She catches me studying her and gives me a brave smile which only shows me how upset she must be.
“How did you become so strong? Someone else in your place would fall apart.”
She shrugs. “Falling apart wouldn’t achieve anything. Anyway, please don’t punch anyone, you’ll damage your hands, and you have to play at this wedding in a couple of hours.”
I let her change the subject, but in my mind, I resolve I’ll be playing for her much more than Pierre and Gabriel. Something cheerful to make her forget her troubles.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Lessa
Pierre’s wedding is being held in the middle of a forest. Don’t ask me why.
She says, two years ago, she saw the new moon in some ancient festival, and it predicted she’d be married within two years. It’s the reason they’re holding their wedding here in the same spot as the festival.
Fortunately, the weather feels a lot milder and the sun peaks out from between the clouds. I spot a row of five empty chairs under a tree where I might get a perfect view and walk over, careful not to get my boots too muddy. It’s a fair clearing in the wood, pretty with grass and bluebell surrounded by trees with an ancient stone arch at one end. Margo’s Arch according to the invitation. There’s even a little write up about it in the invitation. It’s part of an Anglo-Saxon house and became a medieval sacred marriage site.
Brandon is already in the centre of the circle. Today he’s not wearing a tux, this is not that kind of event. Everyone might be dressed up, but all wear Wellies, even the bride and groom, because the ground is damp.
“Have you been to a handfasting before?” Laura slides into the seat next to me. Adam, or Dr. Mortimer as I still think of him, follows her.
“Hand what?”
Laura points to a woman in a knitted silver hat. She stands in the centre of the circle facing Pierre and her husband-to-be. “She’s the officiant,” Laura says. “It’s a handfasting ceremony, a medieval form of marriage.”
“Is it legally binding?” Trust me to think of legalities.
“They went to the registry office this morning, just the two of them and borrowed witnesses from one of the offices in the Municipalité. Nothing special because Pierre was determined this, here, would be the only wedding ceremony.”
All around us people settle into their seats; they all have flowers, the men in their buttonholes, the women wear corsages around their wrists. “Where do all the flowers come from this time of year.”
Adam leans towards us. “Winter primrose, sweet violets, and flowering heather. They grow here in sheltered areas. The island has a lot of these wildflowers.”
“Adam is a bit of botanist on the side.” Laura laughs, but her hand finds his and they link fingers.
The officiant lays Pierre’s hand over Gabriel’s and wraps them with a long sprig of ivy. She reads a prayer in very olde English with lots ofyeandthee.
“Why are they doing it this way?” I whisper to Laura.
“I think it’s something about the two of them, she and Gabriel. Something from before…” She tails off a bit, glancing towards the officiant still reading. “When they first fell in love, Gabriel was with someone else. They were engaged and planning a new life in America. Big career move, but he gave it all up and came back to be with Pierre.”
I turn to watch. Do men really give up a career opportunity for love?
The bride looks radiant in a dress made by Laura especially for her. A fitted top cinched around the waist with a belt of twisted flowers. But the rest of the dress is…it looks like fifty floaty scarves. That’s the skirt, silk scarves in many shades of blue and green, no two are the same. Her long wavy hair is dyed a beautiful balayage of forest green and held back from her face by a coronet of flowers. It all seems a bit incongruous with the rubber Wellies, but oddly enough, it really suits her.
I’m not really a wedding dreamer. I never even imagined walking down the aisle, not with any of my boyfriends. Now I think about it, my fake marriage to Brandon is the nearest I’ve ever come to the institution.
“I promise to love you.” Pierre is the first with her vows. “To care about the things important to you, to laugh at your jokes, even to laugh at you when you take yourself too seriously. I will always hold your hand, and when we’re away from each other I’ll hold you in my heart. And even when I’m not beside you, I’ll always, always, be onyourside.”
Yes. That’s what I want. Someone who is on my side.
Brandon and I did have a sort of vows, a list of house chores and financial boundaries. At the time I was hyper aware of the huge favour he was doing me and anxious not to be even more of an imposition.
Now? It feels a little different.
It feels more equal. I don’t know why because he’s still doing me a huge favour, more than I expected back when we went to Jersey and bought two simple wedding bands and wrote up our ‘contract’.
He’s been a friend, a support, and a comfort. I’ll always look back on our time here as a happy home.
