The Bride's Curse

Avon, Massachusetts

Copyright © 2015 by Glenys O’Connell.
All rights reserved.

This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher; exceptions are made for brief excerpts used in published reviews.

Published by

Crimson Romance

An imprint of F+W Media, Inc.

10151 Carver Road, Suite 200

Blue Ash, OH 45242. U.S.A.

www.crimsonromance.com

ISBN 10: 1-4405-9343-4

ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-9343-7

eISBN 10: 1-4405-9344-2

eISBN 13: 978-1-4405-9344-4

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, corporations, institutions, organizations, events, or locales in this novel are either the product of the author's imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. The resemblance of any character to actual persons (living or dead) is entirely coincidental.

Cover art © 123RF/speedfighter

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• Title Page
  
• Copyright Page
  
• Chapter One
  
• Chapter Two
  
• Chapter Three
  
• Chapter Four
  
• Chapter Five
  
• Chapter Six
  
• Chapter Seven
  
• Chapter Eight
  
• Chapter Nine
  
• Chapter Ten
  
• Chapter Eleven
  
• Chapter Twelve
  
• Chapter Thirteen
  
• Chapter Fourteen
  
• Chapter Fifteen
  
• Chapter Sixteen
  
• Chapter Seventeen
  
• Chapter Eighteen
  
• Chapter Nineteen
  
• Chapter Twenty
  
• Chapter Twenty-One
  
• Chapter Twenty-Two
  
• More from This Author
  
• Also Available
  

The silver bells above the door of Wedding Bliss jangled furiously, and Kelly Andrews looked up as a red-eyed and tearful young woman strode into the store. “I want you to take this dress back! The wedding’s off!” Susie Lamont declared, thrusting a bulging cardboard dress box at her.

Kelly managed to catch the box before its contents spilled out. Her heart thumped.
Good heavens, this can’t be happening again!
Susie would be the third bride in as many months to return this dress, and Wedding Bliss had become a hot topic of conversation in the very worst way.
A quiet life as a wedding planner in a small town should have been just what she needed to recover from her stint in the military. Now it looked like the drama was following her even here.

She pointed to the group of elegant Victorian dining chairs that stood near the center of the store. “Goodness, Susie, please sit down and tell us what’s got you so upset.” Kelly darted a pleading look at her assistant, Noelia Russo, as Susie perched on the edge of a chair. Matronly and calm, Noelia was much better at dealing with customer histrionics than Kelly, who tended to give out impatient “get over it” vibes that didn’t play well with distressed customers.

Noelia suppressed a smile and stepped into the breach. “Yes, dear,” she said. “I’m sure that whatever the problem, we can help fix it. Your big day is only weeks away now! Kelly will go and get us some coffee or a nice herbal tea, and we’ll see what we can do.”

Kelly took the hint and dutifully escaped into the small office-cum-kitchen space at the rear of the store to put the kettle on for chamomile tea. She had heard that was the most soothing brew, and Susie looked like she needed something to calm her down. Kelly knew firsthand what it was like to be abandoned almost at the altar; her heart went out to the young woman as she listened to Susie’s complaints from behind the door. She gathered three dainty china cups together and added tea bags. Then she almost dropped the old-fashioned tea kettle when she heard Susie proclaim, “It’s that dress; it’s cursed! Mark’s having second thoughts about getting married. Everything was just fine until he saw me—he came in when I was trying on the wedding dress.”

“Everyone knows it’s bad luck for the groom to see—” Noelia started.

“Oh, pish. It wasn’t our wedding day and anyway, it was an accident. I wasn’t expecting him to come over that evening at all. The dress is so lovely, I just had to try it on with Grandmother’s pearls …” Susie hiccupped back a sob. “Besides, that’s an old wives’ tale; no one really believes it. So anyway, he was quiet the rest of the evening, and I thought it was just nerves with the wedding being in a couple of weeks. The next day, he phoned—can you believe that? The rat phoned to tell me he wanted to postpone the ceremony.” Susie’s voice went shrill with hurt. “He didn’t even have the guts to tell me to my face.”

Kelly felt sick. She knew better than most people that inexplicable things happened, that sometimes dark forces shadowed the world as they knew it. But surely it was insane to believe that an inanimate object, a lovely silk and lace gown, could have an evil curse attached to it. This whole issue was getting out of hand.

Listening as Susie broke out in a fresh bout of sobbing, Kelly sighed. She had never figured Susie’s fiancé, Mark Turner, for a jerk—yet who but a jerk would break off a wedding just two weeks in advance? At least Mark had telephoned and told Susie the bad news himself; her own fiancé, Wayne, had called off their wedding with a brief note … Kelly heard Noelia muttering sympathetic words and uttered a little prayer of thanks that her assistant was so good at consoling brides in crisis.

“Well, honey, I think you were right the first time—it’s probably just pre-wedding nerves. Men do get a bit like that before their weddings. You know … all the pomp and everything, the fancy dresses and having to wear a suit and tie.” Noelia’s soft voice oozed reassurance. “I’ll bet you anything he’ll be coming around any day now to beg you to forgive him and go ahead with the wedding as planned.”

“No, no, he won’t. He’s gone and signed up for a three-month contract as an engineer on a Mediterranean cruise ship. He’s on a plane to Spain right now. Apparently he wants to see the world rather than be tied down to marrying me.”

