"You're already my wife in the ways that matter to me, Sookie." His huge white hands rested at the bottom of the steering wheel, barely moving as we sped along the highway between Shreveport and Bon Temps. He watched the highway in front of us intently. "I care nothing for the sensibilities of the humans in your town."
"It matters to me," I protested. "Being with you, it's so good. I love you so much, and I know you love me, too. It's not about that. It's just…"
"It's just what?"
"I know this sounds selfish, and maybe silly, but I've had to give up a lot to be with you. When I was a girl, I had this picture in my mind of what my life would be like when I was grown. I would be married, I would keep house for my husband and feed him my home cooking, we would have babies and raise them together, we would go to church together and take vacations to Grand Isle every summer and sunbathe side by side. A lot of those things you just can't do with me. Don't get me wrong – you make up for it in lots of other ways, but part of me feels sad that I won't get those things, that I'm giving them up for you. A real wedding – you could do that, and I've dreamed of it since I was a little girl. It is important to me. I can't help it."
He sighed with resignation. "I didn't know it meant so much to you."
"Well, it does."
"So, plan it, then. What do you need me to do?"
I chuckled. "Traditionally the groom's family pays for the rehearsal dinner and the groom only has to supply the ring and himself in suitable clothes."
He laughed. "That's easy enough."
"I'll need a guest list from you. I would prefer to have a small wedding with just our closest friends and family, but if there are people you feel that you need to invite..."
"Pam, obviously."
"Obviously. I meant people that are more politically important."
"I do not want to have Victor Madden at a social event."
"Also, we need to decide where to have it."
"Surely you don't expect me to stand in a church and be married by a priest."
"Preacher. Pastor. Minister. I'm Methodist, we don't have priests. And no, I guess I shouldn't expect that of you, even if Reverend Jones would agree to it, which I'm not sure he would. Not because you're a vampire – he's very progressive like that. It's because you're not a Christian. So we'll have to get the Justice of the Peace to come out and do the ceremony."
We were nearing Bon Temps. I saw his face as we passed the Walmart parking lot. He was smirking in the dark.
"You think this is stupid. You don't want to do it."
"It means a lot to you. I'm willing to do whatever will make you happy. It will also be useful to have a legal relationship with you, and not just a vampire-legal relationship. The trappings are amusing to me, is all. But it is not such a chore to have a party to celebrate my beautiful young wife and make her happy."
"It's your party, too."
"Nominally. We both know that weddings are about the bride. But that's all right. It was about the bride the first time I married as well."
He didn't talk much about his human life, so I prodded him gently. "What was it like, the first time you married?"
"I've told you before about my wife, Aude, and how she was my brother's wife before he died. I've read in textbooks that the modern term for that is levirate marriage. Our wedding was not the same as it would have been if I had married a young girl who had never been married before. It would have been a much larger celebration. All the same, when the mourning period for my brother was over, we dressed in our best clothes and our families came together for a special feast. My sister made honey oatcakes. Honey was precious, we only ate it on special occasions, and her honey cakes were so good. That's the only food that I still miss, I think. At then end of the feast, when everything was winding down, my brothers and her kinsmen carried us on their shoulders to our bed and wouldn't let us out of our bedchamber until we made enough noise to let them know we had made love.
"Marriage in those days was about making babies and making alliances, not love like you think of it, but we had fun together, too. Aude was already pregnant on our wedding night, but she hadn't told me about it yet. It might have been my brother's child, although it could have been mine, because we had comforted one another after my brother died, during the mourning time. She had to make water and kept trying to hurry me along so she could go out to the privy."
We were sitting in my driveway. He had cut the engine while he spun out his tale. His eyes looked far away.
"When she finally told me why she had been so impatient, we had a good laugh. And of course I was proud to be a father." He shook himself out his reverie. "That was so long ago. And today we have different concerns." He took my hand and kissed it. "How could I deny you a wedding? Of course it's important to you. Sometimes I forget that you're so human and you're so young. Just tell me what you want me to do, and we'll do it."
The next day I went to Tara's Togs to start planning. Tara sat with me and we critiqued all the dresses in the David's catalog and a couple more besides. 'You'll be my matron of honor, right?" I asked her. "We've been friends for so long, who else could I ask?"
She told me all I needed to know in a split second. Her face fell. "Sookie, you know I love you, but I'm going to be just about too big to walk in a few weeks. Don't make me stand up next to you in a formal gown in front of everybody. Not to mention this:" She pulled her hair away from her face, showing me weird patches of brown on her olive skin.
"What is that?" I asked, slightly horrified.
"Mask of pregnancy, the doctor says. He says it will go away a few weeks after the baby is born, but I'm going to look awful until then. I don't want to ruin your pictures." She looked me right in the eye. I could hear her real reason from her head. I can't stand the thought of you marrying a vampire, and you know it. Don't make me say it out loud.
