River Deep, Mountain High

Standard disclaimers apply to this piece of Christy fan fiction.

This story continues where the TV series left off.

Any similarities to other works of Christy fan fiction are purely coincidental and unintentional.

A/N: Here's another chapter for your enjoyment! I know it's taking a while to get to the big moment – the wedding – but I still had some loose ends to tie up. I also can't help but get lost in the little details. I hope you enjoy. The last few chapters should be quick to follow.

Chapter 47

With only a week to plan the wedding, Christy and her mother worked frantically on the necessary preparations. The entire Cove was buzzing with excitement when the announcement was made in church that Sunday. The spontaneity of the wedding was unexpected but it was an event that everyone was looking forward to. After all, it was a long time in the making.

Along with the news of Neil and Christy's upcoming nuptials came David's formal announcement of his departure at the end of the summer. The families were disappointed to lose their preacher, but they also understood that Reverend Grantland deserved to find a soul mate and as much happiness as Christy and Neil had found in each other. They were also pleased to hear that he was going to a church in California near his sister. Her twins were due any day now.

When Doctor Ferrand was in Cutter Gap the previous week, he informed those at the Mission that he recently found a suitable replacement to take over as pastor of the church. The replacement was a man a few years older than David. Reverend Jonathan Davies was married with a young wife but no children and was born and raised in a rural area in the western part of Virginia not unlike Cutter Gap. Doctor Ferrand felt that the new preacher would be a good fit in the Cove. Christy and Miss Alice looked forward to meeting him at the beginning of August when he was expected to arrive. There would be a month long period where David and Jonathan could work together to make a smooth transition. Having a name to associate to David's replacement made his imminent departure that much more tangible to Christy. At least he would be present for the wedding, she thought, though he would not be performing the ceremony.

After Neil proposed, he and Christy approached David about officiating at the wedding. Although David was happy for the couple's engagement, he felt that he could not perform the ceremony. It had only been less than a year ago that David hoped he would be the one standing next to Christy at the alter to be joined together in marriage. He harbored no resentment toward Neil and Christy, but he wondered if he would have the strength to marry the woman he once loved to another man. It was a difficult pill to swallow, but Neil and Christy understood and respected David's decision. Secretly, neither was terribly surprised when David declined to perform the service. They initially debated whether or not they should even broach the subject with him.

A suitable alternative was quickly found. Doctor Ferrand was visiting his missions in the area. He left Cutter Gap a few days after their engagement for Sand Mountain Mission, but he promised to return in time to perform the ceremony. He was honored to have been asked and, with his feelings still strong for Alice, he needed little additional encouragement to come back to Cutter Gap.

Christy was also overjoyed when Doctor Ferrand informed her that she would be permitted to stay on as teacher at the school after her marriage. With such short notice, the director of the Mission realized it would be difficult to find a replacement, even though school was in recess for the summer holiday. He also knew how much the children of the Cove loved Miss Huddleston, and he was amazed by the progress they had shown under her instruction. Luckily, the families of the Cove were of a similar mindset and did not object to having a teacher who was a married woman. However, everyone agreed that once Christy became with child, she would have to step down from her position as teacher since motherhood would mean additional responsibilities she would have to take on.

Neil was thrilled for Christy that she could continue teaching after she became his wife. He knew how much she loved her job and the children, though he had to admit that he found the idea of Christy helping him out as his medical assistant quite appealing. But everything seemed to fall nicely in place as Dan Scott announced that he would remain in Cutter Gap for another year to work and train under Doctor MacNeill.

Dan had received a letter just a few days earlier from Meharry Medical College in Nashville stating that he could not be accepted for the fall term because he did not have all of the required course work that came with a college degree. Although unable to admit Dan right away, the admissions dean of the medical school was very impressed by his experience and the strong letter of recommendation sent by Doctor MacNeill. The dean told Dan that if he trained a little longer with the Doctor, completed some college-level courses by correspondence, and passed a special entrance examination, he would have a stronger application and could be up for consideration the following year.

Initially deflated, Dan realized that he still had a lot to learn from Neil. For the next year, he planned to study and work even harder to make his dream of going to medical school a reality. He felt that he was now one step closer. At Doctor MacNeill's suggestion, he made that first contact with the medical school in Tennessee and managed to impress the dean of admissions, giving Dan a big advantage for his re-application. He was also provided with some important guidance to help him focus on the areas in which his knowledge was still lacking.

