Briar settled into the chair Franny had left behind. "What are you thinking about?"
"How on earth I'm supposed to remember everyone's name. Among other things," Clara said seriously.
"What other things?" he asked.
"About the past and the future and things too heavy for this glorious day. The only family I ever had was Tilly and Tucker and their parents. Granny Anderson came from a big family but they never came around. Didn't like Grandpa. He was an outspoken old codger and had an opinion about everything. He sure didn't like hearing that he got his start from Granny's land and her moonshine," she said.
"You mean Tucker's ranch, The Evening Star, was your grandmother's land?"
"Yes, it surely was, and the stills were hers too and Grandpa was a proud man."
He changed the subject. "So you like all this noise and confusion?"
"Love it. It's what I've always wanted and never can have," she said honestly.
He raised a dark eyebrow. "Oh?"
"I'm looking thirty in the face, right up close and personal. A lady doesn't normally tell her age, but that's the truth, and it's a little late to get a jump start on a big family now," she told him.
"I see," he nodded. "Well, I'm glad you're enjoying the day. I was afraid you'd be bored to tears and ready to flee at the first chance when Libby insisted you come out here today"
"Not me. I'm going to take in the whole day and make memories to think on for years," she said.
"Hey, Briar, come and listen to this song. See if you like it for the first dance after the weddin'," a nephew called from the shade of an enormous pecan tree.
"Go on," she shooed him away. "It's your family. I'm able to take care of myself. You don't have to entertain me."
Briar would have gladly strangled the nephew.
Late that evening, after enough food to feed a small army had been consumed and songs for the first dance had been decided upon, Briar insisted that he drive Clara home. Tucker had offered, but he was still helping build the dance stage and nothing doing but he stay and finish, even if it was by the light of the full moon.
They rode in silence until they reached the Morning Glory Inn. The living room light had been left on, but the rest of the house was dark.
"What time is it?" Clara asked. Surely it wasn't late. She'd been talking to Franny again after supper about the people in the pictures and trying to at least put faces and names together for Brain's brothers and sisters. That was her goal. Simply to remember the original thirteen children's names. To remember all the nieces and nephews would be impossible. But it couldn't be much past 8:00, if that late.
He pulled his pocket watch from the bib of his worn, soft overalls. "Ten-thirty."
"Mercy, no wonder everyone is already in bed. This is the latest I've been out in my whole life," she said.
He sat down in the big white rocker and patted the one beside it. "Since you've already broken the record, come and sit with me a spell. I need some quiet."
Part of Clara was still too wound up to sleep and wanted to sit beside Briar for a few minutes. The other part said to run inside, bar the door to her house and her heart, stay in her room the whole next day and never, ever keep Libby again. The latter part lost the battle when she sank into the big rocker and looked up at a sky sprinkled with stars sparkling like diamonds, the moon hanging there in the midst of them.
"Talk to me," Briar said.
"I have talked to you several times today. What do you want to know?"
"Why is it that you despise oil men so badly?"
"I've been thinking about that," she frowned.
"Why?"
"Because of what you said about the past and the future. I guess it's because they represent the future. Tilly calls it progress. The future terrifies me, Briar. Absolutely scares the devil out of me. Forgive the language. Ladies are supposed to talk all nice, aren't they? The past disappointed me. The future petrifies me, so I just transferred all those feelings over to oil men and hated what they stood for. Does that make a bit of sense?"
"More than you'll ever know. I did the same thing with the coal mines in Kentucky. I fancied myself in love with a young lady. Janey Jones. We were both fifteen. Now, that's a bit young for a man to be thinking of marriage, even in the mountains of Kentucky. But it's not for a girl. My best friend was eighteen. Luke Watson. He'd already gotten a job in the mines so he had an income. Janey and Luke eloped one weekend. I had no idea they were even seeing each other but there it was. On Monday they came home, settled down as a married couple. My heart was broken so I ran away from home. I shifted the whole thing over to the mines."
"How? The mines didn't make her marry your friend."
