| |
By that point, the parade had nearly reached the church. Max and Luke stopped together and faced the crowd.
“Now, then” Max announced. “You men come with me to have a few hard words with my kid brother here. Ladies, you go on to Mary’s to prepare the bride. Maybe you’re going to give her a milk bath or something. I don’t know what you do, and I don’t want to know. We’ll meet at the church in—let’s see. Let’s be safe and make it two hours.” He glanced at his wife. “Is that okay with you?”
“That will be fine,” Annabel replied.
“Good,” Max declared. “You kids, try not to get into too much trouble in the meantime.”
Annabel turned around and addressed the crowd herself. “The girls can come to Mary’s to help get the food ready. Adelaide’s coming with me and Kathy. I guess the boys can either go with you men or entertain themselves.”
“Right,” Max replied. “You people—you have your orders. Now be off to your respective duties, and we’ll see you all back at the church.”
The crowd broke up in a general hubbub of noise and excited talking. Just before, Max and Luke vanished, Kathy caught Luke stealing glances at her again. Every time she caught him, his cheeks turned red and he laughed shyly and looked away. His quiet demeanor intrigued her. She’d like to find out more about him. He looked like a nice man.
Well, she was about to find out all about him, and then some.
The rest of the townspeople divided up, drifting off in different directions. A few men went after the brothers, but most of them departed to destinations unknown. The women formed a more solid company and headed toward a little house just next to the church.
Annabel kept a firm hold on Kathy and brought her along after the rest of the women. Adelaide stuck close by her mother and the bride, while some of the older girls accompanied the women to Mary’s house.
When they arrived, the women went straight to the kitchen. Only the two young men carrying Kathy’s trunks came afterward. “You can take those upstairs to the spare room,” Annabel ordered as soon as they got in the door. They obeyed her without a word, and immediately left the house as soon as they came back downstairs.
“Now if you’ll come with me,” Annabel said to Kathy. She took her upstairs and showed her into a neat little room with lace curtains in the window and a spotless china pitcher on the washstand. Kathy’s trunks sat on the floor against the far wall. “You can change in here. Let me know if you need anything.”
“Thank you,” Kathy replied. “I think I’ll need your help to tighten my corset laces.”
Annabel laughed out loud. “Oh, how long it’s been since I tightened anyone’s corset laces!” She dissolved in peals of laughter. “I’d be happy to help you. Just call me when you’re ready.”
Annabel turned away toward the landing at the head of the stairs, and Kathy found herself face to face with Adelaide, who’d been standing directly behind her mother. The two of them regarded each other for a moment.
Annabel stopped at the top of the stairs. “Come along, Adelaide,” she called.
Adelaide shot a quick glance at her mother, then continued to stare at Kathy.
“Adelaide,” Annabel called. “Come here and leave Kathy alone.” Kathy heard the edge of annoyance creep into the mother’s voice.
Adelaide hesitated again. Annabel stomped over to her daughter, her heels ringing hard on the carpet. Kathy leapt to intervene.
“Don’t worry,” Kathy told Adelaide. “There will be plenty for you to do, too. Just let me change my dress, and then you can help me do my hair and put on my jewelry and my veil. Then, when it’s time to go to the church, you can carry the train of my dress. How does that sound?”
Adelaide’s face exploded into a glorious smile. She clasped her hands in front of her breast. “Could I really? Oh, please, say I can! Do you hear that, Mama? She’s going to let me carry her train!”
“Yes, I heard her, Adelaide,” Annabel replied.
“Oh, thank you!” Adelaide breathed. “I promise I’ll do a good job for you. I’ll be so careful. I promise!”
Adelaide tripped away to the stairs, and Kathy and Annabel listened to the tap of her little feet diminishing toward the kitchen. Annabel glanced sidelong at Kathy. “Thank you.” And she followed her daughter downstairs.
Kathy closed the door behind her and opened one of her trunks. Her dress lay across the top of it, and Kathy took it out and spread it on the bed. Underneath, she found her underwear, her corset, her stockings, her veil, and all her jewelry.
She undressed hastily and got into her underwear and stockings. She put on her corset and laced it as well as she could by herself. She covered everything with a white cotton shift.
When that was done, she stuck her head out the door to call Annabel, but she didn’t have to. There was Adelaide, sitting outside her door, waiting for her invitation to enter. She and Kathy smiled at each other.
“Where’s your mother?” Kathy asked.
“She’s in the kitchen with the rest of them,” Adelaide replied. “Can’t I help you do whatever you need to do?”
“You can help me do my hair,” Kathy told her. She stood back from the door and Adelaide bustle in. “I don’t think you’ll be strong enough to tighten my corset. We’ll leave that for your mother. But there’s plenty more to do.”
Kathy got out her whalebone comb and hair pins from the trunk. She sat down on a chair by the window. “Here. You can comb my hair.”
Adelaide fell to the task with religious reverence. She drew the comb slowly and delicately over Kathy’s scalp and down to the ends of her long sandy hair.
“You’re doing a very good job,” Kathy remarked.
“Mama lets me comb her hair sometimes,” Adelaide told her.
“That’s nice,” Kathy replied. “It must be a nice time for you both to spend together.”
“She doesn’t let me do it very often,” Adelaide explained. “She’s usually in a hurry and wants to get it done before chores in the morning. But sometimes she lets me.”
“I envy your mother, having a daughter like you,” Kathy told her. “It’s not every woman who has a special closeness with her daughter the way your mother has with you.”
“I do everything with Mama.” Adelaide passed the comb down the back of Kathy’s head. “I help her with all the chores, and she teaches me how to do everything. She taught me how to spin and knit, and now she lets me put the wood in the fire. She says after the wedding, she’s going to teach me how to make soap. I’ve been working on her forever to teach me, but she says it’s too dangerous.”
“I should think so,” Kathy exclaimed. “How old are you?”
“I’m nine” Adelaide replied. “I just had my birthday after Easter.”
“And how many brothers and sisters do you have?” Kathy asked.
“I don’t have any brothers or sisters,” Adelaide told her. “It’s just me and Mama and Papa. Oh, and Uncle Luke, of course.”
“What?” Kathy cried. “Nine years old and no brothers or sisters? Why not?”
“I don’t know,” Adelaide replied. “I guess Mama and Papa never had any more. I don’t know why.” She thought about it. “Maybe they didn’t want any more. Maybe one was enough.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Kathy remarked.
