The Wedding Dress

by Mary O'Donnell

  “I think those will go perfectly with the salad I just made,” said Annie.

  At that moment, Annie and Alice heard the creak of an upstairs floorboard, and Dervla appeared at the top of the stairs. “Dervla, please come down and meet my neighbor, and my best friend, Alice MacFarlane. Alice, this is Dervla O’Keefe, Tony Palmers’ fiancée. She’s going to be staying here at Grey Gables for a while.” Annie didn’t want to give away any more than just basic information. Even though Alice was her best friend, she didn’t want to carry tales about what had occurred at Wedgewood earlier, and why Dervla was staying at Grey Gables instead of with her family-to-be. More importantly, she didn’t want to embarrass Dervla.

  Alice’s face registered her surprise, but she recovered quickly and smiled broadly as she reached out to shake hands with Dervla. “I didn’t know that Tony was engaged. Congratulations! Have you started planning the wedding?”

  “Thank you, and no, we really haven’t had a chance to think about the wedding yet,” said Dervla, in her lilting Irish dialect.

  “You’re Irish!” said Alice.

  “Good catch,” said Annie drily.

  “Tony and I just met a few weeks ago, when he came to Ireland. I guess it’s what you might call a whirlwind romance. But I love him so much, and when he asked me to come to America to be his wife, the only right answer seemed to be ‘yes,’ so here I am,” said Dervla.

  “‘Dervla’ … that’s an unusual name. Does it have a special meaning?” asked Alice.

  “Yes, it does actually. It means ‘daughter of a poet.’”

  “Your father is a poet?”

  “Actually, it was my mother who was the poet. She published several books of poetry and was well-known in Ireland. My father, Brian O’Keefe, was a master weaver.”

  “Was?” asked Annie.

  “Yes, my parents were killed in a car accident when I was a teenager. I’m their only child; after they died, I lived with my grandmother until I went away to college.”

  “I’m so sorry, Dervla,” said Annie.

  “It was a long time ago now, but I miss them still. I know it will always be that way. I wish they could have met Tony. They would have loved him like a son.”

  “How does your grandmother feel about you coming to the States and getting married?” asked Alice.

  “She died last winter. I don’t have any other close relatives remaining there, just a few distant cousins who live in different counties, and I don’t really know them. I still have Grandmother’s house in Killarney, but I’m not sure what to do with that yet. I had only just begun to try to go through her things when I met Tony. After that, everything else sort of just came to a halt, except for work of course.”

  “What do you do?” asked Annie.

  “I work, or rather, I did work in the research library at Muckross,” said Dervla. She could see that Annie and Alice didn’t recognize the name so she explained. “Muckross is a tourist center located on Lough Leane—that’s a lake—and it includes a historical manor house, gardens, and a traditional farm. There are workshops that specialize in crafts—weaving and pottery, and a shop that sells all kinds of Irish-made products, including hand-knit clothing. The estate is part of a larger national park. My father worked there, in the weaving workshop.”

  “It sounds like an interesting place,” said Annie. “Is that where you met Tony?”

  “No,” answered Dervla, smiling, “I actually met him at a pub in Killarney where I perform on Friday and Saturday nights.”

  “What … sort of performance?” asked Alice, eyebrows only slightly raised.

  “I sing. There’s a group of boys I knew in secondary school who have a band. It’s not rock music or anything like that—we perform mostly traditional Irish songs. One fellow plays the bodhran—the Irish drum; we have a flute player who’s also quite good on the tin penny whistle, and there’s a fiddle player too. Another fellow plays the guitar, but it’s acoustic, not electric. It’s fun, and a bit of extra cash for each of us since we all have day jobs. The tourists who find their way into Mavourneen’s like it, and so do the locals.”

  “Did you say the name of the pub is ‘Mavourneen’s’?” asked Alice. Dervla nodded and Alice repeated the word, trying to imitate an Irish accent. “Mavourneen’s—I love the sound of Irish words. Is that someone’s name?”

  “Actually, the pub’s name comes from a song Mavourneen’s the Flower of Killarney. The word itself means ‘my beloved,’ so it’s literally My Beloved’s the Flower of Killarney,” said Dervla.

