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Mrs. Marguerite Rowe,“ she said quite formally, “this is Jane Jeffry, the lady who has put together Livvy’s wedding.”
    The bright smiles with which they’d greeted Eden faded to scowls. “Yes, Mrs. Jeffry“ Iva said coldly. “Livvy told us you were doing all the arrangements. We offered to plan the wedding ourselves. We are, after all, her aunts. Her only female relatives. The substitutes for her own dear, departed mother. But she preferred to have a complete stranger arrange the most important day of her life.”
    Before Jane could compose any reply, Eden jumped in. “But my dears, Livvy told me she wanted you two to be the guests of honor. You can’t ask a guest of honor to do all the drudgery. Livvy wanted you to just sail in and thoroughly enjoy yourselves without having to fret over whether the flowers had arrived or the dresses fitted.”
    Eden turned and winked at Jane, but Jane didn’t need the wink to know that Eden was lying through her spectacular teeth.
    “Well, there is that aspect,“ Aunt Marguerite said. “It’s so like Livvy to want to spare us trouble. Such a dear girl. And she’s marrying such a handsome man.“
    “Get your mind out the gutter,“ Iva snapped.
    Marguerite glowered. “Just because I’m not a dried-up spinster like some I could name—“
    “I could have had as good a husband as you did, dear,“ Iva came back, “if I’d been foolish enough to believe that fake English accent and—“
    “Now, my dears, let’s don’t have any tiffs,“ Eden said. Jane was surprised to learn that Eden could speak quite loudly when the occasion demanded it.
    “Let me show you to your rooms,“ Jane said. “Oh, we know where they are. Just up the stairs,“ Iva said.
    “No, actually, those rooms are taken,“ Jane said, resisting the urge to wring her hands in despair.
    “But we always stay in the big center room,“ Marguerite said.
    “I had to put the seamstress in there so there would be room for her sewing,“ Jane explained.
    “The seamstress is still sewing? Here?“ Iva screeched. “Well, I can tell you if I’d been in charge, those dresses would have been done weeks ago. Still, we’ll take one of the rooms next to it.”
    Jane sighed. She wasn’t a confrontational person, but she was going to have to make clear just who was in charge or these ladies were going to run over her. They’d obviously spent decades practicing the art on each other.
    “That’s quite impossible,“ Jane said, looking Iva straight in the eye. “Livvy’s father will be in one of the rooms. He is, after all, the owner of the house and the man who’s paying for the wedding, and the bride gets the other one. I’ll show you where you’re staying.”
    They trailed along behind her, snipping at her and each other the whole way. When Jane returned to the main room, she found Shelley puttering around with a dust cloth. “I sent Eden up to the dressmaker. What a glamorous number she is,“ Shelley said. “You look frazzled.“
    “Wait until you meet the aunts,“ Jane said. “They’re here already?“
    “Apparently they got in a dispute about starting early enough tomorrow and the one with a car insisted they come today instead. They’re terrors. Shelley, we’re surrounded by a bleating flock of cranky old ladies.“
    “You’ll cope. And if you can’t, I’ll read them the riot act.“
    “I already coped. I was very firm with them. I’m turning into you.“
    “Then why don’t you look more cheerful?“ Shelley flicked the dust cloth over an old Victrola.
    “I had an interesting chat with Eden,“ Jane said. “This family, it seems, is much stranger than I thought. And Eden doesn’t seem to think Livvy’s in love with Dwayne. Shelley, I’m horrified that I might have done all this work and the bride’s going to bolt at the last minute.“
    “Do you really think so?“ Shelley asked.
    Jane repeated the gist of the conversation she’d had with Eden. “So she’s just marrying