The wedding veil A novel

At age six, Edith tries on her family's treasured wedding veil, and her mother promises her the world: she will someday be a princess living with her prince in a castle overlooking her acres of land. Nearly 20 years later, it's 1898 and Edith is about to walk down the aisle to wed George Vanderbilt. Wearing the veil, Edith is elated to start her life at the Vanderbilts' prized mansion, Biltmore. In the present, Julia prepares for her own wedding at the Biltmore Estate, surrounded by a pack of bridesmaids and her grandmother. But as Julia dresses in her wedding gown and delicate veil, she decides to run from it all. Centuries apart, Edith and Julia struggle to find their own paths to happiness despite obstacles and tragedy. Finding inspiration in the true story of Edith Vanderbilt and her mysteriously disappeared wedding veil, Harvey (Under the Southern Sky, 2021) intertwines a veil's generations-spanning journey, the lives of the women who wore it, and the strength required to remove the veil and follow one's heart instead.

Harvey follows Under the Southern Sky with a satisfactory account of a wedding veil shared by two families. In present-day North Carolina, Julia Baxter is preparing for her fairy tale wedding, which is made complete by the veil passed down in her family as a symbol of eternity. But when she receives a text with a video showing her fiancé cheating on her, Julia calls off the wedding and decides to go on her honeymoon to the British Virgin Islands alone. Though the wedding veil is an heirloom, its provenance before Julia's great-grandmother passed it down to Julia's grandmother Babs is murky. A parallel narrative follows the independently minded Cornelia Vanderbilt, who grows up at Asheville's Biltmore estate and loses her mother's wedding veil after her wedding in 1924. After Julia and Babs visit an exhibition showing a reproduction of Cornelia's veil, Julia wonders if hers might have been the Vanderbilts' and later learns of a tenuous connection between the families. Though it lacks the emotional power of Harvey's best work and passages devoted to the Vanderbilts' lavish history can drag, the author easily switches between the time periods to locate momentous events in the characters' lives and connect each story line with the veil at the center. Harvey, ever a fine storyteller, manages to keep the pages turning despite some rough patches. Agent: Elisabeth Weed, Book Group. (Mar.)

Prologue: Magic: June 5, 1879 PROLOGUE Magic June 5, 1879 Six-year-old Edith Dresser's skates moved heavily, as if she were rolling through sand, across the patterned wool rug in her mother Susan's bedroom. She lived for moments like this, when she had her vivacious, beautiful mother all to herself while her three sisters continued their skating downstairs in the dining room. Usually, her mother's lady's maid would have helped Susan get ready for the party she was attending this evening, but she wasn't feeling well. So instead, Edith stood--her skates making her taller--admiring the rows of frocks for every occasion in her mother's closet. "Do you think the pink for tonight, darling?" Susan asked. Edith tried to focus on her mother, but her child's eyes wandered to the back corner of the narrow closet. "I love pink, Mama," Edith said as she clomped ungracefully to a garment she knew well. With a tentative finger, she traced the lace on the edge of her favorite piece, the one she and her sisters loved to try on most: her mother's wedding veil. Susan turned and smiled, watching her daughter study one of her most prized possessions. In a burst of energy, she moved behind Edith, swept the long veil off its hanger, and motioned for Edith to follow her. In the light and opulence of her bedroom, Susan placed the cherished Juliet cap on her small daughter's head, gently touching the rows of pearls at the bottom. She smiled. "Just look at you, my girl," Susan said as she arranged the lace-edged tulle around her daughter's shoulders, the contrast great against her gray wool dress. Edith stood as still as one of the statues in the yard, holding her breath so she couldn't possibly damage the veil. Staring into the mirror, Edith felt transformed. It was still her reflection looking back at her, in her usual outfit with her favorite roller skates. But, somehow, she was completely different. Susan bent down until her eyes locked with her daughter's in the mirror. "One day," she said, "when you are quite grown up and find a man you love very much, you will wear this veil just like I did when I married Daddy." Edith watched her own eyes go wide, imagining. Then she scrunched her nose. "But I want to stay with you, Mama." Edith knew that, in other houses like hers, little girls were supposed to be seen and not heard. They weren't allowed to roller skate inside and certainly weren't permitted to play dress-up in their mother's elegant clothes. Why would Edith ever want to leave a mother who let her keep a dozen pet turtles in the yard? Susan laughed, moving in front of her daughter to adjust the veil again. She wrapped her in a hug and said, "No, Edi. You are going to find a wonderful man and be the most beautiful bride. Daddy will be there to walk you down the aisle, your sisters will stand beside you as your bridesmaids, and I will sniffle into my handkerchief and wipe my eyes because I will be so proud and happy." Edith was confused. "If you're happy, why would you cry?" "Because that's what mothers do at their daughters' weddings." Edith studied her mother, trying to think if she had ever seen her cry from happiness. She couldn't remember a time, but, then again, Mama had a whole life that didn't involve Edith, many hours that she would never see. And she figured that Mama liked living with Daddy, along with Edith and her sisters Susan, Pauline, and Natalie. So perhaps Edith would come to like having a family of her own as well. But she had conditions. Thinking of her favorite storybook, Cinderella , she said, "If I'm going to get married, I think I'd like to be a princess." Susan laughed delightedly. "Yes, yes. You, most certainly, will be a princess. You will live in a castle with many acres to roam to stretch your legs and plenty of fresh air to fill your lungs. You will have your own lady's maid and a nursery full of lovely children. You will find a husband who will love you more than the stars, who will give you the earth and everything on it." This gave Edith a wonderful idea. "Can I marry Daddy, Mama?" Susan smiled indulgently. "Well, I'm married to Daddy. But you will find a man just like Daddy, who is kind and handsome and loves you very much. And he will take care of you like Daddy takes care of me." Edith nodded. Becoming a bride suddenly seemed very, very important. She looked back at herself in the mirror, at how beautiful the veil was and, when she was wearing it, how beautiful she became. "Is this a magic wedding veil, Mama?" Edith asked. Susan nodded enthusiastically. "Why yes, darling," she whispered. "You have discovered the secret. Once you wear it on your wedding day, you will be happy forever." Edith, looking at herself one last time, wondered if she should share this life-changing news with her sisters. But no. That would ruin it somehow. She had a secret with her beloved mother, one to call her very own: The wedding veil was magic. And once she wore it, the fairy-tale life her mother had promised would be hers. Excerpted from The Wedding Veil by Kristy Woodson Harvey All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.