The Prince of Spies (Hope and Glory #3) - Elizabeth Camden Page 0,79
of men in uniform. There were probably half a dozen officers here, but Luke instinctively focused on his rival. Colonel Phelps wore his blue dress uniform with epaulets at the shoulders and a chest full of medals and ribbons. The colonel caught Luke’s gaze and sent him a polite nod.
Luke turned around. He wasn’t going to let that man spoil his enjoyment of Caroline’s wedding, but he didn’t feel the need to extend the hand of friendship either.
Nathaniel stepped into place at the front of the church, dressed in tails, a starched white collar, and an indigo satin vest. Nathaniel usually dressed like a puritan, but there was nothing fusty about him today. He looked flushed with good health and happiness.
Then Nathaniel’s eyes widened in surprise, and quiet whispers stirred through the crowd. Luke turned to see what had caused the commotion, and it wasn’t hard to see. Ida McKinley, the former first lady of the United States, was walking down the aisle with the aid of a cane on one side and her middle-aged sister on the other. Caroline had been Ida’s personal secretary and almost like a daughter to the infamously difficult first lady. Their falling out last year was a wound that still ached for Caroline.
Nathaniel beamed at Mrs. McKinley’s unexpected arrival and stepped forward to escort her into the pew behind Luke. A few minutes later, the organ began playing Mendelssohn’s classic wedding march, filling the church with its joyful and majestic chords. Pride filled Luke’s chest, and he turned to see the church doors at the end of the aisle open, revealing Gray and Caroline.
She looked as radiant as a queen. The bodice of the gown had a high collar and long sleeves made of ivory satin but shot through with gold embroidery. She beamed as Gray walked her down the aisle. Luke flashed her a wink, and she winked back.
Then she saw Mrs. McKinley, and her composure cracked. Once Caroline was alongside the older woman, she dropped Gray’s arm and leaned over to embrace the former first lady.
“Thank you for coming,” she whispered. “A thousand times, thank you!”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Ida McKinley said. “Although it looks like you’re driving your brother into the poorhouse with that gown.”
Caroline beamed. “You would be disappointed in me if I didn’t.”
Luke laughed but still had to reach for a handkerchief. His embarrassing tendency for getting weepy-eyed was coming on strong, and it looked like Caroline’s wedding was going to be his Waterloo.
The wedding reception was held in a clubhouse on the outskirts of town. It was a good thing the weather was fine, allowing them to open the French doors so the crowd could spill out onto the flagstone patio. Flowers adorned the tables, music filled the air, and uniformed waiters circulated with a selection of delicacies.
Luke ate nothing. His stomach growled during the champagne toasts, during which he casually held aloft a flute of wine to toast the bride—it would have looked awkward if he hadn’t—but he was still a member of the Poison Squad and needed to abstain from eating or drinking anything other than plain water.
He met Gray’s eyes across the dance floor. His older brother raised a toast to him and drained the glass. This was a change of pace! Luke was supposed to be the hard-living, reckless one. Now, when he should have been popping corks and kicking up his heels at Caroline’s wedding, he obeyed the rules and didn’t let a morsel pass his lips while Gray picked up the slack.
It was stuffy inside the clubhouse, so he made his way outside into the warm evening. Then a tiny old woman with a surprisingly strong grip pulled him aside to castigate him for supporting Caroline’s work on the McMillan Commission.
“Tell your sister I cannot countenance the removal of the arboretum outside the Department of Agriculture,” she said in an iron-hard voice. “Those trees are a treasure to the city, a green oasis amidst the concrete rubble.”
“Ma’am, they will be replaced by miles of open parkland. The view will be—”
“Who cares about a view?” she barked. “It’s shade trees this city needs.”
Others joined the conversation. Political chatter was commonplace whenever more than a dozen people in Washington gathered, and soon the talk drifted to the upcoming budget, the restructuring of the War Department, and even the arrival of two bald eagles at the zoo. Maybe it wasn’t the thing to discuss politics at a wedding, but Luke loved it.