A Good Woman (8 page)

“I asked her permission in October, and she said yes. I think she believes it would be a good thing for both of us.”

“So do I,” Annabelle whispered with a shy smile. “I just never expected this to happen. I thought we were just friends.”

“We still are,” he replied, smiling too. “And if you accept, we always will be. I think a husband and wife should be best friends, along with everything else. I would like to share children with you, and the rest of my life. And I will always, always be your friend.”

“So would I,” she said, looking misty. And the thought of having children with him shocked her a little, but touched her heart. As she listened to him, she tried not to think about all the antics Hortie had described in Paris. What she shared with Josiah seemed so much more pure. She hated to spoil that. But Hortie had always been a little crazy, and now that she’d discovered sex, she’d gotten worse. The only thing that was slowing her down now was getting fatter day by day.

“Would you like some time to think about it? I know this came as a surprise. I’ve been biting my tongue for a long time.” And then he laughed. “That’s why I had a scotch, and half a bottle of wine tonight, and now champagne. I guess your mother should have warned me not to get drunk. It took a little courage to ask. I wasn’t sure if you’d slug me or say yes.”

“Are those my two choices?” she asked, reaching for his other hand. She was already holding one. “Slug you or say yes?”

“Essentially.” He smiled at her, and squeezed both of her hands in his own.

“It’s simple then. The answer is yes. If I slug you, it would make a terrible mess. They might throw us out of the restaurant. And you might not be my best friend anymore.”

“Yes, I would.” And then he asked her the same question she had inquired of him when he first proposed. “Are you serious?” He was referring to her timid “yes.” It was gentle, but heartfelt.

“Yes, I am. I never thought of us that way before. And whenever my mother suggested it, I thought she was insane. But now that I think about it, there’s no one else on earth I’d want to marry. Except Hortie maybe, but she can be such a pain in the neck. So if I’m going to marry my best friend, I’d rather marry you.” They were both laughing while she explained.

“Have I told you that I love you?” he asked her.

“I think you did. But you can always say it again,” she said primly, with an enchanting little smile.

“I love you, Annabelle.”

“I love you too, Josiah. I love you very, very much. I guess this is the best way to protect our friendship forever.” And then as she said it, he saw her eyes fill with tears, and her lip quiver, and he could see she was upset.

“What’s wrong?” he whispered.

“I wish I could tell Robert and my father. This is the most important thing that’s ever happened to me, and I have no one to tell. My mother already knows. And who will walk me down the aisle?” As she said it, tears rolled down her cheeks.

“We’ll figure it out,” he said gently, as he wiped her tears away with his hand. “Don’t cry, sweetheart. Everything is going to be all right.”

“I know,” she said. She felt absolutely certain that with Josiah she would always be in good hands. Suddenly, it made perfect sense to her, although it never had before. But now it was his idea, and her own, not someone else’s crazy suggestion that made no sense. Now it all did. “When do you want to do it?”

“I don’t know. That’s up to you. I’m at your disposal from today on. We can get married whenever you want.”

“What about in Newport this summer?” she said, looking pensive. “In the garden. That would be less formal than a church.” And there would be no aisle, which was so upsetting to her now. She had no uncles to walk her down the aisle, no one to stand in for her father or brother. There was no one at all. She’d have to walk down the aisle all by herself. “Maybe we could do the actual wedding very small, and have a big party later. With Daddy and Robert gone, it doesn’t feel right to do a big wedding, and I think it would be too hard on my mother. What about Newport in August?”

“Sounds great to me.” He beamed at her. Things were going even better than he’d planned, or dared to hope since last October. “Does that give you enough time to organize a wedding?”

“I think so. I don’t want a wedding like Hortie’s. And she’s the only bridesmaid I want, and she’ll be nine months pregnant.”

“I’d say that sounds more like a matron of honor,” he teased her. They both knew that most people would be shocked to see her out socially in that condition.

“She says she might have the baby in Newport,” Annabelle added.

“Maybe she could have it at the wedding.” He chuckled. He had a feeling that with Annabelle, life was going to be interesting forever.

