“It seems selfish to leave your daughter in Polson when she could have spent some time with her father.”
“Nothing about our great-grandparents was normal,” Barbara murmured.“I wonder if that’s when Patrick gave Maggie the letter written by Abraham Lincoln.”
Katie washed her hands.“Or he could have been checking that it was still safe.We have photos of Patrick Kelly a year earlier standing in front of a steamboat in Polson.He could have given the letter to his wife then.”
Barbara frowned.“This sounds like a Bonnie and Clyde story, but without the machine guns.”
Katie grinned.“It would make a great movie.”
“Don’t tell Mom.She’s already—”
Diana rushed into the kitchen.“Has anyone seen Penny?”
Barbara frowned.“She drove the Johnsons into Polson.They won’t be back until this afternoon.What’s happened?”
“She ordered a wedding dress off the same company who are making our bridesmaids’ dresses.They just called and said they can’t deliver Penny’s dress in time.I don’t know what she’ll do now.”
Barbara was shocked that her sister had even considered ordering her wedding gown from an online catalog.
Diana must have read her mind.“Penny thought it would be easier than finding something in Polson.That’s not the only news I have.”
Katie sighed.“If we can’t use the large meeting room at the church for the reception, we’re in trouble.”
“It’s not the church.It’s our dresses.”Diana looked at her sisters.“While I was speaking to the lady in Los Angeles, I checked on the status of the bridesmaids’ dresses.They’re out of stock.”
Barbara’s eyebrows rose.“How did that happen?”
“The website hadn’t been updated when we placed our order.They can still make our dresses, but they won’t be here until the week after the wedding.”
Katie frowned.“What do we do now?”
“I’m not sure but, whatever we do, we shouldn’t tell Penny until after she gets home.It will spoil her day.”
Barbara pulled out her cell phone and checked her daily planner.There was nothing they could do about the dresses, but they could come up with some options.“We need a plan.What’s everyone doing at seven o’clock tonight?”
“I’m meeting Ethan in town,” Diana said.“But I can be home by then.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Katie said.“And our guests don’t need us to do anything special for them.”
With a touch of her finger, Barbara sent a meeting request to her sisters.“I’ve invited everyone for a business meeting.In the meantime, if you have any ideas about where we can find some dresses, let me know.”
“There’s a treadle sewing machine in the storage room,” Diana said with a grin.
Katie’s face lit with excitement.“That would be amazing.Imagine making our dresses on the same machine our great-grandmother used.”
Sometimes her sisters could be too clever for their own boots.Knowing Katie, as soon as the bread was in the oven, she’d be upstairs, trying out the sewing machine they’d almost given to the thrift store.Then she’d have to watch her excitement disappear as she told her how impractical it was to use the old-fashioned machine.
Barbara looked at the journal.She was being too negative.Their great-grandmother wouldn’t let a few missing dresses deter her—and neither would she.There had to be another way to create three bridesmaids’ dresses and a bridal gown in less than two months.
CHAPTER 6
For the first time since they’d started organizing her wedding, Penny looked defeated.“How could they take our orders when there were no dresses in their warehouse?”
“It was a computer glitch,” Diana said calmly.“Look on the bright side.At least they told us now and not in six weeks’ time.”
“It was hard enough trying the find dresses when we first started looking, but now—”
“Now we have to be more creative,” Barbara said.“It doesn’t matter what we wear.Everyone will be at the wedding to celebrate your marriage, not to look at our dresses.”
