Cecilia looked glorious in her white lace gown and veil.
‘Like a sweet dove,’ John thought, gazing at her with adoration.
Frank and Roseanne were waiting for them at the church. So was Robert who had travelled to Brighton to be the best man.
It was a tiny church and when some of the local citizens noticed that fashionable people in expensive clothes were to be married, they began to tiptoe into the church and stood at the back, full of curiosity.
The vicar took up his position and the service began.
But he had only uttered a few words when the one voice everyone dreaded to hear, howled,
“Stop this wedding! It is illegal.”
And there he was, their nightmare, striding down the aisle with two policemen at his back. One of them, John noticed bitterly, was Constable Jenkins.
“Arrest that man,” Sir Stewart shouted. “My ward is under age and he is marrying her without my consent.”
Jenkins approached, bearing handcuffs, his eyes full of satisfaction at getting the better of the man who had outwitted him.
But before he could reach John the church was rent by a scream, and then another. Scream after scream rang through the building with a terrible cry of –
“Murderer! Murderer! Murderer!”
The two policemen turned to see an elderly woman, thin and frail, totter down the aisle, pointing at Sir Stewart.
“Murderer!”
“Don’t talk nonsense,” Jenkins began.
But the other constable silenced him, saying,
“Do you mean that Sir Stewart Paxton has killed someone?”
“I don’t know his name,” the woman wailed. “But I saw him commit murder. It was a year ago, and I had been to London to visit my daughter. On the way back the train was derailed. I was thrown out and lay stunned. When I came to myself I saw two men near me. One was lying on his back, covered in blood and the other was kneeling over him.
“He was saying something. I couldn’t hear the words, but he spoke with a kind of savage, wolfish glee that was terrible to behold. Then he put his hand over the other man’s face and pressed down hard. His poor victim struggled and fought but he wasn’t strong enough, and at last he lay quiet. Murdered.
“I must have passed out because I remember no more. When I awoke, doctors had arrived and were carrying people away. The two men were both gone. I thought I must have dreamed it. I wanted to believe that. But that devil’s face has lived with me ever since.
“I prayed that I might never meet him again. But now I have and I will be silent no longer.” She pointed wildly at Sir Stewart. “That is the man.”
“Don’t believe her,” Sir Stewart screamed. “She’s a babbling old fool.”
“No, she isn’t,” Cecilia cried. “The man he killed was my father!”
There was a click. Sir Stewart looked down to find himself in handcuffs.
“I think we had better go to the Police Station,” said the young policeman, ignoring Jenkins’s protests. “And you will have to come too,” he added to Cecilia, “and make a statement about what you have just said.”
“But this is my wedding,” she cried.
“Surely we might be allowed half an hour to finish the ceremony,” the vicar pleaded. “Then the bride and groom can join you later.”
“Do I have your word?” the policeman asked, looking around.
“Their word, and mine,” the vicar declared firmly.
“And mine,” said Frank.
“And mine,” Roseanne chimed in.
“And mine,” joined in Robert.
“And mine,” agreed the doctor who, being a local had recognised the constable. He added in a low voice,
“Be decent about this, Tom, and I will forget that fee you owe me.”
The constable grinned and nodded. Then, holding firmly on to his prey and refusing to be disconcerted by Sir Stewart’s mad struggles, he hauled him out of the church, beckoning kindly to the old woman to follow.
Cecilia and John looked at each other, their eyes brimming with joy and relief.
“Nothing can stop us now,” he told her.
“Nothing in the world,” she sighed. “Oh, John, I love you so very, very much.”
“And I shall love you all my life. We have at last found our paradise on earth.”
The vicar coughed.
“Perhaps we should continue,” he suggested.
Then, as they turned to face him, he lifted up his voice and began speaking the words they both longed to hear.
“Dearly beloved, we are gathered together to witness the marriage of this man and this woman –”
A Paradise On Earth Page 14