“And yours, Berry. It is important that you are happy.”
“I will be.” She edged forward and kissed him softly on the lips. “I still wonder whether we met when you were growing up at the orphanage. Perhaps when I was six or seven and you were nearing fifteen years old.”
“I don’t know. Would you have noticed a brooding, angry boy who often went off on his own? As I’ve told you before, I doubt you would have liked me back then. You are such a kitten. AndI walked around with a gigantic chip on my shoulder because I resented my parents for abandoning me.”
“We may never know what happened to you, but I cannot imagine your mother ever purposely abandoning you. Yet, you turned that anger toward a good purpose. No matter your motives, you made something of yourself.”
Ah, yes. His motives. He wanted to shove his success in the faces of his parents, wanted them to live to regret their decision.
“Perhaps you needed that anger to become the man you are today, but there is no need to hold on to it,” she continued. “We’ll raise our own family, have our own children, and create our own memories. Precious ones.”
Blessed saints.
Would he be a good father?
Berry, of course, would be the perfect mother.
As she said, it did him no good to hold on to his anger. How could he remain bitter when he had such a promising future in his grasp?
Yes, time to move forward. No looking back.
Of course, he would never forgive those who had abandoned him. He was not anywhere near as nice as Berry was.
But he would push the hurt and seething grudges far down in importance. Life was too short to dwell on the bitter.
“Berry, I would like to talk about something else important. A thing that is within our control—the wedding. Any chance you might agree to keep it simple and marry me tomorrow?”
“How about a compromise? I agree to marry you next week and we hold our wedding breakfast at the Denby Arms? Plan on about fifty people. Forty for me and ten for you?”
He laughed. “Done.”
After all, she could have insisted on inviting two hundred and fifty of thetonelite and making him wait a year for the wedding.Other than Bonham, Joss, and Pudge, whom did he care to invite? Well, he supposed Horace and Henry, too.
He placed his hands behind his head and relaxed back in his chair. “Anything else to discuss?”
She nodded. “One more thing.”
“What is that, love?”
She cleared her throat. “Sleeping arrangements. Are we to share a bedchamber?”
“And a bed?” He had not considered any other possibility, although this was foolish of him. These lords and ladies often had separate sleeping arrangements. “Do you wish for separate quarters?”
“No. I want to sleep beside you every night.”
He nodded. “Then we share.”
She released a soft breath and smiled.
He smiled back.
This marriage thing was going to be quite easy, wasn’t it?
Chapter Twenty
Bonham and Suzannahad married two days before them, and Berry had to admit to being envious. Suzanna could now share a bed with Bonham, and appeared to enjoy this very much. So did he. The two could not stop grinning at each other and whispering sweet nothings in each other’s ear.
This was what Berry ached to have with Gideon.
