Chapter 32: The Vows

They were married again on the first Saturday of June, in the Dedham garden, on the same lawn where she had once put down the papers.

The cake table stood in the same corner.

There was a different cake on it, with a fire truck in blue icing, and Nico had been told that nobody was allowed to eat the truck.

Forty chairs sat in rows on the grass.

The old captain had taken the front one, in a suit that had not been let out in ten years, and he wept without apology.

Cormac stood at the arch of white roses with his tie on crooked, in the place where a best man would stand.

"I will heckle if it gets boring," he told the priest.

"It's a vow, Mr. Donnelly, not a variety show."

"Then I'll heckle if it's too dull."

Maura came across the lawn alone.

She had refused to be given away.

She wore a plain cream dress, the hem a little muddy from the walk, and her reddish-brown hair loose.

Vincent stood under the arch with his hands at his sides.

He had a new suit, and no ring on his finger but the one she had put there that morning.

His eyes found her and stayed.

She stopped in front of him.

The priest cleared his throat to begin, and she said, "Not yet."

She took a folded paper out of her sleeve.

"I wrote it down," she said. "In case I lost my nerve."

"Maura," said Cormac, very low. "You're a nurse. You don't lose your nerve."

"Shut up, Cormac."

The garden went quiet.

She unfolded the paper, looked at it, and put it away again.

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