A Groom With a View (19 page)

Jane watched for a moment, counting to ten, and turned to Eden. "You're next.”

Livvy was whispering furiously to her father. "I can't do it, Daddy. I know you're disappointed, but—"

“Livvy, get a grip on yourself," he said quietly, but very sharply.

“No. I don't want to marry Dwayne. I don't want to marry anyone.”

Jane nearly fainted. She'd already launched the first bridesmaid and it was time to fire up the next one and the bride had changed her mind!

There hadn't been
anything
in the wedding planning books about this!

Eden had turned to them as well. "Good for you, Livvy. Good for you!"

“Butt out, Eden," Jack Thatcher said. "You've always been a troublemaker."

“Daddy—"

“Livvy, it's too late. The wedding has started.”

The musicians, fascinated and appalled by the argument, missed a few notes. Jane glared at them and they obediently looked away and went back to playing properly.

“But Daddy—"

“No, Livvy. I'm not going to let you humiliate all of the family this way.”

Kitty made a funny gasping noise. Her face was awash in tears. Jane lunged into Livvy's room and grabbed a box of tissues, handing a wad of them to Kitty.

Eden took Jane's arm. "I'm going down now. The guests are starting to get alarmed and Jack will win anyway.”

She stepped out onto the stairway and started down the steps. Jane pulled on Kitty's sleeve, took another handful of tissues and quickly blotted her face, and said, "If you don't smile as you go down those steps, I'll hunt you down later and slap you senseless. Do you understand me?”

Kitty nodded and composed her face into a rather horrible grimace.

Jane didn't even have to watch Kitty's descent to know how awkward it was. She could hear the clunk of her feet over the music which was relentlessly going on. She turned to Livvy and Jack.

The hissing match was over. Livvy had one hand resting lightly on her father's arm and was holding her tulip bouquet in the other hand. Her face was as cold, white, and composed as marble. Jane waited, staring at them with horrified fascination, and when the sound of Kitty's heavy steps stopped, she touched Livvy's arm. It was clammy.

“Are you sure?" Jane asked.

Before Jack could say anything, Livvy nodded and father and daughter stepped forward.

Jane couldn't bear to even watch them descend the staircase. It was too much like watching someone go to the gallows. She went back to Livvy's room and collapsed in the chair by the window.

“Poor, poor Livvy," she whispered.

The musicians reached the end of their piece and fell silent.

Nineteen
·;·.

If Livvy refused to say her vows or ran screaming out of the lodge when the minister said, "Do you, Livvy…" there would be nothing Jane could do. Nor did she want to be seen peeking around the wall again, so she just sat there staring out the window, as clever and nimble as an amoeba, until the musicians began to play again. That meant it was over. For better or worse. If Jane's plans had been followed, Livvy and Dwayne had kissed to seal the bargain, then come around their flower "frame" and exited the lodge down the little center aisle between the chairs. In a moment, they'd be outside in the lovely April sunshine, being congratulated as the guests poured out behind them to deliver hugs, kisses, and good wishes.

Livvy was going to need lots of good wishes. Jane bestirred herself. There was a lot to do now and very little time. As she came down the stairs, she saw that the table people were already scurrying around like a school of very organized fish to fold up the chairs and stack them in preparation for putting up the long buffet table.

Larkspur was standing by, practically dancing with impatience and holding a big flower arrangement. At least Jane assumed it was Larkspur. All she could see were his legs behind the vase, flowers, and foliage.

Likewise, Mr. Willis was hovering at the kitchen door with an enormous silver chafing dish and his local assistant was weighed down with a stack of dinner plates.

Shelley was doing her best to dislodge the few guests who hadn't yet moved outside. "I'm tempted to jerk their chairs out from under them," she said as she passed Jane. "Ladies, would you like to come outside now?" she cooed sweetly to a pair of the trophy wives who were comparing their jewelry.

As soon as the last of them were driven outdoors, chaos broke out.

