Love Letters From the Grave(14)

As the people poured in and Carol directed set-up operations out in the garden, Molly and her bridal party were sequestered upstairs in the house, all busily getting dressed and made up for the ceremony. Finding it hard not to shed a tear, Molly dressed carefully in her mother's wedding gown, adorning it with her mother's engagement ring and wedding jewelry. Next door, Tommy would be donning a brand-new Deputy Sheriff’s uniform and tucking her mother’s wedding ring into his pocket, ready to place on her finger when called for during the ceremony.

When Molly and her attendants exited the house to walk to the ceremony site, they were overwhelmed to see so many people congregated around it.

‘You’re the luckiest bride in Christendom,’ said Carol, tucking a stray hair under Molly’s veil. ‘All these people! You two sure are popular.’

‘They really are,’ said a familiar voice.

Molly was met by her father, who was wearing his formal dress uniform.

‘She’d be so proud to see you, here in her gown,’ he whispered as they approached the wooden arbor, beautifully festooned with flowers and ribbons.

‘And you, Dad,’ said Molly. ‘She’d be bursting with pride for you.’

They inhaled at the same moment, drawing strength from each other for the ceremony ahead, and the changes that had already happened.

Ahead stood the Methodist minister (who was her great uncle, Albert), awaiting her arrival. Resplendent in their formal dress uniforms, Tommy and his best man, also a deputy sheriff, both looked incredibly handsome. Splendid, even.

Molly smiled at her husband-to-be. He returned her glance with his usual intense gaze, and for a moment, she longed to see passion and joy in his eyes instead of his normal serious steadfastness. But someone steadfast was wonderful. A sheriff like her father, so that she could be a home-maker like her mother. Perfectly wonderful.

‘Here we go, Dad,’ she said to her father.

With the bridesmaids walking ahead of her, she and Jesse passed beneath an archway formed from two rows of six deputy sheriffs each, facing each other with raised swords. It was quite a sight to see, and Molly was happy to note how the deputies were honoring her father as much as they were celebrating her nuptials with their colleague.

Soon she was standing beside Tommy, conscious of his closeness, his relative maturity. He would be thirty before too long, while she had only recently turned twenty-one. She had chosen well; she was sure of it. A decent man, ready to cherish and look after her.

The ceremony was unrehearsed, quiet, somber, and very serious, lasting about fifteen minutes. As she repeated the words of the minister, her mood changed quite perceptively from one of uncertainty to one of happy anticipation of a bright and secure future. Although she still had doubts about whether she truly loved Tommy, being uncertain what “love” actually meant or even felt like, she nevertheless took her vows seriously. She would love, honor and obey Tommy until her dying day.

When the ceremony ended with a chaste kiss from Tommy, Molly felt exquisitely happy - perhaps happier than she had ever been in her life. Excited by the whole memorable day, she joined Tommy in accepting the many blessings and congratulations during the reception, and was absolutely thrilled to join the throng in the celebratory feast.

It was a warm, sunny, day, and there were enough trees in the large yard to arrange the tables so that everyone was shaded and comfortable. During the meal, deputy sheriffs would drop in to eat at various times, as they came off duty or left to take over. The crowd was alive with people coursing about as they went to and from the food tables. Molly drank in the chatter of excited conversation and the continuous roll of laughter, punctuated occasionally with outbursts of hilarity. It was quite evident that a good time was being had by all.

From time to time, Tommy would reach out and squeeze the ends of her fingers, as he had done the night he’d proposed. She felt almost bashful in his presence. While all this planning was taking place, she had spent very little time alone with Tommy. Even when they were alone they spent almost no time discussing either the upcoming wedding or their plans for the future.

That was, perhaps, because all plans for the future were fairly settled: Molly's father had made it quite clear that he expected Molly and her husband to live in the family home as if it was theirs. Jesse would be a roomer there, and Molly would take care of him much as she was presently doing. As Tommy was one of his Deputy Sheriffs as well as his son-in-law; they all needed to be extraordinarily careful to prevent people from thinking that Tommy was getting special treatment in the County Sheriffs’ Department, but they all agreed with everything Jesse suggested, and it hadn’t been necessary to talk much further. Not much further at all.

The party began to wind down perceptively as the daylight began to fade. As the crowd thinned, Molly started to become apprehensive about what would happen when she and Tommy were alone in their bedroom. Like every girl and young lady in the country, she had frequently seen animals copulate, and families and local communities routinely exposed children to the "birds and bees" and the "facts of life". As a virgin, however, she had never experienced it herself. Maureen had hinted that it was a joy, something to look forward to, but Molly still couldn’t help feeling nervous about what was to come.

Finally, when the guests had all departed and her father had tactfully excused himself and gone to bed, she and Tommy entered their bedroom. She half-expected Tommy to sweep her up in his arms and kiss her with unbridled passion such as she’d seen at the movies, now that he was her husband.