moose and had it delivered to Dalton as remuneration for poaching.”
Delphi had never, ever actually heard anyone use the term remuneration in a sentence. “Fantastic,” she said regarding the moose payment.
“You’ll see soon enough.”
“About going to the wedding tomorrow—”
“It’s great timing. It’ll be fun. Liam is Merrilee and Bull’s nephew and with Merrilee the town founder and mayor, well, they’re the version of Good Riddance royalty. Everyone will be there.”
“All I have is a very casual dress.”
“That’s all you need. You can meet everyone and you’ll see dishes there you never imagined—moose stew, caribou jerky, smoked halibut. You must be exhausted with the travel and the time change. I’ll run you back into town after dinner so you can get some rest. Tomorrow’s going to be another big day for you.”
Apparently it would be. Because apparently Delphi was going to a wedding.
5
DELPHI SHIFTED ON the wood pew to get a better look around.
It was the oddest thing to be sitting at a wedding of people she’d only just met, surrounded by people she mostly didn’t know. She’d been given accurate information—there was a wide range of dress attire, from jeans and T-shirts to formal dresses and coat and tie. It was, however, all lovely.
The nondenominational church was very simple. No stained glass graced the windows. The pews, obviously hand-hewn, boasted clean lines. The gleaming wood floors were dirt-free but worn, complimenting the white-washed walls. There was no choir loft or ornamentation. A plain wooden pulpit stood in the front of the room. To its right sat a highly polished ebony Steinway baby grand piano.
She leaned in close to Skye and murmured, “A baby grand? Really?”
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it? It was donated by a wealthy tourist who spent last summer fishing here. He also foots the bill on having a piano tuner flown out every three months to keep it sounding perfect.”
“Wow.”
“I know. But it gets a lot of use. Jefferson gives free piano lessons on Tuesday nights.”
The piano should have looked incongruous. Instead it flowed beautifully with the room’s simplicity. It was as if everything else was deliberately void of ornamentation to showcase the instrument’s elegance.
The room imparted a soothing tranquillity, which had been absent from so many of the churches Delphi had been in over the years. A spirit of peace prevailed.
Two pillar candles at the front, flanking boughs of evergreens, carried the theme of simplicity. Delphi caught the occasional scent of jasmine. Above the quiet murmur of voices in the church, the sound of birdsong drifted through the windows, carried on the breeze that ruffled through the room.
A well-dressed man whom she recognized as one of the older gentlemen playing chess in the airstrip office yesterday made his way to the piano and sat down.
Skye leaned over and whispered in Delphi’s ear. “Jefferson is a former jazz player. His instrument of choice is the saxophone but he plays the piano and cello, as well.”
Good Riddance certainly had an interesting array of people. He glanced over his shoulder and smiled at everyone. The room quieted. Outside, however, the birds were impervious and continued their own songs.
Flexing his fingers, Jefferson ran through a series of notes or chords or whatever—Delphi was piano illiterate—in what was obviously a warm-up. He segued into the song known to Delphi as a tune she’d heard numerous times at her gran’s. In her head she could hear Sinatra crooning about fairy tales coming true as he sang “Young at Heart.”
And in the back of her mind, ever since they’d shown up at the church, she’d been wondering and waiting to see Lars. She’d heard him moving about in his room last night and this morning but rather incredibly, considering their rooms were right next to one another and given the size of the town, they hadn’t bumped into one another. She’d heard him but hadn’t seen him since yesterday evening’s kiss.
Beside her, Skye whispered, “Aw, that’s sweet. Tansy’s book is about finding your fairy tale romance.”
“Appropriate.” Delphi thought it was a nice sentiment, but thus far the fairy tale that had transpired in her life was more along the lines of the Brothers Grimm.
A very colorful, to put it politely, woman with bright red hair, turquoise eye shadow and melon-colored lipstick walked up the front. She wore a vintage pink satin evening gown and matching turban with bedraggled pink and orange feathers adorning the turban’s front. Settling one hand on the piano, she faced the group and smiled. She was missing a few teeth and