Chapter 30: Marriage Rites

 

I awoke in the wide bed upstairs at Maida House, although for a long moment I contemplated the ridiculous medieval beams in the ceiling before I came to that conclusion. No daylight filtered through the closed curtains. The coverlet was drawn up over my bare chest, and my left arm was propped on a pillow. I tilted my head to examine the neat wrapping around the wound. When I contracted the muscle, hidden stitches pulled at the torn flesh. Somebody had tended to me. The lingering effects of a bitter medicinal draught left my mouth parched.

The chamber door cracked open, and Juno slipped inside bearing a pitcher. “You’re awake.”

I swallowed past a dry throat. “The babes?” I stretched out my hand, and she crossed the room to settle on the side of the bed. The mattress dipped under her weight. I gulped down the cup of water she offered. She set the empty cup beside the pitcher, then our fingers threaded together without conscious effort.

“They are fine. We found the infants filthy in their own waste, and they missed several feedings, but the neglect is nothing they won’t recover from. Before yesterday, Greeley had been tending to them with some effort. The man was so disconnected from reality, I cannot forgive myself for missing it. How long did he expect to keep two stolen children hidden?”

“When Sarah left home, something within him came unmoored.”

“It is not Sarah’s fault,” Juno said.

“No. Is Everett here?”

“He spent the afternoon repairing Mrs. Greeley’s grave. He and Sarah received the brunt of the attention for exposing her father’s actions. By the time Wright arrived to take custody of Greeley, Everett was the one shepherding the man. You probably don’t remember. Both families are overjoyed to have their children restored.” She smoothed her thumb over my bruised, scraped knuckles.

“They should have said they were abducted. I wish I knew how Greeley had done it.”

Juno winced. “I shudder to imagine how he kept those two babies hidden from his neighbors. From all of us.”

“Mrs. Roberts seemed so rational to me. Why wouldn’t she have raised a ruckus?”

“Mrs. Roberts, despite her cool demeanor, feels herself to be a bit of a mystic. She really believed that child was called home by God himself. She netted Mr. Roberts in her delusion.”

I considered. She said she’d smelled roses that day and thought it a sign of the Virgin Mary. Greeley used rose oil in his candles. “And the Mofflins?”

“The Mofflins, it seems, did not want to be persecuted for having misplaced a baby. There was enough fear building in the village after the Horvath boy passed, they didn’t want to land in the center of a witch hunt. They heard about the night Everett was dragged from his bed. I believe they would have spoken with you quietly at the party, except for Greeley’s interruption.” Juno searched my face. “But Ben…you buried those children. You dug their graves and lowered their coffins into the ground. Why didn’t you know they were empty?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t place the Mofflins’ child. Mofflin and the vicar did it themselves. Everett and I would never have peeked inside, in any case. But I have ransacked my memory. Even an inexpensive infant’s casket will weigh a couple of stone, and the Roberts had purchased an ornate version. I suppose I didn’t notice the missing weight of a tiny infant. I should have known. I will regret that error for all my days.”

“Please don’t blame yourself. Somebody else arranged prayers and hymns for an empty box. I wasn’t accusing you—at least you untangled this mess.”

“For the others, the Pfeiffer and Horvath parents, it must feel like a loss all over again.”

“Those deaths really were coincidental. They are still in pain, but it’s the same pain they had last week. You, however, must have a host of new pains. Tell me, do you remember much from dinner last night?”

“I remember the important bits. You, my beautiful girl, promised to marry me.”

Juno gazed into the fire. “Well. That was before you acquired a big, ugly trench in your arm.”

“No excuses. You already assented. And I will require both your fortunes to restore my estate.”

She turned to face me again and wrinkled her nose. “I suppose that is true. And I need your name to provide a respectable veneer for my witchy ways.”

“There is that, yes. And do not forget, all your plants are already in my greenhouse.”

“Wouldn’t dare to disturb the plants.”

