Neither of them moved, being too comfortable in each other's arms. They simply lay there, sometimes just watching each other. Other times repeating the breath-stealing lovemaking, not quite able to get enough of each other.
They missed supper entirely, as no one came to remind them. Probably Minette's doing. It was rude to leave her to dine on her own, but Sophie suspected she was perfectly happy with the outcome.
Chapter 39
TRISTAN COULDN’T HELP but pace. The air in the church was cool, but the place didn’t warm even on the hottest summers day. Alfie was with him, dressed in his little suit. It wasn’t as formal as Tristan would like. In spite of what seemed logical now, this wedding hadn’t been anticipated. But Alfie was with him, so there wasn’t much chance that Sophie would simply run for it.
With their past, her showing up at the altar today wasn’t something he took for granted—but he needed her to. There was a discomfort about not having this settled, as if some latent fear expected that everything would go wrong. Maybe because in the past, everything had.
Saying that, he was much more nervous this time than the first time he’d stood at the altar waiting for her. He’d been fuming with rage then, although he’d done a fairly good job at masking it.
Turning sharply, he paced back the way he’d come. The vicar was standing in his white stole, waiting patiently. How could the man deal with weddings constantly? This was nerve-wracking.
Alfie looked nervous too, which wasn’t Tristan’s intention, so he walked to the boy and crouched down. “Do you understand what’s happening today?”
“You and Mummy are getting married,” he said.
“That’s right. I will be her husband and she will be my wife, and we will be a family. As it should be.”
“What about Doug?”
“Well, Doug took care of Sophie when I wasn’t there. They were married, because Sophie and I couldn’t be. I won’t go into the details. And as you know, Doug was very ill and passed away. He was a good man and there will always be a place in your heart for him, and in your mother’s.” Really, he wanted to rip that part out and stomp on it, but it wasn’t a mature reaction, and both Sophie and Alfie needed him to respect Doug Duthie and the place he’d had in their lives. “But now we are to be married, because we love each other too. It might not always have seemed that way,” he said with a chuckle, “but we do. And maybe if your father hadn’t been so pigheaded, he would have come to realize that a very long time ago. Do you think we should be married?”
To Tristan’s relief, Alfie nodded. To a six-year-old it perhaps made perfect sense that a mother and father should be married. In a way, Alfie was the one to give her away this time, and he seemed pleased to do so.
“I think so too. I will treat her as well as I can—rather as well as she’ll let me. Because when your mother isn’t happy, we all know about it, don’t we?”
Alfie nodded again, and Tristan took his hand and they waited as the crunch of gravel sounded outside. She was here. Relief and hope surged in him. Honestly, he didn’t love these emotions that crashed through him at the very thought of her, but it was far better to be with her than not. It was an issue of need, he’d found. Now that he was let into her body and heart, it was a place he needed to be.
This was a leap of faith on her part. She was putting herself in his care, in his power, and she had no real reason to do so other than wanting to. It was an honor and a privilege he recognized. And maybe for the fact that she could be growing their next child that very moment. Satisfaction eased him. His shift from dismissing her to needing her had seemed swift, but perhaps it hadn’t been, because gone was an ache he’d felt but never truly identified. It had sat in his very bones, but he hadn’t acknowledged it, because he’d never known it could be otherwise.
Minette appeared first with a beaming smile. In some parts, she took responsibility for this coming about. Tristan didn’t necessarily see it that way, but he had no issue with Minette claiming responsibility. His friend liked and petitioned for Sophie, and that pleased him. Behind her, Sophie appeared, wearing a dress of light blue silk brocade. It was stunning. Minette had chosen well.
Clear eyes regarded him. Did she have doubts? It didn’t seem so. She smiled at him. Heavens she was beautiful, and she looked like a lady—Lady Aberley. How could he have dismissed her in the role when it suited her so perfectly?
Reverend Narstop cleared his throat as Sophie joined Tristan, placing her hand in his. This was it; they were getting married. They would truly be a family in every sense of the word.
In the past, he had feared this, had run from it—feared the hold she had over him. Because she did. Her pain, her displeasure was something he now felt deeply in his bones. It was scary, but the rewards far outweighed the risk. But it wasn’t much of a choice. He couldn’t imagine going back to being alone, being kept from her bed.