  “That’s a great name for the place where you met the man you’re going to marry—that’ll be something you can tell your children and grandchildren someday,” said Alice. “I’d love to hear you sing. I always associate old Irish songs with haunting melodies and sad stories.”

  Dervla laughed and said, “The ballads do tend to the tragic side … but there are many happy tunes as well. Perhaps there will be an opportunity for a song—a happy one, I hope.”

  Annie smiled and said, “I look forward to hearing that. For the moment, though, I think we should have lunch before Alice’s excellent rolls get cold. I was thinking it might be nice to eat on the porch, so if you’d both like to help me carry a few things out, we can get set up and enjoy this fine summer day.”

  6

  The three enjoyed their lunch and cleared away the dishes. Dervla insisted on washing up, so that gave Annie and Alice a chance to run upstairs so that Alice could see the wedding dress, veil and gloves, and the hatbox. She was as impressed by the workmanship as Annie had been, and though she did remember a plain mannequin in the attic when they were teens, she was sure she’d never set eyes on the hatbox before.

  “You’ve got your work cut out for you, solving this mystery,” said Alice, laughing. “You’re going to need all the help you can get—don’t forget about your friends. You know how much we love getting involved in your little adventures!”

  “How could I forget?” teased Annie. “You’d never let me.”

  Alice smiled and said, “Absolutely. I consider it my mission in life. By the way … I heard that you were seen having lunch with Ian Butler and some out-of-towner last Tuesday. Do you deny it?”

  “Of course I don’t!” said Annie. “You’ve been talking to Kellie Cross from the restaurant at Maplehurst Inn, I’ll wager. Or was it Peggy who told the tale?”

  “Right the first time. I talked to Kellie at Magruder’s when I was doing my grocery run this week. I think she’s got her eye on Ian—I’d watch that if I were you; you might have some competition,” warned Alice.

  “I’m not ‘competing’ for Ian. If he wants to go out with her, or anybody else, that’s none of my business,” said Annie.

  Alice gave Annie a mock-stern look. “Annie, don’t kid yourself. Don’t wait till he’s dating someone else to figure out how much you care about him.”

  Annie opened her mouth to deny it, but something made her stop.

  “A-ha!” said Alice, observing the conflict on her friend’s face. “I’m just giving you a word of warning, that’s all, as a good friend should. So, who was the other guy?”

  Annie almost said, “What other guy?” but then she realized that Alice meant “the other guy” at the restaurant. She told Alice all about Andrew Gareth, and his plan to paint a portrait of Grey Gables.

  “Keep that under your hat,” said Annie, “if you would, please. He doesn’t want everyone to know what he’s doing, although I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the whole town knows already.”

  Alice laughed at that, and then said, “I’ll consider it privileged information until I hear otherwise. We’d better get back downstairs and give Dervla a hand before she thinks we’ve deserted her.”

  Annie and Alice returned to the kitchen to help Dervla put away the dishes. Then they lazed around on the porch, talking and laughing and eventually falling into companionable silence as they watched the wind in the leaves of the trees and enjoyed the view of the o
cean with its gently curling waves and bobbing sailboats. It was restful, and Annie was glad to see Dervla relaxing. It wasn’t clear what the afternoon would bring, but Annie was sure the party was going to be a stressful event for the young woman.

  Annie thought of her own daughter, LeeAnn, and it made her feel all the more motherly toward Dervla, who was making her way in the world without the support that a family provides. She obviously had friends back in Ireland, but it appeared that there was no one she could really go to for sage advice, as one would go to an older relative. Annie wondered what she would have said to Dervla—stay home where you have friends, a house, and a job, or follow your heart?

  It was Alice who broke the silence after she looked at her watch. “As much as I hate to move from this spot, it’s nearly two o’clock. We should think about making our way to the Palmers’.”

  Annie saw a momentary flicker of uncertainty cross Dervla’s face, as if she was contemplating staying right where she was. But then her resolve seemed to return, and she was the first to stand. “Yes, I just want to go and freshen up a bit.” With that she went inside, and Annie could hear the tap of her shoes as she tripped lightly up the stairs.

