Cameras were clicking, everyone was hugging them, and Kate thought she’d never been kissed by so many people in her life. All sorts of people. Friends, family, colleagues, but others, patients, neighbours, people she’d known all her life, people who’d taken this little broken family to their hearts and made them whole again with their kindness and acceptance.
Nick stopped and looked around. ‘Thank you so much for coming. I’m sorry we can’t fit everybody for the reception,’ he said, ‘but if you go up to the Smugglers’ and see Tony, there’s a drink there for all of you on the house.’
That raised a cheer, and in a blizzard of rose petals Nick and Kate walked down the path, through the lychgate and to the waiting car.
‘You’re coming with us,’ Kate heard Lucy say to Jem, and they entered the car alone, Jem standing with his sister and brothers. The chauffeur handed them glasses of champagne, and as they linked arms and drank and the cameras were popping, the car pulled slowly away.
‘All right?’ Nick said softly, and Kate smiled back at him.
‘Very all right,’ she said, and kissed him again.
* * *
‘Good party?’
‘Fantastic party. It’s a good party house.’
He chuckled and slid his arms round her from behind, nuzzling her neck. ‘No doubt we’ll regret that when he’s seventeen,’ he said wryly, and she laughed.
‘We’ll get over it.’ She turned in his arms, lifting her face up and kissing him softly in the moonlight. ‘I want to be alone with you. It’s been utterly fabulous, but I just want them to go now. Is that really selfish of me?’
He laughed quietly. ‘No, not at all. I feel just the same. I love them all to bits, but I want them to go now.’
‘So how do we get rid of them all?’
‘We don’t, Jack does. I’ve bribed him. We’re having the kids for them next weekend when they go away. And when the coach turns into a pumpkin, he’s kicking them all out. He said we should have gone away, but why would we, when we live here, in this beautiful place? We’ve waited all our lives for this. I don’t want to run away from it.’
‘Nor do I, but I wish they would.’
There was a quiet cough, and she looked up to see Jack standing a few feet away, an indulgent smile on his face. ‘You need to come for the last dance, and say goodbye,’ he told them, and so they went into the marquee on the lawn, swirling round the dance floor one last time before they saw their guests off, closed the front door behind them and turned.
‘It’s a mess!’ Kate wailed, but Nick just scooped her up in his arms and carried her up the stairs.
‘It’s fine,’ he said firmly. ‘We’re going to Ben and Lucy’s for lunch tomorrow with Jack and Alison and all the children, and the catering team’s coming back to sort it. You don’t have to do a thing. And besides, you’re busy.’
‘I am?’
‘Oh, yes.’
She gave a slow smile.
‘I do love it when you’re masterful, Dr T.,’ she said, and kissed him...
* * * * *
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ISBN: 9781459242326
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St. Piran's: The Wedding of The Year Page 18
