Matthew pulled her in more tightly against him. “I’m happy too, Jennifer Jo. More happy than I thought it was possible for one person to be.”
She looked up at him, her eyes large and filled with love. “I’m glad.”
At that moment, the tip of the sun cleared the eastern bluffs and the first rays of sunlight lit her face. She turned slightly, squinting a bit against the brightness. Then suddenly she was all business. “Oh, Matthew, we’ve got to get back. It’s time to start getting ready. I’ll bet Jessica is already up and wondering what happened to me.”
Turning to face her, he reached down, put a finger under her chin, and tipped her head back. “I love you, Jennifer Jo McIntire.”
“And I love you, Matthew Steed. Oh, how I love you.”
He kissed her, only reluctantly letting her go. They turned and walked back to Jessica’s home. As they reached the front gate, she went up on her tiptoes and kissed him quickly. “Remember, you can’t tell anyone we were out here. It’s bad luck.”
“Right.” He squeezed her hand and gave her a gentle push toward the cabin. “See you in a little while.”
As she ran up onto the porch, Matthew turned around and looked up and down the street. Then he cupped his hands and tipped his head back. “Hey!” he shouted loudly.
Jennifer Jo whirled around, completely startled. He paid her no mind. “Hey, you Steeds!” he roared. “Get yourselves out of those beds. Don’t you know there’s a marriage to be done here today?”
Her head tipped back as she laughed merrily at this crazy man she was going to marry. He spun around on his heel and looked at her with great seriousness. One finger came up to his lips. “Remember,” he whispered conspiratorially, “not a word to anyone.”
At Jessica’s house, they had made Jennifer Jo and Kathryn’s bedroom into the bride’s dressing room. Caroline had brought a full-length mirror over and now it stood against one wall. Jennifer Jo was standing before it in her petticoats and corset, watching as Lydia and Rebecca and Jessica pinned the hem of the petticoats all the way around. Mary Ann stood back, eyeing the space between the hem and the floor with a careful eye. Finally, as the others stood up, she nodded. “I think we’re ready.”
Kathryn turned to Caroline. “Can Livvy and I get it, Aunt Caroline? Oh please!”
“Yes, Mama,” Olivia begged. “Please! We’ll be careful.”
Caroline laughed. “All right. It’s on the table at our house.”
As Olivia and Kathryn darted out of the room, Jessica stepped forward. Her eyes were soft and misty as she looked at Lydia, who was holding a long ribbon in her hand. “May I?” she asked.
Lydia nodded and handed it to her. “Of course.”
The others stepped back as Jessica moved behind Jennifer Jo. Watching her foster mother in the mirror, Jennifer Jo smiled as Jessica reached up and carefully took her hair. She pulled it back over the crown of her head and tied it there with the ribbon, making a small bow and letting the streamers hang down over her back. Then Jessica went up on her toes and kissed Jennifer Jo on the top of her head. “Your mother would be so pleased to see you now,” she whispered.
Jennifer Jo nodded quickly. “I was just thinking about Mama. How I wish she were here.” But then she turned and laid one hand on Jessica’s arm. “But you’re my mother now,” she said, her eyes filled with gratitude. “You’ve been all that a mother could ever be.”
Jessica hugged her quickly. “And I couldn’t be more proud if you were my own flesh and blood.”
The door opened and Olivia and Kathryn trooped in with a long flat box held between them. They set it on the dressing table as everyone gathered in closer to see. Kathryn stepped behind her sister and put her hands over her eyes. “You can’t see it until we get it out of the box.”
“That’s right,” Caroline agreed. “Keep them covered.” She removed the lid of the box and carefully lifted the dress out, holding it up at full length. There was a soft intake of breath. “Oh, Caroline,” Lydia exclaimed. “It’s beautiful.”
“I can’t stand it. I want to see,” Jennifer Jo cried.
Caroline shook it once to let it fall completely out, then nodded at Kathryn. “All right.”
Kathryn withdrew her hands and Jennifer Jo opened her eyes. Instantly they widened. “Oh, Caroline!”
