Page 94 of The Gift of Patience
Instead of words, he showed her with a tender, yet passionate kiss that sent little arrows of sweetness deep into her heart and took hold. In his arms, his touch and lingering kiss almost drove her troubles from her mind.
Breathless with passion, it was hard to make sense of her reality while wrapped in Ashley’s arms, hidden from the world beneath the canvas tarp, riding across the river.
“I never thought to marry, Patience. But I can’t seem to stop thinking about you when you’re not with me. It seems you are essential to my happiness.”
“Even though I drive you crazy?”
“Especially because of that. I do not think any other sort of female would do for me. Ours will not be a traditional marriage, but you seem to understand and perhaps relish that fact.”
A faint smile made its way to her lips.
“You are a gift, Patience.”
“I will remind you of that often when I vex you,” she teased, though it was she who felt as though she was the one who’d received the most precious gift. With him, every day would be a new adventure, and everything else would be all right.
EPILOGUE
As Patience was no traditional miss, neither would her wedding be. As a matter of fact, she’d been so taken with their encounter and proposal on the barge that they decided to marry on a yacht.
There would be no grand wedding at St. George’s Hanover Square for her. A small private ceremony was just the thing. Too bad her family did not agree. Were it not for the size restrictions of the yacht, Patience was quite certain there would have been hundreds of people, regardless of her wishes.
Carew’s yacht was still available, and there were still nigh thirty people, not including the crew.
There were five sisters, after all, plus the dowagers, the aunts, the new husbands, babies, and all of their closest friends in the troop…and yes, even Xander, Freddy and her kittens had to be brought along. It was smaller than a St. George’s affair, but certainly not calm and quiet on board. Thankfully, the weather was mild for a late fall day. If the cold had set in, it would have not been a pleasant affair.
Thankfully, it was a short sail for the day from the Taywards dock out into the North Sea then back.
Somehow, the Dowager had persuaded her cousin, the archbishop, to perform the ceremony. Whilst she appreciated the sentiment and originality of such a wedding, she could not abide a common law ship’s captain performing her grandson’s wedding ceremony.
Miraculously, their vows were said amidst Xander lunging at the seagulls and the rocking ship. Due to the archbishop’s seasickness, it was blessedly short.
The dowager viscountesses still somehow arranged a full wedding breakfast fit for a queen.
“I think it is time we began with a toast,” Westwood began as the footmen handed out champagne. “To my baby brother, I am happy to see you’ve been well and truly caught. Welcome to the bonds of marriage, where a shackle never felt so good.”
“Hear, hear!” everyone shouted to laughter.
Renforth stood to follow with his own toast. “I suppose if anyone was to break apart our little troop, you could not have found a better lady.”
“Let us not look at it as breaking apart, but adding to,” Patience suggested to more laughter and more echoes of, “hear, hear.”
As everyone settled to a place to eat their food and converse, Patience and Ashley stood at the bow of the ship together in the first moments of privacy they’d had together in days. Ashley stood behind her and put his arms around her with his chin settling on her shoulder. The wind blew against their faces with the occasional spray of water as the ship cut through the sea.
“You are certain Devil and Billy will be alright?”
“I saw them on to the ship myself with enough funds for them to start over in Virginia.”
She sighed happily.
“Are you pleased with your wedding?” he asked.
“It was perfect. The only negative—if one could even call it that—is there will be no escaping early.”
Ashley chuckled in her ear, the deep sound reverberating through her.
“I will have you to myself soon.”
“Not soon enough.”
