‘Oh, goodness!’ Viola gasped as she caught the wedding bouquet Marianne cunningly aimed at her almost by accident. Viola stared down at the posy of white camellias and dried lavender flowers and dark green and fragrant myrtle leaves. ‘Typical of you two,’ she said as she sniffed the herbs and stroked the velvety petals and refused to blush at the speculation in their mother’s eyes.
‘What? A mix of homespun and exotic?’ Marianne said as she met Alaric’s eyes and forgot what they were talking about at the leap of masculine interest in there for that intriguing idea. Pirate Alaric, she mouthed with an encouraging smile.
‘No, an ideal combination for a Christmas wedding,’ and Viola’s voice reminded Marianne this was a doubly serious occasion with a roll of her eyes at their ridiculous preoccupation with one another.
‘Or any other time of year,’ Alaric told his bride of a few minutes and kissed her as if he could not help himself now they had got started on loving one another for life.
‘Stop it, you two, and kindly get inside that fine carriage and let yourselves be driven up to the house so the rest of us can get warm again,’ Darius told them gruffly from his place just behind the bride and groom with Fliss at his side trying not to laugh at him for playing gruff lord of the manor.
‘Take no notice of him,’ Fliss advised the newly married couple. ‘Having a viscount in the family seems to have gone to his head.’
‘Hmm, he is not the only one, then,’ Viola murmured as the sound of Mrs Yelverton condescending to Miss Donne even more than usual reached them even at the church door.
What might have spoiled a lesser day passed Marianne by on this very special one and she thought Miss Donne could cope with far sterner foes than the proud mother of the bride. With Alaric’s strong hand in hers and his almost boyish delight in their simple country wedding, even her mother’s love of a title seemed amusing rather than embarrassing, today anyway. So she ran out to the waiting carriage at Alaric’s side and was glad when it was on its way because once they were out of it and inside it could go back for her father so that he could be got out of the cold as soon as possible and hopefully breathe more easily in the seat by the fire Fliss had saved for him.
‘I love you, Husband,’ Marianne said with an infatuated sigh. She had to love him even more for taking such care to get her father here by even shorter stages than last time so he would not get quite so cold and might not wheeze so badly in the damp December air.
‘And I love you, Lady Stratford.’
‘Let’s not talk about her today, I am too happy to worry about high and mighty peeresses like her right now.’
‘You are one all the same and I still love you.’
‘Best not adore me too much, Alaric, I might become an idol and develop feet of clay.’
‘Remind me to make a list of all your faults and read them out to you once a month then—that ought to keep you humble.’
‘If you like the feel of sleeping in an empty bed each night of it, then you go right ahead and do so, my lord.’
‘That I do not. It was far too empty while you were making up your mind whether to love me or not for me to risk that much loneliness ever again.’
‘I had no choice but loving you when it came down to it. I could not forget you from the moment I first set eyes on you.’
‘Ah, yes, pirates—I wonder if my valet has remembered to pack my cutlass.’
‘The poor man would give in his notice if you asked him for one of those and you are more likely to need a hammer and chisel where we are going.’
‘It will not be a very romantic place to spend our honeymoon,’ Alaric said almost as if he regretted the leisurely journey to somewhere more exotic they could have had when they were about to move into the hastily refurbished Agent’s House at Prospect Manor instead.
‘I think it will be the perfect place for one,’ Marianne said with the busyness and bustle they would stir up there making it seem the ideal way to spend the first days of their marriage. ‘Far better than us flitting about from mansion to mansion as you introduce me to your friends and neighbours. I doubt they will want to know me and I am not looking forward to meeting them.’
‘Stop it, love, you are as good as any of them and better than a good many.’
Seeing it really did disturb him to hear her worry what his friends would think of her, she tried to push her anxiety aside. No, it would not do. ‘We cannot keep our worries quiet from one another, Alaric. We must learn to share them so they do not push us apart.’
‘Very well, then, as soon as I manage to convince you I have the finest and most desirable viscountess in the land we shall take a tour of my lordly obligations and show everyone why I insisted on marrying you despite your dogged opposition to the idea. It will not help Juno realise there are good people at every level of our society if you refuse to believe it yourself.’
‘I did not think of that,’ Marianne said with a frown. ‘I suppose I must learn to act the great lady after all, then.’
‘No need to act, you are one already. I know our tenants and neighbours
