Sweet Annie (25 page)

Annie
smiled her appreciation and Glenda turned away while Annie removed her cotton
gown and stepped into the water. The tab had only been filled half-full because
Glenda had several buckets of warm water ready for the rinse.

Annie
lathered her hair and Glenda poured water over her head. Once she was bathed
and wrapped in a warm robe, they sat before the fire and Glenda gently worked
the tangles from her hair and helped it dry.

"I
wish I could brush some of these curls out for good," Annie said.

"No,
no, don't brash them out—let them spring. The charm of your lovely hair is the
way it curls around your face and neck. Us ordinary-looking women would give
anything for hair like yours." She finger-wove a few spirals into place.

Annie
held up her silver-backed hand mirror. "I've always thought this mop was
atrocious because it wasn't dark and lovely like Mother's."

"Your
mother is beautiful, but you have a beauty all your own. Inside and out."

Their
eyes met and neither said any more about Mildred. "Luke thinks I'm
beautiful."

"He's right."

The doorbell sounded.

"I'll
get that." Glenda hurried from the room and returned with Charmaine.

"Oh,
Annie, I'm so excited, I think I'm going to burst! How can you look so
calm?"

Annie
laughed at her cousin's exuberance. "Lack of sleep perhaps?"

"Let's go get you dressed."

Glenda remained to clean up
the bathing chamber while Charmaine led Annie to her room. Charmaine helped her
pack her belongings and Glenda went for Tim who took the trunks and boxes to
the livery.

Hours later, dressed in her
white satin gown and slippers, the beaded headband and veil upon her head,
Annie emerged from her room and met her father in the foyer. Dressed in a black
frock coat and striped trousers, he made a dashing picture.

Eldon stared at Annie, his
expression softening and his eyes misting with unshed tears. "You are so
beautiful, my daughter."

"Thank you, Daddy.
Thank you for everything." She swept forward in a rustle of silk to give
him a careful hug and a peck on the cheek.

"All I want is for you to be happy."

"Luke makes me happy."

Clearing his throat against
the tide of emotion, he nodded.

Annie voiced her newest
concern. "I don't want to take that dreadful chair, but there is only one
doorway—the one at the back of the church. Would I be too cumbersome in this
dress for you to carry me up the aisle?"

“Carry you?'' His brows
shot up in surprise. “Why on earth would I carry you?"

"Well, so I don't have
to—to walk down the aisle in front of all those people, of course."

His expression grew stem.
"Suddenly you don't want to walk in front of people? Nothing stopped you
from walking across the floor at the social hall in front of a hundred eyes.
What's different about this?"

"This is my wedding! I
don't want everyone to see how clumsy I am." Her mother's criticism had
raised her self-consciousness.

"Do you want to appear
fragile? Incapable?" He made a clucking sound. "I'm shocked."

She stared, amazed at the
challenging words he'd spoken. "Are you telling me to walk down the aisle
in front of the whole population of Copper Creek?"

He raised his chin. "With your head held
high."

Of course. She wanted to walk down the aisle to her
husband. "You're right, Daddy." Tears blurred her vision and he
handed her a handkerchief. “Thank you."

He turned and called up the
stairwell. "It's time to leave, Mildred!"

Annie'd been wondering all
along if her mother would actually attend, but there was no room for argument
in her father's authoritative tone.

Mildred appeared at the top
of the stairs in a lavender silk taffeta gown that emphasized her slender waist
and dark hair. She examined Annie as she descended the stairs, her gaze
neither approving nor disapproving. Annie knew she'd chosen well, from her
elbow-length gloves to her slippers and veil, but she didn't expect her
mother's approval at this late date.

"Your mother and I
have something for you." Eldon turned to the cherry table behind him and
picked up a small flat box, which he handed to Annie.

Inside the silk-lined
jewelry case lay an elegant pearl choker. "It's beautiful!" Annie
breathed.

"It was my
mother's." Her father placed it around her neck, fastening the clasp, and
stepping back to admire the pearls. "Thank you."

Her
mother said nothing, merely picked up her hem and started forward.

Once she was out of
hearing, Eldon asked, “Does the chair go at all?''

Annie
shook her head. "No. I don't want that chair spoiling anything about this
day."

"Very well."

Charmaine
was waiting on the porch, and in no time they were in the buggy and on their way
in the warm fall sunshine.

Leaves
crunched beneath the wheels as Eldon drove the buggy to the steps of the church
and got out to assist the women.

Burdell
and Diana had been waiting, and Burdy stepped forward. "Oh, Annie, you
look beautiful!" Diana said from beside him. "Doesn't she?"

Burdell
nodded. "Are you sure, Annie? It's not too late to call this off. I can go
send everyone away if you say the word."

"This
is what I want, Burdy," she replied. "Thank you for being here. It
means more than you know."

He offered his arm until
she neared the church building, then left to move the buggy for his father.
Diana and Charmaine ushered Annie into the tiny cloakroom where they stood
amongst the scents of leather and wool until Burdell returned and the organist
began the first notes of the wedding march.

Charmaine
nodded to the two young ushers and they opened the polished doors. Annie's
father secured her hand in the crook of his arm and gave her a reassuring
smile.