  Alice leaned over close to Annie and said in a low tone of voice, “There’s a lot more to this than meets the eye, isn’t there? Did Gwen blow a gasket when her baby boy broke the news that he was engaged to someone he met on vacation?”

  “I really can’t say anything, Alice,” Annie replied. “Gwen needed a place for Dervla to stay, and I was happy to be able to offer her a room. I can say, though, that I like her. What do you think?”

  “I think she’s lovely, but then she’s not engaged to my son, if I had one, after only knowing him for a few weeks,” said Alice. “If I were his mother, I don’t know that it would matter to me if she appeared to be the most fabulous girl in the world. Marriage isn’t something to be entered into lightly.”

  “And love isn’t one size fits all,” said Annie. “I’m not sure that knowing someone for a long time is any guarantee of longevity when it comes to marriage. From what I’ve seen, Tony and Dervla have a real connection that they should be able to build on. I don’t know what their plans are, but at this point they are just engaged. Perhaps the engagement will be extended, and in time, they can put Gwen’s doubts to rest.”

  “So there was some friction there,” observed Alice.

  Annie smiled. “Nothing gets past you. Let’s just say that Gwen was surprised and leave it at that.”

  With that comment, Annie and Alice heard the sound of Dervla coming back down the stairs. “I guess we have to get moving too,” said Alice. “Off we go into the lions’ den!”

  “Shh!” said Annie, almost whispering. “I think Dervla’s nervous enough as it is. Describing meeting her future in-laws as entering the ‘lions’ den’ is not helpful!”

  “Maybe Tony’s got it all sorted out now,” Alice said hopefully. “She is a sweet girl. I’d hate to see her get hurt.”

  * * * *

  A short time later, Annie, Alice, and Dervla were in sight of Wedgewood. Ocean Drive was already lined with parked cars on both sides for quite a distance in both directions. It looked to Annie as if the Palmers had invited half the town of Stony Point. So much for a “few friends and family,” thought Annie. She was able to pick out Mary Beth’s SUV, and Peggy and Wally’s car. She noted with satisfaction that Ian’s car was parked along the street as well.

  The only other members of the Hook and Needle Club unaccounted for were Kate and Stella. Annie didn’t see Stella’s car among the others along the street. It was a big Lincoln Continental—one couldn’t miss that. She wondered if Stella would even come to an outdoor barbecue. Annie imagined that if she did, Stella’s driver, Jason, would drop her at the party and come back later, rather than park along the street.

  As they approached the Palmers’ driveway, Annie saw that, besides Tony’s car, there sat an unfamiliar luxury four-door sedan that Annie thought might belong to Gwen’s other son, George, and his wife. Annie had been told that George was a lawyer in Portland. Behind George’s sedan was a large SUV with North Carolina plates that Annie concluded must belong to Gwen’s daughter, Meredith, and her family.

  Out on the street, parked in front of the house, was a white van with the words “Grand Avenue Catering” emblazoned on the side. The three ladies could hear strains of jazzy instrumental music playing over loudspeakers, and the smell of barbecue was in the air.

  Down the street, approaching from the opposite direction, Annie and Alice recognized Kate and her teenage daughter, Vanessa, so they waited for them to catch up. Kate was dressed in similar fashion to Annie, in a pale blue linen A-line dress and sandals. Vanessa looked cute in modest shorts and a lightweight crocheted top that her mother had designed just for her.

  “Looks like the Palmers have pulled out all the stops to welcome Tony home and celebrate the completion of his degree. We had to park way over on the other side of Elm Street,” said Kate as she and Vanessa drew closer.

  “You should have come to Grey Gables and parked there. It’s probably a little closer,” said Annie. “You know you’d be welcome to.”

  “Thanks, Annie. I didn’t think of it. Next time Gwen has a party, I’ll take you up on that offer,” said Kate. Looking at Dervla, she said, “I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Kate Stevens, and this is my daughter, Vanessa. Are you a friend of Tony’s?”

  Dervla hesitated, and Annie said, “This is Dervla O’Keefe. She’s Tony’s fiancée, just come over from Ireland. She’s staying with me at Grey Gables.”