They would fight, and they would do it well, but then they would be soft again.
Her eyes were clear as she looked up at him. He barely heard the words the vicar was saying. Only said yes when he needed to and placed a ring on her finger. It had belonged to some family member in the past, but it was hers now. The ring by which he wed her.
He hadn’t found a ring that fit him. They would have to acquire one somewhere, but her hold on him would never have anything to do with a band of metal.
And then it was done. They were man and wife. It had carried through to completion without falling apart. She was his. Relief washed over him.
“Congratulations,” Minette said as Sophie moved to pick up Alfie. “I think this is simply perfect. Imagine all the time you’ve wasted. If you had only seen her for what she was from the beginning.”
“I don’t think I was ready to.”
“No, perhaps not. It is far better that a man marries for love. This pleases me. I want to see my friend settled and happy.”
Tristan just hoped they’d be happy. There was still a risk things could go wrong, but nothing good was gained without risk. He knew that. But never had he ventured something with such high stakes—his heart. It was perhaps the scariest thing he had ever done, but he had to trust her—there was nothing else he could do. If this fell to pieces, it would destroy him and he simply had to accept that.
“Well, then,” Minette said. “I think my work here is done. I should perhaps return to London and see what has become of my own husband. I might just have to regale Cecilia with the tale. Underneath her bravado, she won’t be too pleased. I wouldn’t take her well wishes at face value.”
“I don’t give a damn about Cecilia.”
“I will take care of her if she tries to be destructive. I believe she has the propensity.”
For such a long time, he’d been displeased about Cecilia refusing to marry him, but looking back now, he couldn’t even imagine what hell that marriage would have been.
Sophie was placing Alfie in the carriage and Tristan went to help both her and Minette up. He would ride back. They had a party planned, a reception of kind, but he hadn’t invited any of the people around. There really hadn’t been time. So they had determined a simple thing where even the staff were invited. Unconventional, but everything about them was unconventional.
Seeing the carriage off, he mounted his horse and rode back. It could be said he even viewed his estate differently now. It had been the source of his income, but otherwise a nuisance—a place filled with bad memories, but now it was the home and the keeper of his family. It was their strength and their privacy. Sophie would never relish London, or the society that Minette was certainly going to launch her into. They might have to be one of those families that were forever ensconced at their country estate. Tristan had never understood the inclination to isolate oneself so, but he did now.
The ladies had disembarked the carriage and had gone inside, but Tristan noticed someone was approaching in a hack—not Narstop’s carriage, who would be coming along to the festivities shortly. He didn’t want anyon
e coming to the house, but someone was definitely approaching.
Tristan was dismounting by the time the carriage came close, and out stepped an older man with grey hair and a ruddy face. A man Tristan hadn’t seen before.
“Lord Aberley?” the man asked, stepping out of the carriage. “Mr. Veech. I believe you are expecting me.”
“Right, yes,” Tristan said with a smile. It had completely slipped his mind that this man was coming. With searching eyes, he considered the man. Suitably unappealing. Perfect. “You have come at a rather auspicious occasion, and in some way unfortunately.”
“Oh dear. I hope not,” the man said with worry. By the look of him, he didn’t travel well.
“It is my wedding day, you see.”
“In that case, you have my most fervent congratulations.”
“Please come join the reception, and I will introduce you, but more relevant is perhaps the fact that Alfred is coming on our honeymoon with us. But you are welcome to stay and settle in. We’ll be a few months.”
Veech blinked and looked confused as Tristan urged him into the house. Then he simply resigned himself to it. It would be a sedate start to his employment here, but by the look of it, the man could quite easily snooze in the library for a couple of months—maybe more.
Epilogue
THE LAKE WAS STILL and beautiful, mirroring the snow-capped mountains of the Alps. The guest house they were staying in sat next to the lake and included extensive gardens. The air was fresh and cool, and Sophie breathed deeply.
Alfie and Tristan were skipping stones across the lake, praising each other's efforts. Alfie’s adoration for his father seemed to grow every day. Tristan relished the role. With a smile she remembered how awkward he’d been around Alfie at first, having no idea how to relate to him. Now Alfie seemed to bring out a younger, softer side of Tristan, becoming the father he’d never had as a boy. It hurt her heart to think of him as a boy, lost and lonely. It hurt her heart to think about the man he had become. But it had made him the man he now was, the man who treasured what he had.
