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“What does that mean?”
“Ethan might be a very good young man to develop at our business, but that does not mean he’s being groomed here to be your husband. As I said, if it turns out that he’s right for you and you for him . . .”
My God, I thought. She does see us all as her puppets, especially me perhaps.
“I don’t think I need anyone to tell me who’s right for me, Lucille. Thank you for your concern. I am tired now.”
She stared a moment and then smiled. “You’re just like I was when I was your age, defiant to the end. Be sure you don’t do something just for spite, because in the end you spite only yourself.” She patted my bed and walked out of my room.
“That’s what I call covering your rear end,” Cassie said. She was standing by the door. “That way, Daddy can’t blame her for anything you do.”
“I didn’t need you to tell me that,” I said, and turned on my side so my back would be to her.
“Yes, you did,” she replied in her arrogant Heaven-stone tone of voice.
I closed my eyes.
“I’ll be in your dreams,” she threatened.
It made it more difficult for me to fall asleep, but I finally did. When I woke up, it was late, and Ethan had already dressed, had breakfast, and gone to his first day of work and to get his tux. He phoned later in the afternoon to describe what he was doing and how pleasant and cooperative everyone was being. I wanted to ask him what he expected with Lucille being his sponsor, but I thought about it and realized I’d be taking something from him. Maybe the other employees were just as impressed with him. Ethan did have a wonderful personality, and as far as I could tell, he didn’t look down on anyone. I was sure his enthusiasm amused them all. He promised to rush home as soon as he could.
In the meantime, Lucille had me try on my maid of honor gown again and inspected it so closely I thought she might send it back for a loose thread. She was satisfied with it all and then began organizing the rehearsal. Her so-called close friends arrived. They did seem nice, especially Claire Dubonnet, who had flown in from Monaco. Even though she worked for the prince, I found her to be more down-to-earth and friendlier than Lucille’s other friends, who were all wives of very wealthy businessmen. I learned she had been divorced for five years, but she had a daughter a year older than me who was studying at the Sorbonne in Paris. Although she didn’t mean it to, it made me wonder what Lucille’s other acquaintances thought about me not attending any college or doing any real work. Did they think I was some sort of mental invalid or just a spoiled rich girl? Why should it matter what they thought? I asked myself, to stop myself from thinking about it.
We all waited as the minister and Lucille’s wedding planner conferred about the wedding procession. Daddy seemed nervous, even though it was only a rehearsal. Uncle Perry, who had arrived and would be staying at the house, agreed to be the stand-in for Senator Brice, who couldn’t get there until tomorrow. I kept thinking to myself that tomorrow Uncle Perry should be exactly where he was tonight, but Lucille didn’t
miss an opportunity to refer to the best man as Senator Brice. She was on top of every decision the minister and the wedding planner made, even changing the number of steps the flower girls should take. I watched Daddy closely while the minister summarized the actual ceremony and the vows. Daddy looked at me only once, but his gaze quickly slid off my face and back to the minister and Lucille, who held his hand so tightly anyone would imagine she was afraid he might turn and run.
Ethan arrived before it ended and watched from the sidelines. As soon as I could, I hurried over to him. The orchestra had come to rehearse as well, and we both listened to some of the music.
“I’m just a last-minute guest, but I feel as nervous as a groom. There is so much being coordinated here,” he said, listening to the wedding planner review when the champagne would be brought out, what the waiters and waitresses should be doing during the ceremony and immediately afterward, and how the kiosks should be prepared. There were ushers who had to know exactly where the dignitaries, as Lucille characterized them, would be sitting. A chart with names was prepared on a six-by-four-foot board, and the wedding planner, using a pointer, indicated the various areas for different guests.
“You were right. This is like planning the Normandy invasion,” Ethan muttered.
“It’s all too big and formal for me,” I said. “It makes it seem impersonal. They should have eloped.”
Ethan laughed. “Fat chance of Lucille doing something like that.”
For the first time, I heard a somewhat disdainful tone in his voice. Maybe he wasn’t as mesmerized by her as I had thought.
“Do you like her, Ethan?” I asked him sharply.
He glanced at me and shrugged. “Sure. She’s been very nice to me, and she’s certainly one of the most capable and intelligent women I’ve ever met.”
“Yes, but would you like her as a stepmother?”
“She’ll be okay, Semantha. Don’t worry about it.”
“I wish you had the opportunity to have met my real mother,” I said. “You’d understand.”
“Understand what?”
“Why I miss her more than ever right now,” I told him. “Why I have a hard time with all this.”
He said nothing. We watched some more of the preparation and then went in so he could show me his tux and we could get ready for dinner. I realized it would be the last dinner with the four of us at the table for a good ten days. Lucille reminded me about the Citizen of the Year dinner we were to attend after they had returned from their honeymoon. She said she would see to it that Ethan was included in our party. Now he really looked overwhelmed and even more impressed with her and, especially, my father.
“After the wedding, let’s not get so formally dressed for dinner every night,” I told him later. “As you can see, we’ll have many opportunities to dress formally. Lucille looks determined to include us in every possible event.”
“Whatever you want. Just think,” he said, holding out his arms. “You’ll be the lady of the house, the mistress of Heaven-stone. The tiller of this great sailboat will be in your hands, Semantha. Take it wherever you want.”
