Adoration

‘I will arrange for your aunt to be fetched. Is there anything you would like her to bring with her?’ Morgan asked Sissy.

Sissy shook her head. She was a little stunned at the speed everything was progressing.

‘Well, let’s have some breakfast while we wait for the vicar and magistrate to arrive. When the church has been opened, we can get everyone together and the wedding underway.’ With purposeful strides, Morgan escorted Sissy into the breakfast room and seated her in her new position beside him at the dining table. Sissy stared at the vast array of food on offer but was too bemused by it to be worried at all. Besides, she was hungry and so tucked in with as much enthusiasm as Morgan.

Several hours later, Sissy slowly walked down the aisle. One step. Two. Three. Four. The organ music, played by Mrs Hall, echoed around the hushed confines of the small church nestled in the far corner of the estate. To everyone’s surprise, all the staff had made themselves readily available and were now crammed into the church alongside many of Morgan’s tenants, several of Sissy and Maud’s friends, and many good friends from the village. The place was packed to the rafters of teary-eyed people who had all suspended their plans for the day to witness the marriage of Morgan and Sissy.

Sissy was barely able to see Alicia smiling mistily at her as she passed, or Mariette who was smiling at her brother. Morgan looked nervous and worried yet was grinning openly as he watched the love of his live walk slowly toward him. He clasped Sissy’s hand in his the second she reached him and tucked it into the crook of his arm as they faced the vicar and prepared to change their lives forever.

Later, Sissy would realise that there was very little of the service she could remember. It was all a blur. She was too lost in the depths of Morgan’s loving gaze as she murmured the words the vicar told her to say. She had been mesmerised as Morgan slid a gold band onto her finger. While smiling, she had watched him repeat the vows and fumble them. The chuckles from the congregation had made him laugh, but make sure that he got them right the second time he tried them.

Before either of them knew it, the vicar declared them man and wife.

Sissy blushed prettily when Morgan sealed their union with a very thorough kiss amidst a chorus of cheers from the congregation. Somewhere at the back of the church, the game warden released white doves, whose wings fluttered as they soared high into the cloudless blue sky. The single bell peeled a celebration as Morgan and Sissy made their way back down the aisle, to the Barouche that was waiting to return them to the house they would call home.

‘Thank Heavens for that,’ Alicia cried to Norma as she watched Morgan hand his wife into the Barouche as if she was made from spun glass.

‘You sound so relieved,’ Norma replied.

‘Aren’t you?’

Norma nodded and dabbed at her eyes. ‘I never thought to see them so happy.’

‘They adore each other, don’t they?’ Together, both women watched the happy couple gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes.

‘Indeed they do,’ Norma murmured softly, more than delighted that her niece had found the happiness she deserved. ‘Indeed they do.’

‘I understand that Morgan has offered you the old Dowager House next to mine,’ Alicia murmured. ‘I do hope you agree to live there. It really won’t do to have any relatives staying in the village.’

‘Well, I-’ Norma began.

‘Please say you will,’ Alicia pleaded. ‘It gets terribly lonely out there by myself what with Mariette socialising all the time. I don’t suppose it will be too long before she gets married as well.’

Norma sighed. She knew she was going to miss Sissy terribly. The thought of rattling around that house all by herself was simply horrible. ‘Do you know something? I think a change would do me good as well.’

‘Then that is agreed. It is all ready, so maybe we can get you moved sooner rather than later as well,’ Alicia replied, content at last that life was falling into place the way it should.

‘Morgan?’

Morgan stopped whispering seductive things into his wife’s ear to look at Mariette.

‘I was wrong,’ Mariette admitted to them both. ‘I apologise. I know now is not the time for this but I didn’t have anything to do with what Charlton did. He was wrong to do what he did, as was I. It is obvious to anybody with eyes in their head that you two adore each other and deserve to be together. I hope you are able to find happiness at last.’

Morgan squinted at her. While he was delighted to see this new, somewhat contrite side of Mariette, he had to wonder if she truly meant it. ‘Thank you, but that doesn’t mean that you are not going to have to go to Scotland, you know.’

‘Oh? Why?’ Mariette cried. ‘I promise that I won’t expect you to escort me anywhere now. I mean, you have your wife to escort now, don’t you?’

Sissy smiled at her, for once unable to see even a hint of Mariette’s malice.

‘I apologise for how I have behaved toward you,’ Mariette said to her. ‘I was wrong.’

‘It is up to my wife to decide if you should go to Scotland, Mariette,’ Morgan announced, lifting his brows at Sissy.

‘Pardon?’ Sissy blinked at him.

‘Well, family matters

like this involve you now, especially seeing as you are the lady of the manor,’ Morgan warned her. ‘Do you think she should go to Scotland?’