Stewart Throckmorton was the new rector of St. Thomas’s, having succeeded the Reverend Curtis Lamont on the death of that worthy man, and came out from Highboro to perform the ceremony on Thanksgiving Day. It was a quietly happy occasion with only the family attending. The one indiscreet, mean remark that was made, and it caused Blair Saxon to blush, was Annabel’s to Rachel: “I declare I never saw such a lucky girl—to capture both my brothers! Blair Junior! Bonard! If you love me, don’t run about so—it is a solemn event. Didn’t Mama tell you before we came to behave?”

James and Rachel sat down to dinner with the whole family after the marriage was performed just at noon. The couple then drove alone to Oaks in James’s buggy. They spent the remainder of the daylight hours in a long, slow walk about the grounds of Oaks, talking quietly, Rachel looking at everything in a new way, knowing that one day she would be mistress there. They supped alone by candlelight with only Violet to attend them and retired to the room Edna and Doreen had prepared for Rachel and Adam.

When Bruce and Edna and Doreen went home to Oaks after a late supper at Beulah Land, rain had started. It come on harder as the night passed. Rachel and James lay without touching on the big bed in what had once been Bonard’s room and Selma’s bridal chamber. Neither slept. They had not spoken to each other since getting into bed, but lay listening to the sound of the pounding rain outside.

After a while James pretended to sleep, breathing in a regular way, hoping thereby to quiet whatever anxieties Rachel might have. But when she began to cry, he knew it, although she made little noise, not wanting to disturb him. He supposed she wept for the wedding night Adam’s death had denied her. His throat ached with love and pity, but he dared not turn and offer comfort.

17

Others than Rachel and James lay awake that night and listened to the rain.

Selma remembered her own wedding night twenty-five years ago and turned to her friend, who guessed the drift of her thinking and was waiting to comfort her.