“Can I still do my volunteer work at the hospital?” Annabelle asked, looking worried.

“You can do anything you want,” he said simply, smiling at her.

“My mother said I’d have to stop when I got married.”

“You don’t have to stop for me, except maybe when you’re expecting. It might be a good idea to give it up for a while then.” She could tell just listening to him that he was going to be reasonable, and always there to protect her. It seemed like the ideal marriage to her, and she couldn’t imagine why she’d never thought of it herself before. She liked everything he said, and always had.

They chatted for a while longer about their plans. His mother had been dead for years, and his father was remarried to a woman Josiah didn’t particularly like, but he thought they should invite them, and his half-sister with her husband. He had two uncles, and a brother. His brother lived in Chicago, and Josiah wasn’t sure if he would come. He said his brother was a little eccentric. So he didn’t think they’d be overrun by his family, and all she had now was her mother, and a wide assortment of distant cousins. She said she’d like to keep it below a hundred, maybe even fifty. And her mother could give them a big party in the city in the fall, which sounded great to him. He liked the idea of keeping their wedding personal and private, as a special moment just for them, and not a cast of thousands. He had never wanted a big wedding, and until now none at all.

“Where do you want to go on our honeymoon?” he asked happily. August was just around the corner.

“Anywhere we don’t have to take a boat to get to. I don’t think I could do that to my mother, and I’m not sure I’d want to either.”

“We’ll figure it out. Maybe California or somewhere in the Rockies. Or Canada, or maybe even Maine. New England is beautiful that time of year.”

“I don’t care where we go, Josiah,” she said honestly, “just so I’m with you.” It was exactly how he felt about her. He signaled for the waiter then and paid the check. Everything had gone perfectly and he had apologized to her for not having a ring yet. He had been nervous about choosing the right one.

He drove her home, and her mother was still up when they got there. Knowing what was happening, she had been too excited to go to sleep. She looked at them expectantly as they came through the door, and they were both beaming.

“Do I have a son-in-law?” she asked in barely more than a whisper.

“You will in August,” Josiah said proudly, with an arm around his brand-new fiancée’s shoulders.

“In Newport,” Annabelle added, smiling ecstatically up at him.

“Oh my Lord, a wedding in Newport in August, with only three months to arrange it. You two don’t fool around, do you?”

“We only want a small wedding, Mama,” Annabelle said softly, and her mother understood why. Hearing that was a great relief to her too.

“You can have anything you want,” she said generously.

“We really only want about fifty or sixty people, a hundred if we have to, in the garden.”

“Your wish is my command,” Consuelo said gamely, wishing she could call the florist and the caterer at that very moment. Instead she walked up to Josiah and hugged him, and kissed her daughter. “I’m so happy for you both. I think you’re going to be very happy.”

“So do we,” they said in unison, and then all three of them laughed. Consuelo insisted on pouring each of them a glass of champagne, and then suddenly Annabelle remembered the day in October she had come home from the hospital to find her mother and Josiah drinking champagne in the garden.

“Did you really get a promotion that day?” Annabelle asked him, as her mother served their champagne.

“No, I got you, or your mother’s permission. I told her I wanted to wait until May to ask you.”

“You sneaky people,” she laughed, as Consuelo toasted them.

“May you be as happy as Arthur and I were, may you live long and happy lives, and have a dozen children.” Both Annabelle and Josiah raised their glasses and took a sip, and then Annabelle reached out to her mother and hugged her tightly. She knew that in some ways this was hard for her too. They all missed her father and brother so much. “I love you, Mama,” Annabelle said softly, as Consuelo held her close.

“I love you too, sweetheart. And I’m so happy for you. And I know that wherever your father and Robert are, they are too.”

Both women wiped their eyes, as Josiah cleared his throat and turned away, so they wouldn’t see that he was crying too. It was truly the happiest night of his life.

Chapter 7

F
or the next several weeks, Consuelo was insanely busy. She had to organize the caterers and florist in Newport, speak to the minister, hire the musicians. She had already decided to open the house in June. Josiah’s father had agreed to host the rehearsal dinner, and was planning to hold it at the Newport Country Club.