While there were other medical schools in the country that admitted Negroes, Dan opted to stay closer to his Kentucky home. He also realized that he might have fewer obstacles to overcome if he attended a school that was specifically established to educate members of his own race.

Founded in 1876 as the Medical Department of Central Tennessee College, it was the first medical school in the South for Negroes. It was recently chartered and renamed to Meharry Medical College after a young Scots-Irish immigrant salt trader named Samuel Meharry. Meharry was traveling through the rough terrain of Tennessee when his wagon suddenly slipped off the road and fell into a swamp. He was aided by a family of former slaves who gave him food and shelter and helped him recover his wagon. Having no money to repay the kindness, Meharry promised to do something for their race.

In 1875, Samuel Meharry, together with four of his brothers, donated fifteen thousand dollars to assist with the establishment of a medical department at Central Tennessee College, a historically black college founded by Methodist missionaries in 1865. In the years to follow, Dental and Pharmacy Departments were also added to the school.

***

The days before the wedding seemed to fly by in a flood of activity. Ruby Mae worked additional hours at the Mission to get the extra rooms ready for the guests that would be arriving for the wedding. She wanted everything to be perfect for Miz Christy. Despite the very short notice and limited guest list, a few of the Huddlestons' closest friends and relatives in the Asheville area were intrigued enough about the mountain wedding to make the long and difficult journey to Cutter Gap. With no boarding house closer than El Pano, Miss Alice decided to open the Mission up to a few guests. It would be a crowded house, but, thankfully, it would only be for a few days.

Fairlight and Opal volunteered to help with Christy's dress. In one of the many trunks that Julia Huddleston had transported from Asheville to Cutter Gap was her mother's wedding dress. It had been painstakingly preserved all those years.

Christy stood in the parlor of the Mission in the vintage dress with her arms held out to the side. She felt like a mannequin as the women hovered around her, tugging on the billowing fabric and inserting pins to mark how the dress would be altered to fit her shape. Christy was quite a bit shorter and smaller framed than her grandmother Rudd, so the dress needed to be taken in quite a bit.

When Christy first tried on the gown, she was practically swimming in it, overwhelmed by the massive amount of extra fabric. The dress almost needed to be taken apart and sewn back together to fit her properly. She feared that the dress would ever get finished in time. But Fairlight and Opal worked tirelessly to ensure that Christy had the most beautiful dress the Cove had ever seen. With Julia's supervision and eye for style, the dress soon began to take shape. In addition to making the dress fit Christy's smaller body, Opal and Fairlight worked to give the dress a more modern feel by removing the long train and extra bulk in the back where the bustle would have been. The new dress would scarcely resemble the original when they were finished as its layers of ivory silk, fine lace, and chiffon were reconstructed into a more modern and practical pattern appropriate to both the location and the season.

During the third fitting just three days before the wedding, Christy was pleasantly surprised to see all the work that had been done to transform her grandmother's gown into something that truly suited her. The dress was relatively simple compared to the original design. The excess fabric had been removed to create a slimmer and more contemporary silhouette. The A-line dress was shortened to fall to ankle length in the front and flared out towards the back slightly to form a sweeping train that could be gathered with a single pearl button to allow for easier movement and dancing. The base of the dress was the antique ivory silk overlaid with delicate translucent chiffon that shimmered when it caught the light. The sleeves were made only out of the sheer chiffon material with delicate embroidery in a simple floral vine pattern. Some of the beautiful lace from the original gown was used to accentuate the waist, cuffs, and hem of the dress.

The longer she stared at her reflection in the mirror, the more Christy was in awe at the intricacy of detail and the precision of the handiwork that had been done to convert her grandmother's out-of-date dress into something new and all her own. It suddenly struck her that she was only a few days away from being Neil's bride. She was indebted to her friends Fairlight and Opal for taking so much time and effort to redesign her wedding dress.

"Fairlight, Opal, it's so beautiful." Christy turned to them with tears welling in her eyes. "I could not have imagined a more perfect wedding dress. You must have been working nights to get it finished."

Even Julia Huddleston had to admit that the final creation far exceeded her expectations, especially for a rustic wedding in Cutter Gap. She smiled approvingly at Christy and the women who had worked so hard to finish it in time. "Ladies, you have truly outdone yourselves. I am very grateful for all your hard work," she added.

