It was a clear and cold wintry day the second Saturday in December when she became Mrs. Rodney Anthony Lancashire.
At the same small chapel where her parents had said their vows and where she and her son had been christened. She stood before a small group of family and friends and pledged her life to the man the Lord had sent in her life.
Walking down the aisle between her son and her grandmother, she went to meet him.
Her dress, a simple wool that highlighted her pregnancy. She had insisted on it, when she met with the experts at Romano's.
"I want the world to know that I'm carrying his child," she had told them. The ice blue wool clung to her body like a glove and flared out at the ankles. She was four months pregnant. The sickness that had plagued her during the last month had somehow magically disappeared.
The ceremony lasted twenty minutes. The most significant and poignant moment of her life. She stood with him at the altar and promised to love, honor and obey him for the rest of their lives.
Nothing else mattered. Not even the meeting with his lawyers where she had signed the prenuptial agreement. Rodney had balked at first.
"It's as if we're going into this and expecting it to end." He had inherited the lawyers and in the past admired their cold calculating ways when it comes to business, but this was the woman he loved, and it made a difference.
"I need to do this." She insisted. "People are speculating that I'm marrying you for your money. I want it put to bed. It started out that way." She reminded him. "I have to prove to you and the public that I'm into you for love. Just love. Please let me do this."
Not even that moment could spoil this for her. She was marrying the man she loved.
And furthermore, he had surprised and humbled her and her son by legally adopting him.
"Why?" She asked him raggedly. "Please don't be angry, but I need to know if you feel obligated to."
"I feel honor bound to." He told her. "I happen to love David. This is because of him, not because of you."
So now they were a family, bearing the same name.
No longer would she ever be left in doubt where she belonged. She was now Mrs. Rodney Lancashire, loved, wanted and cherished.
*****
"We're going back to where it all began." He told her as they made their way to the airfield where the jet was fueled and waiting.
"If that were true, we would be going back to that masked ball at your club." She snuggled against him, feeling secure with his arms wrapped around her.
He kissed the top of her head. His wife, he thought in amazement. He never dreamed he could love to this degree.
"Back to where I realized I had fallen in utter and complete love with you."
She turned her head to stare at him, love shining from her eyes. She had walked into that chapel, one where she had known since she was a baby and felt the warmth of his love enveloping her.
"I fell in love with you then too." Her fingers stroked his cheek gently. "And it scared me to death, knowing I was going to have to end things."
"I proposed." He shook his head in remembrance. "And you broke my heart."
"I broke mine as well. Shattered it into pieces."
"This time, we're going on our honeymoon. This time it will be different."
"No shopping." She warned.
He chuckled. "I'm not making any promises."
"Rodney..."
"Shh." He shut her up, the usual way, by closing his mouth over hers.
Chapter 16
