A Groom With a View

The young woman smiled weakly. 'I'm fine. Just fine. I'll just need help getting into the dress when it's time.'

“Have you had lunch?'

“I think so. Yes, yes. A sandwich. I've heard

some cars arriving. Should I be greeting guests?'

Jane laughed. 'No, it's like a play, Livvy. The lead actress isn't seen until the curtain goes up. She doesn't hang around in the lobby.”

Livvy's smile was genuine this time.

She's just nervous, Jane told herself, going back down the wide steps Livvy would descend in an hour. Brides were supposed to be nervous. Livvy was about to commit herself in the most important ceremony in her life. Baptisms, recitals, even hard-won graduations were nothing compared to wedding ceremonies for making everyone nervous. Marriages often failed later. Jane's own marriage had failed without her even realizing it until it was too late. But going into marriage, saying vows, and observing the ancient rites still had the power to seem a 'forever' decision.

For the first time in a long, long while, Jane found herself thinking about her own wedding, a few weeks short of twenty years ago now. Her mother had wept. Jane thought it was from happiness, but it might not have been. Her father had treated her like a porcelain doll and told her that she'd always be his daughter, no matter whose wife or mother she became. Her sister Marty had worn a red dress she knew Jane hated. Typical of Marty. Her mother-in-law Thelma had worn a gray dress, but obviously longed to wear black. It had been an even smaller wedding than Livvy's because Steve's family lived in Chicago and Jane's only family were her parents, sister, grandmother, and honorary uncle Jim. And it had been held in the Jeffry family's church without all the elaborate flowers and catering. But Jane still re? membered every moment of it with fondness. She'd even liked Marty and Thelma that day.

She'd married Steve Jeffry because he was handsome, ambitious, polite, and because he asked her at the exact right moment of her life. She'd been too young and stupid, really, to make such an important decision, but after having grown up all over the world — beloved by her parents, but forever homeless, rootless — she was desperately longing to be a wife. To have a husband, a home, and have lots of plump, pretty babies who grew up in a neighborhood with lifelong friends and schoolmates, not a gigantic circle of slight acquaintances like she'd had.

Livvy's situation was quite different. She was a much older bride, for starters. She'd sensibly dedicated herself to preparing for a career and been a successful businesswoman for a number of years. She'd have her babies, too, with any luck, but because it was demanded of her. Jane wasn't sure that would make for a better marriage.

“You look very thoughtful,' Shelley said, startling her.

Jane had sat down on the bottom step of the staircase. Shelley joined her.

“I was thinking about weddings,' Jane said. 'Livvy's and my own.'

“I don't dare think about mine,' Shelley said. 'My mother organized it as if it were the second D Day invasion. Tried to make the bridesmaids all look like clones of me. Even expected my cousin Zoe to dye her hair.”

“No!”

Shelley shook her head and laughed. 'No, I made it up to get you out of your funk. I think this is going to go well. Have you seen Dwayne?'

“Not since breakfast.'

“He's already in his tux and I must admit he looks very spiffy and groomish.'

“And the girls? Are they ready?'

“Yes. Kitty spilled some soda on the sleeve of her jacket and went to pieces. I gave her some home truths about just who was the center of attention here and was meant to be noticed, and who wasn't, and left Layla cleaning her up.'

“Why's she so het up?'

“I think this is the only wedding she's ever been in,' Shelley said. 'And I suspect she fears it will be the last. She's really not very attractive and hasn't the personality to overcome that drawback. You and I know a number of women who aren't very good-looking, but knock the socks off every man they meet by sheer charm. Kitty isn't one of them.”

They'd been more or less hidden behind the flowers and the small lectern the minister would be standing at and now Jane heard someone saying her name. She sighed and stood up. 'I'm right here, Mr. Thatcher.”

He left the people he'd been talking to and approached her. 'I've been looking everywhere for you. Is Livvy ready?'

“She'll be ready in time. I'm just getting the girls to help her dress.”

Layla and Eden were in high spirits and even Kitty seemed to have pulled herself together. 'People are arriving. I want you out of sight so you can make a grand entrance,' Jane said. 'Let's go to Livvy's room and all help her get her gown and veil on.”

They hurried through the main room and upstairs. Jane took a seat by the door while the younger women fussed with Livvy's petticoats, a fancy garter, and the dress. As Eden started working on the long row of tiny buttons up the back, there was a light tap on the door. Mr. Willis had brought up an iced silver bucket with a bottle of champagne and a tray of elegant glasses.

“My gift to the bride and bridesmaids,' he said.

They all thanked him effusively. 'No more than a sip or we'll all be too drunk to get down the stairs without tripping,' Eden said with a laugh. Then, realizing this might have been tactless considering how Mrs. Crossthwait had met her end, she started apologizing.

Jane took charge and cut her off. 'There's no time for any of you to get tipsy,' she said. 'It's only ten minutes until showtime. Livvy, you look spectacular. And the rest of you are beautiful.' She opened the door and said, 'Whispering only now.”

There was a short stretch of wall between Livvy's room and the head of the stairs where they could line up without being seen from the room below. 'Layla first, then Eden, then Kitty, remember. Here comes your father, Livvy.”

The husband and wife musicians were seated far enough back from the top of the stairs to be out of the way, but close enough for their music to drift down the stairway. Jane got the bridesmaids, Livvy, and her father lined up, took a deep breath, and nodded to the couple.

They stood up and began to play the flute and violin quietly. As the volume of chat and shuffling about in the room below diminished, the music got louder. After a moment, Jane peeked around the corner. The guests were in place. Marguerite and Iva sat to one side of the front row of chairs, Iva in a floor-length silvery dress and Marguerite in a matching style but in maroon. They should have traded either wigs or dresses, Jane thought. Mrs. Hessling was sitting on the other side of the aisle in dreadfully violent turquoise polyester with quite a large matching hat and purse. She was fidgeting with the purse, obviously trying to figure out whether she should hang onto it or set it on the floor. Uncle Joe, wearing the fairly decent clothes he'd worn to the rehearsal dinner, was standing against a wall at the back of the room, looking around at the other guests with a scowl. As Jane watched, Dwayne, Errol, and the minister came out of the side room where Shelley had been holding them until the right moment.

“Okay,' Jane whispered as she turned to face the upstairs contingent. 'Layla, you first. Try to stay centered on the staircase.”

Layla, lovely in her pink slip dress with the fringed scarf draped skillfully over one shapely shoulder, stepped out, head held high, and started slowly and gracefully down the stairs.

Jane watched for a moment, counting to ten, and turned to Eden. 'You're next.”

Livvy was whispering furiously to her father. 'I can't do it, Daddy. I know you're disappointed, but—'

“Livvy, get a grip on yourself,' he said quietly, but very sharply.

“No. I don't want to marry Dwayne. I don't want to marry anyone.”

Jane nearly fainted. She'd already launched the first bridesmaid and it was time to fire up the next one and the bride had changed her mind!

There hadn't been anything in the wedding planning books about this!

Eden had turned to them as well. 'Good for you, Livvy. Good for you!'

“Butt out, Eden,' Jack Thatcher said. 'You've always been a troublemaker.'