Page 55

Married—For All Intents and Purposes

A few minutes later

Finding The Dendera still docked where they had left it two nights ago, Tom and Randy were practically breathless by the time they spotted the captain directing a crewman who carried a wooden crate of provisions.

Mahmood listened intently to Tom’s request, his soft chuckle at odds with the young man’s earnest plea. “Today?” he asked when Tom finished explaining he wished to marry as soon as possible.

“Or... tomorrow?” Tom countered.

“Do you have a contract? A dowry for her?”

Tom blinked. “Her father is drawing one up. He has arranged a dowry for her. Five-thousand pounds, I think.”

Mahmood arched a brow. “I had to give my bride three water buffalo and ten pieces of gold,” he said.

Randy hid his amusement behind a hand. “Is there someone who can perform a... a civil ceremony?”

“Our weddings are religious traditions here,” Mahmood replied. “Islamic. Or Coptic.”

“There’s no… Ministry of Justice? No civil means of marrying?”

Mahmood shook head. “The office in Cairo is governmental. No weddings. But I believe I remember hearing of a traveler whose marriage was performed by a priest here in Luxor,” he mused. “An English-speaking man. Not fancy. No Crowning Ceremony,” he added.

Tom and Randy exchanged uncertain glances, neither of them familiar with Coptic wedding ceremonies.

Glancing back to Nasir, Mahmood said something in Arabic.

The man nodded and left the boat. When Mahmood turned back to them, he sighed.

“When he returns with some hantours, I will take you to this man. But I cannot promise he can do what you require.” He glanced up to discover Diana and Helen waiting on the dock.

“If he can do it, you will need to ask your wife to change her clothes if she is to be there,” he warned.

Randy winced. “I will,” he said, turning around to discover Diana already heading toward the hotel.

“Will you be our witnesses?” Tom asked.

“I wouldn’t miss it, little brother,” Randy replied. “Do you have a ring?”

“I already gave it to her. That gold one I bought in Cairo,” he replied.

Randy chuckled.

Mahmood rolled his eyes. “Have you a room at the hotel for the next two nights? We leave for Edfu in three days,” he said.

Tom blinked. “I’ll see to one right now, Captain. Thank you.” He left the ship, Randy watching him go as he continued to chuckle.

Mahmood regarded him with suspicion. “Did you know they have been courting on my ship?” he asked.

Randy shook his head. “They weren’t, I promise you,” he replied. “But they have been in love with one another for well over a year,” he added. When he saw the captain’s look of surprise, he said, “It’s a long story that started with a kiss in the gardens.”

Mahmood’s face split into a grin. “Now this I understand.”

A n hour later

The two hantours arrived in front of a modest mud brick home, the rectangular box featuring only a wood-framed front door and one window along with a set of stairs on the side that led up to the roof. A low mud brick wall surrounded the small abode, and three chickens roosted beneath a palm tree.

Randy and Diana exchanged quick glances, both reminded of how they had spent some nights in Athens on the roof of her family’s mansion watching shooting stars. “You look especially lovely today,” he commented.

She dipped her head. “It’s not every day I’m going to witness a wedding,” she replied. “And gain a sister in the process.”

“Let’s hope,” he replied, helping her down from the hantour. Meanwhile, his brother was doing the same for Helen, their attention on the front door of the house.

Having ridden on the driver’s seat of their hantour, Mahmood had already stepped down and was nearly to the door when it opened.

An older gentlemen garbed in a light robe, his hair white and his shoulders rounding forward, regarded them with curiosity before turning his attention to Mahmood. They spoke for a moment before a grin split the man’s face. He waved them forward, and the four of them approached.

Randy held out his right hand. “Lord Randolph Forster, sir,” he said.

“Reverend Thomas O’Malley,” the man replied, a hint of an Irish accent tingeing his voice. His eyes sparkled with delight. “Whose whelp might you be?”

Randy blinked. “Uh, my father is the Earl of Gisborn.”

“Ah, the inventor,” O’Malley replied.

“You know him?” Randy asked, his eyes rounding at hearing the reverend’s comment.

“Never met him, but I know someone back home who uses one of his plows. You on your Grand Tour, I suppose?”

“Indeed. My younger brother, Thomas, wishes to marry Lady Helen Tennison,” Randy explained, waving to the couple. “He gained her father’s permission this morning. Lord Everly is drawing up the contract now for the dowry.” He stopped speaking when he saw how O’Malley was shaking his head.

“I canna marry them.”

Randy’s face fell, and he audibly groaned.

“ Legally ,” O’Malley added, mischief apparent in his expression. “But I can perform the ceremony. Do you have a ring?”

“I do.” Tom held up Helen’s hand and gave her an apologetic glance as he removed it from her finger.

“I think I might even have a marriage certificate around here somewhere we can have all of ya’ sign, but ye’ll have to do it all over again when you get back to England.”

“We understand,” Tom replied.

“Ye can’t be havin’ any babes before ya’ do, or they’ll be considered bastards.”

“Understood,” Randy said, directing an apologetic glance in Helen’s direction.

“Well, all right then. We can do it in here if you like,” he said, pointing into his house. “The Coptics get away with it, so I don’t see why we canna.”

