Chapter 22
October 30th, 1925 P.D.
Rachel woke early so that she and a palace kitchen worker could set up the breakfast for the barracks occupants, which was buffet style on the billiards table. Matt woke when he heard tinkling of plates and cutlery downstairs. He caught the scent of sausage, stretched, and sat up. He heard a knock on the door and Rachel poked her head inside.
"Want a good breakfast before class?" she asked.
He yawned, nodded, and rose from the bed. Angela and Zack followed their noses downstairs and were surprised at the breakfast feast on the billiards table. The kitchen helper greeted them and pointed out the juice, milk, tea, and coffee available. In short order, the guests were settled in the rec room with plates of breakfast.
"Thank you for breakfast," Diego said. "This sausage is delicious."
"We thought you'd like some home-cooked food rather than eating out," Rachel said.
"Where's Lew?" Max asked.
"Enjoying breakfast with Jeanette before class," Rachel replied.
"You're going to class today?" Diego asked Matt.
Matt nodded. "We have our first anatomy exam this morning, we can't miss it. I'm already taking next week off; I need to get as much classroom time in as possible."
"The rehearsal isn't until four, plenty of time," Rachel said and playfully fed Matt a bite of egg.
#
After breakfast, Max, Zack and Diego looked over their dress uniforms to see if any last-minute alterations or repairs were needed. After, Max and Diego continued with darts and declared that they would buy a board and take it back to Manticore. Zack was at the pool table.
"Angie wants to take a bingo game back home," Zack said and hit a neat shot into a side pocket.
Meanwhile, in Rachel's room, Angela and Theresa watched Rachel and her mothers perform some last alterations on her wedding dress. Hipper and Athena lounged in the bay window, watching the groundskeepers do their work.
"And I thought Alice had a beautiful dress," Angela said, awed. "You're going for…what was it you said…simple elegance?"
"Bingo," Theresa said and they laughed. "It's definitely that…it's you."
"Thank you," Rachel replied, softly.
"And just think of your groom when he sees it," Angela noted.
"I'd put it on for you, but I don't want to risk doing something to it by putting it on, then taking it off," Rachel said and examined a stitch on the back right shoulder.
"It takes two people to help put it on, so the less handling, the better," Elaine said.
"You're wearing that too?" Theresa asked of the headscarf on the desk.
"Yep."
"It looks bigger than the one you usually wear," Angela noted.
"Well, it belonged to my great-grandmother," Rachel explained and took one of her own from the closet. "In her time, the scarves were longer."
She held up her scarf next to the older one.
"My grandmother wore it at her wedding, my mother wore it, I wore it, and now my daughter will wear it," Katherine said and had to stop and wipe a tear.
Rachel smiled and hugged her mom. "And my daughter will wear it."
"You sound sure about that," Angela said.
Rachel and her mothers looked at her, amused, and then continued their work.
"If there's anything I'm sure of in this world, it's that I'm going to have daughters," Rachel stated. "There's no family on this planet that has only sons. Some families never have any sons. Look at us; five daughters before Bernie arrived."
"I'm sure you've noticed the percentage disparity of men to women on this world," Elaine said to the young Manticoran women.
They nodded.
"Thanks to Manticoran tech and medicine, that disparity is now two to one if couples avail themselves of the treatments and interventions," Katherine explained. "If more of us took advantage of the new treatments and interventions, there really wouldn't be a disparity."
#
Later in the library, Rachel showed her friends actual wedding albums with paper photographs, from past Mayhew weddings.
"This is going to be the first Mayhew wedding with both digital and physical photographs," Rachel said.
A bittersweet smile appeared on her face when she saw her much younger dad and uncle on Ben and Katherine's wedding day. She knew that the universe wasn't fair. The universe didn't think or feel. The universe wasn't good or bad, it was just there, a freezing cold vacuum with balls of rock here and there. Nonetheless, it still hurt that her Uncle Mike wouldn't be there. No, it wasn't fair that a group of lunatics-
Rachel felt Hipper on her shoulder, purring against her neck. Her thoughts had taken a bad turn, so Hipper acted, and Athena was patting her hand.
