The Imperfect Marriage novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: Judge's Chambers

Dagny marries Ross before a judge with her father in an oxygen cart watching; Lowell storms in, Ross kisses her in front of him, and Lowell warns her Ross is hiding something.

We were married at nine-fifteen on Saturday morning in a judge's chambers that smelled like furnace dust and coffee.

The judge was an old friend of Ross's grandmother.

She did not ask questions, which I decided to find mysterious and wonderful.

I wore the only dress I had that wasn't a wedding gown or scrubs, a green wool one from a church rummage sale.

Pru had pinned the veil to my head herself with twelve bobby pins.

"Stop touching it," she hissed.

"I can't feel my scalp."

"That's how you know it's holding."

My father came in at nine-ten.

Arne Lund walked slowly, with a cane in one hand and a portable oxygen tank rolling behind him on a little cart.

He looked at Ross, then at me, then at the judge.

"Who died?" he said.

"Nobody," I said. "I'm getting married."

"To who? The last one's in a champagne glass."

"Dad."

"I heard about the champagne glass. Half of Canal Park heard about it."

He turned and looked Ross up and down.

"You're the shipyard fella."

"Ross Stenbeck, sir."

"You have a lot of ships and not a lot of sense."

"Yes, sir."

"I'm going to say one thing. You hurt her, I'll hit you with this tank."

"It'd be fair," Ross said.

Arne grunted, which was his highest honor.

He took the chair in the front row and wheezed through the whole vow reading.

I looked at Ross while the judge read the words.

He did not look at the paper.

He looked at me, with his head very still, like I might say no.

"I do," I said.

"I do," said Ross.

The door banged open.

Lowell stood there in the same suit from last night.

His tie was gone, and so was whatever calm he had.

Faith was behind him, mascara smeared down one cheek.

"Stop this," Lowell said. "She's not herself. She's in shock."

The judge put down her book.

"Young man, I'm in the middle of a marriage."

"This isn't a marriage. This is a purchase. He's buying her for the yard."

He jabbed a finger at Ross.

"Tell her. Tell her what she's worth to you."

Faith said my name in a tiny voice.

"Dag, please. You don't know what you're doing."

"I know exactly what I'm doing," I said. "I'm doing the thing you can't."

"What's that?"

"Leaving."

Lowell crossed the room and reached for my arm.

Ross was faster.

He didn't hit him.

He just put one hand flat on Lowell's chest and turned him around.

"Don't touch my wife," Ross said.

It was the first time anyone had said that word about me.

My heart did something stupid.

The judge cleared her throat.

"You may kiss your bride," she said, looking right at Lowell. "With an audience, apparently."

Ross turned to me.

I grabbed the front of his coat and pulled him down to me.

His mouth was warm and firm, and he kissed me like it was the point of the whole morning.

I felt it everywhere.

One of his hands slid up under the veil to the back of my neck, and his thumb pressed just under my ear.

I made a small, embarrassing sound against his mouth.

He answered it with a low one of his own.

When we broke apart, my knees were not entirely mine.

Behind us, my father said, "Well, that looked real," and coughed into his oxygen.

Lowell stood at the door with his hands shaking.

He wasn't looking at me anymore.

He was looking at Ross, with something between hatred and a card he'd been holding back.

"You think you've won," he said. "You haven't even read what you signed."

"I read all of it," Ross said.

Lowell smiled, and it was the worst smile I had ever seen him make.

He looked at me, only me.

"Ask him what he isn't telling you, Dag," he said. "I dare you."

Faith pulled him out by the sleeve.

The door swung shut.

I stood there with the veil in my hair and my husband's hand still warm on my back.

It would have been so easy to ask.

But I had spent fourteen months believing every word that man said, and I decided that morning I would not believe a single one of them again.

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