Chapter 19: Two of Everything

The wedding dress was ivory, and it fit her perfectly, which she hated.

Wynne stood on a footstool in the church vestry while two women pinned the veil.

Rosanna stood by the window in a dove-gray suit and a hat with a short net.

Neither of them said a word about the garden.

At ten the door opened, and Aurelio came in carrying a flat white box.

"My dear," he said. "You look like your mother did."

"Thank you."

"I have a small gift." He lifted the lid.

Inside lay a bridal bouquet of white roses, wired tight, with a ribbon at the heart.

It was almost the same as the one in her hands.

"The florist made two, by mistake," he said. "I thought you should have the better one."

He held out his hand.

Wynne did not move.

Behind her, Rosanna's breath caught.

"Give me the other, sweetheart," Aurelio said kindly. "I'll see it's used."

She understood it in one cold piece.

The curtain, the second floor, the lemon tree.

He had not seen only a man and a woman on the grass.

He had seen her mother sew something into a ribbon.

She handed over the bouquet.

He weighed it in his hand, as he had weighed the bracelet.

He passed it to a man in the doorway, who carried it off down the corridor.

Then he placed the new one in her arms.

It smelled of rose and wet stone.

It was just flowers.

"There," Aurelio said. "Nothing to be nervous about."

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