"Hey, where did you go?" Angela asked.
"Some thoughts got away from me, not to worry," Rachel said.
"Not worry about what?" Matt asked when he and Lew came into the library.
She greeted him with a kiss. "Trying not to be a wet doily," she said and winked at Theresa.
"How was the exam?" Angela asked.
Matt took off his tie and sat down. "You remember the Tactics final?" he asked.
They all nodded, and Rachel prepared a neat glass of whisky for him.
Lew waved off a drink. "Worse."
"You knew all the bones, right?" Theresa asked.
Matt and Lew looked at each other and shook their heads.
"It's more than bones, Miss Meadows. It's also muscles, organs, and nerve structures. It was also the longest we were dissecting a cadaver," Lew stated.
"Oh," Theresa replied.
"We move on to use of imaging technology next semester, but we have to demonstrate hands-on knowledge before that," Matt said. "If we don't know the anatomy with our own eyes, we won't know it any better with a scanner."
"And if we can't handle cadavers now, as first year med students, we don't have any business being physicians," Lew said.
#
At 3:30 pm, Ben turned off his computer and announced that unless someone was attacking the planet or trying to overthrow the government, his work was done for the day. The wedding party loaded into cars and made their way to Protector's Cathedral for the wedding rehearsal. Upon arrival, they were greeted by Deacon Zimmer and welcomed into the cathedral.
"This is unreal," Theresa murmured, awed by the quiet majesty of the cathedral.
Reverend Sullivan emerged from a side office and gave everyone a hearty greeting. He was dressed down to simple suit and clerical collar. "Shall we get started?"
Katherine and Elaine removed note cards from their purses, and the Goodson wives joined them. The Mayhew armsmen were directed to stand and then sit in their appointed row, to see what it looked like with them all there. Reverend Sullivan took his place at the altar with his Book of the New Way. The Mayhew family and Hipper took their seats in the left front pew, the Goodson family, the right front pew. Angela told Athena to sit with Hipper.
"That's where you'll be tomorrow, okay?" she asked.
Athena nodded that she understood and joined Hipper on the pew. Humans do this very different from the People.
"Very good…would the bridal party come and take their places?" the reverend asked.
Angela, matron honor, stood to immediate right of the reverend. Then the bridesmaids; Jeanette, Theresa Mayhew, Honor Mayhew, and Theresa Meadows.
"Next, would the groom's party take their places?"
Lew, Matt's best man, stood to the reverend's left. Then the groomsmen; Matt's brothers Chris and Jacob, then Diego and Max.
"Now, the bride and groom," the reverend said. "About two steps back from me…very good."
"If we can have the flower girl and ring bearer?"
Honor Harrington led Raoul and Katherine to the front where they would be during the ceremony.
A gaggle of young men entered the cathedral and waved at Rachel and Matt. "Sorry, accident at the intersection, traffic was held up."
They quieted and bowed when they reached Benjamin and the reverend.
"Good evening, m'lord; good evening, reverend. It's an honor," Josh Chatwood said.
"We just started, don't worry," Matt said.
"These are the ushers," Rachel said to the reverend.
"I see," the reverend said, and his lips twitched at the exuberance of the young men in the quiet of the cathedral.
They had never been in Protector's Cathedral, and they couldn't help but look around and admire the general splendor. Ensigns John Cordell and Josh Chatwood would be the processional door ushers, and Ensigns Jacob Ingram and Charlie Conway along with two of Matt's colleagues, would escort the mothers to their seats.
The reverend spoke. "All right, I want everyone to get a mental picture of where you're standing right now. We're going to run through the processional, and Tester help us, try to end up where you're standing right now."
In the cathedral's foyer, the party was lined up in the order they would enter the nave.