Kelly’s heart ached for the sad young woman.
What a terrible way for a romantic dream to end.
The kettle was whistling loudly, so she couldn’t hide in the small back room any longer. She made the tea and took a steaming cup through for Susie. “I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine what made Mark behave like that. I’ve always thought he was one of the good guys.” It must have been the wrong thing to say because Susie started sobbing again. Noelia rolled her eyes at her boss while patting the young woman’s shoulder.

Susie finally calmed down. Still sniffling, she pulled her pink fleece hoodie around her and took a few sips of tea. “That’s the point, really. Mark is a good guy. None of this is his fault.”

Kelly’s tension went up a notch as she watched her client take a few more sips of tea.

“It’s that darn dress. There’s something wrong with it! Everyone in town is talking about it. Everyone knows that two other brides had planned to wear that dress, and that both couples’ wedding plans have fallen through. People said that dress was unlucky. You know what they’re saying now? That wedding dress is cursed!” Susie, red-faced, began to weep again.

“Now wait just a minute … ” Kelly burst out, but she was silenced by a signal from Noelia. She knew the older woman was right. Where was the point in chewing the tail off some dumb blonde who’d rather blame an inanimate dress for her failed wedding than take some responsibility herself? No doubt that would be all over town, too, and Wedding Bliss, the most popular one-stop store for wedding paraphernalia in the area, would soon lose enough customers to make the business go broke. Already this crazy sequence of coincidences was hurting her bottom line.

Kelly took a deep, calming breath, trying to ignore the little demon on her shoulder who muttered, “Three failed weddings where the bride wanted to wear that dress? Where there’s smoke there’s usually fire.” Another meaningful glance from Noelia and Kelly clenched her teeth shut. She walked over to the elegant antique cupboard where the cash register stood and took out the store’s checkbook from a small drawer.

“Susie, we are so sorry you are unhappy with your dress, even though we don’t believe this lovely silk and lace garment is cursed. It’s just a dress after all. Anyway, I am so sorry things aren’t working out for you and Mark, and of course you can return it,” she said in as gentle a voice as she could muster. “I have here a list of receipts from your account. You didn’t have us as planners, did you?”

“No, my mom and Gran were doing all the arrangements,” Susie said. “My gran is heartbroken because she wanted to see me get married and she says she’s not getting any younger. I did bring everything back—you’ll find it all in the box.”

“So, let me just take a quick look to make sure everything is okay, and then I’ll make out a check for a full refund of everything you spent here. And please, feel free to come back and see us if things change and you and Mark decide to go ahead once he’s done his traveling.”

Noelia had already opened the box and pulled out the luxurious, oyster-silk dress, elbow-length white organza gloves, a bridal garter, and a pretty little purse dotted with hand-sewn seed pearls. She handed the dress over to Kelly, who smoothed the gorgeous soft fabric over her arm and checked for any stains or tears. Satisfied, she hung up the gown and finished filling out the check.

“Why don’t you choose a pretty cami, just a little something to make you feel good? Relationship troubles can make a woman feel so bad about herself.” Noelia held out a wispy silken camisole in palest pink. “Just a little gift from us in appreciation of you using Wedding Bliss.” She aimed a not-so-gentle warning kick at Kelly’s ankle before she could explode with protest.

“That’s so nice of you, Mrs. Russo, thank you,” Susie said, slanting a sly, knowing smile at Kelly. “I’d advise you to get rid of that dress, though. Send it to a thrift store in some other town if you don’t want to destroy it. No one around here would wear it now.”

And she was gone, leaving Kelly grinding her teeth. “You rewarded that bimbo with a consolation prize for blaming Wedding Bliss for her screwed-up relationships while ruining our bottom line and reputation by returning that dress? We really needed that sale.” She pushed her long, red hair out of her eyes as she glared at her assistant.

“Sweetie, this is a small town and a business has to be known to be good for its customers or it won’t survive. We treated that bimbo, as you call her, with kindness, and that’ll get around town, too,” Noelia replied serenely, sorting out the items Susie had returned and putting them on shelves.

“Yeah, it’ll probably bring in every scam artist from miles around, looking for free silk underwear.”

• • •

Kelly was still fuming silently when she glanced at her watch and gasped. She’d been so busy smoothing the frills and lace highlights of the lovely vintage gown, using a steam iron to gently set everything back in place, that she had almost made herself late for a meeting with one of their wedding planning clients.

“Noelia, can you hold down the fort while I dash over to St. Christopher’s? I have an appointment to talk to the church secretary and get some ideas for decorating for the Montoya wedding. Then I’m meeting Jane Parker—you know, last-minute stuff for her wedding next month. We still haven’t fixed on flowers or guest favors yet. I’ll stop in at the
Marina Grove Telegraph
office
afterward and sort out advertising for our new services, see if we can get them to do an affordable ‘wedding bells’ trade feature.”

Noelia raised her eyebrows. “You’ve got a lot on your plate there, dear. And good luck with the
Telegraph
. Ken Bertram is a lazy old goat, and he’ll probably have you running around doing his job for him, trying to get other businesses to take part in a trade supplement.” Noelia grinned.