Lou's white dress had brocade panels in the skirt and in front on the bodice there were circles from the throat to the belt at her waist. Her cuffs were made of matching brocade. The dress was tailor-made by Miss Virginia Harwell, seamstress over at Hamilton Mill and had been her grandfather's special gift. He'd said he wanted his women folk to worry about cooking not sewing and had insisted on getting Miss Jennie to make the dress. Miss Harwell had become their first friendly neighbor down the road before moving to Harms in the spring. She was the best seamstress in the county. Her husband, Rolly, had been killed at Murfreesboro, fighting with Cheatham's Tennesseans. She made the wedding dress by the pattern they'd found in Godey's Magazine. Lou didn't wear a veil. Over her shoulders she wore a lace shawl that her mother and grandmother had worked on for three months. Her hair was pulled back in a style she'd seen and liked in an advertisement in The Observer for women's combs. Alex had given her a new mother-of-pearl comb ordered from New Orleans. She wore it at the back of her bun. Lou's plainness had been transformed. She looked like a handsome mature woman of twenty-three. Her movement showed shyness, but she held Mr. Jones' eyes listening to his words. When the officiate had told them to hold hands, Grand John L. took her small bunch of spring wildflowers that Mama Bear had picked, arranged and tied with a dark purple ribbon. Her brown eyes connected confidently with Solon's hazel ones.
At Mr. Jones' announcement of Lou and Solon's new status - married - J. N. whispered to Lou," You may now kiss the groom, Bride." Lou laughed. Solon joined the good humor and then gently kissed her.
At the end of the ceremony when the wedding couple was being greeted by family and friends, Nancy Bird, Solon's new mother-in-law, held his eyes as she shook his hands. She leaned forward and said quietly in his ear, "You take care of my Mockingbird, Sir."
Solon reconnected with her eyes. "Yes Ma'am, I will."
They went on a four-day honeymoon to Huntsville, staying at the Madison House a block from the Big Springs. A week after their wedding day, they were working in the tobacco bed thinning the foot high plants. Brown sticky soil was clinging to their shoes. They laughed and laughed a lot.
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Thirty miles south of Dellrose, the general paced the back porch holding the Wheeler's newest baby, their fourth and first son, Joseph Wheeler, Jr. A tiny thing, the newest little Joe had started crying a bit past midnight. Miss Daniella had said, half awake, "Joe, would you see to him?" He'd been a helpful father with all their children and the newest one got his attention, a clean diaper and lullaby, "Buffalo Gals". The general, business man, now planter and lawyer's thought as he finished little Joe's walk with humming, was focused on the trial he had to argue at 9 AM over in Huntsville.