Missed You In Church: A Hunter Jones Mystery

by Charlotte Moore

  “I’m glad they were willing to do it at all,” Mallory said.

  “I know,” Miranda answered. “Me, too. I told her not to worry so much because they both do really pretty flowers, but she’s freaking out. And don’t bother trying to call her because she left her cell phone here. She’s supposed to be the planner and she’s going all to pieces.”

  “Let me get off the phone and call Hunter about the garter,” Mallory said.

  “But what if she doesn’t have it? I’ve got to have one and it needs to be blue.”

  “If she doesn’t,” Mallory said firmly, “I’ll go by Hilliard House and ask Aunt Clarissa where hers is. You just stay cool and let me take care of it. You will have a garter, and something blue.”

  Hunter picked up on the first ring. She listened to Mallory’s tale of woe about the garter and laughed.

  “That sounds like something Flannery would do,” she said. “And yes, I have a beautiful blue garter. It’s only been worn once, and I know exactly where it is. I’ll be happy to lend it to Miranda.”

  “Thank you!” Mallory said. “That is such a relief. I’m leaving right now. Can I come by and get it in a few minutes? “

  “Sure,” Hunter said. “I’ll go get it now, and I won’t let Flannery eat it before you get here.”

  At Hilliard House, Clarissa Scarbrough sighed. She was letting go of her own vision as Mitzi Truelock and her teenaged daughter, Trina, worked on theirs, arranging pink and white carnations.

  “Clarissa, if I had known before yesterday that you wanted hydrangeas and snapdragons with fuschia ribbons, I could have ordered all of that,” Mitzi said with an edge to her voice. “We usually have every bit of this done the day before, and I’m doing the best I can for that beautiful Miranda on very short notice. Now let us finish and you’ll see…”

  Robin Hilliard made his way through the scattered parasols and flowers and smiled at Mitzi and Trina.

  “It looks gorgeous, ladies.”

  “Thank you!” Mitzi said.

  Clarissa sighed again. As angry as she was at Sebastian for picking up and leaving town after all they had paid him in advance, she still had a vision of his artistry. This, she thought, was going to be like every other wedding in Merchantsville. She slipped out of the room and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water and take another nerve pill.

  At least, she reminded herself, Miranda wouldn’t care. All she cared about was whether it was pink. Clarissa hoped her next wedding would be for a bride with some sense of adventure about colors.

  And at least, she thought, the cake was on schedule. Caren had promised to be there with her helpers at 2 p.m. to set the cake up for the reception. Mitzi had agreed, for quite a fee, to transport the flowers from the brunch out to the country club, and it would just have to do.

  She went back to look at the arrangements on the table, noticing Mitzi’s little frown and reminding herself not to make any more suggestions. If there was something that needed changing, she could do it after they were gone.

  “Looking good!” Colin said, coming in with a tray of punch cups.

  Everyone, it seemed to Clarissa, thought everything was just fine when it was going to be nothing at all like her plan.

  As uppity as Mitzi had been about the short notice, Sue-Ellen Larson had been worse. She and her daughter, Coralie, were putting the bouquets and boutonnieres together as quickly as they could, and would be working in the church sanctuary as soon as that was done, but Sue-Ellen had been downright peevish when she was asked. She said that she would do it in Noreen’s memory and because Miranda was such a sweet girl. Not that she wasn’t charging!

  The next time she planned a wedding, Clarissa decided, she would be sure that whichever floral designer she chose was really settled and dependable. She was glad that Jack had relaxed so much about the costs. Maybe he wouldn’t even wonder why Mitzi and Sue-Ellen were billing him for flowers after that deposit he paid Sebastian.

  Then she smiled a little. The bride’s dress would be the talk of the town, she thought, and so would the wedding cake.

  CHAPTER 27

  MALLORY THANKED HUNTER FOR THE GARTER and headed for her aunt’s home. She let herself in with her key, and called out. Miranda hadn’t answered when she called to report on having solved the garter problem and Mallory hoped she wasn’t tearing around looking for their aunt’s garter.

  As it turned out, Miranda was in the upstairs shower.

