I'm so nervous about this chapter. I hope I did a Rizzles wedding justice. I was going to wait and include the reception festivities but I wanted to get this out there for everyone. I really hope you like it. Please let me know. And if anybody is interested you can find Shostakovich's Romance on youtube, it's one of my favourite pieces of music ever.
Jane paced. She didn't know why she was nervous. It wasn't like Maura was going to leave her at the altar. There wasn't even an altar. There was just soft, warm sand, blanketed with white gardenias. Maura's favourite.
They were going to be married in twenty minutes. She wanted that more than anything, but it still made her nervous. Or maybe it was excited. Or a little bit of both. She supposed that's how everyone felt on their wedding day. She thought about Maura, at the other end of the Isles' enormous house. Her Nona had insisted, Jane and Maura sleep apart the night before their wedding, that way Jane wouldn't see her bride the day of. Maura had thought it was a sweet custom. Jane had only managed to get a few hours of sleep. She didn't do well in an empty bed anymore.
She didn't do well with an empty anything anymore. Everything in her life now included Maura. She checked the clock. In 20 minutes her life itself was going to be Maura's. Jo barked and jumped from the bed, to scamper around Jane's pacing feet.
"Hey girl," Jane said to her buddy. "Don't get any hair on my pants," she said, checking herself out one more time in the mirror. She re-tucked her loose white shirt into her matching pants and put on her off-white linen jacket. She pulled her hair free, and let her long curls, fall back around her shoulders. She looked down at her barefeet, making sure she'd remembered to cut her toenails. Jo looked up at her and barked, wagging her tail.
"I know. I know. I'm excited too. It's almost time to go. You gotta be a good girl Jo, and just sit down quiet next to Bass okay?"
The scruffy little dog wagged her tail as if to say she understood. A knock at the door ended their one sided conversation. "Jane you ready or what?" Korsak asked, opening the door a crack.
Jane checked herself again in the mirror. "Yeah," she said, turning to Korsak. "You got the ring."
He patted his breast pocket. "Right here. Everyone's already out on the beach. Awful nice day out there, sunny, but not too hot.
Jane put a hand on her partner's shoulder. "I feel like it's 5000 degrees."
Korsak chuckled as they started down the hall, Jo running around their feet. "I know that feeling."
Jane smiled at him. "It's a weird one."
Korsak put an arm around her shoulder. "Don't worry. She's gonna come walking down that beach, and you're gonna fall in love with her all over again."
Jane nodded. "I fall in love with her again everyday."
Jane rocked back and forth from heel to toe. Her mother, father, Nona, Mrs. Isles and Oma all smiled at her from the front row or white chairs set up on the beach. Bass and Jo were sitting under her father's chair. Frost and Frankie stood next to Korsak beside Jane. All of them in matching suits. Though Korsak had insisted on shoes because he said no one wanted to see his old man feet. Jane was grateful for her bare feet. She could distract herself by curling her toes in the sand, enjoying the warmth of it.
She felt grounded by feeling it, knowing it was really there, that this wasn't some elaborate dream. She was really here. Feet in the sand, breeze in her hair. No need to pinch herself. Even as the string quartet and piano started playing softly, the music they created mingling with the sounds of the ocean. It seemed like a dream, but she wasn't dreaming. She was going to marry Maura Isles. Right here on this beach, on Martha's Vineyard. It seemed like a dream, but it was just a dream come true.
The little flower girl, the daughter of a friend of the Isles', came done the aisle first, throwing gardenias. She teetered in the sand on inexperienced legs, but eventually made it to Jane, who, smiling, steered the little girl back over to her parents. Two of Maura's close cousins came down the aisle next, and then Maggie, the breeze fluttering the silk and lace of their ivory dresses. Maggie winked and smiled at Jane as she took her spot.
Jane took a deep breath and straightened up, nervously smoothing the front of her shirt as everyone stood. The strings and piano started up with Shostakovich's Romance from The Gadfly. Maura's favourite. Jane had heard it so many times before, but never had it sounded like this. Never had it been the theme to the most important moment in her life.
There was a collective gasp, and Jane fought down tears, when she saw her bride. Maura, on the arm of of her father, looked like how Jane imagined Heaven, white and glorious. The silk and lace of her simple, strapless dress flowed around her, picked up slightly in the breeze, the short train skimming over the warm sand. Her hair was loosely pulled back, some soft curls resting on bare shoulders. Jane noticed that they were slightly more freckled from the past week of lying around on this same beach.
Jane's eyes finally met Maura's and they smiled at each other. Maura passed her bouquet to Maggie. Mr. Isles kissed his daughter's cheek before taking her hand and placing it in Jane's. "I know you'll take good care of her," he said, with his usual warm smile.
Jane nodded. "I will. Forever," she said, looking back down at Maura, as they laced their fingers together. "I love you," Jane whispered as the music faded, and everyone took their seats.
Maura managed for the moment to hold in the tears that threatened to fall. "I love you too," she whispered in reply as the priest stepped forward. Oma had insisted on an Episcopal priest at least preciding over the wedding. It meant a lot to her and Jane and Maura had no objections to being married by a priest and church that accepted their love.
The priest started, but Jane didn't hear anything he said. Her body could only handle one sense at a time, and at this moment all her attention and energy was focused on staring at Maura. Memorizing how she looked. Jane never wanted to forget the look in hazel eyes that were gazing up at her, the soft smile on Maura's face, the sunlight in her hair, everything that was beautiful and perfect in that moment.
It was until Korsak nudged her that Jane realized she was suppose to be paying attention to something that wasn't her bride. Maura laughed along with everyone else, and Jane blushed, turning to the priest. "Sorry," she said.
He smiled at her. "Jane, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife," he repeated. "To love and honour and cherish from this day forward and as long as you both shall live?"
Jane nodded and smiled bright. "I do."
He repeated the words to Maura. "I do," she replied, squeezing Jane's hands.
Korsak handed Jane the ring. She slipped it gently onto Maura's finger. "I give you this ring as a symbol of my vow, and with all that I am and all that I have, I honour you."
A tear slipped down Maura's cheek. Jane reached forward to wipe it off. Maura smiled at her and took the ring from Maggie. She sniffled as she slipped it on Jane's finger. "I give you this ring as a symbol of my vow, and with all that I am and all that I have, I honour you."
The priest smiled at them, and turned to Jane. "You may kiss your bride."
Jane needed no further instructions. She pulled Maura in tight and cupped a soft cheek, tenderly, before pressing their lips together in the most tender, meaningful kiss they had ever shared.