“And I love you,” I said softly. “I want to make you happy. I want your teeth pressed into my shoulder. You shall have everything in my power to give you, including my protection and your freedom.”

“I know,” she replied. “I’m counting on it. I love you, too. And if you misbehave, Benjamin, I will afflict you with something terrible of my own devising.”

She softened the threat with a kiss. When my mother bustled into the room bearing a tray, Juno sprang back like a guilty adolescent, and I laughed.

* * *

The major casualty of Greeley’s revelations, aside from his wife’s disturbed grave, was the romantic attraction between Everett and Sarah. Everett’s interest in Sarah had always sprung from his nurturing side, but the uneasy sense that she should have known something about her father’s crimes was not conducive to courtship. I suspected she carried some of the same willful ignorance that afflicted Greeley. Regardless, Everett and Sarah were both young, and as Juno’s apprentice, Sarah might still recover from her father’s influence. I consoled Everett but did not worry over his heartache or his prospects.

Wright, in his magisterial capacity, had asked a few questions of Everett and the other witnesses, but the evidence of kidnapped children rescued from his house was more than enough to prosecute Greeley. The last I heard of him, he was bound for a London prison.

For Juno and myself, one wedding was not enough. We were married thrice. The first ceremony was in the church before a hundred witnesses, some surely disappointed that the bride did not turn to smoke and ash on the doorstep. My mother organized a sprawling breakfast reception afterwards at Maida House. Two more landowners in attendance opened negotiations to sell me their portions of the estate acreage. Mother made eloquent, brief remarks about passing the management of the household to the new Mrs. Hood, and expressed her intention to enjoy all of us waiting on her hand and foot.

When the breakfast crowd had thinned to stragglers, Juno caught my hand and gave me a brief squeeze. She angled her chin toward the stairway, her eyes alight, and I nodded. She slipped out of the room without saying a single farewell. I lingered for a few minutes before following, although I’m sure we fooled no one. The daft smile had not left my face for hours.

In the master bedroom, formerly the setting of my nightmares, I entered a dreamlike scene. Juno stood before the fireplace wrapped only in a thick, wool blanket. Her toes curled against the rug, and the flames crackled merrily in the grate. My brother would have been glad for me to have found such beauty in his old chamber.

“You don’t need that,” I said roughly. I took three strides to join her, then tugged at the hem of her covering. The blanket slid from her bare shoulders and pooled at her feet.

Thus commenced our second ceremony, where we fulfilled, in delicious detail, certain private promises that had kept me awake for weeks.

The third marriage rite was performed by Sarah Greeley at the center of the hedge maze under the light of a full moon. Juno’s sister, Caroline, attended that ceremony. Upon her arrival, Caroline had measured my character and Juno’s happiness and then pronounced herself satisfied. The only music was the drone of nocturnal inserts, and the only decorations were the rich, green Taxus baccata hedges. Everett waited with me under the open metalwork of the gazebo for the arrival of my bride.

Juno emerged around the last turn of the maze with her sister beside her. She wore bronze silk and a black silk ribbon around her throat. When she smiled, my heartbeat stuttered like my tongue.

I held out my hand, and Juno stepped up beside me. Sarah, assigned her first ceremonial role, was more nervous than either of us. She spoke of love, commitment, and mutual respect. Then she asked Juno and me to speak our promises to each other.

I turned to my wife and squeezed her fingers. I had promised her everything already, before God and with my body and soul, but I was happy to do so again.

“I promise to pay attention,” I said simply. “When it comes to you, Juno Hood, I can do nothing else.”

Juno smiled. She looked carefree and young. We had each other, and our friends and family, our house, and a whole lifetime together.

“It is you for whom I have been waiting,” she said. They were the first words she had ever spoken to me, and only then did I understand the truth in them. “I promise you are under my protection now, and I will shelter under yours.”

I blinked to clear a film of emotion. “We are together. We are for each other.”