A Groom With a View

far end. The two women gingerly picked their way through and selected two boxes, then paused to examine a few other things. There was a wooden box full of shotgun shells, some shotguns that had been shamefully neglected, and a large old wooden crate full of clothing at the far end of the room. Mostly outdoor stuff. Wellington boots so ancient they were cracked, plaid wool coats, furry hats, lots of gloves and mittens, none of which appeared to have mates. Shelley picked up a pair of old-fashioned jodhpurs with the tips of her fingers. 'These might be useable if they were cleaned.'

“Perfect for a jaunt to the grocery store,' Jane said. 'Doorknobs.'

“What?'

“A whole box of mixed doorknobs,' Jane said, squatting down to look into another wooden box halfway along the path. 'Why would anyone collect doorknobs? They're not even interesting or nice ones.'

“Oh, look. Croquet sets. Two or three of them,' Shelley said. 'Let's take one set out and put it up on the lawn. I was a whiz at croquet when I was a kid. I cheated like mad.”

They'd made their way to what appeared to be the 'sports section' of the attic. There were baseballs with their coverings coming off, bats that had seen better days, a couple of footballs, and a snarl of badminton nets.

“People used to have very different ideas about leisure time,' Jane said. 'Now when we sit around relaxing together, it's usually in front of a television set or computer screen. It must have been fun to come out here in the summers.'

“We better get these boxes down to Livvy. What's that black stuff?'

“Electrical tape?' Jane guessed, glancing down at what looked like a snake nest next to the doorway. 'No, it's fabric. Seam binding. How odd. Are you taking the croquet set down?'

“I'll come back with some rags and clean it up a little later,' Shelley said.

They closed the attic back up and delivered the boxes to Livvy. The party was showing signs of breaking up. The ladies were tossing back last drinks and looking for their purses. Kitty was being practical and sorting out the gifts and neatly folding the salvageable wrapping paper. Layla was leaning back in a comfortable chair, smiling and looking like she might just fall asleep right there. Eden, who was wearing a loose, colorful tiara of discarded package ribbons, was trying to get the aunts moving along.

“We're going to dinner in a bit. Don't you two need little naps first?' she was asking. Iva's wig appeared to be trying to turn itself around backwards on her head and Marguerite was hanging onto a table as if were the only stable thing in the world. Eden glanced at Jane and grinned. 'Those were very good champagne cocktails.”

Eventually the room cleared. The trophy wiveswere gathered up by their husbands and taken back to the local motel. The aunts were tucked away in their rooms to sleep it off. Layla hoisted herself out of the chair, staggering only slightly, and went to take a nap, too. Kitty had put away the pretty negligees, slippers, underwear, and more conventional kitchen and bath gifts. Mrs. Hessling was looking extremely sober and very relieved that it was over and was making noises about finding Errol to take her back to the motel. When she'd gone, the only one left was Livvy, who looked tired.

“Get a little rest before dinner,' Jane advised her.

“I'll see if Daddy has anything for me to do and if not, I will rest for a while. This is very tiring and must be even more so for you, Jane.'

“I don't mind,' Jane said. 'It's what I came here to do. And most of the hard work was the planning ahead.”

Jane stayed behind to tidy up the room a bit more. Shelley had gone to clean up the croquet set. The sounds of the football game had faded as Dwayne's friends had drifted back to the motel to change clothes and clean up for the bachelor party later.

There was only one seemingly untouched glass of champagne left. Mr. Willis came in and started clearing away the last of the plates and Jane made a dive for the drink before he could take it away.

“You did a lovely job, Mr. Willis,' she said.

“And this really is delicious. No wonder they all had to stagger away.”

He nodded his gratitude. 'I'm leaving for a while to pick up a few more things and have put salads and dinners in the refrigerator for you and Mrs. Nowack. Will Mr. VanDyne be staying for dinner, too?'

“I don't know. I haven't had much of a chance to speak to him.'

“I'll leave enough for him, too, then.”

He shimmered off, Jeeves-like, and Jane sipped her champagne in blissful quiet. Which was interrupted a few minutes later by Dwayne Hessling. He looked upset.

“What's wrong?' she asked.

“I've been looking everywhere for you,' he said furiously. 'Come see.”

They met up with Shelley in the main room, loaded down with mallets, balls, and hoops. Sensing something was up, she dumped all of it on a chair and followed Jane and Dwayne to his room.

It had been trashed.

Drawers were pulled out and thrown about, even the empty ones. The contents of his suitcase had been strewn around the room. A bottle of aftershave had been poured all over the bed. In the bathroom, his toothpaste had been squeezed out all over the floor, his shaving gear was in the toilet on top of a wadded-up dress shirt.

“Oh, my gosh!' Shelley whispered.

“What's this about?' Dwayne demanded of Jane.

“I don't know,' she said. 'When did this happen?'

“While we were all outside,' Dwayne said angrily. 'I changed my clothes to play football.'

“Dwayne, why would anybody do this?' Jane asked.

“Hell if I know.'

“Somebody's really mad at you,' Shelley said. 'Nobody's got the right to do this to my things. And I want it cleaned up right now.'

“Then let's clean it up,' Jane said. She'd been sympathetic at first, but his orders, sounding so like Jack Thatcher's, were beginning to annoy her.

“I'm not in charge here, you are. I'm a guest,' he sneered.

“You're Mr. Thatcher's guest. Want to ask him to muck around in your toilet?' Jane asked.

“I'm going to find a convenience store to get new toothpaste,' he said. 'I hope everything is in order when I get back.”

He stomped out, leaving Jane and Shelley red-faced and furious. They stared at each other for a long moment. Then Jane said, 'I still have one empty room on this hallway. We'll just put his things in there. Dwayne can find other cleaning ladies.'

“What a bastard he is,' Shelley said.

“It's as if the twerp's been sitting at Jack Thatcher's knee, learning to be an imperious pig of a man,' Jane added.

“Jerk. Jerk. Jerk,' Shelley muttered, picking up a shirt, shaking it out, and looking in the rubble for a clothes hanger.

Half an hour later, they closed the door on the room, leaving the tiny window open to air it out, and Jane stuck a note on the door that said: You're now in the room across the hall.

Twelve ·,

About four, the family and wedding party started gathering in preparation for the rehearsal and dinner afterwards. Running through the wedding itself was a breeze except that the aunts wanted greater roles. What those roles might have been was anybody's guess. They were to be escorted to the first row of chairs on the bride's side as 'mother of the bride' substitutes. But at every stage of the proceedings, they kept asking, 'What should we be doing now?”

Jane had half a dozen possible sarcastic replies to this query, but restrained herself and kept telling them they were to just sit still and enjoy themselves.

The groom, best man, and groomsmen came in from the side room in good order. Kitty, Layla, and Eden came down the stairs gracefully. If any of them were thinking about Mrs. Crossthwait's deadly descent, they didn't show it. Kitty had made Livvy a really spectacular practice bouquet out of the ribbons and bows from the bridal shower. Livvy, in a pale blue suit she was wearing to dinner, would have made a lovely bride just as she was, ribbon