Gussie was glowing. Diana was happily running errands. She was no longer a suspect, and would be spending the night at Six Gables. Gussie whispered that Jim planned to tell Diana on Monday that Cordelia’s house would soon be hers. Would she choose to stay in Winslow? Who knew? Diana had her whole life ahead of her.
Maggie sat by the window overlooking the Bay, where the waves were breaking higher and much more dramatically than usual on the beach. New England was a beautiful place. Even in a hurricane.
At five-thirty Diana started announcing, “Attention, everyone! Cake! Cutting the cake!”
One of the caterers walked in carrying a beautiful floral-decorated cake that matched the one they’d seen in the bakery picture book.
He placed it on a table in the middle of the room, to the “oohs” and “ahhs” that usually accompanied the arrival of such a creation. And in this case, Maggie thought, they were deserved. The cake was a work of art.
Gussie and Jim stood together, holding a Victorian silver cake knife his aunt had given them as a wedding gift, ready for the classic pose and cut.
But the young man who’d brought in the cake stopped them. He whispered something. Gussie shook her head. Jim looked puzzled, but then looked over at his mother, shrugged, and grinned.
He put up his hands for silence. “As most of you know, I grew up in Georgia. In the South, it’s the custom to have two cakes at a wedding. One is the traditional wedding cake, like this one, which is cut by both the bride and groom to signify the beginning of their life together. The other is the groom’s cake. And, it seems that tonight, here in Winslow, we are carrying on that Southern tradition.”
The guests looked at each other in surprise. A groom’s cake was not a familiar custom in Winslow.
The young caterer raced back to the garage. He returned bearing a large flat cake in the shape of a flounder. It was covered with thick chocolate icing, and then carefully decorated with additional icing that outlined the fish’s scales. Hundreds of them.
Jim looked down at the cake. As did everyone else. He tried to keep a straight face as he continued his tutorial. “A groom’s cake is usually chocolate, often laced with liquor, and is shaped in a design symbolizing something important to him.” He looked at Gussie. “I may be wrong, but, my dear wife, I suspect you were not the one who ordered this cake in my honor.”
Gussie shook her head. She’d had a few glasses of champagne, and was trying her best not to burst into giggles.
“Mother?” Jim walked over to Lily, who was trying to back into the crowd. “Mother? Were you the wonderful person who ordered this special groom’s cake for me?”
“Oh, Jim!” said Lily, clearly aggravated. “It was supposed to be a surprise!”
“Well, I assure you it was!” said Jim, as more and more people started to laugh quietly. “What, may I ask, inspired you to have the cake made in the shape of a fish?”
Poor Lily looked as though she was going to burst into tears. “That Yankee baker! Our telephone connection was all static-y, and he must not have understood. I told him I wanted a cake in the shape of scales. Of justice! For a lawyer! He made it look like a dead fish.”
The guests erupted into laughter.
Jim reached over and hugged Lily. “And no one else in Winslow, Massachusetts, has ever had a cake like it. Thank you, Mother. It’s beautiful.”
He put his arm around her and brought her back to stand with him and with Gussie. “Gussie and I are going to cut the first slice of our wedding cake. And then I’m going to cut the first slice of my groom’s cake. And then, everyone, no excuses: it’s time for dessert!”
Will pulled a chair over next to Maggie’s as they watched Gussie and Jim perform the traditional cutting of the cake, and then Jim cutting the groom’s cake. Jim gave Lily the job of cutting the rest of the slices. She looked happy to do it, and even happier when more people wanted slices of the chocolate “dead fish cake” than of the white wedding cake.
“How does your ankle feel? Are you going to be all right to drive home tomorrow?” Will asked Maggie. They’d managed to smile politely but spend as little time as possible together during the reception.
“Luckily, it’s my left ankle. I’ll be fine,” said Maggie.
“This hasn’t exactly been a relaxing ten days for you.”
“Not exactly.”
“And you’re coming back in a couple of weeks to set up your print room at Gussie’s shop.”
“She and Jim invited me to come for Thanksgiving.” Maggie hesitated. “Will, do you think maybe if we had more time to talk, things could be different? Maybe you could come down from Maine then? I could ask them to set an extra place at their table.”
“Aunt Nettie’s planning on roasting an enormous bird and inviting the whole Brewer clan. She’s counting on my being there to help.”
“Oh.”
“I noticed you’re still wearing the R-E-G-A-R-D ring.”
“Do you want it back?”
Will hesitated. “No. I gave it to you. It’s yours.”
“Will, I do love you. Yesterday you caught me off guard.”
“You sure as hell surprised me, too.”
“You were right when you said I needed to be able to change. To compromise. But I have to think about what that means.”
“I love you, too, Maggie. And I’m willing to stretch. But I’ve always been serious when I said I couldn’t be a father. I don’t think I can be the man you want me to be.”
“You asked me a question yesterday. I messed up the answer. Can I have some more time to think it through?”
“How much more time do you need, Maggie? We’ve been together for a year and a half.”
“Another couple of months?”
Will sighed. “I don’t know what to say. I’m not sure that’s going to make a difference. But, all right. What about Christmas? You get a couple of weeks off from school. How does a Maine Christmas sound?”
“Christmas in Maine sounds wonderful.”
Will looked around at everyone celebrating the wedding, and then at Maggie. “I love you, Maggie. I do. But I can’t change the way I am.”
“I love you, too. And I don’t want to lose you.”
He reached for her hand and helped her to her feet. They turned and stood together, looking out at the rough waters on the Bay. “Maine, then. Christmas.”
About the Author
Lea Wait.Although Lea Wait did summer on Cape Cod once as a child, and has visited since, her heart belongs to Maine, where she writes full-time and lives with her artist husband. She’s the mother of four, grandmother of eight, and has been a fourth-generation antique print dealer since 1977. She also writes novels for young people. Shadows on a Cape Cod Wedding is the sixth in Wait’s Agatha-finalist Shadows mystery series. She may be visited at www.leawait.com and on Facebook.
Books by Lea Wait
In the Maggie Summer “Shadows” Antique Print Mystery Series
Shadows at the Fair
Shadows on the Coast of Maine
Shadows on the Ivy
Shadows at the Spring Show
Shadows of a Down East Summer
Shadows on a Cape Cod Wedding
Novels for children and young adults
Stopping to Home
Seaward Born
Wintering Well
Finest Kind