Glittering Promises (43 page)

~William~

Two days into their crossing, Will passed the Olympic Mercantile & Fine Goods store. He had gone fifty paces when he stopped, drew himself up, and turned around. There, in the corner of the window, he saw it. A beautiful white satin dress overlaid with gossamer-thin lace. Atop the mannequin was a matching crown and veil, and at the bottom were tiny slippers also covered in lace. Beside the slippers was a card that read,
Why Wait? We Can Arrange Your Romantic Shipboard Nuptials. Inquire Within.

Will smiled and tapped his lips. She’d said she’d like to marry whenever, wherever, but had she really meant it?

He altered course and took the stairs nearest to him, heading to Lillian and Nell’s room. Five minutes later he reached it and knocked on the door, then straightened his jacket, hoping he didn’t look as feverishly excited as he felt.

“Who is there?” Nell asked, as he’d instructed them all to do, before unbolting the door.

“It’s Will. May I see you and Lil for a moment?”

He heard the bolt slide aside, and then the door swung open. “Come in,” Nell said, gesturing to the tiny sitting room with three chairs that blocked off the rest of the first-class cabin. “Please, sit,” she said. “I’ll go and fetch Lillian. She’s just changing for a walk about the decks with Vivian.”

“It’s a good day for it,” Will said.

Nell left him alone, and in a few minutes she and Lil both returned and Will stood up, just as Viv came to the door.

“Perfect,” Will said. “I wanted to speak to you all, actually.” They all sat down. “I have an idea,” Will said nervously, wondering if he was making the biggest mistake of his life. “Downstairs, in the merc, they have a bridal gown for sale. And…”

Both girls leaned slightly forward, eyes wide. They looked at each other and then to him. “Cora’s seen it!” Lil said, grinning. “She loves it!”

“Sh-she does?” Will said, both surprised and pleased. “Well, I was wondering…what would you two think of a surprise wedding? Could we pull it off? A wedding in a few days? Do you think she would like it?”

All three moaned with pleasure and began speaking at once.

“I could take care of the flowers!”

“And the cake. I adore cake!”

“I imagine the captain would perform the ceremony.”

“Or would you think Cora would prefer the chaplain?”

Will laughed under his breath, watching as the three of them fired questions and comments at each other and, on occasion, him. But it was clear that they were off and running. After a while, he interrupted. “If this goes as I wish, it would happen on the last night of our voyage. A late-afternoon ceremony, a private dinner in the dining room, dancing.”

“Oh!” Lil said. “It would feel as if the entire ship were a part of it!”

“One grand party!” Nell added.

Will nodded with a smile. But then he sobered. “I only have two hesitations.” “And those are?” Viv asked.

“Would Cora want to plan it? Be a part of it?”

Vivian tapped her lips. “I don’t think so. She’s a practical girl, at the core, and I know she wants only to be your wife. I think she’ll consider it romantic, this surprise.”

Will smiled, feeling a jolt of excitement as the word
wife
echoed through his mind.

“What was your second hesitation?”

Will shifted uncomfortably and swallowed hard. “I…I, uh…Well, you see…”

Viv smiled in understanding. “If your second hesitation is in regard to funding…”

“Well, yes,” Will said gratefully. “You see, I don’t get paid until the end of our tour. I could reimburse you when—”

“Nonsense,” Viv said, dismissing his thought with a wave. “We are Cora’s family. It’s only right that we prepare her trousseau as well as get her everything she needs for the nuptials. The girls and I will see to all of that.”

“Thank you,” Will said.

“Cora went to the hold with Mr. Morgan, so we could go to the mercantile now!” squealed Lil. But her words gave Will pause.

“To the hold?” Will asked, frowning in puzzlement.

The smile slid from Lillian’s face. “Yes,” she said with a sigh. “Cora agreed to visit Father’s coffin.” She looked to Nell. “Mr. Morgan felt it important.”

