“And Sophie?”
“Sophie is Hannah’s granddaughter, Wolf line. It would take paper and pencil to draw it all out for you, and that will have to wait. The bride is here.” A kind of sorrowful quiet came over the old woman’s face as she watched Sophie being helped down from the carriage with Anna just behind her. “She doesn’t look anything like her grandmother Hannah, but she has her spirit and her mind. I hate to think of her so far away from family when she’ll most need support.”
After a moment Jack said, “I’ve come to know Sophie fairly well. I don’t think anything could change her mind.”
“Hannah’s granddaughter,” she repeated. “And Curiosity Freeman’s great-great-granddaughter. Strong women with excellent minds, loving hearts, loyal unto death. It’s bred in the bone.”
? ? ?
TOGETHER CONRAD AND Cap had planned the ceremony with two things in mind: Cap was not strong enough to be in public for very long, and he needed to keep his distance from everyone, including the woman he was marrying. Somehow Conrad had convinced the rector and the vicar to go along with these requirements.
Anna was less sanguine about his decision to allow a small group of newspaper reporters into the back of the church, but she was certain that there was some strategy there. The papers couldn’t be controlled, but they could be manipulated by means of favors granted. The rest of the reporters from the cheaper papers waited outside the gate that surrounded the church. Uninterested in the facts, they would write the stories that sold the most newspapers. Only so much could be handled, even by Conrad Belmont.
There would be stories about the fact that none of Cap’s five aunts were present, about Cap’s finances and Sophie’s childhood, and worst, the public would be reminded that Cap Verhoeven was ill unto death. One more titillating fact to add to the mess of innuendo, rumor, and half truths that would be spun into headlines, which she imagined, unable to stop herself.
MULATTO LADY DOCTOR SNAGS DYING KNICKERBOCKER SCION
HE MARRIED IN SHAME AND FLED THE COUNTRY
OLD GUARD SHAKEN BY SCANDAL ON PARK PLACE
With the exception of Conrad, Bram, and Baltus, and a few of Cap’s household staff, the groom’s side of the church was empty until Adam noticed and migrated, taking his granddaughter and a pew full of Bonners and Ballentynes with him. Anna was glad of her family, sensible, observant, kind people who had long ago embraced Cap without hesitation or reservation and never wavered. Doubts they would have, she knew that, but doubts would not be voiced unless Sophie asked specifically about them.
Anna wanted to listen as Sophie recited her vows but found it almost impossible to concentrate. Her attention kept creeping away to roam through the church pew by pew, taking note of family members she had not seen for too long, and landing always on Jack.
He was watching her, too, and sent one of his most sincere and comforting smiles, which reminded her: whatever the newspapers printed, whatever scandal occupied the city because a white man of means had married an educated woman of mixed race, Cap and Sophie would not have to deal with any of it, and Anna would not have to deal with it alone.
As soon as the vicar had declared the couple married, Cap and Sophie started down the aisle, Cap walking with the assistance of two canes when he might have managed with none at all. He had taken them up to provide an excuse and explanation to curious strangers who would certainly note that the bride and groom never touched as they left the church. But Sophie was smiling, and there was nothing artificial or staged about the simple joy on Cap’s face, now that there was a ring on Sophie’s hand.
? ? ?
THE WEDDING LUNCHEON was exactly as perfect as Anna knew it would be, because Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Harrison had had the planning of it.
The party gathered in the large formal dining room around a table that was set for two dozen people, laid out with what had once been Clarinda Belmont’s wedding china and crystal and silver. Serving staff stood at attention next to a sideboard, waiting for the signal to start. Anna’s stomach growled quite reasonably, she reminded herself, as she hadn’t had breakfast.