Having Prudence (4 page)

“No,” Paula shook her head and smiled as tears spilled from her eyes. “It was your mother’s.”

Pru gasped and her hands fell to her sides as she slowly stroked the fabric. Her mother’s wedding dress. She seemed to recall a picture but it had been so long ago that she had come across it that it just hadn’t connected in her mind. “My mother’s dress,” she whispered and her eyes flooded again.

“Someone thought that you might want to wear it when you married the man you love,” Paula said.

“Daddy brought this,” Pru said and shook her head.

“Well, now as far as anyone knows your daddy left last night hot on your trail to one of your sisters’ houses. He didn’t know when he would be back. He asked if we would keep an eye on Destiny while he was gone.”

“My sister is here?” Pru asked.

“Upstairs waiting to be your maid of honour,” Paula promised.

“I…” Pru began but her voice seemed to strangle in her throat. She was overwhelmed with so many emotions that she didn’t know what to say.

“Just be happy,” Paula whispered as she hugged Pru tight. “The best thanks you can give to anyone is to be happy with your life. It is all a parent could ask for.”

“I wish he was here,” Pru breathed and Paula nodded her head.
 

“That is a start then isn’t it. Some day the time will come for all of you to sit down together and wade through the truth and the lies of what really happened. To your momma, your daddy and why things fell the way they did. Things aren’t always the way they seem and sometimes it is far easier to play the role of the bad guy.” Paula knelt down and helped Pru step into a pair of white heels. “But those are all for another day. Today is about you and that rascally son of mine getting married.” She stood up and laughed. “And about me finally getting the daughters I’ve always wanted.”

“I’m only one person,” Pru said with a watery laugh.

“Oh, honey,” Paula said as she moved around to brush Pru’s hair. “When you marry into this family, we take all of you. So that means your sisters are family now too. They will always be welcome in this home, your home.”

Pru felt the tears fill her eyes again and bit her lip to keep them in. In just a few minutes she would be Mrs. Wharfton too. Today was the most wonderful day of her life. Today was the beginning of forever.

She took a deep breath as Paula slipped a veil into her hair and walked around to tug it so that it covered her face to the chin. Paula smiled and walked over to the shelf and touching something the door slid open again. Destiny stood there dressed in a beautiful green dress holding two bouquets of flowers.

Her sister slipped in the room and into her arms squeezing her close.

“You look so beautiful, Pru,” Destiny whispered.

“So do you,” Pru whispered back. And her sister did. As a teenager Destiny was becoming even more beautiful than their older sister Charity. And finally one of them had the height. Already Destiny stood five feet eight inches. Her blonde curls hung to her waist and her big green eyes were ringed with a dark blue.

“I love you,” Prudence told her sister.
 

“I know,” Destiny smiled. “I love you too. Now take your flowers.” Destiny handed her a bouquet of wildflowers. “I made it myself. They reminded me of you.”

That was her sister. Destiny loved flowers even the ones some people saw as weeds. Destiny always found something good about things, and people too.

“It’s time to get you married,” Destiny smiled.

“When it is your time we’ll see if we can alter this dress for you,” Prudence promised.

But Destiny just shook her head. “No, that dress was meant for you. There will be one meant for me as well.”

Prudence gripped her sister’s hand with her free one. “I will do everything that I can to make sure you don’t have to marry him. I swear to you that I won’t let you down.”

Destiny smiled and squeezed back. “Life has a way of turning out the way it should despite, or sometimes in spite of, what we and others think is best. I’ll be fine.”

“Yes, you will,” Prudence agreed. No matter what came her way Destiny would take it and somehow make it into something beautiful.

“Now, let’s get up there and get you married off,” Destiny laughed and together they moved towards the stairs.

Prudence took a deep breath. Everything she wanted, had always dreamed of, lay just at the top of those stairs. The man, the family, the love. She was indeed the luckiest woman in the world.

Another woman stood and watched as the vows were exchanged. She remembered the dress and how it had served the same purpose for her. It was wonderful to see it grace one of her daughters on her special day as well. So many things she had missed out on in their lives. So many plans that she had made when each of them was born that she had never been able to fulfil.

She had named them all so well. They were the best of her. Her Faith. Her Hope. Her Charity. Her Prudence. And her Destiny. Through them she would live and experience many things. Or so she had dreamed. But life happens and the unexpected has a way of taking such plans and laughing at them.

Fate built and destroyed with no remorse. She had been given the man of her dreams, the love of her life and together they had been blessed with five wonderful children before she was taken from them all. She could no longer walk among them but had been able to remain to watch over them. It was a gift she had grabbed on to.

It had been hard to watch the man she loved so much fall apart. She wondered if she would have done the same if he had been the one to go first. But she had been the one to go. He had grieved and died a little with her. And he had forgotten about their blessings. He had fallen and fallen and she had been unable to reach him. She had cried with him as he mourned her and called her name even in his sleep.

And she had felt a burning rage as she watched a man they trusted take advantage of her husband and get him to agree to something that he didn’t understand at the time. And she had watched as her husband finally woke up and realised just what he had done, the fate he had played a part in for their daughters. And she had silently cheered as he began to try and make things right, one daughter at a time.

She had watched them grow, watched them mature, and watched him struggle to do right by them. It wasn’t too late, not for any of them. One day she hoped to see them all gathered again, as a family. She longed to hear her girls forgive their father so that he could finally find peace here on earth without her. How appropriately she had named them all. Each had grown more beautiful than she could have imagined, on the inside where it counts though outside they were nothing to sneer at either.

And as she watched Prudence exchange the vows of a lifetime with her soon to be husband, it was Destiny that kept pulling her eyes. Yes, she had named her daughters well. For it would be Destiny that would pull them all together. Destiny who would fulfil what none of the others had and bring to light the true purpose of a man harshly judged.

She smiled brightly as they were pronounced man and wife, just briefly remembering when she had done the same. Then with a sigh she turned and slipped out of the house, something far easier when you were a ghost. It was time to find the man she loved as much in death as she ever had in life. He would be already worrying about Destiny and how to free her from what he had started.

Hers would be the hardest for him. For it wouldn’t be him that saved her. No, her Destiny would be the one to save
him
. To save them all.