The first thing to be thankful for, John realized when he got to Thomasina’s just before six, was the fact that the private room they had reserved for the rehearsal dinner really was private, isolated on the second floor, above the main dining room. The second good thing was the fact that Rob and Kai were right behind him, because otherwise he might have bolted when he saw Lucy Ogilvie already established at a table, deep in conversation with Harriet Darling.

John took a deep breath and raised his voice in what he hoped was friendly greeting. “Mama, don’t you look pretty this evening.”

She got up and came toward her sons, both hands outstretched so that the jewels on them caught light and shot it out again. “Now, boys,” she said, “how could I stay away, with Caroline going to all that trouble to make sure I was invited?” She went up on tiptoe to kiss John on the cheek, and whispered in his ear.

“Just say the word, sugar, and I’ll go, if you really want me to. But I do hope you’ll let me stay for all the fun.”

This was pure Lucy, endearing and infuriating all at once, and John laughed. He said, “Of course you have to stay, Mama. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Liar.” She winked at him and hooked arms with Rob and Kai. “Come on, children, let’s you and me go find a drink. Here come the rest of the Rose girls, and we don’t want to be in the way, do we?”

John took a deep, steadying breath and turned just in time to greet the four elder Rose girls as they came up the stairs, all of them looking slightly frazzled. Eunice took his hands and kissed his cheek and said, “I hope you don’t mind, John, but our husbands are all over at the hospital playing poker with Tab.”

“What Eunice is trying not to say,” Connie added, throwing her sister a fierce look, “is that we have an uprising on our hands. The husbands smell trouble and they have closed ranks because they don’t want any part of it.”

John tried to look surprised, but knew he had failed, because Pearl was scowling at him. “Oh, sure. Go ahead and laugh, but I warn you, worse is to come. Everybody is going crazy, your fiancée included.”

She marched off with Eunice trailing after her; Connie headed toward Kai, which might be a disaster in the making but there was nothing John could do about it just now, because Caroline was coming up the stairs with her mother on one side and Father Bruce on the other.