in Jack’s eyes, and there probably always would be, but Darcy could also see a sense of peace in his friend’s face that made him realize Jack had been right----being here was a step in the right direction for him.

He wasn’t sure who the young woman walking with Chazz was at first, because Elisabeth had about a hundred relatives and the only time he’d met most of them had been at Granny Bess’s funeral back in December. It wasn’t until he noticed Elisabeth’s Aunt Grace smiling smugly in the row behind Ruth that Darcy realized this had to be her granddaughter Bethany.

Now why would she ask a cousin she despises to be a bridesmaid? She could’ve asked any one of my relatives. For that matter, she has other relatives on her side she could’ve asked.

After Chazz and Bethany came Ginger and James. Darcy would’ve returned Ginger’s smile except he was afraid to move a muscle, afraid if he did anything that he might run out of the church or do something equally stupid. He felt D.J. put a hand on his shoulder, which made him realize that he’d been holding his breath. He swallowed heavily and prayed that he wouldn’t get sick.

Jenna caused a stir as she walked toward the altar in her gold dress. Chazz murmured, “Oh, she is definitely going to have to put a paper bag over her head at the reception or I’m going to wind up killing someone.”

Darcy turned his head slightly to look at Chazz, whose ears had gone red. He was frowning at the men in the audience who were admiring his fiancée. Jack leaned over slightly to whisper, “We’re in church, you nitwit. Wanna ease up on the murder talk?”

“Hey, you might think about throwing one over Charlie’s head, too. I saw her getting a few looks of her own.”

“Any guy who looks at her better...”

“Shut up,” Darcy hissed, forgetting about how nervous he was as Jenna reached the altar and the music faded out. “What’s wrong with you two?”

The organist started pounding out the wedding march, and every head turned to watch as Mel and Elisabeth entered the chapel. The guests rose to their feet, temporarily blocking his view until Elisabeth reached the end of the aisle, slowly making her way toward him.

Any lingering tension he’d felt before Chazz and Jack had started muttering threats toward the wedding guests faded away as he looked at her. He had no idea what her first dress looked like, but Darcy knew it couldn’t possibly have topped her grandmother’s. At that moment, she could’ve been wearing rags and he wouldn’t have cared, but in the gleaming satin wedding gown, she was so beautiful that he almost stopped breathing again.

Darcy kept his eyes on her as she and Mel continued walking. Her eyes were locked on him as well. If there were other people in the room, he wouldn’t know it. She was the only person he saw, and looking into her glowing green eyes, he knew she was feeling the same way at that moment.

Elisabeth and Mel stopped short of the altar, which caused him to frown slightly until a dim voice in the back of his mind reminded him that this was what was supposed to happen. The music came to a stop and there was a slight pause before the pastor began speaking.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in the sight of God and in the face of this company to join together Darcy and Elisabeth in holy matrimony, which is an honorable institution, instituted of God...”

Elisabeth still couldn’t quite believe that this was finally happening. For the girl who had always seen herself running of to Vegas to get married, standing at the front of a church with the man she’d agreed to marry was surreal.

“If anyone can show just cause why they may not be lawfully joined together, let them speak now or forever hold their peace.”

Elisabeth felt her throat constrict as the pastor paused. Why is he pausing? Shouldn’t we just get right to it? If he waits too long, someone might object. What if Catherine’s lurking around here somewhere or that stooge of hers or...

The silence continued. Elisabeth opened her mouth to snap at him to get to it, that they hadn’t practiced this last night, anything to get the ceremony going again. She looked at Darcy, whose eyes were on her and looking slightly worried.

He doesn’t think I’m going to say something, does he? Elisabeth closed her mouth quickly, hoping he hadn’t thought she had planned to change her mind. She turned her head to look at the guests even though she knew her mother would be furious at her for doing so. It was then that she saw what her mother was doing, which almost made her laugh.

