Chapter 23: Something Blue

On the morning of the wedding I stood behind the glass doors in my mother's pearls.

My sister's voice came out of the speakers.

"Please," she said. "Can everyone hear me? I'm so sorry to interrupt."

I stood very still.

The manager beside me went white.

Through the doors I could see the whole terrace and the lawn below it.

Two hundred guests sat in white chairs under a clear sky.

The delphiniums ran along the rail, and the quartet had stopped mid-note.

Cecily stood between the rows with the microphone in both hands.

She wore the pale blue dress from the gala.

She had put her hair up the way our mother used to.

Her face was bare and tearful and lovely.

"I'm the sister," she said. "Some of you know me.

"I'm not supposed to be here, and I know that."

A murmur went through the chairs.

"I'm awaiting sentence. I did a terrible thing. I hired men to take my sister, and I'll answer for it."

Her voice cracked.

"But Imogen is getting married today. I couldn't let it go by without asking her one thing, in front of the family she loves."

My mother's cousin, two rows from the front, put her hand to her mouth.

"I want her to forgive me," Cecily said. "That's all. If she can't, I understand.

"But I'd like to hear it in front of all of you, so I know it's real."

She turned toward the glass doors and held out one hand.

She knew I was standing there.

Of course she did.

If I walked out and refused, I would be the bride who turned her sister away on her wedding day.

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