"Yes, they did. They gave Luke a job and provided him with a miner's shack so Janey could have a home. She would've waited for me to find a job outside those mountains if there hadn't been mines to give Luke a job. It's a thin excuse, isn't it?"
"About as thin as me hating oil men and oil wells dotting the land," she nodded.
"So have you changed your mind about oil men now that you realize what you were doing?"
"Have you changed your mind about the mines?"
Briar inhaled deeply. "I think I have. I'm ready to go home again. The mountains are calling to me. I want to see the place where they laid Dad and Momma to rest, and visit my brothers and sisters. I still like Healdton and I wouldn't want to live in Kentucky again, but I'm ready to go home. I'd like to go before next summer. The railroad would take me within fifty miles of home, but that fifty miles is near impassible in the winter. So it'll probably be next spring or summer before Libby and I can go"
"If you can change then I can," she declared. "But it's scary, isn't it? Not having something to hate and blame for all your unhappiness. Sounds like I've been living in a child's world, doesn't it?"
"Some folks live in that kind of world their whole life and never realize why they hate certain things and make the decisions they do. Maybe we are the lucky ones, Clara"
Clara pondered over that for a while as a weight lifted from her soul. She was still thinking about how easy it had been to let go of the past when Danny and Olivia tiptoed down the walkway and up to the door.
Clara held a finger to her lips and shook her head at Briar.
"Be very quiet. If Clara finds me out this late, she'll evict me for sure," Olivia whispered between one kiss after another.
Clara was afraid her crimson face would light up the whole darkened corner of the porch, so she covered it with her hands, leaving only a slit between her fingers so she could see the two lovers in the moonlight.
Danny hugged her closer, running his hand up and down her backbone as his lips met hers again. "Then you can just move in with me."
"Oh, I couldn't. No one would ever talk to me again," Olivia giggled.
"Then I guess I'd have to make an honest woman out of you," Danny said.
"Is that a proposal?" Olivia gasped.
"It could be," Danny said. "I wouldn't let you live on the streets, Olivia. What would you say if it was?"
"I think we've both had a bit too much of that hooch you bought from Cyrus. We'll talk about this when neither of us have had a drink." Olivia kissed him once more and slipped inside the door.
After Danny disappeared into the darkness, Briar reached out and removed Clara's hands from her face. "So are you going to kick her out? She's broken the rules of the lease."
"No, I'm not. She's rebellious, but she's young and I don't want her to marry just because she has no place to stay," Clara said.
Briar kept her hands in his. "Double standard?"
"You're talking about me tossing you out if you were late, aren't you?"
"I am," he said.
"I'm almost thirty, but I'm still learning." She smiled and withdrew her hands, even though she would have liked to leave them resting in his until dawn, just to see if the warm feeling surrounding her heart would last that long.
"Does that mean you don't
hate me anymore?"
"Yes, I think it does, Briar. And now it's time for me to go inside. Thank you for today. If I tried, I couldn't begin to tell you what it has meant to me"
"Thank you for taking care of Libby, Clara. She's been happier today than I've ever seen her. I think she's fallen in love with you. It'll make the hole Judith leaves behind so much easier to bear." He arose and extended his hand to help her out of the rocking chair.
All it took was a gentle jerk when she was standing and she was in his arms, pressed against his chest so close that he could feel her heart beat. His own kept perfect time with the speedy thumping.
She looked up to see his expression, to see if he was laughing at her clumsiness. But instead of humor, there was softness in his dark eyes as he bent forward to kiss her. It set her mind to whirling, her heart into triple time and turned her stomach to a quivering bowl of nerves. It ended much, much too soon, but she was still in his arms, the warmth of his breath on her neck, causing chills to skip up and down her backbone.
"Goodnight, Clara," he whispered in her ear as he released her.
She nodded because she couldn't say a word as she touched her lips with her fingertips, trying to keep the feeling, the brilliance of the night, the day, the kiss forever.