Fairlight beamed with pride, standing back to admire her friend as well as the fruits of her labor. "Twern't no trouble a-tall. Jes' consider it part of our weddin' present to ye, Miz Christy."

Opal nodded in agreement and held up the neat pile of surplus silk and lace that had not made it into the final design of the wedding gown, her fingers touching the edges of the delicate fabric lightly. No one in Cutter Gap had ever seen such a fine dress made out of such lovely material before, Opal thought. "An' all this extra fabric here will make a mighty fine christenin' gown for your first born young'un." She smiled at Christy with big blue eyes shining.

"Or a fancy nightgown for the weddin' night," Fairlight added with a suggestive wink.

Christy's face began to burn with color, her cheeks turning a bright shade of crimson at both women's remarks. As each day passed and the wedding grew closer, she was growing both more excited and yet more nervous all at the same time. She could not wait to be Neil's bride and begin her life with him, but she still had her anxieties about the wedding night. Her mother even broached the topic of conversation the night before, much to Christy's mortification. For what seemed like the longest hour of her life, Christy sat quiet and listened to her mother explain what she should expect as a married woman even though she already felt that she knew everything she needed to know. The mechanics were clear to her. It was just the newness and anticipation of the situation that made her a bit uneasy.

During the conversation, which was really more of a lecture, Christy wondered whether she should turn the tables on her mother and explain to her about the mountain custom of the shivaree. That was certainly something Julia Huddleston would never have had exposure to before coming to Cutter Gap. Christy nearly broke out laughing in the middle of her mother's talk as she thought about what her reaction would be.

Over a month earlier, Christy attended John Spencer and Bessie Coburn's wedding. There she got a full dose of what a real mountain wedding and the post-wedding ceremonies were like. As Neil told her, the real ceremony started after the preacher finished and had announced they are man and wife. Singing and merriment ensued, and then as part of the shivaree, the women would come to fetch the bride while the men went off with the groom to prepare each of them for their first night together in wedded bliss.

Christy still remembered the embarrassment she felt when Neil described it, though he tried to be as delicate and sensitive as possible. He did not want to frighten her, even though they had not yet discussed the subject of their own marriage at the time. While the groom was "putting the bride to bed", as it was called, the guests continued to sing and dance and celebrate, sometimes in the very same cabin where the consummation was taking place.

Fortunately for John and Bessie, the wedding and reception were held on Mission property, and the wedding night occurred at the new cabin John built with the help of the mountain men on a piece of Spencer property. The shivaree consisted of a small group of women carrying the bride off in Jeb's wagon, decorated especially for the occasion, to the new cabin to get her undressed and into her nightgown and offer up any last words of advice. After some harmless ribbing, a few of John's closest male friends then escorted him to the cabin so he could "put the bride to bed". The newlyweds were left alone shortly after they were brought together while the public festivities continued at the Mission.

Recalling John and Bessie's wedding, Christy wondered how her own would go. She and Neil were going to be married by the river close to his cabin. She feared that the proximity of the reception to their wedding chamber might make it difficult to get people to leave them in peace. She did not mind the part where the men and women brought the married couple together, but she certainly did not want people dancing and whooping it up in the very same cabin while she and Neil… Her cheeks burned hot again at the thought. Christy decided she needed to have a discussion with Neil to make sure he told the men what the ground rules were for their wedding night, and she would do the same with Fairlight, Opal, and Ruby Mae as well, once her mother was out of the room. She also made a mental note to herself to remember to ask Neil about getting a lock to use temporarily for the front door, just in case.

Christy was suddenly brought out of her reverie when she felt a pin prick on her side. Fairlight and Opal were still working on some final details of the wedding dress, trying to get it to fit perfectly, and they accidentally stuck her with a straight pin. Christy must have moved slightly as a result of her daydream. Meanwhile, Julia was busy making lists of everything else that needed to get done before the wedding day. She sighed in exasperation.

"I don't know how I let Doctor MacNeill charm me into agreeing that a short engagement was a good idea," Mrs. Huddleston remarked in frustration. "There is just so much to be done. I don't know how we are going to get everything finished in time, Christy. We still need to finish the dress, plan and prepare the reception menu, decorate the cabin…"

"Mother," Christy interrupted her, "none of that really matters. I don't care if I have to wear my blue checkered dress and a wreath of goldenrod instead of a silk gown and lace veil. All that matters is that Neil and I are going to be married," she smiled brightly. "And I couldn't be happier."

