Chapter 19

Ribbons cordoned off the rows of folding chairs, creating a central aisle, while tulle bows with orange mums and purple daisies festooned the end chairs. With the vineyard as the backdrop, the arch was the ceremony’s focal point.

The minister entered from the side, leading Luke and his best man.

After a final tweak to ensure the bride’s veil and hair vine were secure, Rosie started down the aisle.

The flower girl followed several measures later. Dressed in white, Luke’s youngest cousin tossed multicolored rose petals from a basket.

The music swelled, and I began my journey. My heart singing, I caught Luke’s gaze, where he waited beneath the floral arch.

Suddenly, a crash of thunder split the air.

From a cloudless, blue sky, lightning struck the arbor.

I closed my eyes against the brilliant white flash, and when I opened them, Luke lay crumpled beside the smoldering arch. I sprinted toward him. Then kneeling and cradling his head, I smothered him in kisses. “Are you all right?”

His eyes fluttering open, he gave me a wan smile and thumbs up while the best man helped him to his feet.

I said a silent prayer just as the heavens let loose a cloudburst.

Roaring like a freight train, the wind flapped the tablecloths, overturned the chairs, and blew away the napkins.

Guests shrieked and scattered for cover.

“This way.” Dripping wet, Luke led them to the covered patio. “Due to the unexpected wedding ‘shower,’ the nuptials are delayed. How about a pre-wedding toast while we wait out the storm?”

I chuckled despite the deluge, grateful he wasn’t hurt.

He opened the Dutch door and brought out the wine. Then he leaned toward me in a whisper. “Why don’t you take this opportunity to freshen up?”

“Freshen up?” My veil was plastered to my head, and my saturated dress clung to my legs, but I mustered a wry grin. “I need damage control.”

****

Drenched from head to foot, I sloshed through the downpour and into the cabin.

As I dripped across the slate floor, something brushed against my cheek, and looking up, I screamed.

A feather wafted from Valentina’s hanging beam.

Instantly, the temperature plummeted, and the petals of my bridal bouquet withered.

My breath fogged, and I shivered in my wet dress as much from fright as the frigid air. “Valentina?”

The wind moaned through the windows.

“Stop it!” I threw the shriveled daisies on the table. “Like it or not, this is my wedding, my life, and soon to be my house. Since you killed yourself, you have nothing to avenge and no one to blame but yourself.” I stepped toward the door. “You’ve already gotten your justice, so get out!”

“And go where…?”

The tone was so plaintive, so frail, that I cocked my ear, straining to hear, but the only sound was the rain pelting the roof. Did I imagine it?

“Where would I go?” The nasal voice seemed stronger as a nearly transparent silhouette materialized.

I stepped back.

Barely visible, the image lifted its veil to reveal its face, then gave a coquettish leer, accentuating a split between its upper lip and nose. “Am I pretty?” The voice dripped with sarcasm.

“Valentina?” The name came out in a hoarse whisper.

“Am I pretty?!” The tone demanding now, the specter moved closer, bringing her cleft lip directly in line with my vision.

The stench of decay and mold overwhelming, I breathed through my mouth.

“How dare you say I have nothing to avenge and no one to blame but myself?” Valentina lisped.

I pulled back my head. “You committed suicide. No one harmed you but you, so why are you trying to ruin Luke’s and my wedding?”

“Revenge.”

“Against whom?”

“Marianna and her offspring.”

“Why?” I gave a disbelieving laugh. “I read Marianna’s diary. She was long gone before you married Mateo.”

“Maybe gone but not forgotten.” She glanced at the bed. “My husband never stopped loving her.”

I followed her gaze, recalling the rumors.

“Do you have any idea what it’s like growing up with a cleft lip and palate? The stares? The taunts? The pointing fingers? Just eating and drinking were daily challenges, but to be accepted…to be loved…” Valentina’s laugh was contemptuous. “Mateo only married me for convenience.”

How sad to know her husband loved another. I grimaced. No wonder she resented Marianna.

“Oh, no, you don’t.” Valentina tossed her chin, her sneer intensifying her deformity.

“What—”

“Don’t you dare pity me.” Jutting her face into mine, Valentina bared her teeth, exposing the gap in her palate.

Too hard to look, I shut my eyes.

The air became arctic.

“Sofia used to look at me that way. Can you imagine? My own daughter ashamed of—”

“Wait a minute.” Trembling from the cold, I blinked. “You said Sofia? Sofia Ramirez?” I recalled the name from the library’s records.

“Yes…why?”

A disbelieving grin tickling my lips, I studied the image in a new light. “Sofia Ramirez was my great-grandmother, which would make you my great-great-grandmother.”

As the atmosphere lightened, the room lost its chill.

My breath no longer fogged the air, and I stopped chafing my arms to keep warm.

Valentina stepped back, studying my face. “Now that you mention it, I do see a family resemblance. Yes! You have Sofia’s green eyes.” Her face relaxing into a smile, she nodded.

I did a double take. Is it my imagination, or is her cleft lip less noticeable? Then speaking quietly, like a commentator’s voiceover at a tennis match, I filled in the gaps of our family tree. “Sofia married Raymond Taylor, whose son Matt married my grandmother, Milly.”

“Sofia had a son…?” Eyes wide, a look of wonder crossed Valentina’s face.

I nodded. Her cleft lip is less pronounced. “Then you had two great-granddaughters, and now you have a great-great-granddaughter—actually, two.” Emphasizing the positive results, I glossed over my cousin. “See the good that came from your marriage?”