Caroline smiled, pleased at the reaction. The dress was more of an ivory color than just white, and the color gave the material a lustrous, rich look, even in the limited light of the bedroom. It was made of lightweight taffeta, and the design was simple but elegant. Chantilly lace came down off the shoulders in front and back, forming a gently scooped neckline just below the throat. The sleeves were puffed to the elbow and tight at the wrist. The skirt was full, with two deep flounces edged with matching lace all around. Caroline and Lydia had scoured every store in Nauvoo and then in Quincy looking for material and a pattern that were suitable. Nothing was satisfactory. So Caroline had simply told Joshua to move up by two weeks his next trip to St. Louis and to take her with him. Picking a wedding dress was simply not something you left in the hands of a man.
In a moment they had the dress on Jennifer Jo and were buttoning it up the back. When they finished, Jessica turned her toward the mirror, and they all stepped back to admire it with her. There were oohs and aahs, but Mary Ann said it about as well as any of them. “Olivia,” she said with a smile, “you’d better go warn Matthew. When he sees this young lady, he is going to be knocked right off his feet.”
“Just hold still,” Joshua growled. “You’d think you’d never had on a jacket before in your life.”
“Not one like this,” Matthew said, holding out his arms to get a better look.
“Well, it won’t do to have you looking like some sodbuster on your wedding day.”
“But this is way too much, Joshua,” Matthew protested. “I can’t believe what you must have paid for this.”
Derek was walking around him, looking carefully up and down. “He did the same thing for me and Rebecca, if you remember. I tried to tell him no, too.” He grinned. “Didn’t do a bit of good.”
“I feel like the Duke of Buckingham,” Matthew said, turning around slowly.
“Then I assume the Duke of Buckingham is a proper dresser,” Joshua retorted. He might not know anything about picking out a wedding dress, but when it came to choosing what clothes fit the man, Joshua was not one whit behind Caroline. He had chosen fawn-colored trousers and a deep blue double-breasted coat. On Matthew’s long-legged frame they looked very trim and fashionable. There was a white waistcoat which had a high collar and a cravat to match the coat.
Nathan and Benjamin were sitting on chairs, watching. Now Nathan stood and stepped to Matthew. He laid an arm across Matthew’s shoulder. “Little brother,” he said with soberness, “Joshua and I couldn’t be more proud of you. We’re proud to be part of your family.”
“Amen!” Joshua said softly.
Benjamin took out his watch and stood now too. “If we’re going to make it to the grove by ten, we’d better get started.”
Rebecca opened the door wide and stepped back. As she reached the doorway, Jennifer Jo stopped, looking around at the women who would very shortly officially become her family.
“Are you nervous?” Mary Ann asked.
“I don’t think so,” she said, giving her a crooked smile. “I can hardly get my breath and my hands are cold as ice, but no, I don’t feel nervous.”
They all laughed at that, and then Kathryn stepped forward. “We have one more little surprise for you.”
“What?”
“Step outside.” She took her by the hand and pulled her through the doorway.
As she stepped onto the porch, Jennifer Jo stopped immediately. Lined up before her were the five Steed family granddaughters. Each one had on a brand-new dress, which, like the wedding dress, had just a week before been residing in one of the finest dress shops in St. Louis. Each one carried a small bouquet of wildflowers in her hand
. On their heads were circlets of wildflowers, interwoven with long streamers of ribbons that fell down their backs. They were trying to hold still, but the excitement was too much and so they were wiggling and squirming like little worms boring into an apple.
Kathryn and Olivia had set this whole thing up and trained them carefully. “What do you say, girls?” Kathryn asked.
They did a little curtsy, five cousins as different in personality and looks as any five could be, but in this one thing acting in perfect coordination. “Good morning, Jennifer Jo,” they said in chorus. “Congratulations on your wedding day.”
“Oh, thank you,” Jennifer Jo responded, clapping her hands together in delight. “Don’t you all look absolutely perfect?”
Caroline looked at them proudly, letting her eyes come to rest on her own daughter. “Savannah, do you have something for Jennifer Jo?”
