It was only a kiss—or kisses, rather. Kisses that flowed into one another, as he explored her lips and her mouth, and shedid the same for him. From the sounds that penetrated his concentration, Drake and Cilla were similarly occupied.
Clearly Livy realized that, too, for the fan had been abandoned some time ago, so she could use both hands. His cravat was now a disaster, though he and Drake could easily set one another to rights. Hopefully, Livy and Cilla could do likewise, for he had, he was certain, mussed her hair.
After a long time, the carriage stopped. The knock came. After a moment, the carriage started up again. Bane lifted his head, feeling as if he was surfacing from deep under water. Livy, too, looked dazed.
“We have perhaps a minute and a half, or a little more,” Drake said, perhaps in answer to something Cilla had said, for she ordered, “Change places with Livy, Drake darling, so that Bane can fix your cravat and I can tidy Livy’s hair.”
“And I yours,” Livy retorted. “Do you have spare hair pins, dearest, or do we need to scrabble around and find them?”
Cilla produced a handful of pins from her reticule. They hadn’t done too much damage. A couple of curls needed to be re-pinned, and the aforementioned cravats retied. Hopefully Mr. Wintergreen would not notice the slight puffiness of Livy’s lips. Cilla’s, too.
Now the knock came again. They were here.
And that, Bane thought,will have to suffice until we are married. Only another week. It seemed a lifetime.
*
Drake
The double weddingat St. George’s church attracted a much larger crowd than the small invitation list predicted.
In the front pews, the Marple sisters were there for the brides and Lark, Phillip, and Frannie for the grooms. Both the investment club and Jenna’s ladies’ group were out in force, with their spouses, and the Dukes and Duchesses of Winshire and Dellborough set the seal of approval on the match by their attendance.
Behind them sat reporters for the gossip sheets, a caricaturist sketching furiously, and a number of fashionably-dressed people that Drake recognized by sight from the various entertainments he had attended over the past couple of months, but otherwise didn’t know.
Beyond them were those who had apparently come along on the coat-tails of those with a whisper of an excuse to be there, and the crowd who had seen people gather and had therefore joined the throng in the hopes of some excitement.
Drake could not have cared less, as he stood at the front of the nave, watching Cilla walking toward him. Beside him, Bane stared at Livy, who walked at her sister’s side. He’d left off the hood, so the besotted smile on his face was clear for all to see. No doubt the smile on Drake’s face was just as beguiled.
It was time at last. They would say their vows and with those vows, make official in the eyes of God and the assembled congregation what had been true for months. They were made for one another—Drake and Cilla, Bane and Livy.
Drake and Bane had been brothers by blood since before they were born. Then, when their Father brought Bane home, Drake had sneaked into the sickroom and they had become brothers by love. In a few minutes, they would become brothers again, this time by marriage.
Four people who shared their lives, their work, their love. Each to all the others, a gift to the heart.
