A Groom With a View

“I wasn't aware I was going to be feeding you,' Mr. Willis replied with an out-and- out sneer. Larkspur applauded the caterer's performance and the aunts glared at Jane as if this distasteful brouhaha were all her fault. The spotty skivvy cowered in the corner of the room like somebody from a Dickens novel.

It was all Jane could do to keep herself from banging her head on the table.

“Let's all play nice, darlings,' Eden said.

Their dinner was interrupted several times by the lights flickering as the storm gathered force again. Mrs. Crossthwait screeched with alarm every time there was a clap of thunder. A gust of strong wind blew the front door open and Uncle Joe voluntarily went to close it, which was a sur? prise to Jane. It must have been to the aunts as well, as they whispered together when he'd left. After Mr. Willis had served strawberry shortcake with real whipped cream, which they all ate in spite of protestations about being too full to swallow another bite, the group started drifting away.

The three bridesmaids and Larkspur settled around a big table in the main room with a jigsaw puzzle and a very staticky radio to see if they could get a weather forecast. The aunts sat by the fireplace, whispering ferociously to each other.

“They're up to something, Jane,' Shelley said.

“It sure looks like it. But what? They wouldn't sabotage Livvy's wedding just to spite me, would they?”

Uncle Joe, apparently feeling confident that Jane wasn't going to think of anything for him to do, stuck around for a while. He drifted toward the aunts, but didn't sit down with them. Instead, he sank into a chair nearby and made a big production of reading a newspaper. Lots of flapping of pages and intense scrutiny of newsprint to cover the fact that he, too, obviously wanted to know what kind of plot the aunts were hatching.

Jane let Mrs. Crossthwait off the hook for a bit. She could hardly rush her straight from dinner to work. She checked her watch and made a mental note to give the woman half an hour of leisure. Mrs. Crossthwait hovered around the jigsaw puzzle group. 'Mrs. Jeffry probably won't agree, but there are good reasons for not finishing thedresses too far ahead,' she said loudly enough to make sure Jane could hear her.

“Oh?' Eden said mildly, as she took a piece of the puzzle away from Larkspur and fitted it in place.

“How utterly clever you are,' Larkspur said.

“Yes, people change,' Mrs. Crossthwait said, not willing to let a general lack of interest from her audience keep her from explaining. 'Kitty's gained weight since I did the cutting and Layla's lost a bit.'

“I have not gained weight,' Kitty said with her teeth gritted.

“And I'm afraid I haven't lost any,' Layla said. 'Anyway, the dresses are going to be just beautiful, I'm sure. Now, where are the sandy-colored pieces that are going to be the sidewalk part of the picture? Kitty, help me find all of them.'

“What a lovely brush-off,' Shelley whispered to Jane.

Mrs. Crossthwait recognized it as such and wandered aimlessly toward the aunts, thinking perhaps that she'd get a better reception from them. But this hope was dashed when they saw her coming and gave two cold, unblinking stares. Still, she persisted in asking if anyone had died here lately. She felt an aura of death.

“Certainly not!' Iva exclaimed, as though dying was a breech of good taste that couldn't happen to such as the Thatcher clan.

The seamstress dropped into the nearest chair to the aunts. 'You don't seem to remember me,' she said.

“Are you speaking to me?' Marguerite asked haughtily.

“I made your wedding dress.'

“That was a long time ago and something I don't discuss with strangers,' Marguerite said. She adjusted herself in her chair so that her back was to the seamstress, indicating quite clearly that the discussion had concluded.

Mrs. Crossthwait stared at Marguerite for a long moment, then pretended an interest in her surroundings for a few minutes longer, before getting up and trudging as slowly and carefully as a condemned prisoner up the stairs to her prison.

“I should feel sorry for her,' Jane said quietly to Shelley. 'That was a really formidable snub. But I'm too annoyed at her dawdling to feel any sympathy. She's being paid an absolute fortune to make the dresses. She's so damned annoy- ing.”

Within the hour, another storm front moved in with thunder that shook the house, made the radio squawk, and put the lights out for a few minutes. When they came back on, they were oddly dim for a while, then went out again.

“Phooey, I almost had the sidewalk finished,' Layla said in the darkness.

“I think we might as well give it up for the night. It's almost nine-thirty anyway,' Eden said. 'I have a flashlight in my purse and I think we all have small kerosene lamps in our rooms. Anybody want to follow me? If we still don't havepower tomorrow, we'll go into town and buy more flashlights.”

The idea of the power being out for the wedding was something that had never crossed Jane's mind. How would Mr. Willis cook? How would Livvy see her way down the stairs? It would be like having the ceremony in a cave! She leaned over to Shelley. 'Do you suppose there's a church anywhere near? I need to do some heavyweight praying “

Shelley just patted her hand.

“There's a town nearby?' Kitty asked.

“Well, sort of a town,' Eden said. 'A motel, Wanda's Bait and Party Shoppe, a bank, and a gun shop.”

Kitty and Layla took her up on the offer to lead them into the darkness of the monks' cells hallway. The aunts had their own flashlight and followed along. Uncle Joe had disappeared into the darkness. Mr. Willis, still in the kitchen cleaning up from dinner, was cursing.

Shelley was doubled up in a chair, laughing herself silly about Wanda's Bait and Party Shoppe. 'I love it! You can get your party accessories and your minnows without having to run all over town.'

“My dears,' Larkspur trilled from somewhere across the room. 'What adventures we could have. This is like one of those country house mysteries, where everybody's locked up together. I do wonder who will play the victim. What if I found the body? I wonder if I'd faint?”

Somebody, Jane thought it was Uncle Joe, said, 'Shut up.'

“Could you make anything of the weather reports on the radio?' Jane asked Shelley around a mouthful of toothpaste when they got to their rooms.

“Too much static. But it's a typical spring storm. It'll clear off by morning.”

The wind howled and a branch broke and slithered down the roof. Jane and Shelley blindly felt their way back to their rooms. Jane shuddered and she got into her long flannel nightgown.

“Too bad there wasn't any chance of talking to Eden about the treasure,' Shelley said, calling from the next room.

“We can catch her sometime tomorrow,' Jane said. She took another quick glance at her notebooks and then settled in with a mystery book she'd brought along, which was a challenge to read by the flickering kerosene lamplight. She could hear Shelley puttering around in her own room. Probably cleaning things. Shelley was an inveterate cleaner-upper.

After a bit, Jane realized the temperature had dropped and it was getting really chilly. She opened her doorway to the hall. 'There's a very bad draft out here. I wonder if a door's been left ajar?”

There was a low wailing sound from somewhere.

“What was that!' Shelley exclaimed, rushing through the bathroom to Jane's room.

Jane was wide-eyed. 'I don't know. I don't hear it now.'

“Open the door again,' Shelley said.

The wail began again. Jane started to laugh, albeit a bit nervously. 'It's the wind down this hall. I lived in a dormitory once that was like that. Get the right combinations of doors along the hall opened and a good wind outside and you get an eerie howling noise.'

“You're real certain that's what it is?'

“Certain enough that I'm not going to go check it out.”

Shelley went back through the bathroom that led to her room.