The long tables were slammed into place in the center of the room, tablecloths snapped and billowed and before they were even all in place, Mr. Willis and Larkspur were fighting for space on the long white expanse. Mr. Willis thought the beef Stroganoff should have pride of place in the very center of the table with appetizers and salads on one side and bread and desserts on the other. Larkspur felt strongly, and was not loath to express the view as if it were gospel, that the enormous vase of tulips, ferns, and agapanthusmust be the center highlight with smaller arrangements in the spots Mr. Willis had marked out for the plates, silverware, and napkins at the far end.

“Centerpiece flowers in the center," Jane snapped. "Small arrangements between the plates and appetizers and another between the bread and desserts and stop squabbling! Larkspur, the drinks table is almost ready. You work on that and then fit things around what Mr. Willis sets out."

“No flowers near the glasses," Mr. Willis shrieked. "They'll drop petals and bugs in the glassware."

“My flowers do
not
have bugs!"

“Flowers in the middle, glasses around them. Flower petals in champagne look pretty," Jane declared.

“You're getting this bossy stuff down," Shelley said from behind her. "What was the big delay between Layla's entrance and Eden's? People were beginning to mutter among themselves."

“Livvy was pleading with her father to cancel the wedding," Jane said with a heavy sigh.

“No!" Shelley exclaimed. "She wanted to bolt at the very last second?"

“Yes, it was ghastly. Eden was encouraging her, Kitty was weeping, the musicians were eavesdropping, I was considering pretending to faint, and in the end, Jack prevailed."

“Of course he did."

“And Livvy's stuck with Dwayne," Jane said grimly.

Shelley thought for a minute and said, "Jane, maybe it was just momentary panic on Livvy's part. A burst of quick hysteria that she really didn't mean. If she really and truly didn't want to marry him, surely she'd have brought it to a halt a lot sooner. When you got married didn't you have just a second when you thought, 'What am I
doing!' "

“
No, I thought I knew exactly what I was doing. I was wrong, of course, but I didn't have a second's doubt.”

Shelley patted Jane's arm. "Well, I hate to be hard-hearted, but it's done now and it's not your problem. Livvy had a decision to make and she made it. Period. Now she's Mrs. Dwayne Hessling, whether she likes it or not. You're neither her mother nor her best friend and you couldn't have interfered."

“But the sad thing is, she doesn't have a mother or a best friend," Jane said. "And she needed both.”

The food was in place and smelled divine. The flowers were on the serving tables and Larkspur had placed small arrangements on some of the end tables as well. The furniture people had completed their work and slipped out a side door. They'd come back tomorrow at their leisure and Uncle Joe would let them in to pick up all the rental furniture and linens. The wedding cake, all four tiers of it, sat in solitary splendor in the side room, among the gifts on display.

Jane took one last look around. Perfection. And best of all, this was the last stage of the process. Everybody would be fed and the bride and groom would be seen off to their honeymoon and Jane could go home, cash the check for the last part of her fee, and forget she'd ever been insane enough to get involved in a stranger's wedding. She wondered if she could persuade her children to elope when the time carne. A nice monetary bribe ought to do it.

Finally at ease, she went to the front door and opened it. The photographer was taking one last picture of the entire wedding party assembled on a slight slope so they fanned up the hill behind Livvy and Dwayne. Livvy was either happy now or giving a decent impression of looking as if she were. Dwayne was beaming. Some kind soul had relieved Mrs. Hessling of her huge, horrible handbag.

Jane had the fleeting thought that maybe she should get a copy of this picture and put it in Mrs. Crossthwait's scrapbook as the old woman would have liked. But who was left to care what was in the book? It would probably end up in a garage sale and some antiques dealer would buy it to use the old pictures with old frames he was trying to sell.

The guests were getting hungry and were milling closer to the door. As the last picture was taken, Jane called out, "Will the bride and groom lead everyone back into the lodge?”

There were a few grumbles from those closest to the door, who were the hungriest, but they turned into exclamations of pleased surprise as the crowd flowed back into the lodge and discovered the miraculous transformation of the room.

