Chapter Seven

      Seattle's version of Romeo stood beneath his Juliet's window at dawn on New Year's morning 1873 and patiently tossed pebbles at the glass until she appeared.

      "Joshua? Is that you?"

      "How'd you sleep?" he asked as softly as he could so as not to disturb the other brides.

      "Not very well. I'm too excited. How about you?"

      "The same."

      "So what are you doing here?" she yawned. "Changed your mind already?"

      "Not a chance! I came to see what you're going to look like in the morning."

      "Well, what's the verdict?" she asked turning her profile to him.

      He gazed at her for a moment. The early morning sun cast a soft light over her features and made her golden hair shine like a halo about her face.

      "I'll let you know when you come down."

      "Come down? Now?"

      "I have a surprise for you," he said, rubbing his hands together to keep them warm.

      "I'll be right there." Kate brushed her hair, washed her face, dressed quickly and made her way down the stairs. She slipped out the back door and right into Joshua's waiting arms. He kissed her as though he hadn't seen her for years. "You're going to be the most beautiful bride Seattle's ever seen," he whispered.

      "Seattle's not going to see me," she grinned.

      "Their loss."

      "Josh, I don't know that I've ever been so excited and scared and…Where's the surprise?"

      He took her by the hand and led her up the forest path. "I found it last night when we got back to town and brought it out here before Jason and Jeremy woke."

      "Well, for heaven's sake, what is it?" Kate was nearly busting with curiosity.

      "Do you see this?" he asked a squirrel observing them from a stump nearby. "She just can't stand not knowing everything."

      "Joshua!"

      He laughed at her impatience as he headed to a clump of bushes.

      "It's in here."

      He disappeared for a moment then reappeared dragging a large oaken chest from behind the brush.

      "Do you recognize this?" he asked her.

      "Of course I do." Kate knelt down beside the chest and ran her hand over the initials that had been burned into the darkened wood decades before. "J. C. B. Jean Cameron Bolt. Your parents gave you the same middle name."

      "Because I was as blonde as all the other Camerons," he smiled. "The surprise is inside."

      Kate lifted the lid and let out a little gasp.

      "It's for you, love, for today, that is if you want to wear it."

      Katie removed the dress Jean Bolt had worn on her wedding day thirty-two years before. She held it up to her and smoothed out the wrinkles in the heavy silk.

      "Oh, Joshua! Your mother used to let me see it if I behaved myself." Kate smiled at the memory. "I'd forgotten how gorgeous it is."

      The ivory colored material had mellowed slightly through the years but that only made the dress more beautiful in Kate's eyes. The delicate Scottish lace that covered the bodice was just as soft as the day Jean's mother had sewn it into place.

      "Don't forget this," Joshua removed the veil from the depths of the trunk. As he placed it over her hair he noticed a tear in the corner of her eye.

      "What's this?" he asked as he caught the droplet on his finger.

      "Wearing Aunt Jean's dress. It'll seem like she's right here with us." Her voice caught on a sob. "Oh, Josh, I wish so much that our parents could be here today."

      Joshua recognized the storm signals and quickly thought of a way to fend off her oncoming tears. He took the dress from her and held it up to himself.

      "Hey, I think I might be able to fit into this. Yep, it'll be a real tight squeeze but I can do it."

      Kate laughed at the picture he'd just planted in her mind.

      "That style won't do a thing for your figure."

      "You don't think so?"

      "Not a bit."

      "Oh, I think I'll look great. Just watch!" The groom headed for a large bolder a few paces away. "Imagine me coming down the aisle like this."

      Joshua disappeared behind the rock in order to make a grand entrance. At that moment Kate caught sight of Clancey moving in their direction from the Seamus. He hadn't noticed them yet but he would certainly hear her if she tried to warn Joshua. In the wink of an eye, Katie scooted up the nearest tree until she was safely hidden within its branches.

      Joshua held the gown up before him as he sashayed himself around the rock humming the Wedding March. He spun around once then curtsied with eyes downcast as primly as any proper maiden should.

      "What the divil are ye up to young Bolt?" Clancey asked aghast.

      Joshua's eyes popped open and his complexion turned five shades of red as he realized that his audience was not his beautiful bride-to-be but a salty old sea captain.

      "Clancey, I didn't hear you coming."

      "That's no real comfort, lad. What the divil are you doing out here with that… that..." The poor man couldn't even say the word. He just shook his finger at the gown Joshua was hurriedly trying to stuff back into the chest.

      "Ssh, Clancey, you'll wake everyone. It's all right. I mean...It's all perfectly innocent...Katie and I were..."

      "Katie?" Clancey glanced around him.

      Joshua had never looked more flustered. Kate was nowhere in sight.

      "I was. We were... Well, Clancey we were talking about clothes for...for an article she's doing and...I...I told her we still had a dress of my mother's and she said she wanted to see it, so..."

      "So, y' thought y' might model it for her is that it?" Clancey asked incredulously.

      "No, Clancey... well, yes, we were..." Joshua's eyes scanned the entire area for any sight of his accomplice. Finally, he gave up with a sigh. "There's no way you're going to believe me so I'm not even going to try."

      The captain started to chuckle over the entire situation. When the chuckle blossomed into loud guffaws, Joshua shushed him.

      "Clancey, do me a favor and forget about this, will you?"

      "Oh, don't worry, bucko, your secret's safe with me."

      "Clancey, I don't have a secret. I was only trying to..."

      "Every man's entitled to a little mornin' jig through the trees, I always say."

      "Clancey!"

      "But I'd advise yez to wear somethin' else to the New Year's party this afternoon, young Bolt. Some of the ladies might show up wearin' somethin' similar and y' know how women are about dat kind of t'ing."

      The Captain continued on toward Lottie's shaking his head and laughing the entire way. As soon as he disappeared, Kate dropped out of the tree and stood beside her fiancé. She had been holding back her laughter for so long she could barely breathe.

      "Josh, I'm sorry." She tried desperately to apologize with a straight face as he glared at her. "I saw him coming and I couldn't warn you. I thought he'd head the other way but then you started singing and...." A smile was pulling at the corners of her mouth. "I'm sorry, really."

      "Oh, sure you are...Now, Clancey thinks that I..." he couldn't go on. Kate stepped in to him and wrapped her arms about his waist.

      "No, he doesn't, dear heart. If he did, he sure wouldn't be laughing. Listen, in a few hours he'll understand everything."

      "I guess you're right," he growled.

      Kate smiled. "That bit about the clothing article was pretty fast thinking."

      Joshua shook his head. "If we weren't getting married today I'd toss you in the Sound for disappearing like that."

      She stepped up on a rock to stand nose to nose with him.

      "That's right Mr. B, by tonight I'll be your wife 'til death do us part." Her eyes twinkled merrily. "Clancey's imagination is the least of your worries."

      Joshua was just about to reply when the chatter of women's voices spilled out from the kitchen window a few yards away. He hoisted his mother's trunk to his shoulder and headed for the Bolt barn.

      "I'm going to tell the Reverend the plan then I'll see you up at the cabin, love."

      "I'll be there as fast as I can," she promised. "Um, Josh, if I'm not there before you, and the mood hits, wait for me before you try on that dress again. I couldn't see you very well from behind those branches and I'd hate to miss the fashion show."

      Joshua started to deliver another threat but she hurried back into the dorm and then to her room to finish packing.

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