Ruth was looking around at the crowd with a vicious frown on her face, as though she were daring anyone to object to the wedding. When she was satisfied that no one was planning to interrupt, she turned back to face the right way, noticed Elisabeth staring at her, and motioned for her to turn around as well.

Elisabeth glanced at Darcy and smiled. When he smiled back in understanding, she realized that he’d seen Ruth as well.

Pastor Criswell asked, “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?”

Mel said quietly, “Her mother and I do.” He gave Elisabeth one last hug before taking his seat by her mother. Elisabeth saw that her mother was already crying, and she smiled before turning to face her future.

Darcy was holding a hand out to her. She took it, stepped forward to stand with him, and waited for the pastor to continue.

“Darcy, do you take this woman, Elisabeth Cathleen Bennet, to be your lawful wedded wife? Do you promise to love, honor, comfort and cherish her, forsaking all others, keeping only unto her as long as you both shall live?”

Darcy nodded as he said, “I do.”

Pastor Criswell then turned to Elisabeth. “Elisabeth, do you take this man, Darcy Ambrose Williamson, to be your lawful wedded husband? Do you promise to love, honor, comfort, and cherish him, forsaking all others, keeping only unto him as long as you both shall live?”

“I do.”

The ceremony continued, with Elisabeth and Darcy exchanging their vows and rings, and finally came to an end with the pastor saying, “Then by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Darcy, you may kiss the bride.”

Darcy looked down, looking for the end of the veil. He found it and uncovered her face with a deft move. “I think this means you have to kiss the groom,” he murmured.

“Rats. I was hoping to get out of that chore once I was married,” Elisabeth said as she leaned in for a modest kiss. When they broke apart, she wrapped her arms around him, blinking back tears as she heard the preacher introduce them as “Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Williamson.”

Chapter Seventy-Nine

Posted on Sunday, 18 January 2004

As Elisabeth walked back up the aisle with her arm linked with Darcy’s, she felt as though she’d gotten the hard part of the day over with. Oh, not the marriage part----saying her vows to Darcy had been easy enough. But so much had gone into preparing herself for the moment that when it had arrived, she was surprised that it had gone by so quickly, and now she was a married woman.

Elisabeth Williamson. Elisabeth Williamson. That’s going to take some getting used to.

“I heard that.”

“Hmm?” Elisabeth looked up at her new husband, who was looking down at her with a smile. “Heard what?”

“You, saying your new name to yourself.”

“Hey, if you’d had to become Darcy Bennet, you’d be doing the same thing,” Elisabeth said as they walked out the back door of the chapel and headed down the ramp to take their places near the door to greet their guests.

“I would’ve thought you would be practicing it,” Darcy said. “You know, like Drew Barrymore did in The Wedding Singer?”

Elisabeth shook her head as Jenna and D.J. appeared at the top of the ramp. “Ma wouldn’t let me. She said it was bad luck to be calling myself by my married name before I was actually married.”

“Yes, I was meaning to ask you that. Did she buy a book on wedding superstitions or is she planning on writing one in the near future?”

“As many as she’s spouted in the last few days, I think she’s planning on writing one,” Elisabeth said. “Not that they did any good.”

Darcy looked at her dress with a smile. “If my opinion matters, I think your gown is stunning. It looks almost as if it had been made for you.”

“Thanks,” Elisabeth said as she looked down at it. “I couldn’t believe it when Bethany told me it was mine to wear. I didn’t think mauling tigers could’ve pried it from Aunt Grace.” Elisabeth down at the hem of the gown. When facing forward, it was easy enough to walk in. The trouble came when she had to turn. “I don’t know that Gracie will want to wear it when she grows up, though. If she’s like me, she’ll have an aversion to dresses with too much material. I’ve nearly stepped on the train twice already, and I didn’t have far to walk in it.”