"The ceremony will start when the procession music is heard-"
The reverend gestured to the organist, who played the first three bars of the processional music.
"-Matthew and myself will approach the altar from the east transept and take our places," he instructed.
"-and then the doors will open, to which the mothers will be escorted to their seats. Please, do so now. Ushers, count ten steps after the previous mother before you bring the next one out."
"Next, matron of honor and best man, wait ten steps after the last mother to enter the nave."
Angela linked arms with Lew and the two walked into the nave.
"Now, the rest of the bridal party and groomsmen. Again, ten steps after the previous pair."
Next, Jeanette and Chris Goodson; Theresa Mayhew and Jacob Goodson; Honor Mayhew and Diego; Theresa Meadows and Max.
"Good! Now, will you please instruct the little ones on what they're to do before you take the walk?"
Rachel turned around and took a knee before Raoul and Katherine. "You two are going to walk out before me, okay?"
Katherine held up her basket, and Raoul, a little pillow.
"You know what to do, right?"
Katherine nodded. "Drop the flowers and then stand by Miss Theresa."
Rachel looked at Raoul, who nodded solemnly. "Hold my pillow and go to Mr. Lew."
"Very good! And smile, okay? This is a fun, happy day!"
The two smiled and nodded. Rachel tapped the ends of their noses and stood up.
"Okay, Katherine, go ahead," she said.
The little girl held her basket in front of her and pretended to drop flower petals as she walked up the aisle.
"Your turn," Rachel told Raoul.
"Door ushers, keep the doors open during the Mother's Entrance, wedding party, and for the little ones. When the ring bearer has stepped through, close the doors. Close them quietly, please. The signal to open the doors for the bride will be when I open my book."
The reverend held his book at waist level and opened it. The door ushers nodded, opened the doors, and the first few bars of the wedding march was played. Rachel tucked her right hand inside of her dad's left elbow, and they stepped into the nave.
"Splendid!" the reverend called out. "Let's run though it again."
Years later, Rachel and Matt would remember the rehearsal as comedy.
Matt had a sneezing fit during the Mother's Escort the second time around. Stephen Goodson ended up going back to his car to get his son an antihistamine. The flowers at the altar were the culprit.
The usher who escorted Ruth to her seat tripped over her foot as he walked away.
"Been walking much?" Matt murmured.
Little Katherine was distracted by the treecats in the front pew and walked toward them. The 'cats, Tester bless them, understood what was going on. Athena left the pew, took Katherine's hand, and led her to her place adjacent Angela.
"Thank you, Athena," Angela said in an admirable effort to control herself.
The usher who escorted Elaine to her seat continued to his left, stopped, and turned around.
In the foyer, Rachel threw up her hands. "And here I was, thinking he knew his left from his right."
He stopped, looked at Elaine, and resumed his original correct direction.
On the last walk-through, Rachel's hair tie came loose just as Ben placed her hand in Matthew's. When Matthew saw her brunette locks gloriously spilling over her shoulders and on his hand, she heard his sharp intake of breath. Rachel glanced at him and saw the heated look in his eyes, and she had to clear her throat to ask if anyone had a hair tie.
Also on the last walk-through, the organist accidently bumped the keys with an elbow, startling everyone in the nave. It startled little Katherine so much that she dropped her basket and incidentally kicked it. It sailed to the left and an armsman sitting nearby caught it.
"Good kick," Matt noted.
And the last act of the performance was when the wedding party heard a crunching sound and looked down to see Raoul munching on a cookie.
"I'm so sorry…Raoul, where did you get that?" Honor Harrington asked in a long-suffering voice.
The boy reached into his little jacket pocket and took another cookie from it.
#
When the rehearsal ended, the reverend let out a breath and sat down on the front pew when the last person left. He loosened his collar and sat back to admire that stained glass windows. "They only had to walk through it three times."
Deacon Zimmer gave him a glass of water. "That's an interesting bunch."
"With that bunch, it can only be interesting," the reverend said with a chuckle.