it carefully out of the box, as Ruby stared at it, and then gasped as her grandmother held it up. She had never seen anything so beautiful in her life. Then she took out the veil, which looked as lovely as the day they had put it away. Wilson had packed it up the day Eleanor and Alex left on their honeymoon. She was glad now that they had not sold it when they sold everything else, including most of her mother’s fur coats and some evening gowns, in 1929. They had sold everything for almost nothing.
Eleanor carefully undid the buttons and Ruby took her skirt and top off. Eleanor slipped the dress on her effortlessly. The dress was heavy, with the embroidery and the pearls, but it went on easily and was perfectly balanced so the person wearing it didn’t feel the weight. She fastened all the tiny buttons, and then Ruby turned to look at herself in the mirror and gasped again. The most beautiful bride she’d ever seen was staring at her in the mirror. Even the length was perfect, the arms, the tiny waist. Eleanor gently put the veil on her head and adjusted it, and told her she had kept the tiara that she had worn with it. It was one of the few pieces of jewelry she had left, but she hadn’t been able to part with it.
“Oh, Grandma, can I wear it?” Ruby asked breathlessly, and Eleanor could almost imagine Madame Lanvin smiling at her, and her own mother, and Wilson discreetly in the background. Eleanor knew that Wilson was still alive in Ireland at ninety-eight, and Houghton had passed on several years before.
“Of course, you can wear it, my darling. Nothing would make me happier than to see you in that dress.” She hugged her granddaughter, wishing that things had been different, that Camille were still alive, and she had worn it too, instead of the way her life had turned out and ended so tragically. But things happened for a reason, and Ruby had been the greatest gift in her life and in Alex’s. Now she would be starting her life with Zack, in Eleanor’s wedding dress.
She helped Ruby take the dress and veil off, and they folded it away carefully in its box. She was going to hang it and air it, when they got back from Lake Tahoe, but in the meantime, it was safely put away, waiting for the Big Day.
When they left Eleanor’s room, it was as though they shared a special secret. Eleanor couldn’t wait to see Ruby in it on her wedding day, and Zack’s and Alex’s faces when she wore it.
* * *
—
Ruby had to struggle not to tell Zack about the dress when she saw him an hour later. She wanted to keep it a secret until he saw it on their wedding day. He didn’t even know the dress existed. She hadn’t said anything since she didn’t know how it would work out or if she would want to wear it.
They had been engaged for a month and after trying on the dress, Ruby really felt like a bride now. The wedding was falling into place. Everything had happened so quickly that the reality hadn’t sunk in yet. They had been friends until now, and they were getting married in three months. They hadn’t even slept with each other. It was hard to find the opportunity. She lived with her grandparents and he lived in an abysmal apartment an hour away in Palo Alto. He didn’t want the first time he made love to her to be among the secondhand remnants of his college life. And they hadn’t even looked for a place to live yet, since they were planning to stay at her grandparents’ for a while.
Zack didn’t really care where he lived. They had talked about going away for a romantic weekend, but hadn’t had time to. Her grandmother had said he could stay in the cottage with Ruby in Tahoe. They were surprisingly modern about things like that. After all, they were engaged and the subject had never come up before. She’d never brought a boyfriend home, had never been in love before, and had only had sex twice in her life, with a boy she wasn’t in love with, when she had too much to drink at a party in college. But she and Zack were excited and feeling shy about making love for the