A Husband for Margaret (6 page)

Tears filled her eyes, but she quickly
blinked them away. “I like you too, Joseph.”

He leaned forward and kissed
her.

A round of ‘ewe’s came from two very
disgusted boys who stopped playing to watch them.

He looked at his sons and said,
“Someday, this will be one of your favorite things to
do.”

Bob rolled his eyes. “I don’t think so,
Pa.”

Doug shook his head in silent agreement
to Bob’s declaration.

Joseph shrugged. “What did I tell you?”
he told her. “Boys just don’t think that far into the
future.”

She giggled, even as her lips still
tingled from his kiss and her heart thumped madly in her chest.
Well, as a girl, she’d played out her first kiss many times in her
mind, and she had to admit, the kiss he’d just given her was even
better than anything she could dream up. She settled against him
and realized that Ben had fallen asleep.

A man and four boys. A full house, yes.
But she bet it’d be a happy one.

Chapter Six

Margaret arranged the flowers in the
bouquet Jessica would hold. “I’m almost done. I want your thoughts
on this.”

Her sister yawned. “I think the last
two times you did that were fine.”

“
Are you even looking?”
Margaret glanced at the clock and sighed. The hour was late, but
she couldn’t relax. She was getting married tomorrow at eleven. How
was she supposed to sleep? She had a ton of things to do. “Please
tell me what you think, Charlotte. Your bouquet will look the
same.”

“
I don’t care how my bouquet
looks.”

“
I just want everything to
be perfect.” She’d spent years preparing for this moment. She
couldn’t stop until she was done. “I’ll tell you what. If
you
really
look at
this bouquet and tell me what you think, I’ll let you go to
bed.”

Her sister wearily turned her gaze to
the flowers. “They’re fine.”

“
A good fine or a bad
fine?”

“
There’s not a
difference.”

“
Yes there is.”

Charlotte stood up from the chair in
the parlor. “I can’t keep my eyes open.”

Margaret realized that there was no way
she would get a good, solid answer from her, so she waved for her
to go to bed. “Alright. But please wear the blue bow
tomorrow.”

She grimaced but nodded.

Once again, Margaret wished that
Jessica still lived in town. Jessica had a great eye for style, and
as much as Charlotte tried to help her, she wasn’t any better at
making things look their best than Margaret was. But Charlotte was
such a tomboy anyway. Margaret was lucky her sister would wear the
bow. That agreement alone had taken Margaret a good two hours of
pleading and doing all her chores. She shook her head and rubbed
her eyes. It had been a long and tiring day. Who knew planning a
wedding could be so hectic?

She set the bouquet on the table and
studied all the flowers in the three bouquets that were neatly set
out in a row. The light from the candle gave her the impression of
softness. Perhaps she should have opted for an evening wedding
ceremony. She did like the effect candlelight had on things. But
she didn’t want to have the boys stay up past their bedtime, so she
chose eleven in the morning. By then, everyone should be fed and
ready to enjoy the day.

Peering out the window, she
wondered if it was going to rain. The night sky was clear. Not a
cloud in sight. With any luck, tomorrow would be a nice sunny day.
She asked for an outside wedding. If it rained, they’d have to go
inside the church. She admonished herself for assuming that just
because it was her wedding day that it would rain.
Everything will be fine. Nothing’s going to go
wrong.
Her mother was right. She had to
stop finding reasons to worry.

She thought over the other tasks she
had to do but couldn’t think of anything she could do that night.
Everything else, like her hair and putting on her dress, would have
to wait until morning.

With nothing else to do but wait, she
went to bed. She closed her eyes but didn’t sleep. Instead, she
played through the wedding ceremony over and over. This would be
the day she’d remember for the rest of her life. And it was going
to be perfect.

***

By the time ten o’clock came the next
morning, Margaret was a bundle of nerves.

Jessica laughed and forced her to sit
in the small room in the back of the church. “I can’t do your hair
if you keep bouncing around.”

She fidgeted and leaned forward so she
could look out the small window. “It’s a lovely day, don’t you
think?”

Jessica pulled her back so she sat up
straight. “Yes. It’s not even windy. You picked the perfect spring
day to have a wedding, and I bet it didn’t even have anything to do
with me.”

She chuckled and glanced over her
shoulder while Jessica pulled her hair back with some pins lying on
the round table beside them. “But having you here doesn’t
hurt.”

Though Jessica rolled her eyes, she
didn’t hide her amusement. “Yes. I made sure the clouds went away.
It took a lot of work to do so I better get the slice of cake with
the biggest rose on it. You know how much I love roses.”

“
Sure, as long as they’re
pink and red.”

Margaret giggled but
resisted the urge to get up and check the length of her dress. As
much as she checked the job she’d done on altering her mother’s
wedding gown, she still wondered if she did a good job. She took a
deep breath.
Relax. It’s fine.
Everything’s fine.

Jessica stuck another pin into her
hair. “I saw Peter James’ mother the other day, and she was wearing
red and pink roses in her hat.”

“
You’re kidding?”

“
Nope.” She took two daisies
from the table and wove them into Margaret’s hair. “I couldn’t
believe it either, but she said the colors looked much better on
her than on wedding decorations.”

She rolled her eyes. “Of course.
Everything looks better on Connie James. It really is a good thing
you married Tom instead. I met Tom’s mother, and she’s actually
pretty nice.”

“
Yes, she is. She lets Tom
make his own decisions.”

A smile tugged at Margaret’s lips as
she glanced at her friend. “Don’t you mean that she lets you make
decisions for Tom?”

Jessica gasped. “I have no idea what
you mean!”

“
Oh come on. I saw that
pretty buggy you had him buy. No man would pick that.”