Once the rest of the wedding party made their way out of the chapel, the guests started streaming out to give their best wishes to the newlyweds. Elisabeth smiled dutifully as people she barely knew and some she didn’t like wished her well. From her mother’s family, she received polite handshakes and compliments on her dress. From her father’s family, she received hugs and declarations that it was fate which had led her to wearing Granny Bess’s wedding gown, though everyone was careful not to mention Lydia’s role in the matter.

For his part, Darcy took the well wishes of strangers and family in good stride, occasionally clasping hands with Elisabeth or running his fingers over the platinum wedding band on his finger. Elisabeth had insisted that he wear a ring, not that he’d had any objections.

Elisabeth’s Aunt Grace made her way through the line, giving her daughter a compliment about managing to look perfect even though she’d been made a bridesmaid at the last minute. She got to Elisabeth and looked at her in the gown.

“You look lovely, Elisabeth. Quite lovely.”

“Thank you, Aunt Grace. And thank you for the gown. I appreciate it very much,” Elisabeth said.

“Yes, well, just as long as you take good care of it and make sure Bethany gets it back at the end of the evening. In fact, maybe you could go ahead and take it off once all of the wedding pictures are taken, just so you don’t have an accident or anything.”

Elisabeth was confused. She had been under the impression that the gown was hers to keep. Hadn’t Bethany said that?

“Grandma, I thought you agreed to...” Bethany started to say.

“Well, I agreed to loan it to her, but...oh, all right. If you want to wear it until you get ready to leave for your honeymoon, that’s fine. Just make sure Bethany gets it before you leave.”

“Right,” Elisabeth said as her aunt moved on to have a few words with Ruth. She had no intention of giving the gown back. If Aunt Grace could say the gown belonged to her because she’d never bothered to give it back to Granny Bess, then Elisabeth could do the same. Unlike Bethany, Elisabeth had actually worn the gown at her wedding.

Bethany waited until her grandmother was outside the door before she said, “I suppose if you just let me know when you’ll be leaving, I’ll be there to get the dress.”

Elisabeth sighed. Perfect Little Bethany strikes again, she thought.

“Then again, I might get distracted on my way to get the dress or accidentally locked in a closet. That would be...unfortunate, because by the time I would get there, the dress would be gone.”

“Aunt Grace would kill you if she heard you say that,” Jenna said.

“More like she’d die of shock that Bethany would think of a devious scheme like that,” Charlie said.

“There are a few advantages to being ‘Perfect Little Bethany,’ you know. No one would suspect me of a thing.” Bethany winked, which Elisabeth correctly interpreted as her cousin’s bemusement with the nickname she’d been stuck with all these years.

“We won’t lock you in a closet, Bethany, don’t worry,” Charlie said. “No need to tick off Aunt Grace any more than she’ll be ticked off when she finds out what we did.”

“Yes. I’d like to think you guys learned your lesson about locking people up,” Darcy said.

“What was that?” a distant relative of his asked. “Who’s getting locked up?”

“We were just joking about locking ourselves up in our hotel room for seven days when we get to Hawaii,” Elisabeth said quickly. “Forget the sites, forget the sun and beaches and local culture, just have lots of alone time, that sort of thing.”

“Sounds like my honeymoon.” The mystery guest moved on with a wink to shake Ruth’s hand.

Once the last of the guests had passed through, Elisabeth and Darcy signed their marriage license before being herded back into the chapel for pictures.

“I’ve always hated having my picture taken,” Elisabeth said while smiling for the camera. The flash went off and the photographer arranged for Elisabeth’s immediate family to join Darcy and Elisabeth for a picture. Ruth, Mel, and Jenna stepped forward.

“Why?” Darcy asked.

“Because I always feel like a complete idiot when posing. I get to thinking my smile looks dopey and my face looks funny. Sometimes, the photographer takes too long and my eyes are closed when he takes the picture.” The photographer had the shot lined up when Elisabeth frowned. “Hang on a sec. Chazz, get over here.”

