A twitch of his elbow made her look up into his face. "Ready?"

She nodded.

"On three, then, starting with the left."

They concentrated on the couple ahead. "One… two… three," she whispered. He pulled Winnie's hand against his ribs as they took their first step down the aisle.

It was the first time Winnie had been asked to act as a maid of honor. It was oddly disquieting. Why ever was she feeling so much like a bride? Programming, she supposed. Weren't all little girls programmed to respond to the song now beating upon her ears? Weren't they all taught to think of growing up in terms of "walking down the aisle"? Women's liberation had done virtually nothing to sway women's minds away from dreams of all that was traditional when it came to weddings.

She watched Jo-Jo Duggan's walk for the first time from the very distracting angle of top to bottom. His unblemished tennis shoes made not a sound, but his crisp jeans crackled slightly, and within them his thighs pressed as firmly as air against the inside of a balloon. To her surprise he strode not with the haughty athletic swagger she might have expected after his stance in the vestibule but instead moved with relaxed poise, almost as if strolling in time to the music instead of marching to it. He had superb rhythm.

"How am I doing?" he whispered.

Her eyes flew up to find him grinning down at her.

"You must be a dancer."

His grin shifted to a wince, and he whispered, "Hardly."

"Well, maybe you should be. You have impeccable timing."

"Thank you, Ginger. Next time I'll bring my top hat and cane."

She nudged his ribs and hissed, "Shh. Not here, Fred."

They'd reached the chancel rail and followed the verbal and hand directions of Father Waldron, separating and taking their places on either flank.

Turning to face the pews, Winnie watched Mick approach. She liked the fact that he and Sandy had chosen to walk up the aisle with their parents-Mick first, so he could be waiting when Sandy arrived to be given over from the arm of her father. She herself had never known a father and would be disinclined to walk up the aisle with her mother.