Wishes (Montgomery/Taggert 14)

When Miss Emily arrived the two women stepped back. No words could describe their achievement, so they just parted and let Miss Emily see their creation. For a moment Miss Emily was speechless. She stood and stared and gaped and gawked. But then she smiled. There was a bit of revenge in that smile. The talk of the treachery of Jace Montgomery had nearly died down in town, but for weeks Miss Emily had had to listen to stories about “poor Nellie.” She’d had to hear about how stupid Nellie had been to have believed that a handsome man would like an old maid like her. Well, this vision was no old maid.

“Come with me, Nellie,” Miss Emily said firmly. “I mean to show you off.”

The seamstress caught Miss Emily’s arm. “She hasn’t said two words since she arrived. She seems to have been really hurt by that awful man. I’m not sure she realizes she’s…” She turned and smiled at Nellie. “I’m not sure she knows she’s beautiful.”

“Once the cats of this town see her they’ll let her know,” Miss Emily said, then she ushered Nellie out the door.

Nellie was unaware of the sensation she caused as she walked through Chandler. Men, young and old, stopped to stare. Women did double takes. When Miss Emily escorted Nellie into the tea shop all conversation, all movement, stopped. Miss Emily pushed Nellie forward.

“Mae, Louisa, Charlene,” Miss Emily said, “you remember Nellie, don’t you?” She got a great deal of pleasure watching the young women’s eyes widen. “Poor Nellie? Poor, dear Nellie?”

“May I have something to eat?” Nellie said softly.

Miss Emily ushered her to a table, and while Nellie had eyes only for the tea cake cart, the young women of Chandler had eyes only for her. Nellie was no longer a person to be pitied, but one to be envied.

Later, after eating a tea for six, Nellie started home, and she never once looked at the people who stopped and stared at her. At home she went straight to the kitchen, put on her apron, and began to prepare dinner. Her back was to the door so she didn’t see Terel enter.

Terel had been told by her friends that Nellie was a sight to behold, and so she’d rushed home to see for herself; but even forewarned, she was not prepared for her first sight of Nellie. She had never seen a woman more beautiful than Nellie. In all of Chandler only the twins, Houston and Blair, could hold a candle to Nellie. And the blue velvet dress emphasized her newly slim body.

Anger surged through Terel, anger at being betrayed by her own sister.

Terel put on a smile and walked forward. “Nellie, you look beautiful, really beautiful.”

Nellie turned and forced a smile. “It’s a lovely dress, isn’t it?”

“Yes, really lovely, but do you think you should be wearing it in the kitchen? I know it is only money, but aren’t you concerned with ruining such an expensive dress?”

“Yes, how thoughtless of me.” Nellie removed her apron and started upstairs, Terel close behind her.

“I am so glad to see that you’ve lost weight. I guess I can say it now, but you don’t know what an embarrassment you’ve always been to Father and me. There were times we hated to be seen with you. Not that we don’t love you, but we love you in spite of the way you look, do you know what I mean?”

As Nellie stepped out of the velvet dress her stomach growled with hunger. “Yes. I think I know what you mean.”

Terel scrutinized Nellie’s figure in the borrowed corset. “It looks as if you’re going to need all new clothes, so perhaps I’d better choose them for you. Maybe you didn’t realize that velvet doesn’t exactly fit with working in the kitchen. Or maybe now you don’t want to cook for Father and me. Maybe now you’d rather go to one ball after another and dance with men like Mr. Montgomery. Maybe more men—”

“No!” Nellie half shouted. “No more men. I don’t trust them. I want nothing to do with them. You choose the dresses, I don’t care what I wear.” She pulled on her oldest housedress, which now hung off of her, and ran down the stairs, buttoning as she went.

Once in the kitchen she grabbed a pie, still hot from the oven, and began to eat it. “No more men,” she said aloud. “No more men.”

If Nellie wanted nothing to do with men, the same couldn’t be said for men regarding her. After having been ignored by the male population all her life, suddenly she was besieged with invitations. Handsome young men waited for her outside her house, then followed her wherever she went. They offered to carry her purchases, run errands for her. They invited her everywhere.

There seemed to be nothing Nellie could do to discourage them. She didn’t talk to them, didn’t so much as smile at them. She made no physical effort to make herself more pleasing to them. She wore the drab, oversized dresses Terel chose for her; she never minded when Terel burned her hair with a curling iron. But nothing seemed to put the young men off, for the truth was, now nothing Terel did could hide Nellie’s beauty, and Nellie’s reserve only encouraged the young men.

At home Nellie listened to Terel, because once she hadn’t listened to her and she’d been duped by a lying, traitorous man.

“You don’t want to go to the Christmas party at the Masonic Lodge, do you?” Terel asked, looking at the invitation. “You remember what happened at the Harvest Ball, don’t you? I don’t think I could bear seeing my beloved sister make a fool of herself like that again.”

“No, I don’t want to go,” Nellie whispered, feeling very hungry. After two months, just the thought of Jace still made pain shoot through her. “I don’t want to embarrass you or Father.”

“It’s not that you embarrass us, it’s that you embarrass yourself, what with eating so much all the time, and then, of course, you have no taste in men. I’d be afraid the town drunk would walk in the hall and you’d believe you were in love with him.”

“Terel, please…” Nellie pleaded.

“Oh, I am sorry, Nellie, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I guess I’m just overly protective, that’s all. Here’s an invitation for you to sing with a choir. You don’t want to do that, do you? I mean, there will be men there, and you know how you are.”

“No,” Nellie said, tears beginning to choke her. She didn’t want to go anywhere. She just plain wanted to disappear.

“I really do think it’s for the best that you stay home, at least for a while. Are those cupcakes? They smell delicious. Why don’t you have one or two? People are saying you’re too thin.” She kissed Nellie’s cheek. “I’ll see you this afternoon.”