‘No, I did wonder about that,’ Piers agreed. ‘But to my mind there’s no shame for a woman in physically wanting a man without being able to love him.’
‘So you thought I felt lust and not love?’ she asked him ruefully. ‘What would we have done if I hadn’t come round here today?’ she added shakily. ‘We could have—’
‘No.’ He stopped her. ‘No. I hadn’t given up... I’ve taught Ben to limp. It would have taken a good many visits to the surgery before you cottoned on to the fact that there was nothing wrong with his paw—or so I hoped!’
‘Oh, Piers,’ Georgia laughed. ‘You wouldn’t have...’
‘Don’t bank on it. The way I feel about you is—’
‘Mmm...?’ Georgia interrupted him, an invitingly husky note in her voice as she looped her arms around his neck and lifted her face towards him. ‘The way you feel about me is...?’
* * *
Human beings did the oddest things, Ben reflected. His two were still upstairs in bed despite the fact that he should have had his dinner two hours ago, and not even a discreet bark outside the bedroom door had alerted them to their negligence... Never mind, there were home-made sausages in the fridge...!
EPILOGUE
‘OH, JUST look at the dog; isn’t he gorgeous...?’
Ben wriggled appreciatively as he heard the onlooker’s praise. Personally he thought it a little undignified, a little infra dig, so to speak, to be carrying a basket of flowers, but they had insisted. They had even made him carry one up and down the driveway for weeks on end, just to make sure he knew what he was doing.
A basket of flowers...and here they were now, coming out of the church with everyone throwing rose petals at them.
Obligingly Ben went over to have his photograph taken with the bride and groom and their families...still carefully carrying his basket.
* * *
‘Ben did marvellously well with the flowers, didn’t he?’ Georgia sighed happily to her new husband as the wedding car pulled away from the church.
‘He did indeed,’ Piers agreed.
‘You’re so clever to teach him to carry the basket,’ Georgia giggled.
‘Mmm... I think he got more oohs and aahs than we did,’ Piers said wryly, ‘which isn’t very fair when you think that this is our special big day. He had his last month, when he was presented with his Brave Dog of the Year award.’
Georgia laughed reminiscently.
‘He certainly enjoyed that, didn’t he? He posed for the photographs like a real pro. I’m glad your godmother offered to look after him for us whilst we’re on honeymoon; I wouldn’t have wanted to put him in kennels.’
‘Mmm... Let’s hope the colonel’s cat shares your feelings. Marmalade is rather elderly, and Ben, as you keep reminding me, is still a young dog. Now what does that look mean?’ Piers quizzed her as he saw the soft, dreamy look darkening his new wife’s eyes.
‘I was just thinking that in a year or so’s time Ben is going to be the perfect age to be around babies...’
‘Babies?’ Piers leaned closer to her. ‘I see! Are we talking, I wonder, about his babies...or our own...?’
Laughter dimpled the smile Georgia gave him as she told him teasingly, ‘Who knows? Maybe both.’
‘Hmm... I see. Well, we’d better not waste any time, then, had we?’ Piers murmured as he bent his head over and kissed her.
‘Oh, I don’t know...I don’t mind if we have to practise a few times first,’ Georgia told him blissfully as she snuggled into his arms.
As the wedding car pulled up at the hotel where they were to have their wedding reception, Piers told her softly, ‘Oh, I thought we’d spent the last few months doing just that—and, so far as I’m concerned, no amount of practice can make things between us any more perfect than they are right now. I love you, Mrs Hathersage.’
‘And I love you too,’ Georgia whispered back.
* * *
In the back of Mrs Latham’s Volvo Ben was happily demolishing the treat that the bridegroom had slipped him just before he’d got into the wedding car with his new bride.
Home-made sausages... Ben loved them—almost as much as handmade shoes... Mmm...!