Lucy Gordon: Bride By Choice

‘Guido I’m afraid you’re going to have to stay here,’ Helen said, looking about her, ‘with the livestock.’

‘No problem,’ he said. ‘I’ll call a garage to rescue the car, then a friend of mine who has a farm.’

‘Fine. Take good care of my pigs. I’m going to give them to my husband as a wedding present.’

At last the back of the cart was empty. Guido went to the car, returning with a note pad and pen, and a blanket. While Helen scribbled her note of hand he spread out the blanket where the pigs had been.

‘Now your dress stays clean,’ he said, assisting her into the back.

‘Thank you, Guido. Poppa, come on.’

Her father was regarding her aghast. ‘Me?’ he roared. ‘You expect me to travel in that?’

‘You’ve got to give me away.’

‘If the family finds out I’ll never live it down.’

‘Well they won’t,’ she said exasperated. ‘I promise not to tell Aunt Lucia in Maryland, so she can’t tell Aunt Zita in Idaho, and she can’t tell Aunt Clarrie in Los Angeles. Now, Poppa, quit arguing and get into the cart. ’

He stared. ‘What did you say to your Poppa?’

‘I said get into the cart, and I meant it. I’m going to be there to marry Lorenzo, and you’re going to be there to give me away.’

‘Stop looking nervous,’ Renato advised his brother. ‘She’ll be here at any moment.’

‘She should have been here five minutes ago,’ Lorenzo said worriedly. ‘Bernardo, go and check.’

‘I’ve just got back from checking. Angie and Heather are here and they say Helen was following just behind.’

‘Then where is she?’

‘She’ll be here,’ Renato assured him. ‘Look, I know what you’re thinking, and forget it. Elena is a honest woman. If she was going to stand you up she wouldn’t just vanish. She’d come here and say so.’

Lorenzo turned appalled eyes on him and Bernardo muttered, ‘You might have put that better.’

Lorenzo tried to shut out the sound of their voices, and the consciousness that the congregation was getting restless. He knew what they were thinking and he wanted to shout at them that they were wrong. His Elena loved him, and wouldn’t do this to him. It was different from last time. Now, as well as love, they had trust and understanding.

But as the minutes ticked past with no sign of her his dread grew, and his future appeared before him-a blank of misery, because the woman he loved had abandoned him in the most callous way imaginable.

‘What was that?’ Renato asked suddenly.

Lorenzo forced himself back to reality. ‘What?’

‘I thought I heard cheering.’

‘So did I,’ Bernardo said. ‘And applause. Somewhere outside. I’m going to see.’

He almost ran down the aisle and found his wife hurrying towards him, almost dancing in her excitement. ‘Come quickly,’ she said, grasping his hand.

At the cathedral door Bernardo took one look at the incredible sight before dashing back and roaring down the length of the cathedral, ‘Lorenzo, come and look at this!’

Then, not only Lorenzo, but half the congregation was on the move, hurrying out into the sunshine, adding their cheers to the crowd when they saw what was happening. Even the choir hurried out and began hollering and dancing with glee.

A vehicle was approaching down the length of the Corso Vittorio Emanuele, and attracting a good deal of attention. Traffic was halting, drivers leaning out and cheering, policeman grinned and waved the vehicle through, while crowds of smiling people lined the road.

‘If I’m not very much mistaken,’ Renato said, ‘that’s Enrico Cacelli’s pig cart.’

‘And in the back…’ Bernardo said.

‘Yes,’ Lorenzo said in a daze. ‘In the back…’

‘Any other woman,’ Renato observed, ‘goes to her wedding in a car.’

A smile was breaking over Lorenzo’s face. ‘But my Elena is like no other woman in the world.’

The bride saw him and waved frantically. As the cart rumbled into the piazza he began to run. Enrico Cacelli drew the mule to a halt so suddenly that Helen almost tumbled out of the back, into Lorenzo’s arms.

‘The car-’ she began, and the rest was cut off by his mouth. When she could speak again she said breathlessly, ‘I was so afraid you’d think I wasn’t coming.’

‘I never doubted you for one moment,’ Lorenzo said emphatically. He lifted her high in strong arms. ‘Now,’ he said firmly, ‘we go to church, and I’m not letting go of you until you’re Signora Martelli.’

‘That’s all I want to be,’ she assured him joyfully.

‘Then let’s go.’

The crowd cheered and applauded, the choir burst into the Jubilate , and the sound followed Lorenzo Martelli and Elena Angolini into the cathedral for the wedding that had waited too long.