“And what’s your duty, Ridley?” Susan came to him, towering over him. Her grandfather, her father, a small, selfish little man. Her mother never talked about him, but then, Mary’s tenet had been to speak no evil. “Isn’t it to support and protect your family? To be honorable and strong and just? Isn’t that what a father’s supposed to be?”
“How dare you speak to me like that?” Ridley fumed, white with rage. “After all I’ve done for you...”
“What? What have you done for me?”
“Given you everything you ever wanted. Money and clothes and new cars and a fancy house. I gave my family the good life, and I compromised myself to do it.”
“Liar,” she said softly. “You gave yourself the good life, and you don’t care who pays for it and how.”
For a moment she thought he would slap her. “I’m fifty-one years old, Tallulah. Too old to go to jail for any stupid mistakes I might have made, too old to start over again. Too old to be poor. You understand me? Neddie is willing to take you and keep things going as they have been, and I won’t let you mess things up. You’ll marry him, with a smile on your face, and you’ll be the perfect little wife. You’ll provide him a good home, you’ll be the perfect hostess, and no one will even guess you ever had any second thoughts.”
“And if I don’t?”
All he had to do was glance at the stricken Mary, who listened to all this in horror. “You know who’ll pay the most, don’t you? Who has the most to lose. You’ll do it.”
Elda came up to her and tucked her arm through Susan’s, suddenly oozing charm. “This is just bridal nerves, Tallulah. I know we’ve had our differences, but you’ll find this will all work out beautifully. After all, you were the one who wanted to marry Neddie. And you’ll like being a married woman, having all that lovely money at your disposal. As long as you’re discreet, do your job as wife and hostess, then you could be very happy.”
The walls were closing in around her, and all avenues of escape seemed to be shut off. Where could she run to? She was a stranger in a strange time and place, with no one but herself to turn to. How could she protect Mary from the consequences of Ridley’s selfish greed?
“Come along, dear,” Elda said, tugging at her with only a trace of impatience, all spurious warmth and concern. “You don’t want anyone to see you like this on your wedding day, and the photographers will be arriving soon. Mary, you go ahead and get ready, and I’ll come in and help once the bridesmaids get here.”
There was no choice, Susan had been right about that. They walked slowly back to the house, the four of them, the condemned prisoner, her confederate and the two jailers, Susan thought For some reason the notion didn’t amuse her. She’d lost her sense of humor somewhere along tire way.
She went through the motions in a daze, bathing in the rose-scented water, sitting patiently while the hairdresser fussed and fiddled with her hair and makeup. The thick satin wedding dress slid over her body, and she closed her eyes, waiting for lightning to strike.
“You need a cigarette.” Cousin Ginny, who’d left the baby behind this morning and was dressed in a peach bridesmaid’s dress.
They set-the veil on her head, a simple medieval-style headdress that matched the gown. “I don’t know why you chose this,” another bridesmaid muttered. “It’s so plain!”
“It’s elegant,” Ginny said. “Different Like Lou.”
Susan looked at her reflection in the mirror. The tulle veil flowed down her back, her carefully arranged curls were tucked with flowers and lace. Her cheeks were rouged, her lips were crimson, her eyes were empty.
“You look gorgeous,” Elda said briskly. “Come along, now. The limousines are here,”
Susan rose. Or was she Tallulah? Walking to the door, to her fate, like an automaton, not sure she could fight anymore.
Mary was waiting for her, dressed in a ridiculously frilly dress chosen by some sadist.
She reached up and kissed Susan on her cheek. “Don’t many him,” she whispered. “Promise me.”
Susan drew back, looking down at Mary, and she could see the future in her eyes. It was that simple. She had to change that future, that was why she was here.
She smiled, suddenly sure. “I promise,” she said. And, lifting her heavy satin skirts, she followed Elda and her gaggle of bridesmaids out to the waiting limousines.
Fourteen
They arrived at the church at ten forty-five. The place was already packed—cars were parked along the side streets, and the double front doors of the church stood open to the June sunshine.
Susan had made the ride in silence, and if her chattering bridesmaids noticed, they probably put it down to a normal bride’s need for reflection in the hour before her life changed forever.
They would have been half-right She needed time for reflection, Susan thought but she was about as far from a normal bride as anyone could imagine.
And her thought was simple—how the hell was she going to manage to stop this wedding?
Neddie had both threatened and ignored her when she’d tried to break the engagement Elda and Ridley were waiting for her at the entrance to the church, both resplendent in their understated finery, and there was no way they’d let her get more than two feet in the wrong direction.
The silly bridesmaids were no help at all—they piled out of the limousine ahead of her, shrieking with laughter, totally oblivious to the tension between the main players of this little drama.
