It was only when they rounded the corner again, a mound of curly brown fur wriggling in Teddy’s arms, that she realized what they had done.
“Oh!” cried Dinah, coming to her feet. “Oh!”
Hannah was grinning widely, bent over her husband’s arm, scratching at the thing’s head as they rounded the doorframe and came to the head of the table.
“What?” was all Vix could say, staring at the puppy as it turned its shiny black nose toward her, blinking from behind a frizzy curtain of sprung-up curls. “A dog?”
Hannah giggled, pushing her fingers into the dog’s scruff and revealing a sparkling collar, which she rotated until Vix could see the little metal charm hanging off the side of it.
“Bear,” Ambrose read, raising his brows. “The dog is a bear?”
“Or the bear is a dog,” Hannah answered, shrugging. “He will get bigger, in time.”
“Ohh,” said Vix, remembering now, in slow measures, as the dog was transferred from her brother’s arms directly into the lap of her very fine, very expensive gown. It sank into her immediately, a warm, squishy weight, and heaved a shuddering sigh of satisfaction as it leaned against her torso.
Not knowing what else to do, she wrapped an arm around it so it would not slip off her legs and fall.
“On the morning you made your match,” Teddy told Ambrose, who was still staring like someone had just slapped him and runaway, “Vix expressed a desire to have a very large dog, one that might be part bear.”
“I did say that,” she confessed weakly. “I did.”
Ambrose just stared at her, his mouth hanging open as the dog got comfortable, resting its bony chin on Vix’s forearm and blowing air out like it was ready for a nap.
She watched his face, uncertain what the outcome of this would be. He might reject the poor pup entirely. She had never asked him, after all.
Bizarrely, though she hadn’t even known it existed some minutes ago, it made her hold it tighter in her lap.
“Bear,” he said again, reaching a tentative hand out to cup its cheek. He rubbed his thumb over the puppy’s forehead and raised his eyes to hers. “Unpredictable. Like you promised.”
“Like I promised,” she echoed.
“I’ll have Zeller get him home and settled. He’ll need a bowl and a bed and likely some other things neither of us is at all prepared for,” Ambrose said, bending his head a little lower to look the little creature in its eyes. “How does that sound?”
“All right,” she said, still not letting go, still a little undone by the bony little chin pressed against her forearm. “But not just yet.”
Ambrose released the puppy and looked back up at her, something wry in his face.
“What?” she asked, lifting her chin. “What is it?”
“Just you,” he answered, shaking his head and smiling. “I always wanted a dog. My father said they are for work or for huntingonly, and such sentiment was weak and base. I had forgotten that, you know. That I wanted it.”
“Ambrose,” she said, frowning. “Your parents sound ghastly.”
He blinked, clearly stunned by the statement, and then released a little gust of laughter, shaking his head. “They do,” he said, reaching up to run his fingers through his hair, “don’t they? Maybe I’m not doing them justice.”
“I suspect you are,” she replied, but did not push the matter any further.
It had not escaped her notice that they did not arrive today to witness the vows, despite that letter from his mother expressing plenty of foreknowledge of the event.
She glanced at Teddy and Hannah, at the way she laughed and dropped her head on his arm. She looked around the room at the others, at Reed and Matthew and Mae and Rosalind and Dinah and Ember Donnelly.
It was perhaps the first time she had ever realized that some are luckier than others, and in doing so found herself in the luckier position.
She stood and carried the puppy over to Mr. Zeller, who had passed most of the morning standing in attendance by the windows, ever the watchful sentinel.
“This is Bear,” she said. “He’s coming home with us.”
“Herr Bear,” said Zeller respectfully, giving a little bow to the dog, and then offering his arms with a twinkle in his blue eyes.