“This is a picture of the immediate family, not the wedding party,” Ruth said.

“Chazz is Jenna’s...boyfriend. As such, he should be included in the picture.” Elisabeth waved him over. The photographer gave her a tight smile and told Chazz to stand by Jenna.

“Suppose they break up in a few months. She’ll be stuck looking at this picture where she’s standing with an ex like he’s part of the family. Go away, Chazz.”

“Ma, Chazz and I are engaged. Now can he stay in the picture?”

“What?!” Ruth said loudly, turning to gape at Jenna just as the flash went off.

“Thanks, Jen,” Elisabeth said with false cheer.

“I’m sorry, El, but you asked for Chazz to be in the picture and there was nothing else I could tell her which would work. Besides, it’s the truth.”

“You’re engaged?” Ruth asked once it appeared she was over the worst of the shock. “You’re engaged to Chazz? Since when?”

“Since the beginning of the month. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you distracted from Elisabeth’s wedding, and besides, I wanted to keep it to myself for a while. Well, Chazz and I did, anyway.”

Ruth whirled to face Elisabeth. “You knew about this and didn’t tell me? How could you do that?”

Elisabeth rolled her eyes. Somehow, she’d known this would be all her fault.

“Excuse me, but I think you’re going to want me to take that picture again,” the photographer said. “Everyone, please, back where you were.”

Elisabeth sighed inwardly as Ruth stifled her outraged at being kept in the dark for a month and posed for a second picture. Once they were done with Elisabeth’s family, Ruth grasped Jenna by the arm and dragged her out of the way as Ginger and Darcy’s grandparents joined them at the altar for pictures.

“I bet you’re wishing she’d waited to tell Ruth that until after you were gone,” Ginger said.

Elisabeth shrugged. “No, because I’ve been wishing all along that Jenna would tell Ma so she wouldn’t pester me so much about this wedding.”

“You think that would’ve worked?” Mary asked.

“No, but it might’ve helped a little,” Elisabeth said, smiling quickly as the photographer snapped the picture.

After the pictures were taken, Elisabeth and Darcy got into a limousine and were driven to the K.C. Hall for their reception. The drive was a short one, but Darcy told the driver that they were going to wait a few minutes. The young man behind the wheel smiled and nodded and said nothing as he raised the privacy window.

For a little bit, all they could do was stare at each other with bewilderment. Finally, Elisabeth asked, “Did you get my note?”

“Yeah, I did. Ginger found us and gave me the letter. Thank you.”

“Yeah. Thanks for the letter you left, and thanks for managing to disappear before my mother found you. I don’t know how you managed to wake up before she did.”

“I heard her alarm clock going off and knew I had to go. I had just enough time to finish the note. I didn’t ramble too much, did I?”

“No, you didn’t. I loved it, except for that bit about me being cranky in the mornings,” Elisabeth said. “What about mine? Was it too stupid or clichéd?”

“Not to me.”

Elisabeth pouted. “Wait a minute. Does that mean if you hadn’t been the one to receive the note, you might think it was stupid and clichéd?”

“No. I’m saying because I received the note, I would never think it was stupid or clichéd.” Darcy smiled winningly. “We’re not going to fight now, are we? I’d hate to think we’ve barely been married an hour and we’re already fighting.”

Elisabeth leaned in for a kiss. “I think we can forgo the fighting for now,” she said when she pulled back.

“Good, because I can think of any number of things I’d rather be doing on my honeymoon than fighting with my new wife.”

Elisabeth leaned back into the seat. “Wife,” she repeated softly. “That’s what I am now. I’m a wife. Would it be totally 1950's of me to say that it’s a nice feeling to hear myself called that?”

Darcy pretended to think about it. “Only if it wouldn’t be too old-fashioned of me to say that I like calling you my wife. I have a feeling it would be, though, so I won’t say it often. You’re free to call me your husband all you want, though, just for practice.”

