“No, but remember her friend from Monaco, Claire Dubonnet? The woman who works for the prince?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Lucille contacted her for us, and she’s arranged for us to stay at Hotel de Paris in an upgrade. Not a bad choice for a honeymoon, huh?”
“It sounds wonderful,” I said. “But shouldn’t we be the ones deciding where to go on our honeymoon?”
“It’s just a suggestion,” he sai
d, holding up his hand. “If you have other ideas . . .”
“Do you?”
“Not any that would beat this,” he said. “As your father says, no sense in looking a gift horse in the mouth.”
“Okay, then, that’s where we’ll go,” I told him.
With the plans for our wedding going well, my gown and accessories taken care of, and our honeymoon set, the atmosphere of harmony continued at Heaven-stone. Daddy seemed more relaxed. Lucille certainly was, and Ethan was practically floating as high as she was. Occasionally, I would look for Cassie in the middle of it all and find her here and there, sitting quietly, pondering.
“Am I doing everything right?” I asked her.
“For now,” she said. “The second shoe has yet to drop.”
“How will I know when it has?”
“Oh, you’ll know. Don’t worry. You’ll know.”
Lucille determined that the ideal venue for our wedding would be the Hotel Glory, which was only twenty miles from Heaven-stone. She took me to see the ballroom and meet with the special-occasions manager to review the menu. Once I had let her decide on the site of our wedding, she went forward and made all of the other arrangements as well, including ordering the flowers, choosing the invitations, and settling on the band. She brought every choice to me, and I stamped it with my approval without comment. Ordinarily, she would have been very happy to see me being so continually cooperative and appreciative, but my attitude, which I’m sure to her bordered on indifference, began to irk her.
Finally, she came right out and said, “You don’t seem as excited by all this as I would expect. You do want to get married, don’t you, Semantha?”
“Oh, yes, of course,” I said. “Ethan and I love each other very much. I guess I’m looking forward to our marriage more than I am to our wedding. After all, a wedding is just a big party that lasts for a few hours and then gets pressed into albums.”
She held her mouth slightly open and looked speechless. Finally realizing it, she said, “From how your father describes your sister Cassie, I would think that would be something she would have said, something she would have believed. I thought you were different.”
“Really? How?” I was really curious about how Daddy had described the two of us.
“More feminine, more into being a woman. For most women, their wedding day is one of the most important days of their lives.”
“Oh, I don’t mean to say it isn’t important. I’m just trying to be sensible and grounded, Lucille. In a way, I’m trying to be more like you.”
“Me?” She thought a moment. I could see she wasn’t sure if I was giving her a compliment or not. She smiled. “I’m glad you’re being sensible, but you can let go sometimes and just have fun, too.”
“I will,” I promised.
She nodded, but I could see she wasn’t quite sure now what to make of me.
“Perfect,” Cassie whispered. “You have her off-balance. You’re chipping away at that Great Wall of Confidence she wraps around herself.”
I knew this was true, because Lucille was discussing me more and more with Ethan, especially after this last conversation about our wedding. I realized it because he continually asked me about the wedding preparations, looking for a sign of unhappiness.
“If there’s something Lucille did or is doing that you don’t like, please tell me,” he said.
“Everything’s fine, Ethan. As long as Uncle Perry is your best man, that is.”
“Yes, he’s agreed.”
“Then don’t worry,” I told him, but he wore the same suspicious and uncertain expression Lucille now wore.