THREE MONTHS LATER
“Can you believe this?”
Piper peered over Truda’s shoulder as she stared into the dresser mirror in an upstairs bedroom at Wendover. “I believe you look gorgeous.”
“Okay. Gorgeous maybe.” Truda laughed. “But me in a wedding dress? A wedding dress!”
Truda wore a satiny ivory dress with flowing sleeves and straight slim lines that made her look ten years younger. Or maybe her radiance was what made her look younger. Piper had never seen her so happy.
“You’re glowing. Dr. Jack is one lucky man to be downstairs awaiting such a beautiful bride.” Piper squeezed her shoulder. “Are you nervous?”
“No. Yes.” Truda shook her head. “No. I’m too old to be nervous.” She stepped to the side to let Piper—wearing a similar dress, only in a soft green shade—see her reflection in the mirror. “And you’re too young to be nervous. We make a pair, don’t we?”
Piper smiled. “We do.”
“That’s I do, my dear. We need to get our lines straight.” Truda gave her a mock frown. “Are you sorry you didn’t go with traditional white?”
“Not at all. You were right when you told me at my debutante ball that white wasn’t my most flattering color. Although I suppose I could have worn that dress and saved some money.”
“It was my money and I’m very happy to spend it on these gowns.” Truda had found a local woman to make the dresses for them. She touched Piper’s cheek. “I am so glad we are sharing this day and do appreciate your mother letting us have these few moments alone.”
Piper’s mother had just kissed both Piper and Truda and gone back down the stairs to join Piper’s father and brother in Mrs. Breckinridge’s sitting room. Piper’s sister, Leona, had not come since her baby, Thomas Harper the Third, was considered too young to make the trip. Piper had no idea how her mother had talked her father into coming to Wendover for the wedding. The weddings. Perhaps he thought he owed it to his sister to be present. Perhaps Piper’s mother had worked some kind of miracle.
Miracles did not seem so rare here in the mountains. She had seen the miracle of birth again and again. She had seen love blossom between Truda and Dr. Jack. Then, wonder of wonder, Jamie’s story about the frontier nurses had spread from paper to paper until he had been commissioned to write more articles about the mountains. And now she was about to realize the desire of her heart by stepping to the marriage altar to vow her love to Jamie forever.
“Your mother gave me a gift when you were born. I’ve told you I was there and named you Piper. That name has no doubt been a burden at times, as has mine.”
“Just call me Danny.” Piper laughed.
“I do hope the preacher doesn’t do so.” Truda’s eyebrows went up. “But your mother allowed me to give you that name, and I owe her much gratitude for letting me be part of your life. Although I doubt if Erwin will ever forgive me for encouraging you to wed your young man.”
“Father is here.”
“May wonders never cease.”
“Mother is the wonder.”
“Indeed.”
“If you two don’t come down”—Mrs. Breckinridge called up the stairs—“we are going to eat the cake Rayma baked without you.”
“Mrs. Breckinridge summons, and what Mrs. Breckinridge says must be done. Miss Aileen made sure all us couriers knew that.” Piper pointed toward the hallway. “You first.”
Piper followed Truda down the stairs, where Dr. Jack and Jamie waited with Dr. Jack’s minister, Reverend Combs. Jamie’s uncle Wyatt stood with him. Mrs. Breckinridge stood with Dr. Jack, and Piper’s mother stood with both Truda and Piper. Piper would have asked Suze or Marlie, but they’d gone back to their homes. Marlie to Ray, her young man in Chicago, and Suze to New York, where Braxton Crandall was helping her find a publisher for her flower and plant drawings. New couriers were feeding the horses and cleaning the stalls now.
The preacher had them repeat the vows one at a time.
“For better. For worse.”
With Jamie’s gaze on her face, everything felt better, but if worse came, they would deal with it together.
“For richer. For poorer.”
Poorer might be their beginning if one counted the money in their pockets, but she could count so many better things. They were rich in love. That was the best way to be richer.
“In sickness and in health.”
A promise made, whatever came.
“To love and to cherish till death do us part.”
The vows said. The kiss shared. A new life begun.
Piper started the summer wanting to do something different. She was ending the summer the same way. Tomorrow she and Jamie would climb on a different kind of horse, the motorcycle his uncle had given them as a wedding present, and go wherever their wanderlust led them to search out new stories. Adventure awaited as they began living their own happily-ever-after story.