As soon as most of the guests had gone along the food line, Jane checked with Mr. Willis that everything in the kitchen was in order. He assured her that it was and trays of second helpings of anything they might run out of were warming or cooling, as appropriate. Jane left the kitchen, then came to a stop. She'd been in the mode of thinking of all the things she must do and which would come next for days now, and suddenly, there was nothing for her to do.

Nothing!

She smiled blissfully and sank into the nearest chair and very nearly fell asleep.

When everybody was through eating, she'd have to round them up and head them to the side room where the magnificent cake awaited unveiling. There would be a few toasts, the photographer would take pictures of the ceremonial cake cutting, everybody would have a nibble, and then it would be time for the guests to start drifting away.

These happy thoughts were suddenly and violently interrupted by what Jane first thought to be a siren, but was a piercing scream that went on and on and on. There was a horrified silence in the main room. Jane leaped to her feet and ran to the closed door of the side room, colliding with Shelley and Mel as she reached it.

Mel opened the door just wide enough for thethree of them to slip in, then slammed it behind them.

Kitty was standing with her back to them in the center of the room, shrieking. Dwayne was sprawled at her feet, his eyes closed, a huge red stain spread across his white shirt. Mel stepped forward and took her arm. She turned to him with a knife in her hand. She stopped screaming and started whimpering. He pinched the blade of the knife between two fingers and she released it, looking down at it with horror. Mel bent to put down the knife and examine Dwayne. "Shelley, call 911," he said calmly.

Kitty drifted backwards, her eyes still on Dwayne, and backed into Jane.

Livvy and Jack had pushed through the crowd and entered the room. Jack stood with his back to the door, keeping anyone else from entering. Livvy had one hand over her mouth and was clutching her father's sleeve with the other.

Kitty turned to Jane. Hiccupping and crying, she said, "Someone s-said the cake was beautiful. I–I wanted to look before it was cut. I c-came in. Dwayne was there. On the f-floor. I thought he'd f-fainted."

“Calm down, Kitty," Jane said.

“Then I 1-looked. There was a knife in his ch-chest." Her voice had risen to a shriek again. "I pulled it out. I thought it would s-save him. B-but there was all that blood."

“You shouldn't have touched it," Jane said, averting her eyes from Dwayne.

“I know. I know. But I thought—" She looked over Jane's shoulder.

“Livvy, why did you have to do this?" Kitty asked.

Livvy made a noise like a mouse caught in a trap. A little squeak. Then said, "Me? Me! You think I stabbed my husband?"

“You could have divorced him," Kitty said, sobbing. "You could have had the marriage annulled. You didn't have to kill him.”

Livvy's eyes rolled back and she slipped to the floor in a heap.

Mel sent Jane to guard the front door and make sure no one left.

“Is he dead?" she whispered.

“Very. “

The guests were babbling hysterically. Several grabbed at Jane as she passed through the crowd around the door.

“What's happened?”

“Who was screaming?" they asked.

“There's been an accident," she said loudly, her voice shaking. "Keep the doorway clear. Don't anybody leave." She had to pluck several hands off her sleeve to get away.

She could already hear sirens when she reached the door. Iva Thatcher had followed Jane and said, in a frail, trembling voice, "It's not Livvy, is it?”

Jane gave Iva a quick hug. "No, no. It's not Livvy. It's Dwayne. I'm afraid he's dead.”

“Dead! How?”

Jane didn't want Iva starting a riot of rumor. "I don't know," Jane lied.

Two police cars and an ambulance pulled up as well as a beat-to-hell green Plymouth. A very short, tough-looking elderly man got out of the car. Jane guessed it was Gus Ambler, the old sheriff Mel had gotten the background on the Thatchers from.

“Where is the victim?" John Smith asked.

Jane pointed the way and stood aside as he and the ambulance attendants rushed past. The old man was last and puffing with the effort to hurry.

“I'm with the police," he said gruffly.

“I thought so," Jane said, letting him pass. She couldn't have stopped his headlong rhinoceros progress if she'd tried.

She closed the door and leaned back against it with her eyes closed. If she'd had her car keys in her possession at that moment, she might well have grabbed Shelley and staggered to her rusty, familiar station wagon and driven away.