It took some effort, but it was effort I gleefully expended, filling my part of Battle’s and my closet.
I received those sexy nighties, and with my windfall, I bought a lot more.
Truthfully, it was a waste of money. My man was visual, tactile and imaginative, and adding that visual usually meant any sexy nightie I donned ended up on my body for a few minutes and on the floor for a whole lot longer.
That didn’t stop me from buying them.
Not at all.
I’d been wrong about François.
He was one hundred percent not gay.
Though I was right about one thing.
He was also one hundred percent seriously in love with Prue.
It was just that it was another kind of love altogether.
He confessed this to her when she went to London (by herself!) to tool around some museums and do some shopping. He asked her to dinner, and she went thinking it was some kind of client relations thing.
It was not.
They started dating.
They fell in love.
They got married in the single weirdest wedding I’d ever attended (the theme for the décor was goldfish (don’t ask me), even the cake topper was a goldfish with a bow tie and another one wearing a veil—I’ll let you fill in the rest, just be sure to do it the weirdest way possible), where she wore a creation designed by her fiancé, which was the single weirdest wedding gown of all time (yes, it was orange).
It was still fantastic, mostly because it was so weird, fascinating and fun.
And they were deliriously happy.
I was one of three bridesmaids.
Battle gave his sister away.
When those two weren’t in London, François worked with Prue in what became their studio in the attic.
And oh yeah, he totally moved in.
They had four children.
Two daughters, one named Kahlo, one named O’Keeffe (though, they called her Georgie).
And two sons, one named Matisse, the other was called Basquiat.
Tempie’s wedding to Hamish was intimate and elegant and no expense had been spared.
I was honored with standing up for her too.
And obviously, Battle gave her away.
Tempie let go of the flat in London, but if they were there, they stayed in Hamish’s.
They also spent quite a bit of time at Hamish’s family estate up near Aberdeen.
Even so, they took their places at The Downs and added two children to the menagerie.
