The Secret Between Us novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Photo

Cornelia moves the wedding to the Regatta Ball and ties Fergus's lease to it; Isla says not yet in front of everyone.

Cornelia arranged us in front of the big fireplace.

Norris stood on her left in his loud blue jacket, and Pierce stood on her right.

She put me beside Pierce and Caleb at the very end of the row, three people away from me.

"Closer, Isla," she said. "You're about to be family."

I stepped closer to Pierce, and he slid his arm around my waist.

I felt Caleb watching the arm.

The photographer was Pell Harbor's only photographer, a woman who also shot the high school football games.

"Big smiles," she said.

Across the room, my father stood by the bar with a plate of cheese he hadn't touched.

Fergus Merrick was fifty-eight, wiry and gray, and he had built half the boats in that harbor with his own hands.

He wasn't looking at the camera.

He was looking at Caleb, and his face had gone the color of old putty.

The flash went off.

"One more," the photographer said.

"Before the cake," Cornelia said, "I have an announcement."

My neck prickled.

She smiled around the room, and the guests drifted closer with their glasses.

"My grandson and Isla have been very patient," she said. "They wanted a spring wedding."

"That's right, Grandmother," Pierce said, laughing. "We said spring."

"I don't see why we should wait."

The room murmured.

I felt Pierce's arm stiffen against my back.

"The Regatta Ball is three weeks from Saturday," Cornelia said.

"The whole town will be here, and the yard's new boat will be christened."

"It would be a shame to have two parties."

"Grandmother, we haven't talked about that," Pierce said.

"Then talk. I've already spoken to the pastor."

Norris boomed out a laugh. "That's my mother! Always three steps ahead!"

"Stepmother," Caleb said, from the end of the row.

Nobody laughed at that.

Cornelia didn't even glance at him.

"There's one more thing," she said, and now she turned toward the bar.

"Fergus, your lease on the cottage comes up for renewal that same night."

"Norris and I thought it would be tidy to sign everything together."

"A father of the bride shouldn't have to worry about his rent."

The room said ah, as if that was kind.

My father's plate tipped, and a cube of cheese fell on the rug.

I understood what I had just heard.

It was a leash, and she had put it around his neck in front of everyone.

"What do you say, dear?" Cornelia asked me.

Forty faces turned.

Pierce was looking at me with such hope that it hurt to stand next to him.

I couldn't say yes, and I couldn't say the truth.

Not in front of this crowd, with Caleb at my shoulder.

"Not yet," I said.

"I'm sorry?"

"I said not yet." My voice came out steady. "I haven't picked a date, and I won't be handed one at a party."

A few people coughed.

Pierce gave a short, dry laugh.

"She's right, Grandmother. We should decide together."

"Of course," Cornelia said, smiling with every tooth. "How silly of me."

She clapped her hands, and the caterers rolled out the cake.

The crowd turned back to eating.

My father had already slipped out the side door, and the plate lay on the rug.

I looked down the row.

Caleb was watching me, and there was a small hard pride in his face that he didn't try to hide.

I looked away first.

Pierce kissed my temple.

"Thank you," he whispered. "I didn't know she'd do that."

"It's all right."

"It's not. I'll talk to her."

He walked off toward his father, and he left me alone by the fire with the empty frame the photographer had set down.

"Isla."

Cornelia was beside me, and I had not heard her come.

She was small, only five-foot-four, but she'd always taken up the whole room.

She held a glass of sherry.

"That was clever," she said quietly. "Making a scene in front of the town is the one thing you couldn't afford."

"I didn't make a scene."

"You made a point. And you made it a little too well."

She looked past my shoulder.

Caleb had gone out onto the porch again, and I could see his back through the glass.

"I watched your face when he walked in," Cornelia said.

My heart slowed down and then started again, hard.

"I don't know what you mean."

"Of course you don't."

She touched the sleeve of my dress and straightened it, the way she had once straightened my collar at my mother's funeral.

"He left once without being asked," she said softly. "Don't make me help him leave again."

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