A wave of nausea hit her and her stomach clenched as she sat on the lawn chair, clutching a bowl in case she should need it. The whole of the trip had been fine until the last few days, where waves of nausea hit her.
Tristan had been right. There had been consequences, and Sophie liked to think from the very first time they’d lain together. Granted, there had been countless times since, but it was romantic to think it was the first one that had sparked new life inside her.
They had both lost so many people in their lives, but were finding comfort and joy together. Doug would be happy for her; she knew it in her bones. Being a romantic, perhaps he understood that they’d had a long and convoluted history, where they’d both seen falsehoods about each other.
Her wedding band glinted on her finger and she was again Lady Aberley—for the second time in her life. This ring was for keeping, though. He wasn't letting her go again, and there was nowhere she wished to be. Tristan was attentive and considerate, although his humor was still dry and he was merciless with incompetent officials they came across in their travels. Or anyone else who didn't do as he wished.
Marrying his ex-wife was quite a scandal, but Minette was busy back in London building up their romance to epic proportions. Sophie wished she wouldn’t, but every one of Minette's society now saw her as some modern-day version of Isolde—finally being reunited with her lover after tragedy and adversity. In truth, it had only been them that had stood in their own way, but perhaps it had been necessary. Sophie didn't question it—was only glad that they had finally come together.
Shortly, once she felt a little more settled, they were moving on to the Rhineland. Hopefully it wouldn't take too long, but Tristan had promised they had all the time in the world. Well, a good eight months.
Other Books by Camille Oster
An Absent Wife - he desertion of Lord Lysander Warburton's wife had come as a complete surprise, even though he readily admitted that he'd never excelled as a husband. The death of the wife he'd ignored for close to a decade was a downright nuisance, making him further fodder for the gossips, and now a target for every designing matron in London.
In line with her consistent talent for being disagreeable, Lady Adele Warburton had run off with a lowly lieutenant, leaving safety and respectability behind, then died in a cholera epidemic in a far flung country.
In a last show of husbandly duty, Lysander decides to recover her effects, and grudgingly those of her lover, retracing the steps of the wife he'd barely known across half the world. But arriving in the mayhem of India, he finds that all is not as it should be.
Warning: This book contains a non-consensual scene (not graphic)
https://www.amazon.com/Absent-Wife-Camille-Oster-ebook/dp/B00GXIUEM2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522271724&sr=8-1&keywords=camille+oster
Undoing One’s Enemy - Lord Eldridge returns to London to reclaim the estate that had been stolen from him. He is determined on the ruination of the family that destroyed his, but his plans conflicts with his gentlemanly duties to the remnants of the Hessworth family, Amelia Hessworth and her ailing aunt.
Amelia Hessworth's wilful pride and determination only increases the stakes as she refuses to accept a fate less than the one she wants. She won't let circumstance or the arrogant man who’s come to throw her out of her home stop her, even as she has little choice in the short-term but to rely on support from the man who despises her. In fact, she learns to embrace the freedom outside of Society's strict expectations.
To say they don't get on is an understatement, but circumstances can be cruel.
http://www.amazon.com/Undoing-Ones-Enemy-ebook/dp/B00A159B1I/ref=la_B00ALPYJHE_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1363414729&sr=1-3
An Unlikely Savior - The Revolution is spreading across France and it had reached the stately chateau of Virginie Durmont's guardian in the country side. She had accidentally been separated from the rest of the family and her need to escape France has become paramount, something her sheltered life and refined upbringing has left her unprepared for. Her only choice is to turn to her guardian's belligerent and selfish half-brother, Tomas Sanbonne.
Virginie is certain that her guardian's faith in his half-brother is misplaced, but her dire circumstances mean she must beseech his assistance. She must reach safety beyond French shores and she will just have to put up with his considerable disapproval of her and everything she stands for.
http://www.amazon.com/An-Unlikely-Savior-ebook/dp/B00BMJYEPK/ref=la_B00ALPYJHE_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363413797&sr=1-1
Contacting the Author
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The Discarded Wife Page 20
