She Called the Bride the Help, So I Read the Bill Aloud novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: The Silver Goes
Priscilla did not come down the steps.
The auctioneer got out of the cab of his truck, a short man in a straw hat.
He walked up the drive with a clipboard and a catalog.
Anson met him halfway.
"Mama," Anson called, to the gallery. His voice cracked, and he said it again. "Mama. It's Papa's silver. It's mine. It's in the will."
"You would not," Priscilla said.
"I'm sorry. I would."
She stood with her arm around the column and looked at him for a long time.
"I raised you," she said.
"Yes, ma'am."
Then she looked at me, standing by the truck between Reuben and my grandmother, and I thought she would say something.
She went into the house, and the front door closed, and a curtain moved in the dining room window.
The auctioneer cleared his throat.
"Saturday," he said, to Anson. "On the front lawn, noon. I'll advertise all week. People like a sale where the family's mad."
On Saturday the whole town came.
Cars were parked down both sides of Pearl Street, all the way to the bluff.
Folding tables stood on the lawn under the live oaks, where the wedding tables had stood.
The silver was set out in rows on white cloths.
The service for twenty-four, in its velvet-lined chests.
The tea service. The epergne. A pair of candelabra, and a ladle as long as my forearm.
At the end of the last table, on a small square of velvet, lay a knife with a crest on the handle.
I knew it by sight.
I had held it at my own cake table on the eighteenth of April.
The Garden Club had come in force.
They sat in a loose circle at the edge of the lawn, in their hats, with their paddles in their laps.
The old woman in the net hat sat in the front row, on a folding chair, with her cane across her knees.
My nine were there too.
They sat in the second row, in their church clothes.
The florist, the tent man, the photographer and the cellist sat together, and the printer sat beside the seamstress.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of She Called the Bride the Help, So I Read the Bill Aloud are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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