He pulled her into him again, kissing away the tears and then taking her mouth in a kiss that shook her to her very roots. His breathing was heavy when at last he lifted his head, his lips slowly leaving hers.
‘The twins, Mitchell. You don’t mind that they come with me?’ she whispered, feeling she knew the answer but needing to hear it all the same.
‘Mind?’ He kissed her again. ‘Oh, my darling, how could I mind? They’re wonderful, amazing, two miniature Kays. Georgia has all of your determination and fire, and little Emily is your other side, the vulnerable, needing reassurance, unsure part of you. Two little individual clones from one beautiful lady.’
‘They love you already.’ Her hand moved gently to his mouth again, her fingers tracing his lips. ‘Children see so much more clearly than us at times. They recognised the real Mitchell long before you let me see him.’
‘I think your mother is for me too,’ he said with some satisfaction, grinning down at her suddenly. ‘I sensed an ally in her from the very beginning.’
‘As well you might.’ She met his eyes in amusement.
‘Marry me, Kay.’
His voice was soft with a catch in it and her heart soared with the birds overhead. ‘Yes,’ she said shakily, ‘but not straight away. First we’ll get the twins used to the idea and just have some time…’
She didn’t know how to put it, and he finished for her, his face understanding, ‘Getting used to it ourselves?’
Did he know there was still just the tiniest doubt, the merest smidgen that he might find he couldn’t do the whole family thing? She didn’t know, but she was grateful he had put it the way he had. She nodded. ‘I love you, Mitchell, with all my heart,’ she said before she pulled his head down to hers.
Just so that he knew.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
‘DO I look all right, Kay? Are you sure this suit is my colour?’
‘Mum, you look fantastic. When you walk up the aisle Henry is going to be knocked sideways,’ Kay said reassuringly as she looked into her mother’s flushed, anxious face.
It was true—Leonora did look amazing in the pale cream suit and huge bridal hat with pale blue feathers waving gently over the rim.
‘Is the car here yet?’
Leonora was flapping, but then every bride had the right to be nervous on her wedding day. Kay smiled at her mother, putting out a hand and touching Leonora’s dear face before she said gently, ‘Everything’s under control, Mum. And if I hear correctly, I think the car’s just arrived.’
She hung out of the bedroom window of Ivy Cottage and, sure enough, an elegant cream Rolls complete with ribbons and driver was waiting outside, its paintwork shining in the mild December sunshine.
Leonora turned to her daughter, her voice trembling as she said, ‘The end of an era, Kay.’
‘And a great new one about to start.’
‘Your father wouldn’t have minded me marrying again, would he?’
‘Of course he wouldn’t.’ Kay took her mother into her arms, mindful of the new hat. ‘And it isn’t as if you’ve exactly rushed into it, is it? Two years you’ve kept that poor man waiting; it’s about time you made an honest man of him.’
‘Oh, Kay.’ Leonora giggled and then took a deep breath. ‘Right, I’m ready.’
The drive to the church through the slanting sunshine was very pleasant, but Leonora kept tight hold of Kay’s hand all the time. Kay could understand why. Her mother had had her own gremlins to come to terms with before she had felt she could finally commit to Henry. Kay’s father had been a good man and they had been happy most of the time, but it wasn’t until Henry had proposed to her mother some months after Mitchell had popped the question that Kay had realised how the past had affected Leonora. The uncertainty about money, which had been a constant thorn in Leonora’s flesh when she had been married before, the final catastrophic finale when she had been left with nothing due to Kay’s father’s speculating, had all taken its toll.
But Henry’s persistence had finally paid off. He wanted her as his wife, he had insisted firmly. Not as his companion or his partner or any other of the modern terms bandied about these days. He was old-fashioned, he admitted it, but he wanted a gold ring on the third finger of Leonora’s left hand and that was that.
‘I’ve never really said thank you for saving me after your father died,’ Leonora said quietly as the church came in sight.
‘Saving you?’ Kay stared at her mother. ‘I didn’t save you.’
‘Oh, yes, you did, darling.’ Leonora squeezed her daughter’s hand. ‘I was in a state, more of a state than I was willing to admit to anyone at the time. You left a secure job, a flat, all that you’d worked for for yourself and the twins after Perry left, and you came home to be with me. And you did it so sweetly. Never once did you make me feel as if you didn’t want to be there.’
‘I did want to be there, that’s why,’ Kay said softly, smiling at her mother as she added, ‘And don’t cry, not now, not when I’ve done your make-up so well.’
‘Even my meeting Henry was through you.’ Leonora gave a loud sniff and then put down the little winter posy she was carrying. ‘Have you got a tissue, darling?’