"You'll come to my wedding though, won't you?"
"Of course, I'll come. I'm looking forward to it." She forced a smile, and we both knew she was lying.
She helped me order a gown, and the fancy underwear to go with it, and gloves, and a veil, and a pretty tiara for my head. The dress I ordered would look lovely with Gran's pearls. I opted against a train since we would be marrying somewhere other than a church. It just seemed excessive.
When I got home, I still had a couple of hours before I needed to be at work, so I sat at my kitchen table with a notebook and started making a guest list. Sam, of course, and all the staff at Merlottes. Tara and JB, Alcide would be hurt if I didn't invite him, and I was a friend of the pack. Hoyt and Holly, and their mothers. Bill. Would that be mean? Remy and Hunter – that was tricky. I didn't want Eric or anyone else to find out about Hunter's ability until he was old enough to fend for himself, so maybe inviting him to a big social event wasn't such a terrific idea. I couldn't see not inviting Claude and Dermot. Jason could give me away, of course. Claude and Dermot were older, but Jason was closer.
Amelia! I called her and asked her to be my maid of honor. She enthusiastically agreed.
Pam, I was sure, would be in Eric's party.
Whoa. I needed to quit before I got carried away. I couldn't invite everybody I ever met in my life.
Well, why couldn't I? Claudine's legacy left me with a comfortable cushion, and I was marrying a wealthy man. I didn't want to squander it foolishly, but as Gran would have said, a girl only gets married once.
I didn't want to hold the reception at Merlotte's because that would be too much like work, even though I loved the place. Eric had suggested Fangtasia, but it was too seedy and unwholesome for a wedding. Claude hadn't offered, but I didn't see getting married in his strip club, either. Tara suggested the country club in Bon Temps, but those were the people who never spoke to me outside of work. There was a clubhouse in Eric's gated housing community, but he wasn't anxious for the whole world to know where he lived.
The Renard Parish community building would work, I thought. Conveniently located, lots of parking, reasonably priced, and not snooty in the least. The garden club had maintained a formal garden that would be perfect for the ceremony, and it would be beautiful to have an outdoor ceremony scented with night blooming jasmine and gardenias.
The menu for the reception would be tricky. We could have a formal dinner or a buffet, but my friends and family might be put off if we had a blood fountain like Eric had for his Dracula Night extravaganza.
As the day approached, I was growing increasingly anxious. I couldn't hardly do anything but pace around with a stupid grin. Amelia had stepped in and helped me with details I might have otherwise forgotten. I have always been a detail oriented person, but the enormity of planning a wedding was actually overwhelming me.
It had taken us two hours to hammer out the wording of our invitations.
Sookie Stackhouse and Eric Northman
request the pleasure of your company
as they pledge themselves in marriage
Saturday, April 26
at 8 o'clock in the evening
Renard Parish Community Center
reception to follow
The invitations were engraved on cream colored paper. Eric used the printing service he had used for Fangtasia functions. They were beautiful.
I had a moment of panic when it came time to get our marriage license. We didn't have to have a blood test, which was a relief. We did, however, have to supply the names and birthplaces of our parents. Eric found this tremendously amusing. He gave his maker Ocilla's name as his father's name, but gave his Viking mother's name. Her name was Tolla. He got that faraway look in his eyes again as he filled in the form with his crabbed handwriting. "She buried all her children, but saw her grandchildren live to adulthood," he said. "Just like your grandmother."
This marriage thing was bringing out the human in my vampire.
Finally the day of our wedding arrived, and I was so nervous and flustered that I could barely put one foot in front of the other. Luckily, I had Amelia looking out for me. She suggested that I get into my dress at the community center so that once I had it on, I could stand until the ceremony without wrinkling the back of my dress. Amelia had reconciled with Bob, and he graciously styled my hair and placed the veil on my head at home. He created the most complicated hairstyle I had ever seen – tiny braids in the front, and a twist in the back that secured the veil. Then he curled tendrils to fall on my shoulders. I felt positively regal. After Bob finished my hair, we bundled everything into my car, and I went to the community center in my wedding veil, jeans, and my bathrobe.
I sat in front of the vanity while Amelia applied my makeup. Tara came upstairs to see me, huffing and puffing by the time she got to the top of the stairs. JB was at her side, holding her arm as if she was made of glass. She sat next to me with her stretchy knit dress pulled taut over her abdomen. She slipped off her shoes and propped her feet on an ottoman.
"JB, go get her some ice water," Amelia ordered, and he was back in a flash with a paper cup.
"Whew," Tara said, sipping the water and fanning herself. "I told you I was going to be big as a whale."
"You're not going to go into labor before the end of tonight, are you?" I asked, worried.
"I'll be all right in a little while. I just get worn out easy. I might have JB take me home before the end of your reception." She patted her enormous belly.
