Page 38

A nthony had wanted to make a run for Gretna Green and marry Evie immediately. Her family and his, however, had other ideas.

Things apparently needed to be done properly, his Aunt Petunia had said when he’d returned to the house party to find all their families there, worrying together.

The issue of when they would wed was discussed loudly, and eventually after he’d said he was not waiting more than two months, he’d got his way.

Evie had been too tired and hungry to argue with anyone on the matter and spent her time during the discussion eating and yawning after she’d bathed and changed.

Two months to the day later, he was now standing awaiting his beloved’s arrival in the church his aunts had chosen. St. Georges Church in Hanover Square.

Looking down the aisle as the guests all took their seats, he thought he would have married her anywhere. She’d changed him. He was no longer cold and empty because she’d filled all the places inside him with her love.

Life would not be easy with Evangeline Spencer, as he’d once thought it would be when he took a wife, because she challenged him. Both were strong-willed, and he saw many arguments in their future, which he was looking forward to.

“I’m sure a groom is meant to be pale and nervous. You, however, appear the exact opposite,” Toby said from beside him.

“Exactly. Look a little pathetic at least,” Jamie added.

Anthony turned down the sides of his mouth and lowered his eyes.

“Much better,” Jamie said.

“She is the perfect woman for you, my friend,” Toby said. “Had you not married her, I may have.”

“And yet, like me, you have no wish to marry,” Jamie added.

“There is that.”

“Besides, I would have killed you had you tried,” Anthony said. “And as we are friends, I would rather not do that.”

“Fair point,” Toby said. Then a breath hissed out of his mouth.

“What?” Jamie and Anthony asked him.

“That woman is here. Why would you invite her?”

“There are many ‘hers’ in the church. Care to elaborate?” Anthony asked.

“Talbot’s daughter,” Toby snapped. “She’s rude and opinionated. For a duke’s daughter she has the manners of a hoyden.”

“You’ve never told us why she is now your enemy, when you grew up together,” Anthony said. “One drunken night you even admitted to her once being your closest friend.”

“She’s no longer a friend,” Toby gritted out.

“But she was,” Anthony persisted.

“I am not discussing this further with either of you.”

“I quite like Lady Liberty Talbot,” Jamie said. “She’s forthright, and that’s refreshing.”

“She’s remarkably like my future wife actually,” Anthony added.

They looked at Lady Liberty Talbot. She nodded to Anthony and Jamie, but her eyes chilled when they met Toby’s.

“She and Evie have become friends lately. I’m not sure how I feel about that,” Anthony added, waving to his aunts. Who all waved back from the front pew, looking happy.

“You need to stop that friendship at once,” Toby said looking like a thundercloud.

“Close your eyes, Anthony,” Jamie said suddenly.

“What? Why?”

“Don’t argue. Just do it.”

He did as his friend told him.

“Open them,” Jamie whispered.

And there she was. Evie stood at the beginning of the aisle on her father’s arm, stunning in a soft shade of rose. She wore a circlet of flowers, and a veil fell down her back.

“Take a breath, Anthony, before you faint.”

“Very amusing,” he said to Toby, not taking his eyes off the woman that today would become his wife. She’d move into his house, and he could wake with her in his arms and hold her whenever he wished.

The music carried her down the aisle to him behind her sister and his, both in pale blue, until finally there she was, beside him.

“Hello,” he said.

“Hello,” she replied in a firm voice that told him she was not nervous either. “I’ll be glad when this is done,” she added. “I have a pin jabbing me in the scalp.”

He laughed and drew the eyes of those closest.

“I shall remove it shortly. For now, how about we get married?”

“What a lovely idea,” she whispered.

“I love you,” he said out of the side of his mouth.

“I love you, too.”

And nothing else mattered, Anthony realized, because he now had his champion at his side, and she had hers.

Forever and always.

The End