“The tables are ready,” Tia said.
“And the tents,” Sarah added.
“And Mrs. Murchison has been cooking since four,” Anne Seabury put in, as she took one end of the wrapped wedding dresses.
“And the flowers?” Houston asked. “Were they all put in place according to my plan?”
“I think so,” one of the women said.
Miss Emily stepped forward. “Houston, you’d better look at them yourself. Someone will make sure that husband of yours stays in his office, and you can take a turn through the house.”
“Husband,” Houston murmured to herself as Nina ran ahead to hold Kane prisoner in his office. Everyone was going to try to insure that the bride wasn’t seen before the wedding.
When she’d been assured that it was safe, Houston left her mother and Blair in the hall as she walked through each downstairs room and, for the first time, got to see the reality of the decorations that she’d planned.
The small drawing room was furnished with three long tables bearing gifts for the two brides from all over the United States. Kane had as much as said that he had no true friends in the moneyed world he dealt with in New York, but, if their gifts were any indication, it was obvious that those men considered him one of their own.
There was a little Italian inlaid table from the Vanderbilts, silver from the Goulds, gold from the Rockefellers. When the gifts had started arriving, Kane’d said that they damn well should send presents since he’d sure as hell sent enough to their kids every time they got married.
Other gifts came from Leander’s relatives, and the people of Chandler had done their best to come up with the most ingenious “twin” gifts possible. There were twin brooms, twin barrels of popcorn, twin books, twin bolts of fabric. The gifts ranged from duplicate papers of dressmaker’s pins to identical oak chairs from the Masons.
The room was decorated with tall potted palms set before mirrors, and the mantel dripped with red roses and purple pansies.
Houston moved to the large drawing room. This was where the close friends and relatives would mingle before and after the ceremony.
Along the baseboards, doorways, and the ceiling had been tacked the delicate twining smilax vine. Yard upon yard of the vines graced the room, weaving around the fireplace, around windows.
Set before each window were pots of ferns that filtered the morning sun and made lacy shadows on the floor. The hearth was draped with pink carnations, and entwined in the vines here and there were more carnations.
As quickly as possible, Houston finished her inspection tour of the rest of the downstairs and hurried upstairs where the others waited.
There were five hours before the ceremony, but Houston knew that there’d be a million and one last-minute details to take care of.
During the last few days, she’d spent a great deal of time downstairs, but the upstairs was still new to her. The eastern branch of the U-shaped house was guest quarters, and today Blair would be dressing in one of the suites. The center section contained Edan’s rooms on one side of an aviary and hallway, and a nursery, bath, and nurse’s room on the other side.
Next to the nursery was the long wing that belonged to Houston and Kane. He had a bedroom at the back, relatively small, but overlooking the gardens. Houston’s room, separated from his by a marble bathroom, was by far the largest, with pale panelled walls that were set with carvings of swags and garlands to outline the paintings that had yet to be hung.
Next to her room was a large pink and white marble bath and a dressing area with walls covered in pink moiré, and beyond that a sitting room and private dining room for when she and Kane were dining alone.
“I shall never get used to this house,” Tia said as she returned from an inspection of the rooms beyond the bedroom. “And look at this rooftop garden.”
“Garden?” Houston asked, walking toward the double doors where Tia stood. She opened one and stepped outside into a lovely tangle of potted trees and flowers. Stone benches hid themselves amid the greenery. This had not been here the last time she saw the railed roof of the loggia that was outside her bedroom.
“Look at this,” Sarah said, holding out a large white card that was attached to an enormous fig tree. Most of the plants were protected from the Colorado sun by an overhead lattice work that made a very pretty shade.
Houston took the card.
I hope you like it, I wish you all the best in your marriage.
Edan
“It’s a gift from Edan,” Houston said and felt that the garden was a symbol of her happiness today.
Before Houston could say another word, the door burst open and Mrs. Murchison entered as if a storm were behind her.
“There’s too many people in my kitchen!” she yelled toward Houston. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to cook with all of them in there. And Mr. Kane’s got too much to do already, what with losin’ a day’s work as it is.”
“Losing . . . ” Meredith said, aghast. “Do you think Houston has nothing else to—?”