Page 70 of The Scandalous Deal of the Scarred Lady

He reached to clasp her hands, to bring them to his lips so that he might press a solemn kiss upon her gloved fingertips.

“But my wife!” he said, mimicking her tone and she laughed.

“Can we be about this…?” Barrington asked, his look positively anguished as new runners showed up, each with more tidbits of news than the last.

“There was a time when I would have bargained with you to gain your attention,” Helena said softly.

He took her hand in his and led her to the front of the church, waving at the clergyman that they were ready for the ceremony.

“There is no bargaining necessary,” he said, his eyes going to the rose-shaped brooch that she had pinned to the bodice of her dress. “Something old?” he guessed.

“Borrowed,” she corrected him, and he smiled, feeling the warmth spread throughout his body as it always did when she looked at him like that. In that instant, he could have swum to the Americas himself and towed back a dozen ships. “I believe I gave that particular pin away once.”

He said softly, just for her ears, “and broke the magic spell that had kept the lady trapped within the castle,”

She laughed. “Kept the beast within the castle,” she corrected him, and he smiled, for he’d rather loved her, even in her more beastly moments. He told her this.

“I certainly looked the part,” she said softly, and he knew she was thinking of the faint scars that had not erased with time.

“The scars give you character. And I never once thought you a beast for a handful of blemishes,” he reminded her and lifted her hand to place a kiss there. Someday he would erase every last one of her scars with his kisses, he resolved. “I was thinking more of that poor footpad…”

She swatted at his arm. “Hush, there is the priest. The ceremony is about to start.”

He tucked her arm in his. “I would have you look at me before we begin,” he said, motioning to the priest to give them a moment.

“You wish to speed up the ceremony for the sake of my father’s ships?” she asked, her brows drawing together.

“No, though I imagine that had he heard, he would kiss the hem of your dress in thanks. What I need to say is this: I have loved you for as long as I have known you. Your skin, your imperfections, none of those things ever mattered to me. What I always saw was what was in there,” he tapped her forehead with his finger, “and the amazing, loving heart that beats within your breast.”

“As I have loved you…”

“Hush, let me finish. Though I enjoy hearing those words and would much like to hear them again sometime.”

“Yes, Your Grace,” she said with such a false sense of demureness that he had to laugh.

“I was trying to say, that I have loved you, the truest form of you that you hide within your heart. You have always been beautiful in my eyes. I never saw you as less, nor could I have, had I tried.”

She was crying softly now, dabbing at happy tears with an embroidered handkerchief. “You have told me that before,” she complained. “And it still makes me cry.”

“I will repeat it until you believe it, my Lady,” he said. “And now I am ready to marry you.”

“’Tis about time. The ships…” moaned her father from behind them.

“Come, My Lady, let us put the man out of his misery. Allow him to give you away so that you might become mine forever.”

Helena blushed, but she was all smiles as the ceremony started.

James looked past her to those assembled in the church, who had come to see them wed. He studied his new father-in-law who despite his complaints looked for all the world like there was no place he’d rather be than right here, sharing this moment with his beloved daughter.

He looked at his bride, radiant and beautiful.

The spell has been broken,he thought, remembering a long ago discussion with Andrew when they had discussedLa Belle et la Bête.

‘And so, after many trials, the couple has found true love. And as with any fairy tale, they shall live happily ever after.May it always be so.’

Romeo and Juliet indeed!

The End?