“Let me assure you that if any of you don’t behave yourselves, if you don’t sincerely wish the bride and her fortunate groom the best life has to offer, I will personally pick you up and throw you out of here—and that goes for the women too.” Again, Dr. Huntley looked at every set of eyes.
In the back, a woman’s voice said, “Me first,” and there were a few female snickers, but Huntley’s steely gaze stopped that. He turned to Ken. “Take your place, now. You are the father of the bride.” Victoria came to her feet and looked as though she was about to say something. “And you sit down,” Dr. Huntley said and she obeyed instantly.
With one more stern look at them, he walked toward the side door, where Jared stood staring. Dr. Huntley strode toward him, shutting the chapel door hard behind him.
“Landlubbers! If I had them on a ship I’d keelhaul the lot of them.”
Jared was still staring at the man, unable to make words come out of his mouth. A few minutes earlier, the voice that had come through the door was one that he’d heard all his life. It certainly wasn’t Dr. Huntley’s soft, placid tone. And when Jared opened the door he’d seen a man whose every movement, every gesture, was that of his grandfather. Dr. Huntley, who usually walked with his shoulders bent, was standing so straight that steel poles would envy him. And there was nothing meek or mild about him. He was angry and he let the crowd know it. It was nearly impossible for Jared to comprehend, but he was seeing his grandfather alive and in the body of someone else.
Now, staring at him in disbelief, Jared reached out his hand to touch the man’s shoulder.
“It is a weak body. I must strengthen it.”
“How? When?” Jared whispered, not believing what he was thinking. Was this actually his grandfather, Caleb?
“It is I,” he said. “You look at me as though you’re seeing a ghost.” This jest seemed to amuse Caleb a great deal, but when Jared kept staring in silence, he relented. “Last night, my father left Huntley’s body.”
“You mean he died?” Jared asked.
“Yes,” Caleb answered. “I was not expecting that.” For a moment he looked away and there were tears in his eyes. “When my father was no longer in a body, he could see me and he remembered all the times we’ve been together. He offered me this body if I wanted it.” Caleb took a breath. “Then my mother came to get him. For one brief moment, the three of us were together again. They kissed me and left. They were so happy to be with each other. And I found myself back in a human body.”
Jared was still staring. “What did you do then?”
“What do you think I did?” Caleb asked, looking at his grandson as if he weren’t very bright. “I went upstairs and climbed into bed with Valentina. Two hundred years of celibacy makes a man eager.”
Jared blinked a few times, then burst out
laughing before grabbing his grandfather and hugging him.
Caleb embraced him back, but in the next second he stepped away. “I am not of your century. Control yourself!” His words were chastising, but his eyes were glowing.
Jared couldn’t help again putting his hand on his grandfather’s shoulder. It was so odd to feel him as a solid form. His face was different now, older, not quite as handsome, but good. But the eyes were the same ones Jared had been seeing all his life. “How does this body feel?”
“Heavy!” Caleb said. “This morning I ran into a wall.”
Jared laughed.
“And it feels very strange that people can see me. I think—” He stopped because behind them the music had begun. “You must go to claim your bride.”
Jared started toward the chapel but he paused at the door. “What are you going to do now that you have a body?”
“I have a job. I am going to marry Valentina and—”
“Victoria.”
“Whichever. She is the same. And you are going to produce half a dozen grandchildren for me to spoil. What more is there to life?”
“Right. What more is there?”
Smiling, feeling that a thousand pounds of worry had been lifted from his soul, Jared went into the chapel and took his place beside Tim.
The audience was very quiet, subdued, and one of the mothers gave Jared a tentative smile. As they waited for the procession to begin, Jared said to Tim out of the side of his mouth, “When you looked in on Victoria this morning, was she alone in bed?”
“No. The man sitting beside her was there this morning too. That guy has a voice on him, doesn’t he?”
“You didn’t think to tell me that someone else was in bed with her?”
Tim gave his partner a look as though he were crazy. “If a woman who looks like her had been alone, I would have remarked on it. As it was, it seemed perfectly natural. What’s up with you that you need to know what your mother-in-law does in bed?”