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Fontaine Plantation
Jackson, Louisiana
Nash pressed his brow against the closed door of Claire’s bedroom suite and knocked softly.
“Claire? Open the door.”
The door opened a moment later, but it wasn’t Claire standing in it. Her Creole maid stood there with her hair tied up in a white kerchief. She giggled, “Allez, va-t’en! Tu ne peux pas la voir maintenant, ça porte malheur.”
“I’m not superstitious,” he retorted. “Tell the bride that the groom wants to see her.”
The girl shot him a look of twinkling mischief from her dark eyes and closed the door. There was more muffled laughter and the sound of rustling inside, and Claire’s voice answered him from the other side.
“Can I help you?”
“You can open the door.”
“It’s very bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding,” she informed him. “You can talk to me through the door.”
“I want to give you something.”
There was silence, then the door opened just a crack, and Claire’s laughing face appeared on the other side.
Nash shot her an exasperated look, but he could see that argument was futile. He pulled a little box from his jacket and opened it so Claire could see.
“I wanted you to have this. It’s the brooch my mother wore on her wedding day. Arthemise kept it for me.”
He held it up. It was old and delicate, but beautiful: a freshwater pearl the size of a marble, set in filigree work of white gold. Claire gasped and reached for it.
“Oh, Nash, it’s beautiful! I’ll wear it at the ceremony.” She peeked out just far enough to offer a kiss, and after it was over, closed the door again. “Now I have to get ready,” she told him through the door. “Go away and let me do it!”
Her soft laughter was the final word, and he sighed and walked down the hall and down the stairs.
Nash adjusted a rose in his lapel as he went. He was scrubbed shiny, his hair was slicked back, his shirt was starched, his collar was high, and he was wearing his best suit. He felt presentable for the first time in years.
There was a small group of guests sitting in chairs in the middle of what had once been the Fontaine ballroom. The guests looked up as he entered the marble-floored salon: The smiling pastor, holding his Bible; Susanna, their pretty flower girl in her best pink dress; Evariste and Arthemise, frail but resplendent in their best clothes; Leonard, who’d come home to Fontaine and whose teary eyes showed what the moment meant to him; a few neighbors; a woman at an organ; and Claire’s former slaves, sitting in the back in their best Sunday clothes.
Nash took a deep breath, smiled at the bright faces lifted to his, and turned to face the minister. The lady at the organ struck up, and soft music echoed in the hall for the first time since the war.
Nash clasped his hands in front of him and trained his eyes on the stairs. But as he waited, his thoughts moved higher, up to where he hoped Maddy was looking down on them.
I hope you’re glad for us, darling, he thought. I hope you see how happy this makes us and give us your blessing.
Claire’s all the time telling me that she isn’t you, and so this won’t be the same as what you and I had. Not better, and not worse. Just different.
I’ll love you to the day I die. But I realized that I love Claire, too. In a way, we had to fall in love. It was something I always knew but left unfinished. I can’t put it any better than that.
I hope you understand, sweetheart.
The organist suddenly swung into the wedding march, and the guests who could, stood up. Nash’s eyes moved to the top of the staircase and widened.
Claire descended in a white silk gown that made her look like an angel straight from heaven. Pearls glowed in her dark, silky hair to match the pearl brooch nestled in the lace at her throat.
Her eyes were shining like stars as they met his, and Nash felt his mouth open slightly in amazement. Claire was more beautiful that he’d ever seen her in that silken gown, and orange blossoms whispered to him as she descended the stairs carrying a bouquet of the white blooms.
She glided to his elbow, smiled at him, and together they turned to face the pastor. He opened the Bible and intoned, “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in the sight of God and these witnesses…”
Nash reached for Claire’s hand and squeezed it as they stood there together. It had been a long road from that terrible day in Galveston, and there was yet a long road ahead.
But he wasn’t the same man that he was then. He wasn’t “The Golden Star,” a young sheriff wrestling with his past. He was older, and he hoped wiser. He was at peace with his past now. He understood that what he did was necessary, and he was ready for that road into the future.
Claire would be at his side, and in a way, Maddy would be, too.
He was a lucky man. Or rather…blessed.
“Do you, Nash Carter take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?”
Nash turned to smile into his bride’s lovely eyes. “I do.”
OFFER: A BRAND NEW SERIES AND 2 FREEBIES FOR YOU!
Grab my new series, "Blood and Honor in the Wild West", and get 2 FREE novels as a gift! Have a look here!
Hello there, I hope you enjoyed my new western adventure story and the extended epilogue! I would be very glad to read your thoughts below.