"If I get married, I want to be very married."
― Audrey Hepburn
Fredrick left his bed the next day with his arm heavily bandaged and a strict promise to Emilia, Max and his mother that he would never hurt himself again, no matter how bad he fet.
Max was satisfied enough with that and besides, he had his mother's hectic joy about the engagement to deal with. She insisted that they married in America by the end of the month. She argued that Lady Turner would have opportunity to see her grandchildren and perhaps even Samuel marry and Emilia, still feeling a tad bit guilty about taking both her sons away, agreed.
They had booked a passage on a ship bound for England which left from America on the tenth of September. Emilia had written a very excited, and tearful, letter to her mother and preparations were in full swing with Max's mother taking it all upon herself to organize it. Emilia offered many times to help but Max stopped her, saying that his mother enjoyed it and besides, when would she have another chance to do this?
Instead Emilia, despite Mrs. Lewis' protests, helped Lizzie the shopgirl, in the shop. She enjoyed the work and found Lizzie was pleasant enough company with her pretty, Southern accent and sweet demeanour.
Everything was going smoothly and it seemed things would continue that way. Indeed, there was no reason for it not to. Everyone was in high good humour and looking forward to the wedding and departure. Even Fredrick had come out of his savage gloom and was helping in anyway he could.
The one slight problem was, surprisingly, Nellie O'Malley. Emilia had her room at Mrs. Webb's back and every chance Nellie got it seemed, she would make snide remarks about Emilia or Max. It seems she hadn't forgiven Emilia for her warning about her Henry Collins. Emilia had seen the latter and almost laughed aloud; the two Henrys were as different in appearance and Emilia and Nellie herself. Nellie's betrothed was a thin black haired man with small, rather beady eyes. He was attractive in his own way, not classically handsome as the other Henry but he seemed nice enough and Emilia was happy for Nellie.
Until he broke off the engagement to Nellie.
And go reengaged to someone else, some heiress from New York.
Perhaps Nellie was jealous of Emilia and understandably bitter about her own failed engagement for she never missed an opportunity to goad her. Emilia, understanding that she must be upset, tried to brush the insults off as gracefully as she could.
One morning however, Fredrick came to the boarding house to take Emilia along with him to the dressmaker's where his mother would be waiting for them. As soon as he peered into the dining room Nellie was ready.
"Have you changed your mind again, Emilia?" She asked. Her voice couldn't have been sweeter if you dipped it in honey and covered it in sugar, though her eyes were malicious.
"Oh no," Emilia laughed, standing up. "That seems to be Henry Collin's job," she smiled, just as sweetly back at Nellie who flushed bright scarlet and leapt to her feet, quivering.
"Henry may have changed his mind but at least I don't fling myself between him and his brother like some common hussy," Nellie's eyes blazed fury and Emilia blazed right back at her.
Nellie, being almost a head taller that Emilia, dwarfed her and she saw that she could use this to her advantage for she looked down her nose at Emilia with a mixture of disdain and poorly concealed rage. Emilia was equal to that however and she smiled wickedly at the other girl.
"Yes, that must've been hard to see me with two of the handsomest men in Boston while all you could find was some scrawny river weed for a betrothed." Though it was a rather low blow Emilia quite enjoyed the look of unrestrained fury on the other girl's face.
"You're all high and mighty now Miss Fisher," she retorted, her eyes flashing. "But just you wait, you'll regret the day you came here, Lewis brothers or not." "I don't think even you could ruin Boston for me," Emilia said cooly and turned on her heel, Fredrick following her closely, a badly concealed grin on his face. When they were out of the house he burst into laughter.
"Emilia Fisher I didn't know you had it in you," he beamed but faltered when he saw her troubled expression. "What's the matter? Surely you don't mean to let her words affect you? She's just jealous." "It isn't that, I couldn't care less what she thinks. It's what she'll do that worries me." Emilia replied, chewing her bottom lip.
"What do you mean? You don't think she'll try anything nasty, do you?"
"I don't know, I really don't know."
Emilia's concern didn't show for the rest of the day but Fredrick could see she was still worried. He told Max what happened later that day and Max, seeming to think the same as he did, nodded.
" I agree," he replied, "it's probably nothing. Just women's jealously and spite. I shouldn't worry too much. She can't really do anything."
The Lewis brothers were right and though Nellie continued to throw out rude comments at Emilia she never did anything worse.
She was soon forgotten however, (and crossed off the guest list) and Emilia continued about in the manic process of preparation. About a week before the wedding Max began to disappear into his room for hours at a time. Emilia rarely saw him but Fredrick reassured her that he was fine and besides, the tantalizing work of wedding preparations was still going on all around her.
