Chapter Two: Plans

There was a lot of planning to do, even though it was going to be a small wedding. I chose to get daisies and babies breath for my bouquet. My wedding dress was long and simple. I was slim fitting and it sparkled in the sun. Our wedding would be October 9th. When the leaves were just starting to change colour. Autumn was my favourite time of the year. I loved the peaceful beauty. Anthony chose Timothy Reynolds, a fellow businessman to be his best man. They had grown close over the five years that we had lived in Duncan. We rented the small chapel in town for the day and invited our acquaintances from town. The time before the wedding just wouldn't go fast enough for me. I often sat on the balcony and dreamt of how wonderful in was going to be. I couldn't wait to be Mrs. Anthony Cartwright. I wanted to get rid of my last name. I didn't want to be related to a man who had abandoned his fiancé and newborn child to join the army and been surprised when he came back that they were gone. From the moment I said I do, I would no longer be a Jamieson. Despite my disdain of my father I was still upset that I would have no one to give me away. "Oh Rachel," I cried, "I feel like an orphan, no parents at my wedding!" "Dear, oh dear, it's OK, Mr. Cartwright loves you so much that he will make up for all the love your parents didn't give," Rachel soothed, holding me in her arms. It was two weeks until the wedding and I was just now realizing that I would have to walk down the aisle alone. I just didn't know if I could do it. "What if I can't go down the aisle alone," I asked Rachel sadly. "Don't worry dear, look how much you have been through already, you are strong enough to get through anything!" she declared. I looked in to warm, loving eyes and smiled, "Thank you, Rachel, for everything. You really are my best friend," I told her. "You are like the daughter I never had," she answered. I hugged her tightly, "Why didn't you have any children? You would have been such a good mother," I said. "My own mother kept me home from school when I was young to take care of my five brothers and sisters, I never had any desire to have children after that," she explained. "Five kids?" I asked wiping away my tears. She nodded sadly. I could tell that she would have liked her life to have turned out differently. I prayed that I would never have any regrets about how my life turned out. Regret was my biggest fear. I felt so selfish as Rachel told me about her childhood and being her parents' own personal maid. I thought it was ironic that she was now a maid. "Why are you working as a maid after hating it so much?" I asked. "I didn't go to high school, let alone college so cleaning was the only thing I knew how to do," she answered. I hugged her tightly, "I'm sorry Rachel," I said. "For what dear?" she asked, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "For being so absorbed in my problems that I never listened to you," I said. Rachel laughed, "I love you Skye, I enjoy being friends with you and helping you," she said tears coming to her eyes now. We hugged and cried together. I hoped Rachel would always be around and I vowed that from now on I would be as good a friend to her as she was to me.

Rachel helped me with all the planning I had to do. I stopped playing my violin and stopped going to my classes in town so I could devote all my energy to the wedding plans. Too bad I couldn't say the same fro Anthony and his shop. It was disappointing how little time he spent talking about the wedding. He still cam home late and didn't show much interest when I told him about the flowers or the invitations. He was truly making me even uneasier about the wedding. It was as if he proposed and then forgot about me. I was lying in bed a week before the big day, staring up at the ceiling. I was starting to seriously reevaluate my decision to get married. Anthony was never around. Would this be what it would be like when we were really married? I wanted to start a family. Did Anthony want what I wanted? Because if he didn't then this marriage would not work out. Suddenly he came breezing into the room and huge smile plastered on his face. He sat down and put his arm around my waist. "What are you so happy about?" I said a little coldly. His bright smile faltered a minute but then came back full blast, "I closed the store for the next two weeks," he said. "What?" I asked sitting up. Hope flooded through my chest; maybe he did care after all. "I want us to be together for the next two weeks, no store, no violin," he said. I smiled and hugged him. It was going to be okay, Anthony did love me. We would have the perfect marriage and the perfect family. "To tell you the truth," I started, "I was starting to think that you didn't want me anymore!" Anthony laughed and started to tickle me. I giggled and swatted his hand away. "I'll always want you," he said softly, "I always have, I always will," his eyes darkened as if he were remembering. The memory of Anthony's room in La Vie flashed before my eyes. His obsession with me. Funny how the person I never thought I could love as anything other than a brother was now going to be my husband. My life was full of irony it seemed. Anthony kissed me on the lips gently at first, then harder. He pushed me back onto the bed and his hands roamed over my body. I sighed as he pulled my shirt over my head and kissed my chest and stomach. My fingers entwined in his hair at the back of his head. He stood up and took off his shirt. I reached out and touched his muscular chest and stomach. He worked out every week and it was really paying off I thought. Soon he was in bed beside me, naked. I scooted out of my skirt and rolled on top of him kissing him passionately. "I love you Skye," he murmured as he unclipped my bra and pulled off my panties. I loved him so much; I realized at that moment that if I ever lost him, I would surely die. I needed him, I always would. We made love passionately and fell asleep in each other's arms afterwards.