  She opened the bathroom door, and said, “Hey, girl, I thought you already had your shower. I’ve got your garter. Now tell me right now, will this do or do you want me to call Aunt Clarissa and find out where hers is?”

  Miranda peeked out from behind the shower curtain. She was wearing one of Aunt Clarissa’s big plastic shower caps over the rollers in her hair.

  She took a look at the garter and said, “That’s pretty. It’s fine. It’s blue. Whatever.”

  “You sure?” Mallory asked, surprised at her indifference after all that fuss.

  “It’s fine,” Miranda said. “Really.”

  “Okay, then,” Mallory said. “I’ll let you finish your shower. We’ve got an hour and a half before the brunch.”

  “Will you stay?” Miranda asked, peeking out from the shower again, looking like she was 12 again.

  “Here in the bathroom?” Mallory asked, laughing.

  “No. I mean here at the house and afterward. At the brunch, and will you help me with the wedding dress and everything. Please?”

  “I was going to go over to Hilliard House and see if I could help and then come back and get you,” Mallory said.

  “No, please. I need you to stay here. I’m feeling all nervous.”

  “Nervous? You sound like Aunt Clarissa. You’re not having second thoughts are you?” Mallory asked, half-teasing.

  “Oh, no!” Miranda said. “I just want it all to be over. I wish we had just run away together. I can’t wait for tomorrow.”

  Despite Clarissa Scarbrough’s worried frown, Mallory thought everything went beautifully at the bridesmaids’ brunch. It didn’t seem a bit like Gone With the Wind, but the bridesmaids were still charmed by the picnic baskets and parasols, and Chad Montgomery’s mother, Helen, swore she had never seen such a beautiful place as Hilliard House.

  Miranda was smiling and hugging everybody, but she was a little pensive, Mallory thought. She had seen her sister happier about a new pair of shoes than she seemed to be about on her wedding day now that things were really under way.

  Then, like the sun breaking through a dark cloud, Miranda was all smiles. She had heard Chad calling to one of his friends from the center hall.

  She jumped up from the head of the table and ran to see him.

  “Miranda!” Aunt Clarissa called out indignantly. “Where are you going? You can’t do that. He’s not supposed to see you before the wedding!”

  But Miranda was already pulling open the big sliding door. She ran to throw her arms around Chad, who swung her around in a circle as everyone laughed and clapped—everyone except Clarissa Scarbrough, who looked ready to burst into tears.

  “It’s just a superstition,” Mallory said to her aunt. “And she’s nervous today. Chad makes her feel secure.”

  “SHE’S nervous?” Aunt Clarissa said with a touch of exasperation. “Well, I’m the one who should be nervous about everything that’s gone wrong.”

  “Everything’s fine, Aunt Clarissa,” Mallory said. “It looks so pretty and everybody’s having a good time. You’ve done a wonderful job.”

  “It isn’t at all the way I envisioned it,” Clarissa said, sounding grieved, “And Miranda knows that the groom isn’t supposed to see the bride on her wedding day until she walks down the aisle.”

  Chad’s mother intervened and said, “It’s wonderful that they love each other so much.”

  Mallory went to retrieve her rule-breaking sister.

  Hours later, after Miranda had walked down the aisle on her father’s arm, looking beautif
ul and a little scared, and had repeated her vows in a voice so soft that hardly anyone could hear her, the wedding guests all found their way to the country club.

  Clarissa was in a flurry, making sure that everyone who arrived signed the guest book, giving orders to the photographer and videographer and telling the bridesmaids and groomsmen where to stand for each picture.

  The wedding cake, a six-tiered wonder decorated with marzipan magnolias impressed everyone. Jack Bremmer beamed and gave Clarissa the credit for everything. They made up small groups and large groups to have photographs taken. The bride and groom cut the cake and danced the first dance.

  Mallory was exhausted when Hunter, Sam and Bethie finally made their way across the floor to talk with her. Bethie and Hunter were both carrying big baskets filled with bags of birdseed.

  “It was a beautiful wedding,” Hunter said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a gown that beautiful.”