  Kate’s mouth opened, but no words came out. Vanessa, however, forged ahead with aplomb, “Ireland! Awesome! I’ve always wanted to go there. After we graduate, my best friend and I want to take a trip to Dublin. We’ve been looking at different websites about places to see, and we’re trying to save some money for airfare and stuff.” Without missing a beat, she continued, “That barbecue smells delicious. We had a late breakfast and skipped lunch. I’m starving. Maybe Dervla and I could go see what’s available. Do you mind, Mom?” Without really waiting for an answer, she linked her arm in Dervla’s as if they had always been the best of friends and asked, “What part of Ireland are you from?”

  Dervla smiled and fell into step with Vanessa, giving Annie, Alice, and Kate a wave as Vanessa unerringly led the way toward the smell of the food. Annie could see that Dervla was in good hands for the moment. Vanessa was more interested in hearing about Dervla’s homeland, and was oblivious to the idea that there might be any controversy connected with Tony Palmer coming home engaged.

  However, Kate was not so inclined. “When did this happen?” she asked after Vanessa and Dervla were out of earshot. “Didn’t Gwen just say at the last Hook and Needle Club meeting how Tony was concentrating on his career right now, and didn’t have a steady girlfriend?”

  “This … is a very recent event,” said Annie reluctantly. “Gwen didn’t know about the engagement until the two of them showed up this morning.”

  “So … is Dervla someone he knew before he went away?” asked Kate.

  “No,” said Annie, still trying not to elaborate too much. “He met her the first week he was in Ireland.”

  Kate raised her eyebrows. “That must have knocked Gwen for a loop.”

  “He did tell his mother he was bringing home a surprise for her,” said Alice. “And though I haven’t seen her since she heard the news, I think it’s safe to say that she was, indeed, surprised.”

  Annie, Alice, and Kate made their way to the backyard and entered the crowd of people milling around under the marquee. At the far end of the open-sided tent, the caterers had set up two long tables of food and drinks. Behind the food tables and outside the tent was an extra-large grill from which emanated the aroma that had enticed Vanessa; it was carefully positioned so that the light breeze would blow the smoke and heat away from the crowd.

  At the opposite end of the tent, which was nearer the house, a
sound system was set up, with a CD player and a microphone. Next to that was a smaller table with a large creamy-icing–covered cake accented with crimson, Harvard’s school color, sitting in the center. Stacks of small plates sat on either side, and plastic forks fanned out in front of it. On the far end of that same table sat a large basket, where people had been placing their cards to congratulate Tony for finishing his degree. Annie, Alice, and Kate each slipped their cards into the basket along with all the others.

  The remaining tables were placed perpendicular to the food tables. Some people were in the food-and-drink line; others were already seated, and many were standing in groups. All were visiting with fellow residents of Stony Point and with the few people from out of town. The atmosphere was very congenial; there seemed to be no hint that there was anything amiss in the Palmer family.

  Annie looked to see where Vanessa and Dervla had gotten to. Vanessa had found the food table and was filling a plate with crudités and some chicken wings, but was still managing to fire away questions at Dervla. Dervla walked beside her, but didn’t take any interest in the food. She seemed to be listening to Vanessa and answering patiently, but she would occasionally scan the room—looking for Tony, no doubt. Annie looked around. She didn’t see any sign of Tony either.

  Up nearer the house, Annie saw Mary Beth and Gwen standing in a tightly knit group, with their backs to the tent, talking with a couple who were facing her way. Annie took them to be Gwen’s son and daughter-in-law. George was recognizable as a Palmer, but his features were the opposite of his brother’s. George had his mother’s blond hair and round face, and his father’s eyes. His wife, Sandra, reminded Annie of Gwen, down to her perfectly coiffed hair and the meticulous details of her outfit. They made no sign of going to speak to Dervla. Since Gwen wasn’t facing the tent, perhaps she hadn’t seen Dervla when she arrived, and of course, neither George nor Sandra would know Dervla or Annie by sight. Annie just hoped that Gwen wasn’t purposely ignoring Dervla; no good would come of that.