She Called the Bride the Help, So I Read the Bill Aloud novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: The Founders' Medal
I wore black, and I carried a white apron folded over my arm.
The dress was the plainest one I owned, with a high neck and sleeves to the wrist, and I had bought it for a funeral.
My grandmother walked beside me in her good navy suit and her hairnet, with a flour tin held against her stomach in both hands.
Behind us came eight people in their church clothes, who had been told to meet me at the gate at a quarter to seven.
The florist had put on a tie. The fireworks man had put on a clean shirt, and he kept looking at the sky.
"Don't look nervous," my grandmother told him. "It's only a garden."
Bellwood had been dressed for the evening.
Two hundred forty chairs sat in round-topped tables under the live oaks, with white cloths and hurricane lamps and low bowls of Priscilla's roses.
A string of lights ran from the gallery to the hedge.
The quartet was setting up on a low stage by the azaleas, where the band had played on my wedding day.
Reuben stood in the back with the upright bass against his shoulder, in a dark suit, tuning.
He looked up when I came through the gate, and he did not smile or wave.
He lowered his eyes once and raised them.
I nodded back.
The secretary met us at the gate with a seating chart.
She looked at the ten of us, one after another, and I watched her do the sums.
"Table one is for ten," she said.
"We are ten," I said. "Eight, and my grandmother, and me."
"Mrs. Claiborne expected, ah. Fewer."
"She sent the invitation, and I accepted," I said. "Where do you want us?"
She led us to the table nearest the stage, set on the lawn in the middle of the garden where the bride and groom's cake table had stood.
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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