He
proceeded slowly and Annie raised her chin and took step after step, feeling
every critical eye on her awkward advance. Step-limp. Step-limp.

Luke came into sharp focus,
a half-smile slashing his handsome cheek, his blue eyes intent on her approach.
From that moment on, no one else mattered, nothing mattered, not even the fact
that she would never be graceful, nothing except that from this day forward she
would be Luke Carpenter's wife.

He wore the same proud
expression he'd worn the night she'd crossed the dance floor and asked him to
teach her to dance. Her heart fluttered crazily at the devotion in his eyes.

Eldon took her gloved hand,
kissed the back, and placed it in Luke's waiting palm, gave the younger man a
cautioning glance, then took his place in the first pew beside his wife.
Annie's gaze moved from her parents to her almost-husband.

The rest of the ceremony
progressed in a blur of prayers and vows and tears and kisses. Taking Luke's
hand, she walked beside him up the aisle to the door and, once outdoors,
good-naturedly ducked a shower of rice.

Bending his knees, he swept
her into his arms and carried her toward the social hall. Grateful for the
rest, she wrapped her arm around his neck and smiled into his face.

"We did it, Annie," he said. "We
really did it."

With tears blurring her
vision, she nodded, and they shared a moment of silent pleasure. Annie laid her
head against his shoulder and sighed.

He carried her into the
building and found her a chair.

"The musicians are
already setting up," she observed.

He
crouched before her and took her hand. "You are so beautiful."

She
gazed into his earnest blue eyes. "And your eyes are so blue."

He
grinned. "I reckon we'll have beautiful blue-eyed children, won't
we?"

Her
heart missed a beat. She glanced around at the women busily uncovering food and
arranging cups and silverware, at the pile of gifts on a lace-draped table.
"All this is really happening to
me
—lame
Annie Sweetwater. I had a wedding and a cake and I have a husband just like any
normal girl."

Luke
raised her hand and his thumb touched the gold ring he'd placed on her finger.

Casting
her attention back to the man before her, she corrected her words: "Better
than any normal girl—because I've married the handsomest, kindest, bluest-eyed
man in all of Copper Creek."

He grinned and she touched
his cheek.

"Come
on, you have lots of time for that," Charmaine called. "You two have
to fill your plates first."

"I'll
get yours," Luke said, releasing her hand and standing.

While
Luke was gone Burdell approached. He took a seat beside her and watched Luke at
the food table. After a minute he said, “If he ever hurts you—''

"He would never hurt
me, Burdy."

"I'm
just telling you. If he ever does, you come to me. I'll kill him."

Remembering
who had pounded who during their last scuffle, Annie held back a smile. "I
would come to you," she said somberly.

"Okay."
He placed his hands on his knees.

"Okay,"
Annie agreed.

Burdell
sat a moment longer, then got up and strode away.

Later,
when the newlyweds opened gifts, Annie exclaimed over the generosity of her
neighbors. Of course her father was the local banker and she had to wonder how
much effect that had on people's pocketbooks.

Glenda
and her girls had sewn aprons and dishtow-els. The Renlows gave them a mantel
clock, and Burdell and Diana bestowed a set of silverware that Annie knew had
been of Diana's choosing. Among the other gifts were blankets and barrels,
skillets and dishes, fabric and a rocking chair. Mrs. Krenshaw gave them books,
and Lizzy and Guy had purchased them a painted glass lamp.

Annie
was overwhelmed at the amount of household items they now had to take to their
little house. From time to time she thought about leaving the party tonight and
going to that new house with her new husband, and a wave of nerves would make
her hands cold.

A tall,
handsome man with black hair graying at the temples shook Luke's hand and then
gave him a hug, clapping him on the back.

"Annie,
this is my Uncle Gil," Luke told her, stepping back.

"Gilbert
Chapman," his uncle said with a friendly nod.

Annie
extended her hand. "I'm pleased to officially meet you. I do remember
seeing you the day you came to my birthday party."

"None
of us will ever forget that day, will we?" he said with a wry grin that
reminded Annie of Luke's devastating smile.

"I
certainly never forgot," Annie said. "Luke takes after you. Were you
his father's brother?"

Gil
nodded. "He was a few years older. We were close as young'uns, but didn't
keep in touch much after we had our own lives. I was sorry about that after he
died. But I was glad to have Luke here come to live with me. He was good
company for a lot o' years. I guess you're going to find that out."

What
a likable man. No wonder Luke thought so highly of him. "I guess I
am."

"I'll
bring your present by next week," he told Luke. "I couldn't bring it
here today."

They
visited a while longer until Gil spotted someone he wanted to talk to. She
didn't have time to wonder why he couldn't bring their present.

Annie
was truly the belle of the ball that afternoon. Everyone wished her well and spoke
to her, and when the dancing began she declined a dozen offers, wanting to
dance only with Luke, who compensated for her lack of agility and made her feel
competent.

"Are
you getting tired?" he asked during one of their turns around the floor.
"Are your legs holding up?"

"I'm
all right," she assured him, not wanting to hold him back from enjoying
their wedding celebration.