As soon as Tucker parked the car, Clara was swept away by a whole gang of women, taking her upstairs to Judith's room. They all talked at once but the gist of the rush was that Judith had changed her mind about what song she wanted played when she walked down the aisle on Briar's arm.
Clara didn't mind one bit. She still hadn't figured out just how she was going to face Briar that day. She'd been giddy and perplexed in turn since awakening after a near sleepless night. Briar must like her a little bit or he wouldn't have kissed her again. That first kiss, the night Percy's widow had knocked on her kitchen door, could have been chalked up to a "feel sorry for Clara" kiss, but the second was real. At least that's what she'd kept repeating all night as she touched her lips again and again. He'd actually wanted to kiss her.
"Thank goodness you are here" Judith paced the floor, barefoot, in her wedding dress, with her hair hanging down to her waist. "Do you know that song that came out a few years ago? Ball composed it. It's called `To Have, To Hold, To Love."'
"Know it well. Played it often. It's been one of Dulcie's favorites since she first heard it. She thinks if I play it enough, someone will come along and sweep me off my feet," Clara said.
"Good. That's the one I want played as Briar walks me down the aisle," Judith was all but wringing her hands. "I'm so nervous I could just cry, Clara. How do I look? Do you think Cecil will think he's made a mistake? I'm so scatterbrained today, I may not be able to say my vows."
"We told her it's all normal. All brides get jittery on their wedding day. I'm just thankful she hasn't gotten hives like I did. When I said my vows all I could think about was scratching my neck and arms," Franny said.
"I wouldn't know normal if it jumped up and bit me, so I'm not much help there," Clara said. "But I do think maybe he'll be more convinced he's marrying the right woman if you put on some shoes and fix your hair."
"Oh, that's terrific! I've only got an hour and my hands are shaking. How am I supposed to fix my hair? Clara, can you fix my hair? Just sweep it up in the back and-"
"I can't believe you said that," Franny laughed.
"What?" Judith jerked her head around in question.
"That word. Terrific! I've had a time keeping my kids from using it. It's just slang and Richard really doesn't like them to get in the habit of using vulgarity," Franny said.
"Chalk it up to bride's nerves. If I was getting married today, I would have probably said, `Well, hell's bells.' That's what Tilly and I got into the most trouble for when we were growing up," Clara said.
"And. We. All. Thought" Judith's eyes got wider and wider until they fairly well looked as if they would pop out, then she began to chuckle. "You. Were. So," she hiccupped. "Prim. And. Proper." She said each word between gasps and hics.
"Me? Not me. I'm the village fool who says bad words at times," Clara said and then changed the subject. "You sure you want me to do your hair? There's probably sisters and sisters-in-law standing in line who'd do a better job"
"No, I want mine fixed just like yours. Swept up with a few curls on top with my circle veil sitting around them," Judith said.
"Well, then sit down right here. It would not bode well if you were late to your own wedding."
"If you've got the hairdo under control, we're going back to the kitchen and make sure things are going smoothly there. If you need anything, just grab a kid and send a message to us. There's plenty of them run ping about underfoot." Franny ushered the women out of the room, leaving only Clara and Judith.
"Thank goodness they're all gone even if it's only a little while. They mean well, and Lord knows I want them here, but I've got to have a few minutes of peace and quiet or Cecil is going to think he's marrying a lunatic," Judith sighed.
Clara pointed to the velvet covered bench in front of the oak vanity sporting three mirrors. "I love all the noise and confusion. Don't think I could ever get enough. But then I wasn't raised amongst so many people. I suppose it could get overwhelming after a while."
Judith handed her the brush and lifted the lid from a box containing hairpins. "Yes, it could and does. Especially after being away from it so long. Someday I'm going to cut every bit of this stuff off. Can you just imagine how wonderful it would be not to have to fix long hair every day? I'd give anything for enough nerve to wear a bob like the women in the Sears catalog" Judith fanned her dress tail out, sat down on the vanity bench and watched Clara deftly pull her hair into an upsweep and coax the ends into a bundle of curls. Then she picked up the snow-white lace veil from the back of a rocking chair and crowned Judith.