Emilia had been to weddings before but she had never been involved very closely with them and she had never imagined how much work it was; there was endless dress fittings and meetings with the cooks of the inn that would be hosting the wedding breakfast. Flowers had to be decided on and ordered and guest lists were made up. Between watching Letty and Jane and working on the wedding Emilia was happy and exhausted at the end of every day.
Everything was almost ready and Emilia was nervous, despite, as Samuel stated many times, there was no reason to be. She had spent the last month spending as much time with Max as she could, before his frequent long absences, and he also reassured her there was nothing to worry about.
She was grateful when the day of the wedding came and nothing disastrous happened.
Her bridesmaids, who were Dinah Whitaker, Eva Olsen, Martha Ford and, though she had been surprised when Emilia had asked her, Emma Perkins, helped her dress and fix her hair.
She had daisies, heliotropes, lavender and myrtle in her bouquet as well as a crown of cosmos in her hair. Emma had painted Emilia's lips a dark pink and her complexion had been smoothed over, every blemish fixed and covered up. Emilia smiled at herself in the mirror, her heart speeding up as Samuel entered, announcing they had to be down the aisle in a minute.
"You look gorgeous," he kissed her cheek.
"Oh Samuel I'm so nervous," she fretted as Eva smoothed out her skirt.
"Well you have thirty seconds to calm your nerves," Dinah whispered, peering through the doors into the church.
A moment later Samuel took Emilia's arm and the procession started, Emilia doing her best to quell the apprehension in her chest. She focused on Max who stood by the altar next to his brother and best man. They wore, quite comically, matching green cravats that were a shade darker than their eyes. They were clad in identical suits and looked so similar that some of the audience wouldn't have been able to tell them apart except for the fact Max's waist coat was a dark Persian grey and Fredrick's was the same colour as his cravat, which he looked quite pleased about. Emilia reached the front of the room and grinned at her brother who stepped back, returning the sentiment. Max stepped next to her, looking happier than he had the day before, if that was possible. Emilia saw Jane and Lettie out of the corner of her eye. They sensed something important was going on and they watched, wide eyed in their frills and lace.
Emilia turned her attention back to the priest who was going through the vows. Max spoke, and then Emilia, smiling as the small gold band was slipped onto her finger.
They kissed.
People applauded.
They were married.
It was a simple as that.
Max and Emilia made their way through the applause of the small group of guests and into the waiting carriage.
"Are you happy?" Max asked her as the carriage pulled away towards the inn.
"Very, and you?" She turned to him and he leant down to kiss her. That was sufficient enough for her.
"I hope your mother will approve of me," he said, pulling away and she laughed, much to his surprise.
"Why ever wouldn't she?" "Because I'm an unsuccessful playwright and you're the daughter of an earl."
"My mother isn't like that. She wouldn't care if you were a sheep farmer as long as I was happy. She'll love you and I'm sure you'll love her. Oh, here we are." They had drawn up to the inn where the guests were waiting for them.
They had only invited twenty or so people but it was a merry party that sat down to breakfast with plenty of toasts and laughter. Mrs. Webb had even burst into tears, throwing herself at Emilia who laughed, but kindly, and hugged her old landlady.
"You've come so far dear," Mrs. Webb wiped her eyes and cried until Mrs. Lewis snapped that she would get tears in her food and it would become salty. Mrs. Webb laughed tearily and sniffed, though she still had to wipe away the occasional tear.
And, though it had passed by so quickly, Emilia was married. She was a wife with a husband and a daughter. It was unfathomable to her and she kept glancing at her ring as if to prove it wasn't some long dream.
When the breakfast, which lasted until noon, was over, Max took Emilia over to a corner of the room where the gifts were.
"I thought it would be a good time to give you my wedding gift." He said and she raised her eyebrows.
"Do you do something different in Boston? I thought guests gave the bride and groom gifts."
"They do, but this is special." He handed her the brown paper package. It was rectangular and the length of one and a half of her hands. She opened it, at a loss for what it could be. He watched her expression carefully as she drew out the printed manuscript. "This is what I working on the week I had been hidden away. I spent almost six complete days, nights included working on this." He smiled at her expression.
"An English Blossom," she read off the front and opened it, the pages of type making her eyes grow wild. "It's about us," she said, reading out a paragraph:
"Max had tried everything he could think of for locating Emilia but it was futile. He hadn't seen her and though he had doubted her would, how could he in a city as large as New York? He felt miserable and he boarded the train back to Boston, ready to admit defeat."
"That's what happened," he shrugged.
"Oh Max, this is amazing. I love it so very much, thank you," she kissed him again. "I shall start reading it as soon as possible." She smiled broadly and Max thought that if someone's chest could burst open from happiness, his would've.
Almost done, two more parts coming soon.
Please vote if you liked it and comment your thoughts.
-B