A Groom With a View by Jill Churchill Read Free Book Online

geezer," Eden said, giving him a hug. She took charge of introducing him to the other bridesmaids, Kitty and Layla. He hardly glanced at Kitty, who looked especially clunky in baggy jeans and an oversized t-shirt, but he gazed as if mesmerized at Layla.
    “Quit staring," Eden told him bluntly. "And say hello to Iva and Marguerite.”
    He nodded curtly. They barely looked up from their cornbread and stew to acknowledge his presence. Their disapproval of him couldn't be more obvious.
    Mrs. Crossthwait was the last to arrive. She carefully avoided meeting Jane's questioning gaze.
    “Are you making progress, Mrs. Crossthwait?" Jane asked.
    “No, I've been taking a nap all afternoon," she snapped sarcastically. The "aura" of the place — or more likely Jane's nagging — was getting on her nerves. "Of
course I'm
making progress. You don't think I want these girls to wear dresses that aren't the best I can do, do you?" She smiled at Iva and Marguerite, her contemporaries, for approval. The aunts merely looked confused.
    Jane sighed and let it go. She'd check after dinner on just how far along the seamstress was when the cranky old dear didn't have an audience for her complaints. The last thing she needed was
three
little old ladies talking her to bits.
    Mrs. Crossthwait didn't approve of dinner. "It's too salty and I can tell you've used real butter," she accused.
    “But of course I have," Mr. Willis said, drawing himself up to his full five feet four.
    “Shouldn't a young man like you be more concerned with the health of the people he's feeding?"
    “I wasn't aware I was going to be feeding
you,"
Mr. Willis replied with an out-and-out sneer. Larkspur applauded the caterer's performance and the aunts glared at Jane as if this distasteful brouhaha were all her fault. The spotty skivvy cowered in the corner of the room like somebody from a Dickens novel.
    It was all Jane could do to keep herself from banging her head on the table.
    “Let's all play nice, darlings," Eden said.
    Their dinner was interrupted several times by the lights flickering as the storm gathered force again. Mrs. Crossthwait screeched with alarm every time there was a clap of thunder. A gust of strong wind blew the front door open and Uncle Joe voluntarily went to close it, which was a sur- prise to Jane. It must have been to the aunts as well, as they whispered together when he'd left. After Mr. Willis had served strawberry shortcake with real whipped cream, which they all ate in spite of protestations about being too full to swallow another bite, the group started drifting away.
    The three bridesmaids and Larkspur settled around a big table in the main room with a jigsaw puzzle and a very staticky radio to see if they could get a weather forecast. The aunts sat by the fireplace, whispering ferociously to each other.
    “They're up to something, Jane," Shelley said.
    “It sure looks like it. But what? They wouldn't sabotage Livvy's wedding just to spite me, would they?”
    Uncle Joe, apparently feeling confident that Jane wasn't going to think of anything for him to do, stuck around for a while. He drifted toward the aunts, but didn't sit down with them. Instead, he sank into a chair nearby and made a big production of reading a newspaper. Lots of flapping of pages and intense scrutiny of newsprint to cover the fact that he, too, obviously wanted to know what kind of plot the aunts were hatching.
    Jane let Mrs. Crossthwait off the hook for a bit. She could hardly rush her straight from dinner to work. She checked her watch and made a mental note to give the woman half an hour of leisure. Mrs. Crossthwait hovered around the jigsaw puzzle group. "Mrs. Jeffry probably won't agree, but there are good reasons for not finishing thedresses too far ahead," she said loudly enough to make sure Jane could hear her.
    “Oh?" Eden said mildly, as she took a piece of the puzzle away from Larkspur and fitted it in place.
    “How utterly clever you are," Larkspur