“Good morning, Mrs. Fullerton, Did you sleep well?”

“Relatively.” She gazed at Serena, and did not ask her the same question. Her eyes were calculating and very, very cold. “I've been thinking that it might be wiser if you declared yourself ill today, rather than go to the wedding. You have the perfect excuse at your disposal.” She was referring of course to the baby. But Serena looked shocked. She had no desire whatsoever to go to the wedding, but she knew it would cause talk if she didn't go.

“I don't know if Brad—”

“Of course it's up to you. But in your shoes, I would think that you'd be grateful to spare yourself the embarrassment. This is Pattie's day after all, you might think of that, and not cause her more pain than you already have.” Serena wanted to give in to her urge to cry but instead she nodded in silence.

“I'll think about it.”

“See that you do that.” And with those final words, she left the kitchen. The servants were bustling about somewhere else, and Serena let herself down into a chair and blew her nose softly. After she'd pulled herself together, she poured Brad his coffee, made her cup of tea, put both on a tray, and walked slowly upstairs, trying to decide what to do, and when she reached their room, she knew that she had no choice. If her mother-in-law wanted her to stay away from the wedding, then she wouldn't be there. Ana perhaps it was better that way.

As she let herself into their room with the tray, she heaved a small sigh, and Brad looked up as he heard her.

“Something wrong, love?”

“No … I—I have a terrible headache.”

“Do you?” He looked instantly worried. “Why don't you lie down? It must have been all the dancing last night.”

Serena smiled at him. “It's not that. I'm just tired.” And then, as she lay down on the bed, she looked up at him. “You know, I feel awful saying it, Brad, but … I don't think I should go.”

“Do you feel that ill?” He looked surprised, this morning she wasn't even pale, and she had drunk her tea very quickly, something she didn't do, he had noticed, when she wasn't feeling well. “Do you want me to call the doctor?”

“No.” She sat up in bed and kissed him. “Do you think your brother will forgive me?”

“Yes. If you want to stay home, I won't push you.”

“Thank you.” She watched him get ready a little while later, and her heart felt heavy, not because of what she was missing, but because of the reason she was. Margaret Fullerton was ashamed of her and wanted to do everything possible to keep her away. It made Serena feel shut out and unwanted. No matter how much Brad loved her, it hurt not to have his family accept her too.

“You okay, love?” He glanced at her on the bed as he put his top hat in place and pulled on his gloves. He looked very dashing in the cutaway and striped trousers, the gray top hat, and gray gloves. It was going to be a very elegant wedding, and Serena was suddenly sorry to miss it. Teddy knocked on the door a moment later, wearing the same costume and holding a sprig of lily of the valley for Brad to put in his lapel.

“They'll think I'm the groom, I can't wear that.” He made a face.

“No, they won't, his is bigger.” And then he looked startled as he looked from Serena to Brad and then back to the bed again. “What's the matter, aren't you going?”

“I don't feel well.”

“You didn't feel well last night either and you went. What's up today?” He was instantly suspicious. It was as though he had fine antennae for the subtlest of lies, especially those that related to his mother.

“I feel worse.” But she said it a little too easily, as she sat up in bed and crossed her arms.

“I don't believe you.” He looked at Brad. “You two have a fight?”

“Hell no. Serena just said she didn't feel well enough to go, and I didn't want to force her.”

“Why not?” Teddy smiled as he sat down on the bed beside her. “Do you really feel sick, Serena?”

“She nodded. “I really do.”

“I'm sorry. We'll miss you.” But as he said the words two huge tears sprang from her eyes. She felt left out again, and now she wanted to go with them. If only Mrs. Fullerton hadn't put it to her so harshly. She felt as though she really couldn't go. It was as though she shouldn't go, if she had any decorum, or respect for her mother-in-law at all. “What's wrong?” Teddy was looking at her searchingly and she shook her head, trying unsuccessfully not to cry.

“Oh, I hate being pregnant, all I ever do is cry!” She laughed at herself, and Brad came over to stroke the soft blond hair that fell past her shoulders and onto the pillow.

“You just take it easy today, and I'll be back as soon as I can.” He left the room then, to go check on Greg. He was nervously getting ready in his own room down the hall. He had had his own apartment for years, but for his last night as a bachelor he had come home and slept in his old room. He knew that way, no matter how drunk he got the night before, he wouldn't be allowed to oversleep on his wedding day.