Elisabeth laughed. “Oh, gee, thanks! Now I have two things to practice.”

“Well, calling yourself Elisabeth Williamson and referring to me as your husband go hand in hand. It shouldn’t be too hard.” Darcy looked at the hand which was entwined with one of Elisabeth’s, feeling more relaxed now than he had for quite a while. He couldn’t think of the last time things had seemed so calm between them. Even on the night he’d arranged for them to be alone, the specter of their wedding had been looming. “Do we have to go in there?” he asked.

“Why?” Elisabeth asked in return.

Darcy shrugged. “It’s just nice to be sitting here with you and not have anyone else around. Once we go in there, all the mayhem starts up again.”

“True,” Elisabeth said wistfully. “Then again, considering everything we went through to get here, we should get to reap the benefits. We’ve earned the right to have a fantastic dinner, spice cake with caramel, and dancing until we’re ready to drop.”

Dancing? Darcy turned away and frowned. He’d forgotten about that. Lost in his thoughts, he wasn’t paying attention to the fact that the rest of the wedding party, along with their guests, had as short a drive as they did to the K.C. Hall for the reception.

For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, Darcy’s head nearly hit the roof of a car as the door was opened abruptly. “Are you two ever going to get out of this limousine? It’s not going to be much of a reception if the two of you stay holed up in here all night,” Ruth said.

“Ma! What if we’d been having fun in here?” Elisabeth asked in protest.

“You wouldn’t dare----not in your grandmother’s dress. Now come on. The guests are arriving and we’ll need you two.”

“Now she acknowledges that I have to be present for anything to happen,” Elisabeth mumbled under her breath as her mother walked away from the limousine and into the building.

The minute Darcy stepped into the room where their reception was being held, he knew why Elisabeth had wanted to be there. The walls had been draped with emerald green and gold streamers. On the wall behind what he presumed was the main table was a banner which read “Darcy and Elisabeth Forever.” Every table was covered with a green tablecloth and had centerpieces of red roses. At each place setting, there was a small bell with a slip of paper attached with the names of the bride and groom and the date of the wedding. Darcy could see that the tables would fold up in order to create more space once it was time for dancing. Even if Darcy had had any doubts about wanting to stay, the happiness in Elisabeth’s eyes would’ve made him set them aside.

When the majority of the guests arrived, dinner was served. Halfway through the meal, Ruth stood up to speak.

“Excuse me! Could I have everyone’s attention, please?” Ruth clapped her hands together and was more or less ignored. After a minute, she frowned and yelled, “EXCUSE ME! I’D LIKE A MOMENT OF YOUR TIME!”

Elisabeth, who had been watching her mother with nervous eyes when she’d seen her standing up, groaned. She had a bad feeling she knew what was coming, and when her mother moved over to the D.J. and his sound system to pick up a microphone, she knew she was right to be nervous.

“Thank you,” Ruth said once everyone had quieted down. Her frown was replaced with a small smile. “This time is usually reserved for the father of the bride, but as many of you know, Elisabeth’s father died five years ago and so it falls to me to make a speech in his place.”

“We could’ve skipped this part, you know,” Darcy mumbled into his champagne flute.

“She’s already ticked off enough about the change in bridesmaids, bridesmaids’ dresses, and wedding music. We haven’t gotten to the wedding cake yet. She’s going to take the time anyway, so we might as well suffer,” Elisabeth said, grasping his hand in support.

Ruth cleared her throat. “As many of you know, my relationship with my middle child has been rather tempestuous. We don’t usually see eye-to-eye and I’m afraid that we both like having our own way in things. It’s what made planning this wedding so difficult. Every plan I made, I could count on her going back and changing things.”

“Oh, hell. She knows about the cake,” Elisabeth said with a grimace. “Please, God, don’t let her make us suffer with apricot cream.”

“Why didn’t you tell her I was allergic to apricot cream?” Darcy asked.

