Three women, two of them gray-haired and the third about my age, walked into the room.
“Sorry to hold you up,” the younger woman said. She nodded at Henry. “Hank,” she said in greeting. Then she looked at me. Or rather, she glowered at me. That was the only word I could think of for the expression on her face. The older women barely gave me a glance as they stood next to Mr. Carver’s desk. One of them kept glancing at her watch.
“This is my fiancée, Tess,” Henry said to them. He rattled off the names of the older women, then turned to the one who was close to my age. “And this is Jeanetta Gill,” he said.
“How do you do?” I said to the three of them.
Jeanetta Gill offered a stiff smile. “So you’re marrying our Hank,” she said. Her gaze was now on my left hand where I wore the engagement ring Henry had handed me in the car on the way over.
“Yes.” I gave her the friendliest smile I could manage. “And moving to Hickory from Baltimore. It’s a big step. I don’t know a soul here other than Henry.”
“Well, bless your heart,” she said. “I hope you’ll find our sleepy little town to your liking.”
I tried to hold on to my smile, but it was difficult. Her words were kind but the tone behind them was not. “I’m sure I will,” I said.
Franklin Carver instructed us to stand in front of him while Jeanetta Gill and the other two women stood to his left, and the ceremony, such as it was, began.
I choked up when it was time for me to say “I do.” I’d imagined this moment so many times, saying those words, looking into Vincent’s loving eyes as we faced our future together with my mother and Mimi and Pop looking on. This was so very wrong and yet I would need to make the best of it. I was marrying a pillar of the community, wasn’t I? Surely Henry was someone I could come to love.
Henry gave me a very chaste kiss when we reached the end of the ceremony. I barely felt his dry lips on mine. That was all right. I felt awkward kissing him at all, particularly in front of the four strangers, one of whom already seemed to dislike me, for whatever reason. I wondered if I’d only feel like kissing Henry when I’d had too much to drink. How I was going to make it through our wedding night, I didn’t know.
17
After the wedding, Henry drove us to the Hotel Hickory, where he’d reserved the honeymoon suite. We would spend the night in the hotel. Tomorrow, he’d take me to his house, where I would meet his mother and Lucy and figure out how to fit into this family. I should have guessed by the fact that neither his mother nor Lucy came to our wedding ceremony that it wasn’t going to be easy.
We had dinner in the hotel’s restaurant. The ma?tre d’ led us to a table by the window, and although it was dark outside and our view was only of the streetlights and passing cars, I had the feeling the table was the best in the house. Henry ordered filet mignon and potatoes for both of us. As he had at that restaurant in Washington, Henry had managed to get steak despite the war rationing, and our meal was another reminder that he was no ordinary citizen. But it didn’t matter what was on my plate. Nerves had stolen my appetite. I nibbled small bites of the meat while I studied Henry’s face, trying to get it into my head that he was now my husband. Was this how Mimi felt when she married Pop? Strange and uncertain and scared of the future?
“How did your mother and sister react when you told them you were getting married?” I asked as I cut another tiny morsel from my steak.
Henry looked away from me, a small, hard-to-read smile on his face. “I won’t sugarcoat it, Tess,” he said. “They aren’t happy. Mama has always wanted me to marry a particular girl in town and now her plans for my future have taken an unexpected turn.”
“Violet Dare?” I ventured, and his eyes widened in surprise.
“How could you possibly…” His voice trailed off.
“The boy who drove me to the train station in your Cadillac,” I said. “Mickey? He said Violet Dare was engaged to you. Or at least, she expected to be engaged to you.”
His smile was dismissive. “She’s a dreamer,” he said, cutting a bite of meat.
“Did you want to marry her? Have I broken something up?”
He hesitated, then drew in a long breath and let it out as a sigh, setting down his knife and fork, which, I’d noticed, he used easily despite his missing fingers. “No, you haven’t broken anything up,” he said. “But some people may think you have.”
I thought of the woman who had treated me so coolly in Franklin Carver’s office.
“Jeanetta Gill,” I said.
He nodded. “She’s one of Violet’s friends, yes,” he said. “I’m afraid Violet has many friends.” It sounded like a warning. “And Mama … she was understandably shocked when I told her I was marrying you. I told her I met you on a trip to Washington and that we’ve known each other for quite some time and finally decided to make the move, so let’s keep to that story, all right?”
I nodded.
“Mama can be a difficult person,” he added, “and I’m sorry we’ll have to live with her until the house is built.”
Oh no. This was the first time he’d mentioned his mother being difficult. “And your sister?” I asked.
He picked up his knife and fork again and cut into his steak. “Lucy is a spoiled princess,” he said before slipping a bite of meat into his mouth.
“Did she want you to marry Violet, too?”
He looked out the window into the darkness as he chewed and swallowed. “Everyone expected me to marry Violet,” he admitted. “All of Hickory.” He gave me a determined look. “They will all just have to get used to the idea that it’s not going to happen.”
“Were you officially engaged?” I really needed to know where I stood in this town.
“No.” He looked at me. “I don’t love her, Tess. I never did love her. I can assure you of that.”
“Then why would everyone expect you to marry her?”
He shrugged. “The right age. Right social status. Right family connections. Her father is the district attorney, and—”
“Oh!” I suddenly remembered the name of the attorney Franklin Carver had mentioned in the case against that interracial couple. “Dare?” I asked. “The man prosecuting your friend Gaston?”
He looked impressed. “Very observant!” he said. “Yes, Byron Dare. The district attorney and a big name in Hickory. My father was also a big name, being the owner of Kraft Furniture. Violet and I have known each other since we were children, so it was always assumed we would marry. I never did give her much encouragement, though.”
“The engagement ring.” I looked down at the enormous diamond on my finger. “Did you buy this for her?” I felt sorry for Violet. I didn’t even know her, yet I regretted hurting her.
He shook his head. “It was my grandmother’s. I was saving it for the right girl.” He smiled at me as though I were that girl, but there was a hollowness in that smile. How could there not be?
“They’re not going to like me,” I said. “Your family. Everyone in Hickory.”
“Oh, they’ll like you well enough once they get to know you.”