I looked from one to the other to my father. They were all staring at me and smiling like parents enjoying their child. The realization rolled about under my heart.

I was feeling more like a ward of my husband and not an independent, mature woman who was his wife, and my parents looked like they approved of it.

Most frightening of all, I realized that I was doomed to be a prisoner of Foxworth Hall once I began to show my pregnancy, at least until after the baby was born. The chains and the bars would be invisible, but nevertheless, they were there.

Maybe I’m wrong, I hoped. Maybe it was all just a silly young girl’s reaction because everything was happening so quickly.

Garland’s love for me was too strong for him to permit a drop of unhappy rain.

He put down his empty glass and stepped forward to take my arm. “The future Mr. and Mrs. Garland Foxworth will lead you both to dinner,” he said, and took my glass from my hand, even though I had drunk less than half, and put it on a table. “Mrs. Foxworth,” he said, and gestured at the door. “Shall we?”

I stepped forward quicker than he did. I was in my father’s stream, and I was swimming faster than the current, clinging to what was left of myself.

Chapter 13

Garland wanted the house to look exceptionally festive for our first family dinner. We all descended into the well-lit foyer.

Garland held out his arm for my mother. My father and I followed them.

“You’re marrying quite the charmer, Corrine,” he whispered.

“Should I be worried, Daddy?”

He raised his eyebrows and then smiled and said, “But you’re quite the charmer, too, daughter.”

When I have to be, I thought, when I have to be.

My mother hadn’t ever drunk as much wine at any dinner, but Garland was pouring and insisted he had the best wines imported from France. He had four bottles out, each from a different region, and wanted my parents to try every one. He was hesitant to pour me any and gave me barely a taste. The talk was quite spirited about our wedding ceremony, and the more Garland described something else he had added or something else that would entertain our guests, like portrait photographs celebrating our occasion, the more excited I became. He hadn’t exaggerated when he declared that I was going to be the center of one of the biggest social events in Virginia.