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would have to be peeled.
    An hour before the ceremony, all were shocked when Callum phoned Lucinda to say that Mercedes was sick. Illness rarely stopped Mercedes Hann. Lucinda insisted on going up to have a look at her. “I told you Dad, it’s no bother,” she said into the phone. A puzzled frown settled on her face. “What?” Her voice rose just enough to cause everyone in the kitchen to stop and listen. “Fine. So be it.” Lucinda slammed the receiver onto the hook and turned her attention to Beth, who stood large and flushed in the silent room. “All right, then. Let’s get you married.”
    Sadie Griffin did not attend the wedding, either. Then again, Sadie hadn’t been invited.
    Beth and Luke were young but, except for the oversight regarding birth control, they were sensible. Deciding it would be prudent to save towards a house, they moved in with Lucinda and Dermot. Beth had quit Trades School and gotten on at the fish plant - a dirty job, but a scarce one - and Luke had been hired on at Burke’s, stacking shelves, moving furniture, and whatever else was required, while training to be a meat-cutter. Still, savings from their minimum wage jobs were slow to accumulate.
    Everyone knew that Mercedes Hann had money. Decades earlier, after teaching for several years, Mercedes had hired Mr. Crosbie Cunningham, a well-known financial advisor from St. John’s, to guide her investments. Mr. Cunningham’s name had caught her attention for several reasons, not least of which was his ability to make money for his clients. In the years that followed, Mercedes became quite a wealthy woman. She had given loans before, to her brother’s widow after he was killed in the Springhill mines, to her nephew Frank Jr. when he was starting out as a fisherman, and to other family members as well. She charged negligible interest but the debtor did have to put up with her advice, which she offered freely, as if she’d acquired that right by granting the loan. She gave generously to charity as well, and not just the church. Her favourite cause was Meade House, a private home near St. John’s for unmarried girls and their babies. It seemed an odd choice, considering that Mercedes was quite vocal in her opinion of premarital sex. Besides which, the girls who went there were even choosing to keep their fatherless children. To top it off, Meade House was run by Margaret Meade, an ex-nun, a woman who had forsaken the convent, perhaps even Catholicism itself. Despite it all, Mercedes never wavered in her support.
    When Beth and Luke approached her, they expected to get a lecture and the loan.
    â€œWe only needs a thousand dollars,” Beth explained, her cheeks rosy in Mercedes’ overheated kitchen. “But I don’t think I should work much longer at the plant. I’m always tired lately, and we don’t want to take a chance with the baby, right Luke?”
    â€œUh-huh,” he said and stuck his thumbnail back in his mouth. Luke, like so many others, had always been intimidated by Mercedes Hann.
    â€œWell, anyway, Aunt Mercedes,” Beth said, “if we don’t buy the house we’ll be stuck in with Mom and Dad for ages. We’d never see a lick of privacy.”
    Mercedes glanced at Beth’s belly, which was huge even for seven months, then back to her swollen face. “What example do you think this is setting for your sisters?”
    Beth stammered something incoherent.
    â€œThey look up to you, Elizabeth,” Mercedes continued. “As the oldest, you had a responsibility. And look what you’ve gone and done. Eighteen years old, unmarried, getting pregnant. For God’s sake, what were the two of you thinking?”
    Beth and Luke sat there mute and uncomfortable but still hopeful.
    Mercedes stood up. “I certainly do feel for you, really I do. But I cannot allow your sisters to think that I approve of what you’ve done.