Matt noticed the gesture. He smiled, tightened his hold, and she couldn’t help but grin like a daffy fool.
Yes, he was almost too handsome to be mortal. There would always be women eyeing him. However, he acted kind and she believed he was honest. The humiliation of being alone and having to wait for him no longer mattered. Instead, she chose to think about the future.
Reverend Beam held his hands high over their heads. In officious tones, he announced, “Now that Matthew Reginald Addison and Willa Louise Reverly have given themselves to each other by solemn vows, with the joining of hands and the giving and receiving of a ring, I pronounce that they are husband and wife, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” He paused before finishing with great flourish, “Those whom God has joined together, let no one put asunder.”
It was done. She was married. To the one man every woman in London wanted.
Including her.
“Good,” her father said, clapping his hands and interrupting her savoring the realization of the moment. He came to his feet. “My daughter is a duchess. Your Grace, we will settle some details this afternoon.” And then he proclaimed in more sonorous tones than those used by the priest, “To the House of Reverly-Addison.” He referred to the name Matt had agreed to take on as part of the marriage bargain. Reverly-Addison. It was a mouthful, and yet, Willa experienced a surge of pride. Her family would not disappear into history.
“But we must hurry along our way,” her father said. “The guests will be arriving shortly. Your Grace?” He offered the dowager his arm, and in a blink, they were off toward the door, her mother trailing behind them.
“Janie, you will want to go with them,” Willa said.
Her mother had heard the comment and stopped. “Yes, come, Janie. Your mother will be waiting at the house.”
Janie acted relieved to be dismissed from her bridal duties.
“Willa is yours now, Camberly,” her father cheerfully called as he started through the door a footman held open. “Have her at the house before noon.”
Matt said he would happily, but then he took time to thank the clergy, passing a coin purse to Reverend Beam. It was a task Willa knew usually fell to the groomsman, but Matt had apparently chosen to perform it himself. She liked that. He wasn’t one to conform to Society. He did as he thought right.
She believed it was original of him to have Soren, a married man, as his groomsman. She would have preferred Cassandra to have served as her bridesmaid instead of Janie. It would have made the ceremony more personal. But she’d lacked her husband’s independence.
Cassandra gave her a huge hug. “Congratulations. You look beautiful, and I know you will be happy.” She whispered for Willa’s ears alone, “He will be good to you. Hewill.”
Matt had turned to his sisters, who were waiting to offer their congratulations. “You are coming to the wedding breakfast.” It was an order.
“We weren’t invited. Please, Matt, don’t make a fuss. We are fine,” Alice said. “We’ll just return to my friend Clara’s house where we are staying.”
“Please, celebrate with us,” Willa said, adding her voice to her husband’s—her first wifely duty. “My father is laying a table that could feed five thousand. Please, come.”
It was Kate who decided it. “I’m going. If for no other reason than to stand behind the dowager’s chair and make her acknowledge we are family.” She pulled a face to demonstrate how she would look down on her grandmother while pretending to be some ferocious animal.
Alice and Matt laughed but Willa was confused, and then dared to say, “Her Grace acts as if you have offended her.”
“The fact we breathe air offends her,” Kate answered.
It was Matt who explained. “Our father was deemed the black sheep of the family for marrying beneath him. Grandmother goes to great lengths to remind my sisters that she considers them disowned.”
“And yet, she dotes on you,” Willa said.
“She hasn’t always,” Matt answered. “Still, she has treated me far better than she has them.”
“It is because he is male,” Kate said in an exaggerated whisper. “He has a rodney.”
Rodney?And then Willa realized she was talking about his male bits. Her mouth started to drop, until she caught Kate observing her closely.
“An innocent, aren’t you?” Kate said.
To such outspokenness? In a church? Yes, Willa was. However, she didn’t want Kate to know. “It doesn’t seem right to ignore all but one member of the family.”
“It isn’t,” Kate agreed, somewhat cheerfully.
Alice said, “The old duke and his wife were very rigid in their views. Father defied them when he married Mother and they were furious. They claimed they could never forgive him... and then it became too late for a reconciliation. Our parents died of a fever.”
“That is sad,” Willa said. Cassandra nodded.
