Juliet could not sleep the night before Doug's wedding. She turned and tossed until her bedsheets were tangled around her legs, she counted sheep, she drank warm milk. Nothing helped. She was wide awake. She was awaker than awake.
Finally she put her dressing gown on and crept out the verandah where she stared out at the low-hanging stars over Lofty John's bush. They reminded her of the old family story of the Lost Diamond. Mother had given Juliet the little pendant set with the Lost Diamond for her last birthday. She did not wear it often--she was afraid of losing it, but she often took it out to see it glimmer and shine. Juliet banished the thoughts of the Lost Diamond from her head. She felt queer. Why did she feel so queer? She was just over-excited. Doug's wedding was tomorrow! And this was--this was the last night Doug would spend under the New Moon roof.
Oh, that was it. That was what this pent up feeling in her chest was. Once Juliet had let this thought cross her mind the tears began to fall. Why, she and Doug had never spent a night apart in their whole lives! Well, only once, went Aunt Ilse took she and Bea into Charlottetown overnight to see a ballet. And she had hated it--hated being away from Doug. Even whenever she spent the night with Bea, Doug came too, to spend the night with Allan. In kindergarten they had been put in separate classes and both brother and sister had sobbed until they were allowed to run out into the hall at recess and embrace. Finally, the teachers had moved them into the same class, and Juliet and Douglas had never really been separated again.
"How shall I manage when he is away in Guelph?" Juliet cried. "I am happy for him--so happy--but from now on we will be separated always. Even when we are together we won't share the same history after this. Our paths are diverging. Things will happen to Doug that I won't know about--and to me that he won't. It's as if we'd never been twins at all!"
It was such a desolate thought! Juliet felt in the pocket of her gown and dug out an old handkerchief, and got right down to the soggy business of crying her heart out.
Doug was beside her before Juliet even noticed his arrival. Perhaps some ghostly intuition had called him to her. The New Moon twins were not ones for ghostly and paranormal happenings--they were too happy for that. But somehow, Doug did always know when Juliet needed him.
"Oh!" she sobbed, throwing her arms about him. "Doug! I've just been thinking--about you going awa-a-ay! Promise, darling, that you won't forget about me and stop loving me."
"I could never forget my sister," Douglas grinned, his dark curls tousled from sleep. "My big sister." Now Juliet grinned. She was four minutes older, and had used that fact to an advantage when she and Doug were small. "My twin," said Doug, suddenly serious, looking right into her eyes. "Myself."
Juliet dried her tears. "I feel better, then," she said, smiling. "Now that I have your word of honor. Oh, Doug, aren't you nervous at all? About tomorrow?"
"No," said Doug reflectively, leaning back in his chair. "I'm not, really. Because I know marrying Bella is right. I feel as if she's a part of myself, too. My best friend. The woman I love. I suppose I can't wait for us to start our lives together."
"How did you first know?" Juliet stammered. "I mean, that she was the woman you loved?"
"Well," said Douglas. "I think--I always knew, deep down. The night of the Valentine's Day dance--could it really be over two years ago now?--we were dancing, and I looked down at her and thought, suddenly, impossibly, that I'd never kissed her and couldn't think of a reason why. She was the most kissable, lovable thing I'd ever seen. So I did, and then she looked up at me and said, 'Doug Kent, I've been waiting my whole life for you to do that. Now do it again.' So I did. I suppose it's then that I really knew."
"Did you know right off that you would marry?"
Doug shook his head. "I knew all along, I suppose. Oh, Juliet, I can't give you straight answers on this. I barely know what to think myself about it. It's as if Bella and I just fell together one day, and it felt right--righter than anything else. I suppose I hadn't thought about marriage, really, until the day that I got news that I couldn't go and fight because of my ticker." Doug thumped his chest and smiled. "And I was low, and Bella said, 'Doug, don't be disappointed you can't go and fight. Now you're free to do other things.' 'Like what?' I said, and Bella said, 'Like marry me.' Then I sat on it for a while. I couldn't believe she was serious. But she was. I saw her eyes. So I bought a ring and asked her, and she accepted before I'd even finished asking." Doug had a shameless, silly grin on his face.
"What about you, Juliet?" he asked suddenly. "I thought for a while you were engaged to Blair King. You had that look about you--as if your heart wasn't really your own anymore."
"Oh," Juliet said. "I was stupid. Blair and I were--but we aren't now--and I'm glad--glad! It would have been all wrong, I think."
"So it's Allan Miller, then?" asked Doug.
"If Allan wanted--me--to be his wife, then I would," Juliet said, her voice giving only a fraction of the feeling that was in her soul. "But Allan's in love. With an Italian girl. Bea had a letter from him the other day--Mamma Annunzio wants Allan to stick around until Andalucia's old enough to marry, and Allan wrote that he just might take her up on that offer."
The old clock in the hall struck midnight, interrupting their reverie. "It's your wedding day!" Juliet whispered. "Oh, Doug! Don't you feel terribly--and horribly--grown up?"
"I'd better go and get some sleep," said Doug, standing and stretching his arms over his head. "I'm sorry about your love woes, Sis. Allan won't marry the Italian girl--he'll come back for a wholesome PEI girl, wait and see."
"I'll wait--and see," laughed Juliet. "I do love him--so. But if one of us got to be lucky in love, Douglas, I'm glad it was you."
"See you tomorrow!" Doug said. "Not tomorrow--today! You'll recognize me, I'll be the one at the end of the aisle. Next to Reverend Meredith. With the grin on my face!" He went in the house and ran nimbly up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Leaving Juliet alone with the night.