He released her. “Yes, I recall seeing you there.” He said. “I'm Charles Durham, the family pastor.” He gave them a brief nod. “Excuse me. I need to prepare for the ceremony. It will be held in there.” He pointed at the entrance to the nave. “Someone will seat you.” He turned and went through a side doorway, shutting it behind him with a distinct bang.
“Nice feller.” Andrew said, rocking up and down on his heels.
Ceci sighed. “What a wasted opportunity, really.” She started for the door to the chapel. “I had a perfectly good set of Samhain robes I could have worn to this thing.”
Dar followed them in, using the time as they stood in line to be seated to look around the place. She noticed they were noticed, people looking at them from their seats, or behind them in line and she returned the stares until they all looked elsewhere.
It was overt. Dar's face twitched as she acknowledged the sense of discomfort. The last time she'd had to interact with Kerry's family and their friends it had been at Kerry's father's funeral service, and the circumstances themselves had diverted attention from them.
But here, as invited guests, she could sense an undercurrent of outrage in this conservative community, not willing to accept the acceptance determinedly shown by Cynthia Stuart to them. She had to give Kerry's mother credit, the senator had stuck to her guns and welcomed them as family, with open arms, ignoring the distaste of her social circle and displaying a surprisingly solid backbone when her political and private councilors tried to derail her.
A young page guided them down the aisle to the second pew on the right hand side, where Angie and Kerry's brother Mike was already ensconced, along with a young lady in purple leather with one half of her head shaved.
“Nice.” Ceci nodded at her in satisfaction. “Hello there.” She greeted Michael.
“Hey.” Michael grinned at them, the ring in his nose catching the light. “Welcome to the dark side.” He indicated his companion. “This is my girlfriend Tracy.” He concluded “Trace, this is my sister in law, Dar, and her parents.”
Dar felt her sense of the absurd stir. “When does the juggler and the two headed dog show up?” She asked, as she took her seat next to him. “Kerry was worried her tat would raise eyebrows.”
Mike chuckled and sat down. “Yeah, I figure the rate we're going, we'll talk mom into a leather biker vest pretty soon.”
He leaned back as Tracey put her hand on his knee and leaned towards Dar. “Hey, you're the computer genius, aren't you?” She asked. “I saw you in the paper a couple months back.”
“More or less.” Dar admitted. “We did some work on the terrorist recovery.”
The woman nodded. “I'm one of the senior copywriters at the marketing firm we work for.” She indicated Michael. “My brother got sent to New York last month as part of the rebuilding team. He sent pictures back. Puts it in perspective, you know? We're writing copy to sell Jaegermeister shots and he's there.”
“It was pretty horrific.” Dar agreed quietly. “Something I will never forget.”
“Dar and my sister were there too.” Mike piped up. “I told you what was going on at the house when it was all happening, right?”
“You told me.” Tracey gave him a tolerant look.
The chapel was filling up, and the pew they were in gathered a few more people, older women and men who were, Dar figured, aunts and uncles of some kind. None of them seemed eager to talk, and after about ten minutes, they saw the pastor move to the front and the crowd quieted down.
Brian and his best man, a red haired and freckled specimen Dar didn't know moved to the front of the altar and stood there quietly, dressed in sharply creased morning suits and bow ties.
Then an usher came down the aisle escorting a woman, who was seated in the first pew on the other side.
“Brian's mom.” Mike whispered to Dar. “Freak show in a bowl.”
Dar nodded slightly. The woman was sitting bolt upright, a hat firmly perched on her head.
An organ started to play. It had a mellow, sweet tone and Dar folded her hands in her lap, cocking her head to listen to it. After a few minutes, her peripheral vision caught motion, and she turned her head to watch the procession coming in down the center aisle.
The sorority sisters, and three men in morning suits marched down, taking up their place near the altar, then Angie's young daughter Sally came trotting down, carrying a pillow with a small box on it, focusing on keeping the surface even as she ended up almost bumping into Brian's knees.
Dar glanced around to see if, by freakish chance, Angie's ex-husband Richard were around, but a quick scan didn't turn him up. Then she forgot about looking further as she spotted Kerry walking quietly up the aisle, eyes forward, ignoring the stares of the crowd.
Dar felt a smile stretch her lips as she watched her partner make the journey up to the altar, her sculptured, muscular shoulders shifting a little as she walked up and took her place across from Brian, regarding the crowd with an wary expression.
Then her eyes met Dar's and she smiled, folding her hands in front of her as she waited for Angie to arrive. The bridesmaids next to her were dressed in similar style, but in her partner's admittedly biased eyes Kerry's poised confidence easily outshone them and her understated beauty would likely do the same to her sister once the bride was in place.
Kerry glanced back over at her, and whatever she saw in Dar's expression made her blush slightly and she looked away, as Angie came up to the alter, escorted by their mother.
Cynthia gave Brian a little nod, then she seated herself in the first pew, her solitary presence lending an unexpected dignity to the moment.
Pastor Durham cleared his throat, and stepped forward, his eyes sweeping over the party, and his face twitching as he faced the bride and groom and put his back to the crowd. As he lifted his hands, a crackling pop sounded, and then all the lights went off.
Ceci sighed. “Somewhere, PT Barnum is laughing.”
Kerry sat on one of the dressing room benches, old pews re purposed in the small room. “Shoulda done this last week down by us, Ang.” She remarked. “You could have had it out on the little island Dar and I had our commitment ceremony on.”
Angie was sitting on another bench across from here with Brian next to her, and Sally sitting on Brian's lap. “You think they found enough candles yet?” She asked, looking wryly amused. “I know I should be upset about this but really it's just sort of funny.”
Her three bridesmaids were occupying the temporary chairs they'd brought in to do makeup from, and one of them was fluffing up the corsages with a mild, bored expression on her face.
“Very.” Brian agreed. “Especially since power's out all over town. I was listening to the local news on the radio and everyone's freaking out.”
“Well.” Kerry folded her hands on her knee, and wished she could go change into her jeans, mourning the fact they were back in her mother's house. “At least the house has a fireplace.”
“You volunteering to go chop firewood? She hasn't used it in probably ten years.” Her sister exhaled, glancing up as the door opened and Mike slipped in. “Hey. They ready?”
“The church is ready. The pastor is arguing with mom.” Mike came in and dropped down onto the bench Kerry was sitting on. “Saying all kinds of crap about how this was a sign God's pissed off with her.”
“What?” Kerry barked.
“What?” Angie echoed her.
“Jerk.” Mike shook his head. “He was telling her she's been living an immoral life and we all turned out to be scum buckets because of it.”