~Cora~

Mr. Morgan slid a key from his jacket pocket and unlocked the heavy door. Inside was a narrow room barely wide enough for a person to walk beside the casket, which was set on the wood floor and strapped into place to keep it from sliding in heavy seas. He let the door shut behind him after I pulled the string on a single bulb hanging above us.

I swallowed hard against the faint stench. “Why?” I whispered. “Why are you forcing me to do this?”

“Because it’s important,” he said gently. “You only met the man a few months ago, and now he’s gone. He was a hard man, and he put you through hard things, Cora. If you don’t do this hard thing, it may haunt you for the rest of your life.”

He handed me a bottle of cinnamon oil to hold beneath my nose, as well as a handkerchief.

I hesitated and then took his crisp, clean handkerchief with the initials SJM embroidered on the corner, shaking out the folds. I held it to my nose and mouth and concentrated on breathing in the sweet, spicy scent, which was strong enough to cover the odor, then nodded to Mr. Morgan, signaling my readiness.

I ran my hand down the length of the smooth, rich mahogany, which had been sanded and finished to a fine sheen.

My father lay inside. He’d swept into my life and fairly overpowered me in so many ways, and yet now here he was, powerless.

Mr. Morgan looked down to his shoes, then back at me. “When I was a boy, my father died, far from home, and was buried there. For years, I felt like he might come home at any moment, come through the door, be somewhere that I could go and talk to him. I think if I’d had a moment…” His voice cracked, and he looked down and to the side as if embarrassed, sniffing. “If I’d had a moment to recognize that someone who’d been so powerful, so forceful in my life, was no longer present, that he’d moved on, I wouldn’t have been so haunted by his memory. I could move on, knowing he’d given me what I needed to work, to succeed. After I’d said good-bye.”

He looked down at the casket and then back to me. “Wallace was a powerful, forceful man, like my father. Part of him is evident in you.” He paused before adding, “Now say your piece, and I’ll wait for you outside the door.”

With that, he left me. The heavy door made me jump a little as it shut. I wished I was outside, with him, rather than trapped here with the shell of my father’s body. I didn’t have anything to say to him, did I? Hadn’t I said all there was to say?

I licked my lips and cleared my throat, imagining Wallace Kensington nestled inside the casket, serene, his skin waxy and gray. I coughed and tried to gather my thoughts. “I suppose I want to say that…”

What mattered? Now? To me? After all we’d been through, after all that was done?

“I suppose I wish you were still here. To teach me what I need to know about the mine, about running a mine. I’m glad Mr. Morgan is with me. But I wish I could say thank you,” I said. “Thank you for doing what you didn’t have to. For giving me and my parents a part of the mine. For providing for us. Whatever your reasons…” I ran my hand along the edge of the coffin again and looked back at where I imagined his head was. “Thank you. I wish…” My voice cracked, and I frowned. “I wish we’d had more time. To find our way with each other. Whatever that was supposed to be.”

I paused, but there was no more to say. My mind was utterly blank. I decided Mr. Morgan had much more he wanted to say to his father than I did to mine. I started for the door when it came to me. I rested my hand on the edge again. “Oh, and I suppose I wish to say I’m sorry. That I was stubborn for so long. That I wasted some time that we could’ve had. I know it wasn’t all your fault. And also that I forgive you. I mean…I’m still rather angry about some of the things you did and how you did them. I’m angry that you tried to control me rather than love me. But I forgive you.”

I shook my head and swallowed hard, tears now rolling down my face, surprising me again. “I don’t want to live life as a bitter woman, Father. And so I choose to forgive you and move on.” I nodded. “That’s it,” I added, shrugging and feeling like a little girl who had gone on and on, now embarrassed. It awakened other memories, and I shifted my weight to the other foot, frowning. “I also didn’t like that treated me like a little girl at first. That you didn’t respect me or my mother when you came to the farm. You simply took over. That was not right. You took advantage of us at a weak moment, to get your own way.”