"Just try not to let your water break during the ceremony," Amelia quipped.
"You don't know how fervently I am praying for that," she said. She gave a half hearted chuckle. "I should go downstairs and find a good comfortable place to sit," she said.
"Help me with my dress first," I said. Bob and JB discreetly stepped out of the room as Tara and Amelia slipped me into my gown. It was candlelit satin, princess seamed, strapless, with a little beadwork along the neckline and bodice. I had gloves to match, but Amelia wouldn't let me put them on. "Too much," she said. "It's April." Tara nodded her agreement. Of course I heard loud and clear what they were really thinking about the gloves, and left them in their nice box.
Tara stood back and looked at me. "You're beautiful, Sookie," she smiled. There were tears in her eyes, and then they were streaming down her face. Stop crying, stop crying, just cut it out, Tara, she was telling herself as she dabbed her face with tissues from n as she was telling herself not to cry. "It's the hormones," she said. I can't help it." She put her shoes back on and carefully waddled out the door. "JB, come on," she called.
Jason and Michele came in as Tara went out. Amelia was finishing the buttons on the back of my dress. Michele walked towards me with her left hand crooked in the air. Took a minute, but I registered the big diamond on her hand. "Oh, you're engaged," I gushed. She beamed.
Jason looked slightly embarrassed. "I want to do it right this time," he said. "Sister, you look beautiful. You look like a bride is supposed to look." I heard the sob of emotion in his head. "I just wish Mama and Daddy and Gran, and Grandaddy were here to see you. And even Hadley and Aunt Linda."
"Oh, Jason," I embraced him. "I know they can see me from Heaven." I could feel my own tears rushing up.
"Don't you do it, Sookie Stackhouse," Amelia said. "Don't you do it. I worked too hard on that makeup for you to ruin it now." I tilted my head back and Amelia fanned my face until the tears receded.
Al Cumberland's assistant came to the door of my dressing room. "They're waiting on you for pictures," she said. "It's almost time for the ceremony."
"I'll be right there," I said.
Amelia called out my checklist. "Old?"
"Gran's pearls."
"New?"
"This dress."
"Borrowed?"
"Your pearl earrings."
"Blue?"
"Those ugly granny panties you made me wear." As a gag, she had given me the biggest, frowsiest pair of full cut old lady bloomers I had ever seen, and insisted that I wear them as I was getting dressed this morning. They were pale blue with big blue cabbage roses on them, and they covered me from just above my knees to above my belly button. They were as ugly as homemade sin, but they were the most comfortable panties I had ever put on my butt. I couldn't wait to see Eric's face when he saw them.
"OK, last part," she said. "Give me your foot. Got to put the penny in your shoe. And pick up your bouquet." She had an embroidered lace handkerchief in her hand. "Just in case," she said, and stuffed it in my cleavage. "Oh, and your garter!" She slipped the frothy lace and elastic garter over my knee, just under the ugly bloomers.
"I think you're ready," she said. She snapped her train case shut and picked up her bouquet and mine. "Time to see your groom."
Eric and Pam were waiting at the foot of the staircase when I emerged from the dressing room. Pam looked sharp in her tailored tuxedo-style pantsuit, her blond hair shining across her lapels. She smiled at me with what looked to be genuine happiness, the most human expression I had ever seen her wear.
Al Cumberland had an assistant poised to take my photo as I came down the stairs and he was ready to get a reaction shot from Eric. I was expecting a fangy smile, maybe a smirk. I was completely not expecting his look of tenderness and bloody tears welling in his eyes. Through our bond I felt a rush of love and affection and happiness that was so strong – I was so full of my own emotions and his that I nearly fell down the stairs. He spoke, his voice faltered slightly. "My bride," he said.
I stood and looked at him. Not what I had imagined as a little girl, but a Prince Charming all the same.
The Justice of the Peace, Charles LaFleur, was standing in the garden. "Everyone has gathered," he said. "Let's get this show on the road." He turned and walked down the path through the garden to the assembled guests. Pam made a big show of holding her elbow so that Eric could put his big white hand in the crook and be escorted. Amelia tweaked my dress and hair, clucking her teeth and fussing until the music started. Eric knew of an all-vampire chamber quartet that had played with Mozart and had hired them. They flew in all the way from Austria. I didn't even want to imagine how much they'd cost, but I was touched by the gesture.
Michele hurried down the aisle to her seat and Amelia began to process after her. Jason and I stood that the back of the garden waiting for the bride's processional to begin. The garden was even prettier than I had hoped for – the candles in lanterns and the fragrant white flowers everywhere gave it a dreamy quality, and the air was heavy with the scented gardenias and night blooming jasmine.