"It's perfect. Thank you for fixing my hair," Judith said. "I'm glad for a few minutes alone with you to thank you, too, for what you are doing for Briar. Keeping Libby. I've had that child since she was four weeks old. She's like my own and the hardest thing I'll ever do today is drive away and leave her. Cecil and I offered raise her for Briar, but he won't hear of it. I didn't think he would, but my heart is half broken just thinking about leaving her. It gives me great comfort knowing you will be keeping her. She really loves you, Clara"
"And I love her," Clara said. "I promise I'll take good care of her. But I'm not totally sure who takes care of who. She is already the prize toy at the Inn. The two B's, that would be Bessie and Beulah, my widow ladies who were friends with my grandmother, think she's the grandest thing ever to come along. My schoolteachers, Nellie and Cornelia, can't wait to get home and play with her. She's in good hands, Judith. Don't worry about her."
"Briar promised to bring her to Texas for a week after Cecil and I are married a month. He's got to come down there on business and he said I could keep her a whole week"
"And we'll miss her terribly that week, but we can share," Clara said. "Time to begin the music. I'll send Franny up to help you with those shoes."
"Thank you ... for everything." Judith smiled. "Who'd have ever thought that night at the fire, we'd be friends. I thought you were the meanest woman on earth"
"And I thought you deserved a big scarlet A for your chest," Clara laughed.
"I'm glad we straightened the whole thing out, and I'm really glad you are a part of our family," Judith said.
"Thanks for including me these past couple of days, but in all honesty, I'm just Libby's babysitter, Judith, not a part of your family. Franny will be up in a few minutes."
"Okay" Judith nodded and checked her reflection one more time. In an hour, she'd be a wife. Maybe by this time next year, a mother. But before that happened she'd be willing to bet Clara Anderson was a real part of the family.
Clara smoothed the back of her dress as she sat down on the bench to play. Soft tunes drifted out across the fall afternoon, quieting the family and few guests. Loud talk turned to whispers.
Children found their parents and were led to seats where they fidgeted and stole long looks back at the food tables, especially the one with the big cake decorated with white sugar icing and fresh flowers.
Tilly slid in beside her and hummed along with the music. She wore a bright red dress with a matching hat. Leave it to Tilly to outshine the bride; but then if she'd worn a tow sack girded up in the middle with bailing wire, the bride would pale in comparison. With her jetblack hair, blue eyes and creamy complexion, she could have probably made it big on the stage. But she was content on her farm, following Granny Anderson's recipe.
"There's Briar in the doorway motioning to you," Tilly whispered in her ear. "I think it's time."
Clara had been playing mindlessly, not thinking about her fingers or the music, but about her own future. One that suddenly loomed bright and beautiful. She might be an old maid by society's standards, but she didn't have to accept those rules. She could damn well still have a family if she wanted one. There were women who had children after they were forty. Granted, it wasn't easy, but no one ever promised life would be a bed of roses. Briar's kiss had awakened her to a need in her life. Libby was filling part of that need, but Clara wanted her own children, and her own husband.
She nodded at Tilly and began to play the right song. Danny and Cecil took their places under the shade tree draped with lavender netting. Sarah, Judith's sister, appeared at the top of the porch stairs, dressed in deep purple and carrying a bouquet of multicolored flowers. She walked slowly down the aisle made by arranging chairs on two sides of the lawn. Two little girls in violet lace came next, scattering rose petals. Then Clara struck a chord and the preacher made a gesture with his hands for the guests to stand. Briar and Judith stepped out into the brilliant sunlight. Judith smiled at her waiting groom. Briar chanced a glance toward Clara. He promised himself as he walked his sister toward her groom that later he'd find time to talk to Clara again.
"So what's going on between you and Briar?" Tilly whispered while the preacher was delivering the first lengthy prayer.
Morning Glory Page 13