Valentina sneered. “Descendants don’t change the fact that Mateo only tolerated me—never loved me.”

“That’s not true.” A disembodied, masculine voice resonated. The air shimmered, and a translucent image in a blue campaign shirt and rusty-brown trousers materialized.

The specter was so transparent, the cabin’s walls showed through him.

Mateo. I caught my breath.

“Maybe it began as a marriage of convenience, but over time, I came to love you.”

“You did?” Her cheeks lifting in a smile, Valentina’s cleft lip appeared less prominent.

“Yes, after the first few weeks, I”—he shrugged—“forgot your defect, for lack of a better word.”

“How could you forget?” Shrinking, she touched her lips. “How could anyone forget this blemish?”

“Instead of the scar, I saw your gentle spirit.” Mateo reached out his hand.

“I never knew…” Her lips and mouth intact, Valentina straightened her back as if a great weight had been lifted.

I blinked. Her cleft palate is gone.

“All this time, I thought you were ashamed of me—had settled for me.” Valentina gazed at the viga beam overhead. “To escape the humiliation, I hanged myself, but instead of releasing me, my death bound me to these rafters…these walls.”

I followed her line of vision, cringing at the despair that drove her to suicide.

“I loved you too much to blame you. Instead, I blamed Marianna. I thought, if you could forget her, you could love me.”

“I did love you—”

“But you wanted Marianna.” The charged air became glacial. “Calling her name in bed was the final humiliation.” Her cleft lip again as prominent as a camel’s, Valentina went purple with rage.

Mateo winced. “An innocent slip of the tongue—”

“Maybe unintentional, but not so innocent. You showed your true feelings.”

“I can’t deny I loved Marianna. Love is stubborn. You can’t will it to come or go, but I did love you…still love you.”

As the temperature warmed, I stopped shivering.

“You do?” Her voice as plaintive as a child’s, Valentina gazed into his face. Again, her scar was barely visible.

Nodding, he held out his hand. “Come with me.”

She leaned toward him as if tempted, then pulled back. “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

She glanced about the cabin’s four walls before staring at the overhead beam. “I belong here…”

“No.” Shaking his head, he again reached out. “You belong with me.”

“I do?” Radiant, all traces of the scar gone, Valentina floated toward him and took his hand.

I closed my eyes as an earsplitting explosion of light consumed them.

Luke burst through the door, with Rosie close behind. “What was that?”

****

I filled them in as I dried my hair. “First Marianna, then Mateo, their baby, and now Valentina…”

Standing at the ironing board, Rosie pressed the wrinkles from the damp veil. “Think that’s the last of the cabin’s ghosts?”

“Knock on wood.” I said a silent prayer while I rapped the wall.

“Maybe now we can get on with the wedding.” Luke peeked out the window. “At least, the rain’s stopped.”

I handed him two rolls of paper towels. “Dry the chairs, and I’ll be out in ten minutes.”

He grinned at Rosie. “Not even married yet, and already she’s giving me orders.”

“Discipline is good for the soul.” Chuckling, Rosie hung the veil over a chair as she crossed to the utility room. “Let’s see if the dryer got the dress’s wrinkles out.”

The coast clear, I stole a kiss. “The next time we’re alone, Mr. Kaylor, we’ll be husband and wife.”

“See you in ten, Mrs. Kaylor-to-be.” He gave me a quick peck before breezing out the door.

I sighed as I glanced about. So much life has been lived in this room.

“The heat puckered the seams. Just needs a quick pressing…was that a sigh I heard?” The cotton batiste dress in hand, Rosie paused as she returned from the utility room.

I nodded. “I’ve always loved this cabin, but I’ve never sensed such peace here.”

“If only these walls could talk.” Rosie slipped the dress over the ironing board. “Remember when you found the dime?”

The memories flooded back. “You said by finding my roots, I’d completed one circle and started the next.”

“And by releasing the souls bound here, maybe you ended that circle”—she gestured to the wedding dress—“and are beginning another.”

****

Instead of marching down the aisle, I simply stood beside Luke.

The ceremony went smoothly until the minister said, “Speak now or forever hold your peace.”

My back to the guests, I gritted my teeth, anticipating Bea’s objection. Or Cody’s. The pause interminable, I cringed, waiting…

A loud, mournful howl broke the silence.

I turned as Teddy bayed at the sky. Comic relief to my pent-up tension, I began shaking with suppressed laughter, then chuckling aloud.

The minister swallowed a smile as he repeated the question.

Again, Teddy howled, and the wedding guests giggled.

Sharing a smile with Luke, I gave a shrill whistle. “Teddy, come here, boy.”

The dog joined us, sitting between us in rapt attention.

The minister started a third time.

But ears up and chest out, Teddy held his peace throughout the vows.

Finally, the minister addressed him. “Do you, Teddy, take the bride and groom to be your lawfully wedded parents?”

Wagging his tail, Teddy gave one loud bark.

The pastor beamed from ear to ear. “In that case, the groom may kiss the bride.”

Taking me in his arms, Luke leaned me backwards in a deep kiss.

I closed my eyes, basking in his embrace. Then sensing the sun’s warmth on my eyelids, I peeked.

The sun broke through the clouds, refracting the light, and a double rainbow arced across the heavens in colors ranging from red to violet.

In love with life, I turned to my husband. “Valentina’s gift?”