  “Miranda looks like a princess,” Bethie said to Mallory, “and so do you!”

  “It was a beautiful wedding, wasn’t it?” Mallory asked after giving Bethie a hug. “And, Hunter, thank you so much for your help with the garter this morning. And for the birdseed.”

  Hunter had already explained to Sam that Miranda was wearing Hunter’s garter because Merlin had chewed up the one she had planned to wear.

  “I think you should have gotten a picture of that,” Sam said.

  Mallory smiled and noticed her father laughing with a group of old friends, including Sue-Ellen Larson. Mallory’s bridesmaids were dancing with the groomsmen. It looked like a big happy party, but she didn’t see the bride and groom anywhere.

  Then she saw Chad coming toward her in a hurry.

  She put the baskets of birdseed down and went to meet him. He took her arm to lead her off toward the side exit.

  “We’re leaving,” he said. “Miranda’s in my car already. She just fell apart. She has a headache and she’s crying. She wants to go right now, and she wants to see you before we leave.”

  Mallory didn’t argue.

  She said, “Oh, poor thing, she’s been so tense all day.”

  “I know,” he said, “Let me go tell my folks and your dad. Will you explain to Clarissa?”

  Mallory didn’t argue with Chad. It seemed like a very odd ending to the wedding that had been planned for so long, and she knew that Aunt Clarissa’s feelings would be hurt. Still, they were married now, and her new brother-in-law clearly meant to rescue his wife from her own wedding reception. Clarissa certainly would object and complicate things if she knew Miranda wanted to escape her own wedding reception.

  When she got to the car, Miranda opened the door, and they gave each other an awkward hug. Miranda’s eyes were swollen from crying.

  “Tell Dad I’m sorry, but I just wanted to get away,” she said.

  “I’ll tell Aunt Clarissa, too,” Mallory said, as Chad came toward the car. “Maybe you could call her tomorrow or the next day and thank her for everything. I’ve still got your cell phone in my purse. Don’t you want me to get it for you?”

  “No,” Miranda said in a whisper, “You keep it. I don’t want to call her.”

  “Miranda!” Mallory said, “Look, I know she got a little bossy, but she really meant well and it was a beautiful wedding, really…”

  Chad got into the car, and Miranda handed Mallory her bouquet, and pulled the veil off her head, tossing it in the back seat.

  “Let’s go,” she said to Chad. “Bye, Mallory!”

  Mallory shut the car door, and they left.

  Clarissa was stunned when Mallory told her.

  “She’s gone?” she asked. “She can’t leave just like that. She didn’t even throw the bouquet. What you doing with it?”

  “She had a migraine,” Mallory said. “They’ve gone. She just handed it to me.”

  “When did she change?” Clarissa asked.

  Mallory looked bewildered.

  “I mean when did she change into her going-away outfit?”

  “She didn’t change,” Mallory said.

  “You mean she left in her wedding dress? You should have stopped her! We haven’t even thrown the bags of birdseed! ”

  “Aunt Clarissa, it wasn’t up to me,” Mallory said, putting her arm around her aunt’s slender shoulders, “It was up to her and Chad.”

  “Well,” Clarissa said, “I wish you had come to get me. I could have calmed her down. I just can’t believe this. Have you told your father?”

  “Chad told him,” Mallory said as they both looked across the dance floor.

  Jack Bremmer, looking good in his wedding attire, and on his fifth glass of champagne punch, didn’t appear to be worried about Miranda’s behavior. He leaned over and whispered something in Sue-Ellen Larson’s ear. She smiled up at him.

  “I hope he knows that woman has a reputation,” Clarissa said.

  Mallory suddenly felt exhausted. Miranda hadn’t given any thought to Clarissa’s feelings, but it was hard to feel sympathetic to Clarissa. Sue-Ellen Larson, as far as Mallory knew, was a perfectly nice woman, a hard-working widow who was one of the first in Merchantsville to be a friend to Noreen, and she had pitched in at the very last minute to help with the flowers.

  Still, she wasn’t going to add fuel to the fire at this point.

  “What needs to be done before we can leave?” she asked. “How can I help?’

