True to her word, Juliet barely thought of herself in the coming weeks. She didn't have time. There was so much to do! Every spare moment was spent in preparation for Doug and Bella's wedding. Uncle Dean had a landscaping company flown in from the States to refurbish the garden at Evensong, where the wedding would take place. The hedges and bushes were sculpted into the most beautiful shapes. The flowerbeds were filled with pink roses, and pink peonies and pink snapdragons--pink was Bella's favorite color, and the garden at Evensong was a veritable homage to pink. A bower was constructed out of twined roses, under which Doug and Bella would say their vows. Doug and Bella! Getting married! At times it still seemed so unreal.
Bea and Joy Meredith came over everyday to help with the sewing on the bridesmaids dresses. They were a sweet pink cotton--it was the only thing available. They had not been able to get any silk since Christmas, and it was dearer than gold. If they had been able to get it, Uncle Dean would have surely paid for it. He spared no expense for his little girl's wedding--he never had spared any expense on her. Bella's dress would be made out of a silken, shimmery parachute--many of the war-time brides were doing that these days, and a cousin of Aunt Elizabeth's who was a pilot overseas had sent his.
It was a lovely, moonlit thing, that dress. Mother and Aunt Elizabeth started work on it very early in the morning and sewed until the light was gone, with only a short break for lunch and tea. Juliet came home from Priest Pond one day, where she had been helping Bella with the flowers, to find Mother and Aunt Elizabeth in each others' arms, crying and laughing at the same time.
"Oh! Juliet," said Mother. "Come here my darling little girl, come sit with us. Little Elizabeth and I were just being maudlin and thinking of our little babies--who have grown so f-a-a-ast!"
Mother blew her nose into her handkerchief.
"Oh, stop, Emily," said Aunt Elizabeth, getting choked up herself. "My--little--Bella--was such a sweet baby! And now she is grown so big! Why, it won't be long until she has babies of her own!"
The women wept and Juliet looked down at them with a furrowed brow. Aunt Elizabeth looked up and said, "Oh! The righteousness of nineteen thinks we're being silly, Emily. Juliet, Juliet, just wait until you have babies of your own. When you see them off for the first day of school--or make their bridal trousseau--"
"Or put them into short pants for the first time," cried Mother, and the women embraced again.
"We're old--Emily, we're getting old," laughed Aunt Elizabeth.
"I must be old," sobbed Mother. "Since my little boy's old enough to marry! My--little baby--boy!"
"For heaven's sake!" said Juliet in exasperation. "Doug's getting married, Mother, he isn't dying. You two are crying all over Bella's dress."
Mother and Aunt Elizabeth stopped crying very abruptly and anxiously shook out the dress to make sure it was free of water marks. In the late afternoon sun, the dress shivered and shimmered like a living thing. It was fluid and graceful, like a waterfall in the moonlight. Juliet touched it and breathed softly, "It's beautiful!"
Would she ever wear a creation such as this? A dress made not just of cloth, but of dreams--and hope--and love?
"We really have done a stupendous job," said Aunt Elizabeth. "But it's a shame Bella will have no veil. Lace has become so hard to get. Dean called all the shops in Charlottetown--and Halifax to boot! I didn't wear one, when Dean and I were married--just a big hat. But I wish I had, so that Bella could borrow it. She's dead set on a veil."
"I don't have one either," said Mother. "Daff--that terrible cat--snuck into my room and tore my lovely veil to shreds. Just a crown of sweet flowers for me--but Ilse had that gorgeous point lace veil and was willing to lend it to Bella. We went looking for it last weekend and found it in her garret, shoved into a box, moth-eaten, with water stains all over it. Isn't that just like Ilse? That veil! There had never been any veil like it on the Island. What a sad end for it. So poor Bella will have to make do with a crown of flowers as I did."
Mother heaved a sigh, but if there is a patron saint of brides, he or she must surely be listening to their pleas. For up the lane to New Moon walked Joy Meredith, with a brown paper bundle under one arm. She met them all on the verandah and handed the package to Aunt Elizabeth shyly.
"It's my grandmother's veil," she said. "I told her that Bella wouldn't have one and Gran brought this down from the attic faster that you can say, "Point lace." It's been worn by many people--many happy brides. Gran wore it--and my mother--and Aunt Rilla--and Aunt Di. And Mrs. Joe Pryor, over-harbor, when she was married during the last war. It's a tradition for it to be worn only by happy brides--brides who are truly in love. So we had no qualms lending it to Bella. But I'll need it back soon--for my own wedding to Jake Penhallow. He'll be well enough to come home in July and we'll be married then!"
There was a triumphant note in Joy's voice.
"Your grandmother has always been the most caring woman," said Aunt Elizabeth, opening the package and freeing the yards of ghostly white lace. "I shall never forget her kindness to me when I was young and unloved. She was the first person I remember who ever loved me--really loved me. And she has stayed the kindest person all of her life."
The moon came out over Lofty John's bush. Joy tripped back down the lane toward the Glen manse. Juliet leaned against the porch rail and dozed. It had been a long day.
She woke up slightly whenever Mother and Aunt Elizabeth started laughing. What was that story Mother was telling? Oh yes--the one about Doug, when he was very small. Mother and Father had come to collect them from Priest Pond after a night spent in town. The twins had never really been outside at night before and Douglas had looked up at the yellowy full moon and howled in terror, "Oh, Mother, there's a great big hole in the sky!" How they all laughed at that story. How embarrassed Doug was by it.
"Really, Little Elizabeth," Mother went on. "Things have come full circle. When I think of how it hurt me not to marry Dean all those years ago--we were such dear friends. I didn't want to hurt him. But I couldn't marry him--it wasn't true love that Dean and I had. But now our children are the ones who have found it in each other."
Juliet felt suddenly very wide away but she knew she must be asleep. Mother--engaged to Uncle Dean? How strange! To think she might have been Juliet Priest--or she might have never existed at all! This thought made Juliet go all shivery inside.
She had never heard this story from Mother before, but she felt strangely comforted by it.
"If Allan and I can't be together, maybe, one day, our children will find true love in one another," she thought drowsily, and drifted back to sleep.