Savannah nodded gravely. She stepped out of line and walked to the corner of the porch, moving more like a queen’s escort than a four-year-old. Reaching down behind the chair there, she carefully picked up a large bouquet of fresh flowers whose stems were wrapped in a damp cloth. Turning, she came back to Jennifer Jo. The red hair bobbed softly up and down as she walked. The blue eyes were wide with excitement. She held the flowers out. “These are for you, Jennifer Jo.”
Taking them carefully, Jennifer Jo lifted them to her face and breathed deeply of their fragrance. “Savannah, thank you. These are so beautiful. Did you pick these for me?”
“We all did,” sang out Emily, Lydia’s older daughter. “We went around last night and asked people if we could have some of their flowers.”
Jennifer Jo looked up and down the line, touched by their eager innocence. “Well, thank you, every one of you. These are just perfect for today.”
“Aunt Jennifer?” Savannah said.
“What, dear?”
“Wanna see my dress twirl?”
Jennifer Jo laughed softly. “I would like that very much, Savannah.” She straightened and stepped back.
Savannah, very serious now, stepped forward. She held out her arms and then spun around on one foot. Her dress swirled outward, then settled back again.
Jennifer Jo looked down at these wonderful little girls who before the day was out would all become her nieces, and her face softened. “Do you want to see me twirl?”
“Yes!” came the instant chorus of replies.
Handing her bouquet to Kathryn, Jennifer Jo held out her arms, then spun around once, then twice, then a third time, smiling radiantly at the girls and the women, who applauded her as she finally came to rest again.
“Bravo! Bravo!”
Jennifer Jo turned in surprise. The men were just coming up the street from Benjamin’s cabin and had witnessed the whole thing. It was Matthew who had cried out. Now he opened the gate and walked swiftly up the path. As he reached the women, he stopped. His eyes moved slowly up and down Jennifer Jo’s figure. His mouth opened slightly as if he were going to speak, then shut again. He could only stare at her.
“Come on, Matthew,” Lydia teased. “Aren’t you going to say anything to your bride?”
“I can’t,” he finally answered softly, stepping up to take Jennifer Jo’s hands. “There are no words that could possibly describe what I’m seeing right now.”
Rebecca, who had always been closest to Matthew both in age and relationship, nodded in satisfaction. “That will do.”
“Well,” Benjamin said, “we’d better be going.”
But Mary Ann didn’t move. She was watching Matthew as he stood beside Jennifer Jo and looked down at her in pure joy. Suddenly, Mary Ann found herself blinking at the burning in her eyes. Matthew looked up, and when he saw her face he stepped across the porch to sweep her up into his arms. He bent down to whisper in her ear. “Thank you, Mama,” he said. “Thank you for everything. I’m so happy.”
She held him tightly for a moment, then pushed him back away from her. “Would you look at you,” she breathed, “all tall and handsome in that coat.” And then the tears spilled over and she had to look away.
Sarah Rogers, Melissa’s three-year-old, left the line of cousins and came to stand beside her grandmother. She tugged on her dress, looking up with great concern. “Why you sad, Gramma?”
Mary Ann reached down and took her granddaughter’s hand. Then she turned back to Matthew, smiling at him through her tears. “Because this is my boy,” she whispered softly. “This is my little boy.”
The sunlight filtered through the overhead canopy of leaves, dappling all beneath it with shimmering patterns of light and shadow. There were well over two hundred people gathered in the shelter of the grove to witness the marriage of Matthew Steed to Jennifer Jo McIntire. There were longtime friends and close neighbors, English converts who had known Matthew while he was laboring there, and the brethren with whom he had traveled and labored in the mission field. Joseph and Emma and Mother Smith were there. Hyrum and Mary Fielding came with them. There were people who did business with the store and those for whom Matthew had done carpentry work back in Far West. They came to honor the young man recently returned from across the sea. They came to honor his bride-to-be. And they came to honor this family that was loved and respected on both sides of the river.
