The Third Angel by Alice Hoffman

registrar arrived and promised to make the service brief. When Georgia came in, she hugged Allie, then held the bouquet of flowers while Allie edged into bed with Paul so that they could be close while the ceremony was performed. When the superintendant registrar made the pronouncement that they were both free to lawfully marry, Allie signed her name to the marriage contract. Paul's father held his hand and tried to help him make an
X,
but in the end Bill had to sign Paul's name. Lucy and Bill then signed as witnesses. Frieda needed to sit down; she bowed her head.
    And then it was done; two married people.
    â€œI'm happy you were the girl he fell in love with,” Frieda said when she regained her composure. “Have I told you that? I should have told you before.”
    On the other side of the curtain, Rob Rosenbloom was quietly crying, but they pretended not to hear him. Allie slipped on the twenty-two-karat gold wedding band they had chosen, and then did the same with Paul's band. The ring was too big, so she put it on his middle finger. He was the one who'd chosen twenty-two karat. “The real thing,” Paul had said at the jeweler's. “None of this eighteen-karat crap for you.”
    Georgia leaned in to give Allie a hug once Allie and Paul were officially husband and wife. She was still holding on to Allie's white roses. “I unofficially caught the bouquet. Which means I'm next.”
    Rob had asked a nurse to order a cake from a local bakery. The cake was delivered in thin slices on plastic plates from the cafeteria. The family opened the curtain so Rob could join in.
    â€œI didn't know there was somebody gorgeous hiding there,” Georgia said.
    Rob grinned and accepted his cake. His nose and eyes were red. He had an IV in his arm. Sometimes he woke in the night convinced that his leg was still there and that it had fallen asleep. Everyone praised the cake he'd ordered. It was a yellow cake frosted with white spun sugar. Simple, just what Allie had wanted.
    â€œHow did you know?” Allie asked Rob.
    â€œPsychic,” he said, but he'd heard all about the things that she wanted, late at night when Paul talked through his pain and his sleep.
    Allie took a single bite of the cake, and then Paul moaned and raised his knees.
    Allie thought about the night when she followed her sister into the marsh. She had walked right into the water when she spied the blue heron. Take me away from here, she had whispered. They had looked at each other for a very long time, and for those moments Allie believed he would take her with him. But when he took flight he had left her there, standing in the water, freezing.
    â€œI think we could all use some rest,” Lucy Heller said. “I've gotten you a room at our hotel,” she told Paul's parents, who were grateful but said they were perfectly fine. Their dear friend Daisy Ridge had a house in Kensington and had invited them to stay, but frankly they would prefer to sleep in the hospital lounge. Frieda was not about to leave her son.
    â€œWhat if he needs me?” she said to Allie. She sounded like a little girl.
    â€œOf course you'll stay. The nurses will give you blankets and anything else you need.”
    Allie's parents kissed her good-bye. Her father-in-law, for that's who Bill was to her now, suggested that perhaps she should go home and sleep for a few hours, but Allie couldn't do that. Frieda understood.
    â€œGo get some tea, that won't take long. Or some soup.”Frieda had brought a little recorder and a tape of birdsongs to play. “I thought he might like this.”
    Allie embraced her mother-in-law. She didn't want to go, but Georgia insisted.
    â€œJust for a few minutes,” Georgia promised.
    Allie went to the lunchroom, guided by Georgia; she let Frieda take over the watch, for that's what it was now. Minute by minute. The wedding lunch they were to have at the Orangery was to be a cold salmon with cream sauce,