I leaned back, rocked by my own anger. “And yet you gave me so much,” I whispered, shaking my head. It boggled my mind, thinking of what he’d left me. What he’d brought me into. “Mostly, I’m grateful,” I said. “In spite of the trouble between us. Mostly I’m grateful.” I repeated the words, nodding, the feeling clarifying inside me. “Thank you. Thank you, Father.” And as I said those words, I could hear an echoing prayer in my heart, for my heavenly Father, who had seen it all, led us all, whether we recognized Him in it or not.

With that, I dropped my hand from the casket and turned toward the door

The door cracked open, and I could see Will peeking in. “You all right?”

“Yes,” I said, my chest feeling light and free as I took my first deep breath in what seemed ages. “Better than all right.”

He opened the door wider, and Mr. Morgan’s eyes met mine, gently curious.

“Turns out I had more to say than I thought,” I told him, taking Will’s arm.

“That’s the way of it, most times,” he said. “And that Wallace…” He cocked his head, then shook it. “He cut a wide swath. Which was sometimes good and sometimes bad. But mostly good.”

“Mostly good,” I repeated, smiling at him. “That’s how I’d summarize it too.”

CHAPTER 41

~Cora~

It was a lovely day to be aboard the
Olympic
. The seas were calm and the air brisk but warm as we steamed toward the eastern coast of America. I was getting excited to be home, on US soil tomorrow, and soon to be reunited with my parents in Minnesota. How good it would be to see them again, to hug my papa and feel strength in his embrace again. To hold my mother’s hand and tell her I understood, at long last, about mistakes and making the best of past decisions. I wanted to take them shopping and see them purchase at least one item simply because they wanted it—something I’d never ever seen them do. I wanted to make sure they were in a soundly built, comfortable home.

All this I was telling Will as we took a midmorning stroll about the decks, and gradually, I noticed that he had become grim in countenance.

“Will? Is everything all right?” I wondered if he was worried, if things were changing between us, now that the reality of reaching home was upon us.

He turned to me, a very serious expression on his face. “Cora, I fear I’ve done something terrible.”

My heart sank. “What is it?”

He hesitated, and I wanted to shake him for making me wait.

“I think I’ve made a terrible mistake.”

“What? What happened?”

He took my good hand in his and looked down at me, his brows knit in concern. “I thought it would be romantic… You see, I was walking along past the shops downstairs and…”

“Will. What is it?”

He seemed to gather himself and took a deep breath. “Listen to me. We can call the whole thing off. Do this whenever and however you wish. But I took the liberty of…Cora, I planned a surprise wedding for us today.”

I stared at him. “You did
what
?”

“We bought you a gown. And veil. And slippers! Your sisters and I organized the ceremony and a small reception. Scheduled the captain to come and do the honors.” He bit his lip, studying my face. “But listening to you talk about how excited you are to see your folks…” He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. “I was an idiot. All I could think about was marrying you, Cora. Of spending the last night on the
Olympic
together as man and wife. Of how romantic it would be…I wanted to leave this ship, step on American soil, together, united forever. But I was a fool.”

I smiled up at him and shook my head. “Why’d you think yourself a fool?”

He hesitated, and in that moment, I’d never thought him more adorable. “Well, now I’m thinking you’d rather have the wedding in Minnesota,” he said. “Or Dunnigan. That every girl likes to plan her own wedding. And after all you’ve been through this summer, you’d probably really like to plan something yourself, rather than be thrust into another’s plan.”

I looked out to the sea for a moment, then back to him. “William McCabe, I think that out of all the amazing events of the summer, marrying you will be the height of it all. I want you as my husband. And I think marrying you today and returning to America as your wife would be a marvelous idea.”

His sorrow-filled face turned to such utter joy, it made me grin too. “Are you certain?”

I nodded, and he picked me up by the waist and turned me in a small circle, grinning up at me. I was aware of other strollers pausing, or giving us a wide berth, but I kept my eyes on Will. My fiancé. My
husband
, as of tonight.