Consuelo also had to order invitations. Annabelle needed a wedding dress, and a trousseau. There were a million details to plan and organize, and it was the happiest Consuelo had been in a year. She was sorry that Annabelle wouldn’t have her father there to see it, and Consuelo wanted to make it even more beautiful for Annabelle, to make up for it.

Their engagement was announced in the
New York Herald
the day before Annabelle’s birthday and the following day Josiah presented her with her engagement ring. It was a ten-carat diamond that had been his mother’s. And it looked spectacular on Annabelle’s hand. He had decided that his mother’s ring was more meaningful than a new one, and Annabelle loved it. She and her mother were already looking for wedding gowns by then. And by sheer luck, they found the perfect one at B. Altman’s on the first of June. It was a slim gown of exquisite French lace, modeled after a Patou design, and just simple enough not to look out of place at a garden wedding in Newport. It had a long graceful train, and an enormous cloud of veil. Annabelle looked magnificent in it. And when she talked to Hortie about being her matron of honor, her old friend screamed.

“Are you insane? You can’t get married until after I have the baby. If your mother is ordering a tent, she’d better order a second one for me. It’s the only thing I can wear.”

“I don’t care how you look or what anyone says,” Annabelle insisted. “I just want you to be there for me.” It was still a sore subject for her and her mother, but she had decided to walk down the aisle alone.

“I’m not even supposed to go out in public once I’m that pregnant. All the old biddies in Newport will talk about me for years.” Annabelle was well aware of that too, and Hortie was nearly in tears.

“Who cares? I love you, however you look. And we don’t want to wait. August is perfect for us,” Annabelle pleaded with her.

“I hate you. Maybe I can swim a lot and have the baby before. But I’ll still be fat.” When she realized that Annabelle couldn’t be convinced to postpone her wedding for her, Hortie finally gave up, and promised that come hell or high water, she’d be there. It was the week before her due date, and she almost hit Annabelle when she suggested that maybe the baby would be late. She wanted it to come early. She was tired of feeling ugly and fat.

Annabelle and Hortie went shopping together, to look for items for her trousseau. And Annabelle and Josiah still had to figure out where to live. Josiah had a very respectable small summer house in Newport that he’d inherited from his mother, but his apartment in New York would be too small for them once they had children. They agreed to look for a bigger one after they got back from Wyoming, which they had chosen for their honeymoon. It was just too frantic trying to find a new place to live now. For the time being, his apartment was big enough for the two of them. And it was close to where her mother lived, which Annabelle liked. She hated to move out and leave her alone. She knew only too well how lonely she would be.

But for the moment, Consuelo was too busy to be lonely. She took two trips up to Newport to start planning the wedding and tell the gardener what she wanted planted. And they had managed to find a tent the perfect size, left over from a wedding the year before.

And much to Annabelle and Josiah’s amazement, by the end of June, all the details were attended to and in place. Consuelo was a model of efficiency, and she wanted Annabelle to have the perfect wedding. Josiah was adorable throughout. He showed no sign of jitters or nerves, despite his long wait to get married at thirty-nine. Once he made up his mind, he was ready and completely calm about it. Even more so than his bride.

As soon as the announcement came out in the
Herald,
they were invited everywhere, and were out almost every night. They made a striking couple, and only two of Consuelo’s friends made unpleasant comments that they thought Josiah was too old for Annabelle. Consuelo assured them that he was just right. Her own cousin, John Jacob Astor, in his forties, had married Madeleine at eighteen. Josiah was proving daily that he was the perfect husband for her. And Annabelle even managed to continue her volunteer work, with his blessing, until the end of June. She took a leave from it then until the fall.

The only thing Consuelo wanted from them, and she said it regularly, was grandchildren as soon as possible. Annabelle thought that if she heard her say it once more she would scream.

And Hortie couldn’t stop talking about the surprises Annabelle had in store for her, and how great the sex would be. It unnerved her to hear all the unwanted advice her old friend gave her, as she got bigger every day. Hortie was huge, and Annabelle hoped that when she got pregnant, she wouldn’t look like her. She said as much to Josiah one day, and he laughed.