For their honeymoon, Lilith and Willard planned to tour France and Italy, a wedding present presented by Lilith’s parents. That way, Lilith would not have to use her own inheritance for their honeymoon. They knew Willard did not have the funds for that kind of extravagance, even though once he married their daughter, Lilith’s money would be transferred to him. It was the law since the head of the household was the one who held the purse strings. The wife maintained an allowance, doled out by her husband, which she could use for her own personal needs.
Roderick, on the other hand, had not mentioned to Emily what he had planned for their honeymoon. She doubted they would even have one, considering it was actually a marriage of convenience, rather than one influenced by love. None the less, Emily didn’t care. She just wanted the whole affair to be over with.
The church filled to overflowing and the grooms waited on the sidelines to walk up the aisle before the brides appeared. Once they were at the altar, the music would signal the brides to appear. Lilith was dressed and ready, waiting for Emily to join her before someone signaled the person at the organ to begin playing.
When Emily did not appear right away, Lilith began to worry. This had all been so unusual with Roderick acting rudely to Emily the whole time of the wedding preparations. It was no wonder Emily was having second thoughts! Roderick had given no hint of loving Emily, and Lilith began to fear he merely wanted a wife to preserve his fortune after all. What had happened? Willard insisted that Roderick loved her best friend. Had they all led Emily wrong? Lilith was starting to fear that Emily had decided to back out of the agreement. She could not go traipsing around in her wedding gown, looking for Emily, though, because it had so much material involved, and she could snag it on something. She decided to send Alfred to look for her.
After searching in all the rooms and not finding Emily, Alfred went out on the grounds. He finally found her sitting on a bench in front of a statue of a saint, near the back of the church.
“Ah, there is the second bride,” he said as he approached her. “Everyone is waiting on you, Emily.”
“Oh, Alfred. I don’t know if I can go through with it. Maybe Willard and Lilith should just go on with the wedding without me.”
“No such luck, Emily. You know you love Roderick and if he doesn’t love you now, it won’t take long for him to fall madly in love with you. After all, he was very attentive to you, while you were staying at Windridge Hall. He must have some feeling for you.”
“He…he…I fear he was just trying to wear me down so I would do anything he asked me to do. Now I have agreed to this sham of a wedding, out of my own misplaced love for him. He scoffed at my profession of love and told me I merely thought I loved him. Perhaps he was right.”
She hung her head.
“Look on the bright side. He will get to keep all his money, once he marries you, and you will never have to worry about where your next meal will come from. You will have your little dog and can ride your horse wherever and whenever you please. The world does not have to revolve around Roderick alone. I will come and visit you and we can go for long rides together if you start to feel lonely.”
“You have always been so kind, Alfred.”
“I fear I am the one who put you in this mess by making that wager with you. It is mostly all my fault. Can you ever forgive me, Emily? If you want, I will take Roderick’s place at the altar, and marry you myself.”
Emily looked up into his eyes realizing how much he actually did love her. Why couldn’t she love him, the way she loved Roderick, she wondered?
He reached down and took her hand.
“Come along, Emily. I need to walk you down the aisle and give you away.”
Slowly Emily stood up and took his elbow.
“If it doesn’t work out, Alfred, I will run away from Roderick and come to you.”
“Only in my dreams,” he smiled.
A few moments later, he brought her to where Lilith and her father waited to be taken down the aisle first. The organ player was signaled and the music began. Both brides were beautiful, dressed in matching wedding gowns, with their hair fixed exactly alike, carrying the same flowers, as they walked down the aisle a few feet apart. Everyone gasped at the beauty of the scene. When Willard and Roderick, watched their brides walking down the aisle towards them, they both felt their heart skip a beat. They were both so much in love with the woman each was going to marry.
Well, be damned, she had kept her bargain, Roderick thought to himself. Perhaps he had misjudged her. She had taken so long arriving beside Lilith, he feared she had changed her mind. He felt ashamed when he realized Emily was going to marry him, in spite of the way he had been treating her. The look on her face, though, was one that made Roderick’s heart fall to his knees. While Lilith beamed in her happiness, Emily had a grim look on her face. Roderick could barely stand to see the sadness in her eyes and he was sure he was the one who was causing it.
The music faded and the Chaplin stepped before the two couples.
First, he asked Lilith, “Do you take Willard Nelson Winlock to be your lawful wedded husband, to honor and obey, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, until death do you part?”
Lilith eagerly said, “I do.”
Then he asked Emily the same question, putting Roderick’s name in the place of Willard’s. She looked at Roderick and swallowed hard.
Then finally, also said, “I do.”
Next, Willard was asked if he took Lilith to be his wife, continuing the ceremony as the book indicated all weddings to be performed.
Willard also said, “I do.”
Willard and Lilith looked lovingly into each other’s eyes and Emily had to almost hold her breath to stop herself from crying, not from happiness, but from envy for the two.
Then the Chaplin turned to Roderick and asked him the same questions. There was a long pause and Roderick cleared his voice. The Chaplin waited, nodding at Roderick. Roderick looked down at Emily.
“I can’t say I do yet,” he murmured.
The Chaplin raised his eyebrows and the congregation all gasped in anticipation. Emily, who had been looking down, raised her eyes to Roderick and then closed them in fear. She could feel him squeezing her hand tighter.
“I can’t say I do yet because I have never said I love you yet,” Roderick said at last.
Emily’s eyes flew open and looked at Roderick, who was looking down in her eyes now, instead of at the Chaplin.
“Emily, I do truly love you. I have loved you since I first laid eyes on you at your sixteenth birthday. I have loved you in my dreams and I have loved you in real life. Every waking moment of my life has been spent loving you, even after you snubbed me so many years ago. I couldn’t admit it to myself, or to you, but I am damn sure I am not going to marry you without telling you the words you have longed to hear. You have proven your love for me, beyond a doubt, and from this day forward, I intend to prove my love for you as well. That being said, I will now say I do.”
The congregation began clapping and they all stood up.
Over the din, the Chaplin yelled, “You can now kiss the bride!”
Only Roderick had not waited for the Chaplin to give him permission to kiss the bride. He was already holding Emily in his strong embrace, his mouth covering hers, almost smothering her with his kiss. The kiss seemed to last an eternity until Willard tapped him on the shoulder.
“I think you will have plenty of time for that in the future,” he whispered, causing them to break apart. Everyone laughed and threw rose peddles as the two couples escaped back down the aisle. The grooms helped the brides up into, the waiting carriages, which would take them to the happy ending both Lilith and Emily had been dreaming of all of their lives.
THE END
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A Bride For Windridge Hall Page 25