“Thank you, sir,” Helen said, her voice sounding breathless.

They entered the small house, where a desk overflowing with papers and a small bookshelf took up most of one wall. A leather chair was in front of it, the only other pieces of furniture in the room.

O’Malley indicated the chair and nodded to Mahmood to sit.

“We won’t be long, Captain,” he said. He shuffled through some papers on his desk and pulled a parchment from one of the many cubbyholes.

“Here we are,” he said triumphantly. “Now I just need my book of prayer,” he murmured, reaching for a small volume from the bookshelf.

He waved them into another small room featuring a worn settee in a deep blue velvet and a low table.

A silver tea set on a salver was in the middle of the table.

“Was my mum’s,” he said absently. He raised the flame on a lamp and turned around. “Couple in front of me...”

Tom and Helen stepped up to face him. “My aunt is going to be rather upset with me that she’s not paying witness to this,” Tom whispered for only Helen to hear.

Helen winced. “My mother will be so relieved I’m finally wed, she’ll forgive me,” she replied. “I hope.”

“...Witnesses back there,” O’Malley said with another wave. “Are we ready?”

The four grinned and nodded.

Holding out the prayer book in one hand, O’Malley opened his mouth to begin when a commotion sounded in the front room.

“Where are they?” Barbara could be heard, her query directed to Mahmood.

She appeared on the threshold, Stella at her side. Behind them, Will, Harry, and David, all breathless, came to a halt.

“Ah, and these are...?” O’Malley asked, not the least bit surprised by the appearance of others.

“My aunt and uncle, the Earl and Countess of Bellingham, and their son, Viscount Penton.”

“My parents, the Earl and Countess of Everly,” Helen said, her voice quavering.

“Bellingham, did you say?” O’Malley asked.

“O’Malley? Is that you?” Will asked, his stunned expression turning to one of humor and disbelief.

“You know one another?” Harry asked.

“Reverend O’Malley was our chaplain aboard HMS Greenwich ,” Will replied. “Whatever are you doing here in Egypt?” he asked, turning his attention to the old man.

“Marrying your nephew, it would seem,” he replied. “Shall we begin?”

“Yes, please,” Helen said.

Tom squeezed her hand.

Clearing his throat, the reverend read the marriage ceremony from the Common Book of Prayer, and when it was time, Helen and Tom repeated the vows.

Once O’Malley made the pronouncement they were married, there was a collective sigh as Tom turned and kissed Helen first on the lips and then on the forehead.

Diana embraced Helen before her mother could reach her, while Harry moved to shake hands with Tom.

“She didn’t wish to wait,” Tom blurted.

Harry chuckled. “I’m well aware,” he replied, slapping Tom on the shoulder. He turned and regarded Randy with a quirked lip. “Are you the one to thank for this?”

Randy stiffened. “We didn’t intentionally not tell you,” he said. “It just happened so fast. Mahmood knew of Reverend O’Malley. How did you know where to find us?”

“Nasir told us. We noticed Helen with Diana, who was wearing a gown when I know she was dressed differently earlier in the day, and then we saw the hantours leaving from in front of the dock” he explained. “It was easy to sort what was happening.”

O’Malley cleared his throat. “I need the bride and groom and the two witnesses, please,” he said, placing the marriage certificate onto the low table in front of the settee.

He added a pot of ink and a quill next to it, and he watched as they all took turns signing the document.

When they finished, he added the rest of the information and signed it before handing it over to Helen.

“So... how long have you been in Egypt?” Will asked, taking a seat next to his former chaplain.

“Since I retired. I remained chaplain for many years after you left us,” O’Malley replied.

“There’s always another war. After the Greek War for Independence, I took a trip up the Nile and settled here.

” He held out his hands to indicate his home.

“Now there are Europeans coming through here all the time,” he added.

“Englishmen, diplomats...” He shrugged. “Tourists.”

Will chuckled. “What does a reverend get paid for a wedding these days?”

O’Malley waved a dismissive hand, but Will placed several coins into it. “Thank you for doing it, even if it isn’t legal by England’s standards.”

“Glad to help. Where are you off to next?”

“We’re going to continue south. Mayhap as far as Aswan before we turn around.”

“And after that?”

Will chuckled. “Rome. I’ve promised Barbara for years I would take her.”

“She the one you left behind when you joined the navy?”

Nodding, Will said, “She is. Mother of both my boys. The oldest is married and lives in Catania and David is...” He glanced around. “Is no longer in here.”

“Not yet married?” the reverend guessed.

“Too young,” Will affirmed.

O’Malley sounded a snort. “He going with you to Rome?”

“Yes. We’re on his Grand Tour,” Will explained.

Chuckling softly, O’Malley slapped Will’s knee. “Keep an eye on him.”

The others had begun to file out of the house, and Will stood to go, “Thank you again for doing this.”

“It was my pleasure.” He walked with Will to the front door and waved as the first of the hantours jerked into motion.

“What’s next for you?” Will asked.

“A nap,” O’Malley replied, grinning as he shook Will’s hand. “Safe travels.”

Will nodded and hurried to join his wife in the last hantour.