The next day we slept in. I was so happy to wake up slowly instead of being jerked awake my the sound of Anthony's alarm clock and the sounds of him getting ready to go into the shop. This was how it was supposed to be. I pulled myself out from under Anthony's arm slowly, so as not to wake him and put on a robe. I went out to the balcony and sat on my favourite lounge chair. There were no birds chirping, they had all flown south for the winter. It was peaceful and quiet outside; so different from Toronto with all the honking horns and cars trying to beat rush hour. I took a deep breath of the clean, pollution free air and sighed with happiness. Suddenly arms encircled my waist and I yelped in surprise. Anthony let out a deep laugh and pulled me close to him. "This is nice," he said. I nodded. We went downstairs and Roberta made us a huge brunch of, pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon, orange juice and tons of fruit. Rachel and Roberta ate with us. They usually did. We didn't believe in making the servants cook twice and eat separately. They were our friends, why not act like it? "Roberta, we are having the other servants and cooks over today to meet us and look at the house," I said while we ate. We were going to have the reception at the house. There weren't going to be very many people so we would have a quartet and people could dance in the dining room. We were going to clear it out and decorate it. Roberta nodded. When I first told her that we would be hiring extra servants, she had objected, she insisted that she could do it on her own. But I told her that it would be a lot of work and we wanted her to be able to be a guest at our wedding and not have to be working the whole time. She agreed when she thought about it that way. I sat out on the dock with a blanket and a cup of hot chocolate until it was time for the other servants to come. The doorbell rang and I answered it with Anthony a few feet behind me. Outside were two young women, an older, stern looking woman and a proper looking man. "Hello," I said smiling, "please come in," they entered the house. I introduced Anthony and myself. The older woman seemed to be the boss of the other three; she introduces them all. "I am Glenda, this is Nikola," she pointed to the young, brunette woman, "This is Allison, and this is Wesley," Allison had blond hair that was pulled into a very tight bun at the back of her head. Wesley looked very pleasant with his slightly gray hair and confident demeanor. I showed them around the house and introduced them to Roberta and Rachel. Wesley and Rachel seemed to be getting along well, I noticed. I smiled when she looked at me and pointed to Wesley with a dreamy look on her face. Glenda looked happy when she saw how large the kitchen was. I thought Nikola and Allison were very pleasant. I thought I could become friends with them. They, along with Wesley would be the servers at the reception. Rachel offered to show Wesley the rest of the house so I went off with Nikola and Allison. "If you don't mind me saying, I think your fiancé is very cute," Nikola said. Allison gasped, as if I was going to fire them both for having an opinion. I laughed, "Well thank you, I'm sure he'll be pleased to hear that," "You must be so excited about getting married," Nikola gushed. I couldn't believe how forward she was. I liked her. She was so different from anyone I had known before. She wasn't afraid to say what she was thinking. "Yes," I replied. All four of them would be back the day before the wedding to decorate the dining room. I said goodbye to them at the door. I was looking forward to talking to Nikola again. I needed some more friends in Duncan. I spotted Rachel waiting at the foot of the stairs. She looked like a schoolgirl waiting to tell her best friend about her new crush. I laughed at her excited expression. I was happy to see that she liked a man even at her age. We hurried upstairs and I shooed Anthony out of our room. He frowned at our giggling but left quickly. "Wesley isn't married, never has been and, oh Skye, he's wonderful!" Rachel exclaimed. "Rachel! I've never seen you act like this!" I cried. We laughed together as she told me about how Wesley said he would look forward to seeing her again. She thought they had made a real connection and I hoped that that was true. Rachel deserved to be happy just as much as I did. I told Rachel how much I like Nikola. She was happy that I might have found a new friend in Duncan. I needed people to talk to that were my own age. It had been a good day. I fell asleep that night looking forward to spending the rest of my life as happy as I had been today. Too bad I didn't know that my dream was impossible.

Decorating the dining room was the most fun I'd had in a while. We threw streamers all over the chandeliers and put up a huge sign that read: Congratulations Skye and Anthony!! The room didn't exactly look elegant when we were done but that wasn't what we were going for anyway. We wanted it to look like we had had fun doing it, so people would want to have fun and not be afraid of ruining it. I talked to Nikola a lot while we worked. She was surprised at first that I would be helping. She said that most of the people she worked for ordered her to do something and then left. Allison kept to herself all day. It was like she thought it was improper to be friendly with the boss. "Why won't Allison talk with us?" I asked Nikola. Nikola shook her head and her dark hair tumbled over her shoulder. She pushed it out of the way and said, "She was raised with strict parents, she won't do anything that they wouldn't have let her do," I frowned, "Her parents won't let her be friendly?" I asked. Nikola shrugged. Roberta and Glenda worked in the kitchen at some of the food for the next night. That night I slept in my bed alone. Anthony was staying at Timothy Reynolds' house. We wanted to keep up the tradition of not seeing eachother until I came down the aisle. I slept peacefully. When my alarm clock rang the next morning at 9:00am I shot out of bed feeling overwhelmed and flustered all of the sudden. I had so much to do! Get my hair and makeup down, get dressed, and help Rachel. So much to do! I didn't eat breakfast, I was too nervous. Rachel and I went to a salon in town and had our hair done. All the help was already at the house helping Roberta cook and clean. When we got back to the house it was only an hour before I had to be at the church. I got into my dress and waited in my room until someone came to tell me that the car was here. My heart was thumping so loudly; I thought it was going to come right out of my chest. Finally it was time, I walked down the aisle of the church and smiled at all the people who had come to see me become the happiest woman alive. Anthony looked so handsome in his tuxedo, I couldn't wait until we were finished our vows and I could kiss him. When that moment came, we gazed into each other's eyes and kissed gently. The perfect wedding kiss. Everyone clapped and we left the church to go to the house. "Are you happy?" Anthony asked me in the car. "I've never been happier," I answered. We held hands until we entered the dining room where everyone was waiting. We greeted the guests and danced. It was the most wonderful night of my life and I knew no matter what I would never forget it.