‘Magic.’ She smiled, and he chuckled.
‘I know. More of the fairy godmother stuff. But seriously…’
‘Seriously, the resort manager realised how much I wanted to go so he contacted your recluse with the helicopter and used all his charm to persuade him to take me as well. Of course, we didn’t make it to Suva in time for your flight, so I caught a flight back to Sydney, then flew to Singapore and on to Paris. I must have landed only about five or six hours after you.’
He stared at her in astonishment. ‘You must be exhausted.’
‘No more than you.’ She was snuggled into him, settled and happy. Happy wasn’t a big enough word. Ecstatic!
‘But why did you come? You wanted the holiday so much.’
‘Do you think I wanted a holiday more than being here…with you?’ She was indignant. ‘And with Marguerite. If anything had happened to Marguerite and I hadn’t been here…’
‘For me?’
Penny-Rose looked up at him, her face deadly serious. ‘For you,’ she agreed. But…Alastair, I love your mother.’
‘It’s your speciality,’ he said softly. ‘Giving and giving and giving.’
That puzzled her. ‘I don’t have anything to give.’
‘And I do?’ His voice was incredulous-angry even. ‘Money, riches, power-sure, I have all of those things. I have so much to give. Just not the thing that counts. Love.’
‘But you can’t-’
‘I couldn’t.’ He kissed her again, because he couldn’t bear not to. Heavens, she still tasted like the sea. It’d be the salt of her tears, he knew, but the smell of her, the feel of her…
She was like the sea and the sky and the heavens all rolled into one.
How had he ever thought he could put her away from him after a year? How had he ever thought he could keep himself from her for a year?
‘I can love now,’ he said, and all the joy of the morning was in his voice. ‘I’ve learned. I’ve had the very best of teachers. Oh, Rose…my Penny-Rose…’
Her face clouded, just a little, at the memories the name brought back. ‘Penny-Rose?’
‘I’ve been really stupid,’ he told her. ‘Trying to make you into something that you weren’t. But Penny-Rose is how I first saw you. Dressed in those damned overalls, filthy, yet laughing at us, letting us know your values weren’t ours. Telling me that a marriage without love was stupid.’ He pulled her tightly against him. ‘So Rose is a princess. My Princess Rose. But Penny-Rose is the woman I love more than life itself.’
She looked up into his eyes for a long, long moment. And then she sighed with pure happiness.
‘Penny-Rose it is,’ she said softly. ‘I’ll go for Penny-Rose any day.’
‘You mean you’d rather be the woman I love than a princess?’
‘I’d rather be the woman you love than anything in the world.’
‘Then so be it,’ he said exultantly. ‘From this day forth. Because that’s exactly what you are.’
And he gathered her against him and kissed her-for a very, very long time.
EPILOGUE
‘Wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded wife, to live for ever according to God’s law in the Holy estate of matrimony? Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honour and keep her in sickness and in health; and forsaking all others, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall live?’
‘I do,’ said Alastair.
‘And you, Penny-Rose. Wilt thou have this man…?’
‘I do,’ said Penny-Rose.
‘Amen to that,’ said Marguerite. Completely recovered, she stood with pride as their witness and she couldn’t stop smiling.
‘Woof,’ said Leo.
‘Bless you both,’ said their lone cameraman-the man they’d asked to record this event for their great- grandchildren. ‘May you be as happy and successful as you’ve made me.’
And that was the way it was.
Marion Lennox
Marion Lennox was born on an Australian dairy farm. She moved on-mostly because the cows weren’t interested in her stories!
In her nonwriting life Marion cares (haphazardly) for her husband, teenagers, dogs, cats, chickens and anyone else who lines up at her dinner table. She fights her rampant garden (she’s losing) and her house dust (she’s lost). She also travels, which she finds seriously addictive.
As a teenager Marion was told she’d never get anywhere reading romance. Now romance is the basis of her stories. Her stories allow her to travel, and if ever there was an advertisement for following your dream, she’d be it!
