Chapter 20: The Aisle

Lacey came down the aisle alone.

She wore a plain cream dress, nothing like mine, and she carried no flowers.

Her father was supposed to walk her, and I saw him in the third row with his hands clamped between his knees and his eyes on the floor.

Five hundred heads turned to watch her pass.

I pushed through the swinging door and stepped into the side aisle in my wedding dress.

A woman near the wall saw me first.

Her mouth fell open, and she grabbed the arm of the man beside her.

Then the whisper ran the length of the room, row by row, until the quartet stumbled and fell silent.

Lacey stopped.

She was halfway down the white carpet, and she looked across at me.

Neither of us moved.

Colin saw me then, and his face went white and then slowly red.

"Della," he said, from the stage, in the voice he used for the staff. "This is a private event."

"Then you should have invited me."

I walked to the head of the aisle and stood in the white carpet beside the first row.

Constance did not turn around.

I held up the 520th card where the entire room could see it.

"You were all sent one of five hundred and nineteen cards," I said. "This is the five hundred and twentieth. It came to my door."

"Sit down, dear," Constance said gently, to the front of the room.

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