When the music changed, people turned to look towards me. I walked solemnly down the aisle towards Eric, my arm wrapped around Jason's, my heart in my mouth. I was too nervous to shield tightly, so I grinned like a fool and concentrated on not tripping over my dress. I heard a gratifying mental chorus of "Ohhhhs," in a wave.
Eric, Pam, Amelia, and Charles Lafleur stood at the end of the path under a trellis woven with white roses and gardenias. Eric smiled at me when I came near, just the tips of his fangs extended and the slightest hint of his old humor on his face.
"We are gathered here in the prescnce of our dearest friends and family to unite this man and this woman in matrimony," Mr. Lafleur intoned. He had a deep, serious voice and the rounded drawl of an upper crust, old money Southern family. I think he was related to the Bellefleurs somehow, or at least, he was in their social set. He wore an expression appropriate to the occasion, but mentally his thoughts were verging on the hysterical. He had never stood so close to a vampire, much less performed a wedding ceremony for one, and while his better self had a firm resolve to do this service for my sake and for the sake of my grandmother who he'd been fond of, part of him was squeaking in horror.
"Who gives this woman in marriage?" he asked.
Jason cleared his throat. "I do." He placed my hand in Eric's hand, just as we had practiced in rehearsal the night before.
"Do you take this woman to be your lawful wedded wife, to love and to cherish, to have and to hold, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, er, until death do you part?" Mr. Lafleur looked expectantly at Eric.
"Until I meet the True Death, or she does," he said solemnly, looking directly in my eyes.
"Do you take this man, er, vampire, to be your lawfully wedded husband? He asked me. I think he forgot about the rest of the vow.
"I take this man, Eric Northman," I said.
"Who has the rings?" Mr. Lafleur asked. Pam held out her small white hand. The rings I thought we had chosen were not in it. Instead she held two bands of ornately twisted and woven gold. One was smaller than the other, I presumed it was the one destined for me. I looked at Eric, he smiled with fangs showing fully. Oh, yes, he was enjoying that he had put one over on me. He looked over my shoulder at Amelia and winked, and I heard the mental equivalent of a fist pump from her.
He held my small hand in his large one, and slid the ring over my finger as prompted by Mr. Lafleur. It was solid and cold from being in Pam's hand, and I felt the unmistakeable tingle of magic. I wondered what spell Amelia had put on it. As I slid Eric's ring over his finger, I felt the magic of it as well.
Mr. Lafleur clasped our hands together. I heard his inward shriek at the cold, stony feel of Eric's big hand. "I now pronounce you husband and wife," he said. To Eric, he said, "You may now kiss the bride."
He lifted my veil and planted one on me. It was all I could do to maintain composure and decorum and not melt into a puddle right there in front of everybody. I remained upright only because Eric held me with both of his hands.
The quartet started the familiar recessional music, and we stepped lightly down the aisle punctuated by flashbulbs and cheers. Amelia and Pam followed us, and we went right into the social hall were busy people in service uniforms were waiting for our reception to begin.
As soon as I felt I could speak with some degree of privacy, I whispered to him – "What happened to the rings we picked out?"
"I thought I would surprise you," he said. "They're replicas of a Viking design. My father wore a ring like this one. It wasn't a wedding ring, but that's immaterial. I asked Amelia to put protection spells against hostile magic on them, he said with a grin. She was so afraid she'd spill the beans that she actually asked me to glamour it out of her head afterwards."
"Did you?"
"No, of course not. That would be too tricky with her powers, and her brain powers are too valuable to waste, just like yours."
Our guests filed past us shaking hands and murmuring congratulations. Even though vampires generally do not shake hands, Eric was genially clasping hands with our guests and chatting. Pam brought a bottle of blood for him and he turned from me to drink it just as Sam and Alcide came to me in the receiving line. Sam took my hand and he was broadcasting loud and clear, unusual for his snarly shapeshifter brain. "I want you to be happy, Sookie," he said with his voice. "You know my heart." Mentally, he said something entirely different. If you've changed your mind, I've got my truck right outside and we can leave right now and we can go anywhere you want to go. Alcide stood behind him, echoing his sentiments mentally and giving a small nod with his head.
I snatched my hand away from his. "I haven't changed my mind," I snapped. "If you have come to wish me well, I accept your congratulations with gratitude. If you came to tell me anything else, you can get out right now." By the time I said the last couple of words, my voice was a lot louder, and Eric's attention was riveted back to me and the unfolding conversation.
"Shifter, you are disturbing my bride on her wedding day. You are important to her and I don't want to be inhospitable, but this will not happen." His voice held just the right hint of menace. Sam backed down.
"Come on, guys, enough," I said.
"Excuse us, Sookie," Alcide said. "You are dear to us." He looked away, his cheeks reddening. From his brain I caught flashes of him in a tuxedo standing next to me. Oh.
Alcide put his arm around Sam's shoulders in a fraternal way, and they walked away from us to circulate in the room.