—
When the day came, it was brilliantly sunny, without a wisp of the usual summer fog. The weather was warm, and they were going to be married in the garden, under an arch of white roses. And Gwyneth had filled the house with white orchids from their hothouse. She was wearing a royal blue gown, and Augusta was wearing purple. And Lucy had a pink silk dress she’d never worn. The men looked serious and elegant in morning coats, striped trousers, and top hats. Magnus was the ring bearer, Josiah the best man at Louis’s request, and Lucy her sister’s maid of honor. The ceremony was brief and very moving, and Louis gasped when he saw Bettina come down the grand staircase in her great-grandmother’s gown, with the train stretched out behind her the length of the staircase. Lucy kept it in good order for her, and felt well enough to do it.
Every minute detail of the wedding was perfect. And the lunch in the dining room was delicious. Angus insisted on playing the bagpipes and they couldn’t stop him, but he got winded very quickly. Even Rupert and Violet attended the wedding. Louis said he had never seen such a magnificent bride, and Bert had a photographer take formal portraits. There was a problem with his lens, which he was upset about. The photographer said his camera malfunctioned every time he tried to take photographs of the bride’s grandmother, her two brothers, and her great-uncle, and he just couldn’t record them. It had never happened to him before. But he got beautiful shots of the bride and groom, her parents, and her younger sister, and everyone was satisfied with that. Bettina knew why it happened. They all did, but said nothing.
Bettina told Louis it had been the most perfect day of her life.
“Really, Madame de Lambertin?” he asked with a satisfied smile. “As a matter of fact, mine too.” He had promised her a honeymoon in Venice when they got back to Europe, or Rome if she preferred it, or both. But that night, they slept in Bettina’s room, in her parents’ house, where she and her sister and brothers had been born. She wouldn’t have wanted to get married anywhere else. She was going to miss it terribly. She had always felt that the house had a soul of its own.
“You love this house, don’t you?” he asked her gently, and she nodded.
“I will always love it,” she said sadly.
“Perhaps one day we’ll spend time here when we’re very old.” But he had his chateau in Dordogne, and the house in Paris. And this was her home, and always would be. “If your brothers don’t want it, it might pass on to you,” he said, but she didn’t want to think about it. Neither Josiah nor Magnus could inherit it any longer, and Lucy wasn’t well. But Bettina couldn’t bear thinking about a time in the future when her family wouldn’t be there.
“Have I told you how much I love you?” he whispered to her, as he put his arms around her. “I love you much more now that we’re married.” And that night she discovered mysteries with him that she had never known. She felt as though she had waited her whole life for him, and belonged to no one else. She was his now, and their story was just beginning.
Chapter 15
It was excruciatingly difficult for Bettina to tear herself away when it was time to leave, knowing that she wasn’t coming back, or not for a long time. She had to say goodbye to her parents, brothers, and sister. And even her grandmother was very tender with her, and wished her a happy life with Louis. Bettina promised to come home when she could, but she had no idea when that would be. She wanted her parents to visit her, but she knew they had responsibilities in San Francisco that made it hard for them to travel far away.
As the car pulled away from the house, they were all waving, and Uncle Angus was playing the bagpipes. She knew she would remember that sight of them, waving to her, and her wedding day forever. Their visit to San Francisco had been perfect, and everyone had behaved impeccably. Louis had no idea that there was anything unusual about the family or the house. And he had no reason to suspect.
“You warned me that they’re eccentric and like to play tricks on people,” Louis said on the way to the train station. “They don’t seem eccentric to me at all, and your grandmother was quite charming and almost forgave me for being French,” he laughed.
“That’s because you charmed her.” Bettina beamed at him. She was still sorry that he hadn’t met the Gregorys, but hopeful that he would in the future. “My whole family loves you,” Bettina said, sitting close to him with his arm around her.
They settled on the train, and she had asked the others not to come to see them off. It was too emotional and would have made her too sad to see her parents shrinking away on the platform as the train pulled away. Now Lili was in her compartment with the nurse, and Louis held Bettina in his arms as she watched her city disappear from sight, as they began their new life together.
—
The voyage back to Europe was delightful, and especially nice as Louis’s wife. Once in Paris, they moved into his parents’ old home on the Place Fran?ois Premier, and Bettina tried to make it feel like their home now. The house was a bit gloomy, but with new curtains, moving things around a little, and fresh flowers, she thought she could improve it. She felt very grown up as she tended to her household and waited for Louis to come home every day. They made love more than she ever could have imagined, and she was so happy he didn’t want a baby and felt Lili was enough. Bettina would have hated to have another child, and he knew that and didn’t mind. He was a loving, caring husband and lover. And their three-week honeymoon in Venice and Rome was idyllic.
She wrote to her mother almost every day, and when Blake and Sybil and Charlie got back to San Francisco, Gwyneth told them all about the wedding.
“It was gorgeous,” she said dreamily, with tears in her eyes.
“I wish we had been here.” Sybil had been sad to miss it.