But as soon as Brad had left the room, Teddy narrowed his eyes and looked at her. “What really happened?”

“Nothing.” But she didn't look directly at him and he knew something was wrong.

“Don't lie to me, Serena. Why won't you go?”

It was uncanny the way this man could make her talk, and how much she trusted him. She told him things she wouldn't even tell Brad. But she also knew that he had kept her confidence the day before, and so now she let go, as the tears filled her eyes once again. “Your mother thinks I shouldn't go. But don't tell Brad. I don't want him to know.”

“She told you that?”

“She said that it would be unkind to Pattie, and if I had any decency, I wouldn't go, that I had done enough to Pattie already.” Serena looked woeful, and Teddy almost jumped off the bed.

“What a lot of crap. God damn it, Serena. If you don't stand up for yourself, my mother is going to push you around for the rest of your life. You can't let her!”

“It doesn't matter. She doesn't want me there. I think she's afraid I'll disgrace all of you.”

“Serena.” Teddy looked at her pointedly. “Everyone last night wanted to know who you were, I mean who you really were. There was talk all over the restaurant about your being a principessa, and it probably annoyed the hell out of Mother. All that garbage about your being a nobody, and somebody's maid, nobody will buy any of that crap after last night. You look every bit what you are: a beautiful, aristocratic lady. I don't know what the hell is eating my mother, except that Brad did something he wanted and made the decision for himself. But if what she wanted was Pattie Atherton as a daughter-in-law, then she's getting that too. One of these days she's going to get over her feelings about you, Serena, and you can't give in to her all the time before she does. What she did to you yesterday is not only outrageous but immoral, and the truth is that Brad should know, but if you insist, then I won't tell him. But what she's doing today is the last straw, dammit, it's indecent.” It crossed his mind for only a moment that his mother was jealous. Perhaps she couldn't bear all that Serena was, and that Brad had found her for himself, won her, and planned to keep her. Maybe she had wanted to lose him to someone she could manipulate, some girl she could push around, which she seemed to think she was going to do with Pattie. “But you can't let her keep doing this to you, dammit. It's not right.”

“What's not right?” Brad stood in the doorway, looking at them both, and there was sudden tension in his face as he searched their eyes. “There's something I'm not being told, and I don't take kindly to secrets in my own family.” He looked at his wife. “What is it, Serena?” Serena looked down, away from his gaze. He held up a hand. “No tears this time. Just tell me.” But she couldn't and she wasn't going to. It was Teddy who spoke first.

“She doesn't want to tell you, Brad, but I think you ought to know.”

Serena almost leaped off the bed at him, her arms outstretched as though she could stop him, but he had just said something to her with his eyes. Instinctively she almost shouted “No!”

“I'm going to tell him, Serena.” Teddy spoke quietly and Serena burst into tears.

“For chrissake, what is it?” Their little melodrama was making him extremely nervous, and he was already unnerved. He had just come from Greg's room, he had got so drunk the night before that the butler was still trying to revive him. “What the hell is going on?”

Teddy stood up and faced him. “Mother doesn't want Serena to go to the wedding.” Serena looked as though she had been given an electric shock, and her husband looked as though he had been at the other end of the electric current.

“Mother what! Are you crazy?”

“No. She had the unmitigated gall to tell Serena that she owes it to Pattie not to be there. Serena ran into her in the kitchen, and she suggested that Serena develop a diplomatic illness and stay home.”

“Is that true?” He looked at his wife in unadulterated outrage, as she nodded. He walked toward the bed then and she could see that he was trembling. “Why didn't you tell me?”

“I didn't want you to be angry at your mother.” Her voice shook and she was obviously fighting back tears.

“Don't you ever do that again! If anyone ever says anything like that to you again, I want to know it! Is that clear?”

Brad looked both pained and thoughtful. He stood for a long moment then, and finally pointed to his brother. “Get out of here, Teddy.” And he pointed at his wife. “And you get out of bed. I don't give a damn what you wear, but I want you dressed in ten minutes.”

“But, Brad … I can't … your—”

“Not a word!” This time he roared it. “I'm the best man at my brother's wedding, and you're my wife. Is that clear? Do you understand that? You're my wife, that means you go everywhere I do, and you are accepted by the same people who love and accept me, whether that means my friends, or my family, or the people I work with. And if anyone does not accept you, and does not accord you the appropriate courtesy due you, I want to know it. Immediately next time. Not through the kind offices of my brother. Is that clear, Serena?”