Lily’s blood was singing in her veins. She felt marvelous.
“Oh, no! We’ve got to get out of here.” Rose was looking over Lily’s shoulder. “No, don’t look,” she exclaimed as Lily started to turn. “It’s Galbraith and his grandfather—I said don’t look! It’s bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding.”
Without hesitation George pulled off her coat and slung it over Lily’s head.
“Ow, George, what are you—”
“He can’t see you now. Give me your reins.” George took the reins from Lily’s hands and, laughing, they rode quickly home, making a large detour around the park to avoid her husband-to-be, while Lily tried to explain between giggles and through the muffling layers of coat that it was thedresshe wasn’t supposed to see, not thebride.
Once home, Lily found her bridal gown laid out ready on her bed, a hot bath steaming gently, and Emm and Aunt Dottie waiting anxiously. “Hurry along, girls,” Emm said. “Only two hours before the wedding.”
• • •
“He’s inside, waiting at the altar.” George had peeped into the church when they’d arrived. Rose and Emm gave the last tweaks to Lily’s dress, an exquisite confection of laceover cream satin—Miss Chance had outdone herself—and a coronet of silk flowers, which anchored a lace veil. One last adjustment of the veil, and Emm went inside.
Lily was trembling like a leaf.
Aunt Dottie took Lily’s white-gloved hands in hers and squeezed them affectionately. “Stop worrying, darling girl—I have one of myfeelingsabout this marriage; it’s all going to work out beautifully. Now, go in there, marry that handsome man and remember what I told you.” Then she too went inside the church.
“What did she tell you?” Rose asked.
“I can’t remember,” Lily lied.Love is never wrong.How did Aunt Dottie know she loved Edward?
“You can still escape,” Rose told her. “You don’t have to do this, Lily.”
Yes, she did.
Lily took a deep breath and stepped inside the church. It smelled of wood polish, brass cleaner and flowers. There was a dramatic musical chord from the organ and a rustling in the congregation as people stood and heads turned; a sea of faces, a mixed blur of goodwill and curiosity.
All Lily saw was Edward, waiting at the end of the aisle, tall and solemn and so darkly handsome it made her want to weep.
“Go on then if you must,” Rose murmured from behind her. And Lily began the walk down the aisle.
“Dearly beloved...”
She’d taken off her gloves for the ceremony. His hand was warm. Hers felt frozen. She was shaking worse than ever. He kept hold of her hand and rubbed his thumb over it in a soothing rhythm, back and forth. Slow, steady, reassuring. She glanced up at him, saw him watching her and managed a small smile.
“Who giveth this woman to be married to this man?”
Cal stepped forward. Her big brother. “I do.”
“Wilt thou have this man to thy wedded husband...”
Her throat felt dry, but she managed to say, “I will.”
Her hand was shaking so badly he found it difficult to slip the ring onto her finger—for a moment there she’dthought he might drop it, but he gripped it firmly, and then it slipped on, still warm from his body, and fitting perfectly.
And then he spoke in that deep voice of his that somehow shivered through to her bones. “With this ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship and with all my worldly goods I thee endow...”
With my body...She swallowed, and thought of what Emm had told her:bliss.Or what Aunt Agatha had said:an unpleasantness we must all endure.
Tonight she would find out for herself.
“...I pronounce that they be man and wife...”
There, it was done. She was a married woman. The rest of the service that followed—the prayers, a short sermon and communion—passed over Lily in somewhat of a haze. But the shock of having to sign the register jerked her out of it.
“Sign your name, my dear,” the vicar told her, indicating a heavy, bound book.
