Mistress of Greyladies
Page 27
The registry office was drab and people were queuing to get married, many of the men in uniform. But Phoebe didn’t notice the others. What she did notice was how Corin’s eyes lingered on her when she arrived with Beaty, who had driven them here in her car.
Phoebe and Corin had been separated for most of the past four weeks, as he took up his new post ‘somewhere’ in the north. Even she wasn’t allowed to know where.
‘You look beautiful!’ he breathed as he reached her side and took her hand. ‘I must be the luckiest man in the world today to have such a beautiful bride. And how on earth did you find a wedding dress so elegant?’
She smiled and smoothed the lustrous ivory silk with one hand. ‘Mrs Stein found an old dress in the attic, one with a lot of material in the skirt, and altered it. She said a bride should have something very special to wear when she marries the man she loves, war or no war. She made the wreath of artificial flowers for my hair and the veil, too.’
‘And all I have is my uniform.’
‘You always look very elegant in it.’
She turned to greet Harriet and Joseph, who had come up to London from their new home to be their witnesses. Then Phoebe waited in a glow of happiness for their wedding to start.
The ceremony was much shorter than a traditional church ceremony, and at the end of it, the registrar said, ‘You are now man and wife, and you’re just as married as if you’d done this in church.’
‘What a tactless thing to say to a wartime bride!’ Corin muttered in Phoebe’s ear.
‘I don’t care what anyone says. All I care about is that we’re married. I love you, Corin.’
‘And I love you, Mrs McMinty. More each day. What will we be like when we’re old if that love continues to increase?’
‘We’ll be blissfully happy.’
Her words seemed to echo and she wondered for a moment whether this was the same effect as at Greyladies. When something was said there which forecast the future, it always echoed.
‘We’ll change our names to Latimer as soon as we can,’ he added. ‘I do understand the need to keep up that tradition. But I didn’t want to delay marrying you.’
‘Neither did I.’
They went on to a wonderful meal at Beaty’s, who made a short but witty speech. Phoebe couldn’t take the words in, had eyes only for her wonderful husband.
In the end Beaty stopped talking and clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention. ‘Listen, people, our bride and groom only have tonight, so I think we’ll do no more speechifying. We’ll just have one proper toast.’ She raised her glass, waiting till everyone else had stood up and raised glasses.
‘Long life and happiness to Phoebe and Corin.’
The words echoed again, they really did, Phoebe thought. She raised her eyes to meet Corin’s, then clinked her glass against his. ‘Happiness,’ she echoed.
‘I think we can go now, Mrs McMinty,’ he whispered. He looked across at Beaty and mouthed, ‘Thank you’.
Phoebe felt as if she floated from the room. She had never expected to be so happy. No matter how long this dreadful war continued, she was sure that Corin would return to her, and in the meantime, well, she’d be mistress of Greyladies. How wonderful it all was.
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About the Author
ANNA JACOBS is the author of over sixty novels and is addicted to storytelling. She grew up in Lancashire, emigrated to Australia in the 1970s and writes stories set in both countries. She loves to return to England regularly to visit her family and soak up the history. She has two grown-up daughters and a grandson, and lives with her husband in a spacious home near the Swan Valley, the earliest wine-growing district in Western Australia, now a popular tourist area. Inside the house is crammed with thousands of books.
www.annajacobs.com
By Anna Jacobs
THE GREYLADIES TRILOGY
Heir to Greyladies
Mistress of Greyladies
THE WILTSHIRE TRILOGY
Cherry Tree Lane
Elm Tree Road
Yew Tree Gardens
Copyright
Allison & Busby Limited
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www.allisonandbusby.com
First published in 2014.
This ebook edition first published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby in 2014.
Copyright © 2014 by ANNA JACOBS
The moral right of the author is hereby asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All characters and events in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library.
ISBN 978–0–7490–1670–8