Chapter 24: Marry Me Twice

On Saturday at noon the furnace was banked low, and a hundred and forty people stood on the poured concrete in clean aprons.

They had set out folding chairs for the mothers, the retired men and the people who had come from the old days.

My stepmother sat in the third row in a plain gray dress, with her hands in her lap.

She had no pearls on.

The old woman with the cane had taken the aisle seat in the front.

She thumped the floor twice when she saw me.

Beside her sat my mother's oldest friend, in her white cap, with a flat brown parcel across her knees.

She had hung my mother's painting on the brick wall behind the altar, which was only a packing table with a white cloth on it.

I stood at the back door in my mother's ivory coat over a cream dress.

I had no train, no veil and no flowers.

I had a bead on a cord and a bruise gone yellow on my wrist.

On my feet were the small work boots that Rhodri had kept for me in a paper bag.

The foreman held out his arm.

"Miss Juliana," he said. "Your mother would've made a speech."

"She'd have timed it."

"She would have timed it," he agreed, and his chin shook, and he walked me down.

Rhodri stood at the table in a navy three-piece suit with the vest open.

His hair was loose and curling over his collar.

He looked exhausted and completely awake.

Leontine stood between us in a bright blue suit, holding a printed card with both hands.

She had cried through the rehearsal.

"Dearly beloved," she said, and then, "Oh, God, I can't, I'm going to be sick."

The floor laughed.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Marry Me Twice, Mr. Granger from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.