“Because you were already allergic to ham and steamed spinach,” Elisabeth said. “Saying you were allergic to apricot cream would’ve made her suspicious.”

“However, I know she would join me in thanking all of you for being here. Many of you traveled a long distance in order to join us, and we’re touched that you made the effort. I think I can say that without any disagreement from my daughter.”

“I don’t know about that. There are a few people I could’ve lived without inviting to my wedding,” Elisabeth said under her breath. She smiled at her mother and gave her a small wave, as if to say that she agreed with her.

“If Elisabeth’s father were here today, I have a good idea of what he would’ve said. He would’ve told all of you about what a lovely girl Elisabeth was and how she grew up to be a wonderful young woman. He would’ve told you how he was convinced there would never be a man good enough for her to marry. I know he would’ve insulted Darcy for a minute or two, but he wouldn’t have meant any of it. He would’ve welcomed Darcy to the family and hoped he’d be happy.

“As for myself...” Ruth hesitated for a second. “I have always loved Elisabeth very much and I must admit that I wasn’t sure I would get the opportunity to speak at her wedding. I always figured Elisabeth would run off to Vegas rather than have to deal with me.”

“So that’s why I used to think Vegas was a good idea,” Elisabeth said to Darcy. “I wonder why it never occurred to me?”

“As a mother, I always used to hope my daughters would marry men who would treat them well and loved them dearly. Money didn’t matter as much to me as affection, although it wouldn’t hurt if they could support them. Again, Elisabeth worried me because she never seemed attracted to that kind of man, until Darcy.”

“You fortune hunter, you,” Darcy teased as Elisabeth blushed.

“Thank God your aunt isn’t around to hear this. I’d hate to think of what she’d make of my mother’s speech. It’s bad enough that I can guess what the rest of your family is thinking.”

Ruth had continued. “Just when you think you know exactly what sort of man your daughter is going to bring home, she brings home someone who’s the complete opposite of it. When Elisabeth introduced us to Darcy, I couldn’t believe that she was falling in love with a man who was smart, kind, and considerate who loved her in return. Just when I thought I understood Elisabeth, she did something that had me doubting what I knew all over again.”

Elisabeth’s eyes never left her mother, whose own eyes were getting misty. “I always thought that life was easier when you understood people. When you can anticipate what they’re to do next, you know what to do and what to say. But sometimes, it’s better not to understand people. When you don’t, you leave yourself open to the possibility of surprise.”

Some of the guests were looking confused about the point of Ruth’s speech, but to Elisabeth, the meaning was loud and clear. Ruth was apologizing again for what she had said. Having already accepted Ruth’s first apology, this second attempt was unnecessary, but Elisabeth was glad her mother had done it. She felt Darcy give her hand a gentle squeeze, and knew that he recognized the speech for what it was.

A tear trickled down Ruth’s cheek as she concluded her speech. “Darcy, you’ve married my little girl today. All I ask is that you take care of her and love her forever. Welcome to the family.” Ruth walked over to Darcy and hugged him before turning to Elisabeth and hugging her as well.

“Thank you,” Elisabeth said quietly in her mother’s ear as the guests applauded. Ruth could only nod her head in reply before returning to her seat.

After the applause died down, D.J. tapped the side of his champagne glass several times and stood up in order to get everyone’s attention.

“Hi, everyone,” he said cheerfully. “Most of you here may not know me. I’m D.J. Williamson, Darcy’s cousin and best man, and I’m here to tell Elisabeth a few things she may not know about her new husband.”

There was some good-natured laughter when D.J. gave wiggled his eyebrows up and down suggestively. “I’m sure that once I reveal these horrible things, she’ll wish I had brought them up last night.”

“Too late now,” Elisabeth said.

“I’ll say,” Darcy agreed before kissing her hand.