She playfully nudged Margaret in the
shoulder before she turned her face forward so she could put
another pin into her hair. “That buggy is the one that got us here
today, so you better watch your tongue.”

“
Well, I don’t think four
little boys will be caught dead in something that feminine. You
better hope you have some girls.”

“
Don’t think we aren’t
working on that.” Jessica finished with her hair and handed her a
handheld mirror. “There. What do you think?”

Margaret hardly recognized the person
staring back at her. “The daisies are perfect. I don’t know how you
do it, but you always make everything look better than they
are.”

Jessica clucked her tongue. “Enough of
that. You are a pretty woman, and it’s about time you admitted
it.”

Margaret shrugged and put the mirror
down. She peered out the window and saw that Joseph and his sons
were getting assembled. Her heart beat faster at the sight of him.
Looking at him made her weak in the knees. She wondered if she
would ever get over that initial feeling of awe whenever she saw
him.

Charlotte approached the oldest two
boys—Doug and Bob—and gave them each a basket full of flower
petals. They gagged but didn’t toss the offensive ‘girly’ baskets
to the ground. Margaret chuckled. She didn’t think the boys would
be delighted to scatter the petals on the ground, but Jessica had
insisted it would be pretty to decorate the grass for the
occasion.

“
I really do hope you have
girls,” she told Jessica who was putting daisies into her own hair.
“I don’t think you’d know what to do with a boy.”

If Jessica heard her, she chose to
ignore the comment, so Margaret stood up and inspected her
off-white gown. She always thought her mother’s dress was beautiful
and was glad she chose to wear it.

Someone knocked on the door.

Since Jessica was busy, Margaret picked
up her bouquet and opened the door. “Hi, Pa.”

He smiled at her. “Joseph’s going to be
very happy when he sees you. You’ve turned into a lovely young
woman.”

“
See?” Jessica added, giving
her a pointed look as she slipped another daisy into her
hair.

It was hard to appreciate a compliment
when her stomach was all twisted in knots. Margaret simply nodded
her thanks and took a deep breath. She hoped she didn’t end up
falling flat on her face out there. So far, everything was turning
out much better than she planned. Right now, the only thing that
could screw it up was her.

They waited until Jessica was done
before they went to the entrance of the church. She put her arm
through her father’s and waited. Charlotte, Doug and Bob ran over
to them, and Jessica handed the extra bouquet to Charlotte. The
poor boys still looked as if holding the baskets was akin to being
asked to put a bow in their hair. Margaret thought about telling
them that they could put them down, but then the groomsmen headed
their way.

This was it. In a brief
period of time, she would be Mrs. Joseph Connealy.
Margaret Connealy.
She
thought that sounded rather pleasant.

Glancing at the lawn, she saw that the
group of fifty people found their seats as the preacher and Joseph
stood in their positions. Ben and Charles sat with her mother, and
for the moment, they remained good.

Tom Larson whistled at Jessica. “You’re
even better than the day we got married.”

She giggled as she took his arm.
“You’re so sweet.” Then she kissed his cheek.

Joel Larson took Charlotte by the arm
and rolled his eyes. “They act like that all the time. A person
could lose their lunch watching this.”

Charlotte seemed amused. “Then be glad
we don’t eat until after the wedding.”

Tom and Jessica led them toward the
assembly of guests who turned to watch. Joel and Charlotte
followed. Doug and Bob dutifully took out handfuls of petals and
threw them into the air as if they couldn’t get rid of them fast
enough.

One of her father’s friends began
playing a sweet melody on his fiddle once they made it to the place
where she would begin her wedding march. Margaret glanced at her
father who patted her hand. She gave him a shaky smile. She still
couldn’t believe this was really happening—and to her of all
people.

Tom and Jessica didn’t make it three
paces to the preacher when a woman ran up to Margaret. “Thank
goodness I got here in time!”

Margaret frowned. “Do I know you?” she
whispered, aware that Joel and Charlotte had begun their
stroll.

Doug and Bob glanced over their
shoulders and gasped. “Miss Potter?”

Ignoring the boys, the woman told
Margaret, “You can’t marry Joseph. He’s supposed to marry
me.”

Margaret spent a good five seconds
staring at the woman and wondering who she was and why she’d make
such a wild accusation. The person up front stopped playing the
fiddle and murmurs came from the guests. And still, she couldn’t
adequately decide how to proceed. Miss Potter, whoever she was,
didn’t help further the discussion either, for she stared right
back at Margaret and crossed her arms as if the matter was settled.
Finally, Margaret turned to Doug and Bob for help.

“
That’s the lady who wants
to marry Pa,” Bob said. “But Pa didn’t want her.”

Miss Potter gasped. “You can’t say
that. Your pa thought I was taken with another gent. That’s why he
left.”

“
That’s not what Pa
said.”

“
What do you know? You’re
just a child.”

Margaret frowned. “Children know enough
to know what their father wants.”

Miss Potter smiled at her and used a
tone that one would liken to a woman using with a child. “Children
may think they know things, but a grown man does not disclose his
most intimate feelings for a lady.”

Doug scowled at the woman. “If Pa
wanted to marry you, he wouldn’t have come here to marry Miss
Williams.”

“
That’s telling her, Doug,”
Bob agreed. “Pa doesn’t like you.”

Margaret figured it was
wrong, but she caught herself enjoying the way the two boys could
stand up to Miss Potter. Surely if she was going to be their
mother, she’d insist that they treat Miss Potter the respect due to
an adult. But she couldn’t admonish the children. Not really. At
least, not if she wanted to be sincere. This woman, after all, had
barged in on
her
wedding and was threatening to destroy
her
perfect day. This was the one day
in her entire life that was supposed to be absolutely perfect. And
this rude individual was trying to interfere with it!