The Steeds filled the first two rows of benches and chairs, with Benjamin and Mary Ann seated on the first row, directly in front of where Matthew and Jennifer Jo stood facing the congregation. The time had arrived and Joseph had asked the two of them to take their places. Kathryn stood beside Jennifer Jo. She had the ring and would step forward when required. On the opposite side, next to Matthew and a little behind him, the five little flower girls stood proudly, taking their part on the program—which was to look pretty and charm everyone—very seriously.
Joseph, who was standing directly in front of the two about-to-be newlyweds, turned and surveyed the audience. Seeing that everyone was in place now, he raised one arm as the signal that it was time to begin. Immediately the noise subsided and all in the congregation turned their eyes forward.
“Thank you, brothers and sisters. We are pleased to welcome you on this joyous occasion. As we begin, I should like to call on Brother Brigham Young, Matthew’s business partner and missionary companion in England, if he would open these proceedings for us with prayer.”
Brigham was seated four rows back. He rose and stepped forward quickly, stopping long enough to give a warm handshake to Matthew and to kiss Jennifer Jo quickly on the cheek. Then as heads were bowed and hats swept off he offered a short and simple prayer of thanks, asking the Lord’s blessings to smile down upon the proceedings of the day.
“Dear friends,” Joseph began again, once Brigham had returned to his seat, “we are here today to witness the joining of this fine young couple in marriage.” He glanced over his shoulder at the two of them and smiled warmly. “If you can see what I can see, I think it’s safe to say these two are in love.”
Laughter rippled across the group, and both Jennifer Jo and Matthew blushed and ducked their heads.
“And that is as it should be,” Joseph said, his voice rising a little. “God is pleased with the love between a man and a woman. He knows it is the source of our greatest happiness and our greatest fulfillment. There are some who would have us believe that marriage is a necessary evil, accepted by God only because there is no other way to perpetuate the human race. But we do not accept such doctrine; it is the doctrine of men, and not of God.”
Now he turned around and faced Jennifer Jo and Matthew directly. “I have known Matthew Steed since he was a boy of six. I have pulled sticks with him and played ball. I have sat in his house on many occasions. We have broken bread together. We have labored side by side in the fields. This is a fine young man, a happy young man. But I wish to ask him this one question. Matthew, have you ever been happier than you are right now in the presence of this lovely young woman?”
“No!” he answered loudly and firmly. “I have not.”
“And you, Jennifer Jo McIntire,” Joseph said, his face softening. “Have you ever been happier than you are at this very moment?”
She slipped her arm through Matthew’s. “No, Brother Joseph, I can truly say I have not.”
“And that is as it should be, brothers and sisters,” Joseph cried. “God wants us to be happy. He created man and woman so they could become as one and find a fulness of joy.”
Now he swung around and his eyes found Emma. “There sits Emma Hale Smith,” he said, his voice going softer now. “She is the love of my heart and the wife of my youth. Oh, how empty my life would have been without Emma. Oh, how bleak my days had she not been by my side through all these years.” He smiled at her, and she smiled back, and now he was no longer speaking to Matthew and Jennifer Jo or to the crowd. “I love her as I love my own soul, and I thank my God for the gift he gave to me when he took me to Harmony, Pennsylvania, so I could find her there.”
Emma’s eyes were shining as he finally turned back again. “You have heard me speak of late about the eternal nature of the family. Here today, on the occasion of joining these two fine young people together in matrimony, I once again testify to you that the bonds forged here today are meant to last forever. The love that Matthew feels for this pure and wonderful young woman is not meant to end at death. Will the feelings that stir so deeply within Sister McIntire’s heart on this day simply dissolve if Matthew should die before she does? Of course not. That is not the will of a Father who loves us and cares for us as his own children.
“Matthew, you embark on a great adventure this day. You will shortly take the hand of this young woman and swear to her eternal allegiance. You will swear to cherish and to love her, to make her happiness and joy more important to you than your own. I say to you, as I have said before, if a man cannot love his wife in such a manner and treat her in such a manner as to make her happy in this life, he will not be worthy to have her with him in the next.”
He stopped for a moment, then reached out and took their hands in his. “Bless you, you two wonderful young people,” he said, speaking only to them now. “This union is pleasing in the sight of God, and he will bless you forever as you honor and sustain it.”
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