“This is the first time I’ve ever been a best man and when I was told I had to make a speech, my first inclination was to run as far away from everything surrounding this wedding as I could. I was terrified that I was going to do something to mess up, like tell stories about Darcy’s wild childhood or drunkenly mention what happened at his bachelor party.”

“I can tell them----nothing!” Chazz called.

D.J. winked at Chazz before continuing. “That’s right, which is why I’m bringing it up to give everyone who might not know Darcy a good idea of what he’s like. You see, last night we had a great party, as you would expect. Lots of drinking and...” D.J. left just enough of a pause for everyone to get a good idea of what he would like to add. “...more drinking. I’d guess there are a lot of us who were hung over this morning when we woke up, myself included.

“Darcy, however, woke up completely sober.”

Darcy gave Elisabeth a meaningful look, as though she needed reminding of how he’d awakened. Or where.

“We teased him about it and tried everything we could to get him to drink. We brought him beers and spiked his sodas, which he didn’t touch. And when things got even more interesting, he ducked out and didn’t return. He’d made a promise to Elisabeth, you see, and he was determined to keep that promise. That’s the kind of man Darcy is, you see. Once he makes a promise, he keeps it. I don’t know Elisabeth well, but she helped my family in a way that we can never repay, not even by giving her Darcy as a husband.”

Darcy felt compelled to say, “I wasn’t aware I was being given away. Was there a raffle?”

“Yes, there was. We figured it made up for the sexist part of the marriage ceremony where the pastor asks, ‘who gives this woman to this man in marriage,’” Elisabeth said.

“Ah.”

“Her ingenuity and generosity, however, makes me believe that Darcy fell in love with the right woman for him. Shakespeare once said that ‘love is a giddy thing,’ and being in love myself, I must agree with him. When I see Darcy and Elisabeth together, I can see that they’ve found a love like that, too. May their future be bright and happy, and may I be standing in a room like this in fifty years, making a speech at their golden anniversary. And so, if you’ll raise your glasses once again, how about a toast to Dare and his lovely Elisabeth. Congratulations, guys.” D.J. finished off his champagne as everyone applauded politely. Elisabeth blew him a kiss as Darcy winked.

After D.J.’s speech, the cake was wheeled into the room. Elisabeth took Darcy’s hand and led him over to the beautiful confection.

“What kind of cake are we having again?” Darcy asked. “I remember what it’s not, but not what it is.”

“Spice cake with caramel,” Elisabeth told him. “Trust me, you’ll love it.”

Mallory was standing by the cake with a knife in her hand. After Darcy and Elisabeth had gotten their slices, she would serve the rest of it. She handed the knife to Elisabeth, who glanced at Darcy.

“I think we do this together,” she said.

“We do?” Darcy placed his hand on top of hers. Elisabeth wasted no time cutting into the cake. Once she’d managed to get a piece onto a plate, she tore off a chunk and held it to Darcy’s lips. He accepted the bit of cake and licked the frosting off of her fingers, sending shivers through her body.

Later, she told her hormones as Darcy took a bit of the cake and offered it to her. Their guests applauded after she swallowed the cake.

Darcy gave the cake topper a critical look. “I don’t think that groom looks much like me,” he said. “And the bride is nowhere nearly as lovely as you.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere, Mr. Williamson,” Elisabeth said.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Darcy and Elisabeth took their cake and walked back to their seats, watching as Mallory doled out pieces of cake to the guests. Elisabeth kept her eyes on her mother, waiting for the explosion that was sure to come after she took her first bite.

Ruth paused in chewing, as though assessing the flavor of the cake. She glanced heavenward with a small smile before looking at Elisabeth. With a small wave of her fork, Ruth returned to her table. Elisabeth knew that was the acknowledgment she was to get about the switch, which made her think her mother had known all along that she’d switched the cake order and hadn’t objected.

Maybe her mother had been right after all. If you understood someone all the time, you eliminated the possibility of being surprised.

Continued in Next Section