Kate Hardy - Taken by the Millionaire - Hotly Bedded, Conveniently Wedded

‘Room service?’ Isobel asked.

‘Coffee and pastries. It’s our family tradition to have cake for breakfast on red letter days,’ Saskia said, smiling.

‘In your dreams, you bad child.’ Marcia laughed. ‘I’m sorry, Anna. My daughter’s a bad influence.’

‘I hate to tell you this, but cake for breakfast sounds good to me as well,’ Anna said, laughing back.

‘ Pain au chocolat and Danish pastries. Oh, and some orange juice so we can claim we’ve been healthy,’ Saskia directed.

‘Champagne and orange juice?’ Anna suggested.

‘Mmm, but we don’t want her tipsy in case she falls into the—’ Saskia clapped her hand over her mouth. ‘I didn’t say anything.’

‘I could always tell Alex you told me anyway,’ Isobel suggested.

Saskia cuffed her. ‘Behave, or I’ll accidentally on purpose stab you with a hair pin.’

Isobel didn’t have a chance to start worrying about the wedding. What with a breakfast of pastries and Buck’s Fizz, then the flowers arriving—a simple bouquet of cream Calla lilies that matched her cream silk shift dress perfectly—and her hair, nails and make-up being done, and everyone else getting changed, there wasn’t a spare moment.

‘Right. Time to get you dressed. Something old—and borrowed.’ Anna handed her the bracelet.

‘Thanks, Mum.’

‘Something new—that’s the dress. But before you do, the something blue.’ Saskia fished in her bag and handed Isobel a box.

‘A blue garter.’

‘We won’t make you flash your legs. Well, Alex might,’ Saskia said with a grin.

‘And we’ll spare you the sixpence in your shoe—that’d be way too uncomfortable,’ Marcia chipped in.

Saskia helped her into the dress and the gloves.

‘And I need these.’ Isobel took her pearls from the box.

‘Oh, Bel—they’re gorgeous ,’ Marcia sighed.

‘Alex gave them to me as a wedding present,’ she said shyly.

‘They go perfectly with your dress,’ Anna said. She brought out the organza stole and draped it round Isobel’s shoulders. ‘Oh, love. You look like a princess.’

Marcia took her camera from her handbag. ‘Hold your flowers, Bel. That’s it. Now smile.’

‘You look …’ Saskia blinked back tears. ‘Oh, Bel. Today, you’re really going to be my sister.’

‘You used to tell your school friends that she was your twin, like Helen and Polly are twins,’ Marcia said.

Anna’s eyes were glittering with tears. ‘The sister I never managed to give you, Bel.’

Isobel stared at her mother in surprise. It was something they’d never talked about, and as she’d grown up she’d simply assumed that because her parents were older, she’d been a ‘happy accident’ late in life rather than a planned baby.

So did this mean her mother had wanted more children? Or even that she’d had trouble conceiving—had had miscarriages, the same way that Isobel herself had? ‘Mum …’

Anna shook her head. ‘This isn’t the time and the place to talk about it. But just as long as you know how much your father and I love you. How proud we are of you. And how happy we are that you and Alex are together.’

Isobel swallowed hard. ‘I think I’m going to cry.’

‘Don’t you dare. You’ll smudge your make-up. And Alex will scalp us if we deliver his bride in anything less than smile mode,’ Saskia said quickly.

The phone rang; Marcia answered, then nodded. ‘Thank you.’ As the others turned to her in enquiry she said, ‘That was the wedding car.’

‘Wedding car? So where exactly are we going?’ Isobel asked.

‘It’s more than our lives are worth to tell you,’ Marcia said. ‘But everyone else is meeting us there.’

Alex had hired an old-fashioned Rolls-Royce. And when the car pulled up outside Bath Abbey, Isobel shook her head. ‘No. This can’t be right. No way can he have booked the Abbey. They wouldn’t marry us, not when I’m divorced.’

‘It’s not the Abbey,’ Anna said gently, squeezing her hand. ‘You’ll love this.’

‘Then where …’

Enlightenment dawned when they reached the entrance to the old Roman baths. ‘I don’t believe he managed to organise this.’

‘They’re open to the public during the day, so the only time you can get married here is half past eight in the morning,’ Saskia explained. ‘Which is how come you had to be up at the crack of dawn.’

‘I … Oh, Lord.’ Isobel was lost for words.

‘Smile,’ Saskia directed, ‘or my brother will scalp me.’

‘We could’ve walked here, but Alex wanted to string it out to the last possible second,’ Marcia said. She laughed. ‘You know my son. He always takes things further than anyone else.’

‘You can say that again,’ Isobel said fervently.

The torches around the great pool were lit and the steam was rising. The water was pure aqua—the same colour as the bowl her colleagues had bought them. And that, Isobel thought, was probably no coincidence.

And then she saw Alex.

She’d known he was teasing her when he’d threatened to wear his battered Akubra or a toga. But she really hadn’t expected this. He was wearing a morning suit: a black tailcoat and pinstriped trousers with a white wing-collar shirt and a gold waistcoat. And his cravat matched her stole exactly. The rest of the wedding party were dressed in similar style, and they all had a lily as their buttonhole.

For a moment, she could believe that she and Alex really were getting married for love. He looked absolutely stunning and, when he walked towards her, smiling, her heart felt as if it had done a weird kind of flip.

‘That dress is perfect. Simple and classic and letting your beauty shine through. The gloves are pretty sexy, too. You look amazing,’ he said softly.

‘You look pretty stunning yourself.’

He smiled. ‘Note—no toga, and no hat.’

She indicated her stole. ‘And I’ve got the flame-coloured veil you asked for. Sort of.’

He laughed. ‘I like it. And I like your hair up like that.’ He leaned forward and whispered, ‘And I’m really looking forward to taking it down later tonight.’

A shiver of pure desire rippled through her. ‘Later.’ She glanced round at the registrar and their family, sitting there with such love and such joy on their faces.

And Alex had been the one to make this all happen.

‘Thank you, Alex, for doing this. It’s just …’ She could feel tears welling up.

He looked alarmed. ‘Don’t cry, Bel.’

‘They’re happy tears,’ she hastened to reassure him.

‘Even so.’ He took her hand, raised it to his mouth and kissed it. ‘Let’s go and get married.’

‘I can’t believe we’re getting married on a two-thousand-year-old warm pavement.’

He smiled. ‘I told you it was going to be different.’

‘It’s perfect, Alex.’

She walked with him over to the table where the registrar was sitting; Alex held her hand very, very tightly as the registrar welcomed them all.

‘I declare I know of no legal reason why I, Alexander Tobias Richardson, may not be joined in marriage to Isobel Anna Martin,’ Alex said at the registrar’s prompting.

She repeated his declaration.

Then he turned to her. Held both hands. Looked her straight in the eye. ‘I, Alexander, take you, Isobel, to be my lawful wedded wife.’

She swallowed hard. ‘I, Isobel, take you, Alexander, to be my lawful wedded husband.’

Then Saskia came to the front, carrying Flora, who was holding a basket containing the wedding rings.

Alex took the smaller one and slid it onto her finger. ‘With my heart, I pledge to you all that I am. With this ring I marry you and join my life to yours.’