Pip snapped to attention. They had gotten to the important part. She chanced a look up at Beau to see that he looked perfectly serious when he said, “I will,” as if she hadn’t overheard him only ten hours earlier cavorting with a blowsy, round-heeled doxy.
She wanted so badly to say something, to snort or offer him that wryly lifted eyebrow back. But it was too late. She had had her chance at “speak now” and hadn’t.
“...Wilt thou obey him, and serve him, love, honor, and keep him in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all other, keep thee only unto him, so long as ye both shall live?”
She couldn’t help it. It slipped out before she could think of it. “As much as he will me.”
The Bishop stiffened as if she had blasphemed, which she probably had. Behind her there were a few gasps and titters, and what sounded suspiciously like the Duchess’s chuckle. The Bishop turned to Beau, as if he needed Beau’s permission to move on.
And Beau, the traitor, was grinning. Of course, he was. “That should be fine,” he assured the bishop. “I know what she means.”
“But it’s not…”
“It’s as close as we’re going to get from her.”
“Good that you realize that,” she muttered.
He pinched her finger.
It took the bishop a moment to get back on track. Thomas a’Becket’s backside, Pip thought, you would think by the time you reached bishop you would be a bit adaptable. He cleared his throat portentously and resettled the Book of Common Prayer in his hands. Pip did notice that just beyond him Dr. Borden was struggling to keep a calm face. But then, Pip had attended her share of services with Dr. Borden. And argued scripture with him over many a cup of tea.
“I, Beaufort William Villiers Francis…”
Pip giggled.
Beau lifted an eyebrow again.
She shrugged. “It occurs to me that I’ve never heard all your names. Were your parents truly never that angry at you?”
The bishop wasn’t entertained, but Beau grinned, and Pip felt triumph. It was the first time she could remember him lighting up like this since Theo had died. No matter what people would say about her behavior, it would be worth it. She had gotten Beau to smile. At least for a moment.
“Never,” he said. “I was a perfect child. Your entire name, however, I do know. Which I will prove if you will allow me to finish.”
She beamed at him. “Please do.”
“I, Beaufort William Villiers Francis,” he said with an arch look, “take you, Philippa Ellen Alexandra Trentham—”
“You don’t need to gloat.”
The bishop finally lost his patience. “Do you both wish to finish your vows before you bicker?”
“Oh, we’re not bickering,” Pip assured him. “That’s much louder.”
It was Beau’s turn to clear his throat. “Take you to my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth.”
The words almost made Pip weep. Oh, if only it would be true. But promises made under duress weren’t as binding, even for Beau. It wasn’t the same for her. She had known from the time she had decided to marry Beau when she was twelve that if she ever got to make a vow to him, she would live it with her whole heart.
She should have been sadder when she spoke. She couldn’t be, even knowing what she was walking into.
“I, Phillipa Ellen Alexandra Trentham, take thee, Beaufort William Villiers Francis, to my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and honor, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I give thee my troth.”
This time the bishop evidently chose to ignore the breach and called for the ring.
When Pip saw the ring, she gasped. An old circle of gold adorned with only a square cut sapphire bracketed by two baguette diamonds. It was familiar to her. She looked up, tears in her eyes, to see that the duchess was just as emotional. The ring had been the duchess’s mother’s, one Pip had seen on the duchess’s right hand for years.
She opened her mouth to protest, but the duchess shook her head, and Pip knew that she would hurt that wonderful woman if she turned down this most precious gift.
“Well,” she whispered to Beau, “I didn’t give you much time to get something else.”
