She Called the Bride the Help, So I Read the Bill Aloud novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: A Name in Natchez

On Tuesday I tried to get my marriage undone, and two lawyers in Natchez would not take my money.

The first office was on Main Street, with a brass plate and a receptionist who smiled at me for a full minute.

Then she looked at her screen and stopped smiling.

"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Claiborne. The partners have a conflict."

"My name is Ferrand," I said.

"Of course. A conflict."

The second office had a conflict too.

The lawyer there was a man in a seersucker suit who walked out to the lobby himself so he could say it kindly.

"Priscilla Claiborne called us at eight," he said. "Her late husband's estate has been our client for thirty years. I can give you three names in Jackson."

"Natchez," I said. "I want somebody in Natchez."

"I understand," he said, and he looked at the floor.

I stood on the sidewalk in the noon heat with my hands shaking.

It was not heartbreak. I had no heart left to break, after Saturday.

It was something harder and more embarrassing than that, which was fear.

She had said wait and see what a name is worth, and I had thought it was the talk of an angry woman.

The third office was above a tailor's shop, and the woman behind the desk had gray braids and reading glasses pushed up on her head.

She heard me out without writing anything.

"A marriage of one day," she said at last. "The ground is fraud. His mother misrepresented what you were signing up for, and the proof is a lawn full of witnesses."

"Nobody said the word fraud on that lawn."

"A hundred and ninety people heard a bride read a bill." She took her glasses down. "I have never filed anything that easy, Ms. Ferrand. I'll draw it up, and we file tomorrow at nine."

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