Before Julia could offer her rebuttal, there was a knock at the Mission door. Fairlight peaked through the curtain and saw it was Neil. She uttered a curse at him for intruding on their dress fitting when he had been told not to set foot in the Mission these last few days before the wedding. The last thing Fairlight wanted was to ruin the surprise of Neil seeing Christy for the first time in her dress when she walked down the aisle to meet him on their wedding day. Hurriedly, the ladies quickly moved Christy out of the room and helped her take off the wedding gown, careful not to pull out any of the meticulously placed pins. Christy dressed while the others worked to prevent Neil from seeing her.

When the gown was out of sight and Christy was almost dressed, Fairlight held the front door ajar and met Neil with a disapproving scowl on her face. "Neil MacNeill, you know it's bad luck to see the bride in her weddin' dress afore the weddin'!"

Neil shrugged off her admonishment and smiled innocently at her. "It's lovely to see you too, Fairlight. Is my soon-to-be bride about?"

Catching a glimpse of Christy from behind the partly open door, his eyes immediately locked with hers. The couple stood there smiling broadly at each other, looking very much like teenagers in love for the first time. Fairlight opened the door the rest of the way and moved aside to let Neil enter. She left the young couple alone, shaking her head to herself and muttering something under her breath about "actin' as foolish as young'uns".

"Neil, it's wonderful to see you," Christy said, a sudden shyness coming over her.

"Good morning, Christy. I know the ladies will have my head and serve it on a silver platter if I keep you too long," he joked. "I just came by to give you this." He presented her with a folded piece of fabric. "It's my family's tartan. In Scotland, it is traditional for the bride to wear a sash of the tartan across her dress."

He attempted to gauge Christy's reaction as she examined the tartan and swept her fingers over the dark blue and hunter green plaid fabric. She remembered seeing the same pattern when Neil was teaching the school children about the Highland Games, and he had worn his grandfather's kilt.

"You do not have to wear it if you don't want to." His hand automatically went to the back of his head where he tugged at the hairs that tickled the nape of his neck the way he often did when he was feeling unsure of himself. "I mean, you might not want to cover up your grandmother's dress."

Christy looked back up at him, and a lovely smile lit up her face, immediately putting Neil at ease. "I would be honored to wear your family's tartan, Neil. After all, they will be my family, too, and I want to pay respect to your heritage. It's the Book of Ruth that says: For wherever you go, I will go. And wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people…"

Neil continued for her, his expression mirroring her own," And your God, my God."

He was elated that Christy decided to wear his tartan. It was something he never felt comfortable asking of Margaret when they married. But then again, their wedding was a very rushed affair, nothing more than an elopement in reality. There had been no family or friends present when they ran off and got married in secret at the court house in Philadelphia. Neil felt as if he was being married for the first time. He was a different man, made new with the acceptance of God's grace and love, and he and Christy would be married in the presence of God and all their friends and loved ones. He could hardly wait until the moment he and Christy were joined together for all eternity.

Brought out of his own thoughts, Neil then pulled out something else from his pocket, something shiny. "Oh, I nearly forgot. You'll need this as well." He handed Christy the gold pin. "It's a broach to fasten the tartan to your dress."

Christy accepted the beautiful broach. It had two different branches, one olive and one myrtle, woven together to form a circle. Her fingers lightly traced the delicate gold. "Neil, it's lovely."

She leaned in slightly and kissed him softly. Christy knew that her mother, Opal, and Fairlight were in the next room, and she did not want to engage in a passionate kiss with her fiancé with them so close.

Out of the corner of his eye, Neil caught a glimpse of Fairlight and Opal peeking out from the kitchen through the breezeway. He raised one brow and smiled, letting them know he had caught them spying, and the women quickly went back to the act of pretending that they were not watching.

"Well, I had better high-tail it out of here so you ladies can get on with your preparations," Neil said as he reluctantly pulled away from her embrace.

Christy nodded in agreement, and Neil turned to leave. Before he was through the front door, she called out after him. "Neil!" He spun back around to face her. "In only three days we'll be man and wife. I can't wait to begin our life together."

Returning her brilliant smile, he said, "Neither can I, Christy."

She felt her heart leap inside her with an unmatched joy when he flashed her that dazzling, boyishly charming grin of his. Christy smiled to herself, as if thinking of some secret or little joke that only she knew, and watched as Neil sauntered away from the Mission with a lively spring in his step.

***

TO BE CONTINUED