Bill asked to spend the day with Jack which gave Elizabeth and Rosemary the opportunity to have a ladies lunch at Elizabeth's row house. The two ladies did not have many opportunities to have time to talk uninterrupted lately. Rosemary wanted to have time to talk wedding plans and she had brought fabric samples that she had ordered from New York and from France. Elizabeth insisted that she did not need such an extravagant wedding gown but Rosemary wanted to make her friend the best wedding gown she could. The fabrics were set out all over Elizabeth's table as the two women talked.

"What about this one?" Rosemary asked, holding up a piece of ivory lace.

"Hmm, I'm not sure."

"Ok, ok. What about this one?" The next fabric had tiny sparkles in it.

"No, that seems like too much for me," Elizabeth said.

"We will just put that in the maybe pile for now," Rosemary said looking through the fabrics. Elizabeth just shook her head at her friend.

"How has the newspaper been going?" Elizabeth asked, trying to change the subject for a moment.

Rosemary set down the fabric she was holding and answered Elizabeth, "Oh the press came last week and we set it up near Lee's mill. Lee even offered to put a desk in his office. He is so good to me. I am thinking just once every month for now until I can get the hang of everything. I've written a few articles so far but I am not sure when the first issue will be out."

"Is there anything I can help with?"

"Elizabeth, you will have enough to do with your wedding. Maybe I could ask you to write a short story or something for the issue once I figure out when it will be published."

"I'm so excited for you Rosemary."

"Yes, yes. But now the real exciting part is your wedding. What about this one?" Rosemary held out a lace fabric with little pearls.

Elizabeth laughed, 'back on the wedding I guess'. She stopped laughing when she really looked at the fabric. She held out her hand as Rosemary handed the small piece to her. Elizabeth rubbed her hand over the small pearls. "it's beautiful."

"You like it?"

"I do, do you think we could use this for part of the bodice or sleeves of my dress?"

"We absolutely could," Rosemary said as she held out her hand for her friend.

There was a knock on the door. Elizabeth had invited Allie to join them if she wasn't busy with her friends. Allie was so excited about the wedding and Elizabeth wanted her to be part of it. Elizabeth walked to the door and she was surprised to see Nathan standing there with Allie.

"Hi you two," Elizabeth said.

"Hi Mrs. Thornton," Allie said as she hugged Elizabeth and then ran past her into the house.

"Hi," Nathan said as he looked into Elizabeth's eyes.

"Hi."

Rosemary saw Elizabeth standing there with Nathan as Allie walked over into the kitchen. Rosemary moved to stand in front of the table to block all the fabrics, especially now that Elizabeth found one she liked.

"Oh no, Nathan Grant. There is wedding planning going on here, you need to go."

"I am the groom you know," Nathan said as he winked at Elizabeth.

"Yes, but we are planning things you can't know about yet. Shoo…." Rosemary said as she pushed him out the door.

"I'll be back to pick up Allie later, maybe we can all have dinner at the cafe?"

"Perfect," Elizabeth said as Rosemary pushed Nathan out and shut the door.

Allie was standing by all the fabrics as Elizabeth and Rosemary walked back over. "These are all so beautiful. How will you pick?"

"I was thinking of this one for my dress, what do you think?" Elizabeth held out the lace with pearls for Allie.

"I love it, and Dad will too."

"Good, then Rosemary this is the one we will use. With a solid white fabric dress." Elizabeth said. "Allie, do you know what color you would like to wear?"

"Me?"

"Of course. I am marrying your dad and you will be my daughter, even though you already feel like my daughter. I haven't talked to your dad about it yet but I wanted to ask you to be my maid of honor."

"Really? You do?"

"Yes, will you?"

Allie ran over and hugged Elizabeth, tears running down her face. Elizabeth led Allie over the settee and held her as Rosemary sat in the kitchen, giving them a moment. Elizabeth rubbed Allie's back to calm her. "I've wanted a mom for so long. I can't wait until I can call you that."

"Me too," Elizabeth said. She made a note to talk to Nathan about it later. She wondered if it would be possible to adopt the children as soon as possible, even while waiting for the wedding. Both of the children deserved to have both parents. Elizabeth knew how quickly things could change. While she hoped that Nathan and her had years and years and years together, she also wanted to make sure that the children could stay together no matter what.

"Why don't we put aside some of the wedding things for a little bit and get some lunch? Would that be ok?" Elizabeth said to Allie.

"That sounds good."

The three of them had a nice lunch together talking about Allie's plans for the summer and Rosemary even asking her for help with the newspaper. They looked at a few colors of fabrics that Rosemary brought for dresses for Allie. She was trying to decide between a few colors but they made a plan to go next week to Rosemary's house to make a pattern. Rosemary packed up the samples to go back to her house before Nathan was set to arrive to take the other girls to dinner.