  Clarissa got a small notebook out of her purse, and said, “Well, to start with, the top tier of the wedding cake is in a box in the kitchen. That’s for their first anniversary, so I hope there’s room in your freezer. Oh, and there’s a basket of refreshments that the bride and groom were supposed to take along to eat on their wedding night, but I suppose they forgot that. That can go to your house. I suppose. It has chicken salad cream puffs in it, and they’ll have to be thrown out if you don’t eat them by tomorrow, but maybe the rest will keep until they come back from their honeymoon if it’s put in the freezer.

  “I don’t think they’ll be coming here,” Mallory said. “They’re going straight to Mobile.”

  “Well I hardly see how she’ll get all her things packed and moved from Mobile,” Clarissa said with a toss of her head. “Here, I’ll take that bouquet and have it preserved and I’ll take the guest book home with me. And let me go and pay the caterer now, and we’ll just trust that they’ll leave everything tidy. I’m afraid I’m just exhausted.”

  CHAPTER 28

  “POOR MIRANDA,” HUNTER SAID TO SAM that evening when they had sent Bethie off to bed, collapsed on the sofa at home and kicked off their shoes. “Mallory said she got a migraine headache and was crying and Chad just drove her away from the whole thing. She didn’t even change out of her wedding gown.”

  “Poor Chad,” Sam said. “I think he’s got himself a little girl to raise. I liked him and I liked his parents, and I imagine Miranda is going to be just fine, but Clarissa Scarbrough looked as tense as a bobcat.”

  “You know,” Hunter said. “I think she’s the last person who should be a wedding planner. She’s just too nervous.”

  “I think she spent a whopping amount of Jack Bremmer’s money on that whole shindig,” Sam said.

  “Her wedding dress alone probably cost more than our wedding and honeymoon put together,” Hunter said. “It was spectacular.”

  “It was white,” Sam said, leaning over to kiss her ear. “All wedding dresses look alike. In fact, all brides look alike – except you, of course. You looked like you.”

  “Oh never mind,” Hunter said.

  “And, no matter what she spent,” Sam said, “It was still exactly like every wedding I have ever been to in the First Baptist Church, or our church for that matter. Even the flowers looked the same.”

  “Oh, that’s another thing,” Hunter said. “Clarissa had paid this guy over in Perry who was supposed to be some kind of elegant floral designer, and he left town with the deposit. Mitzi and Sue-Ellen had to do all of the flowers at the last minute.�
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  “Well, she should have gotten Mitzi and Sue-Ellen in the first place,” Sam said, reaching for the remote control “Anyway, it’s over, and I commend the groom for grabbing his bride and getting out of there and on with the honeymoon.”

  Taneesha and Jeremy had just finished dinner. Taneesha hadn’t felt like cooking, which was rare. Instead she had gotten take-out pizza to heat up, and served Rocky Road ice cream for dessert. Jeremy seemed to like it just as well as he liked her shrimp creole, and they had eaten mostly in silence.

  Finally, he reached across the table and took her hand.

  “I have something important to tell you,” he said.

  “Here it comes,” Taneesha thought. “He’s leaving.”

  “I’ve accepted a new job,” he said.

  “I wondered when you were going to tell me,” she said, hoping that she wouldn’t cry.

  “It’s with Buck Roland,” he said.

  “You mean here in Merchantsville?” she asked, stunned.

  “Well, yes,” he said. “They want another defense attorney. I had to do some pretty good talking to persuade them that I was just at the DA’s office because that’s where I could get a job straight out of law school, but you know I’ve always wanted to do defense.”

  “I heard you were looking for a job,” she said. “But I didn’t know it was around here. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Well, I guess because I didn’t want to tell you and wind up not getting the offer,” he said, “But anyway, that brings me to the really important thing. The money’s pretty good, and I think that we ought to be able to manage for you to quit your job and go to law school.”

  “Jeremy, I couldn’t possibly let you help me with law school,” she said.

  “Why not?” he asked, with a gentle smile, pulling a little velvet box out of his pocket. “It would be an investment in our future.”