It was a beautiful day, calm and peaceful, and as Will wrapped his arms around me, I felt at peace. I knew I’d found the right man for me.
“No regrets?” Will asked.
“Not one.” I turned to look at him. “You?”
“No.” he leaned down and kissed me. “Now, what do you think our chances are of slipping back into the hotel for a quickie?”
I laughed. “Terrible, there’s people milling about everywhere down there.”
“I’ll just have to take you up here then.”
And he did, with my skirts hitched up and my back to the flag pole, looking out over the Firth of Forth as I came. It perhaps wasn’t the done thing but I didn’t care. And apparently, neither did he.
After a quick tidy up, we went down and posed for more photos in other picturesque parts of the hotel and grounds, then we moved back into the hotel for a quick drink before the reception started.
Chapter Twenty Two
After dinner, Will kicked off the speeches once the master of ceremonies had everyone’s attention.
“I hope you’ve all got your drinks in, because I’m told this could go on a while,” he teased. “I’d like to thank you all for coming and sharing this day with us, especially those who went above and beyond to make this a memorable day. You have my eternal gratitude, and a lovely bottle of scotch for your trouble.
“Next, I’d like to thank the bridesmaids for the wonderful job they have done, and while I’d apologise for inflicting my groomsmen on them, I will also take this opportunity to absolve myself of all responsibility for them.
“You might have noticed that many elements of our day thumbed our noses at tradition, we shared a bed last night and we saw each other this morning, but then given that we hardly met in a traditional fashion, it seems rather fitting. Some say that I’ve been brainwashed and to them I say, it’s a wonderful feeling and should anything ever happen to Elle, I will be joining the nearest cult in the hopes of being brainwashed again. Other, slightly kinder, people say that our love is made or manufactured and if that is so, then we must all raise our glasses to Katie, for the experiment that brought us together was her brainchild. May all your experiments turn out as well for your subjects as this one did for us. You have our eternal gratitude, my dear.” He raised his glass in her direction. “To Katie.”
The rest of the room echoed his toast.
“Finally it only remains to toast my beautiful wife. It often seems to me that all I do is complicate her life but for reasons I have yet to fathom, she not only puts up with the disruption, she does her best to enjoy the whirlwind that comes with me, and wring every ounce of pleasure from it that she can.” He raised his glass in my direction. “To my darling Elle. Would that everyone could experience, if only for a moment, the joy you bring me. In the words of the immortal Bard, ‘What made me love thee? Let that persuade thee there's something extraordinary in thee. I cannot, but I love thee, none but thee, and thou deservest it’.” He smiled. I knew he’d slip Shakespeare in there somewhere. “To Elle.”
I had tears in my eyes as I stood up, and I kissed him before he sat down.
“Oh God, how do I top that?” I asked. “I thought for ages about what to say tonight but I knew I’d never come up with anything that could match his words. I even considered asking some of Will’s scriptwriting friends for help, but that would be cheating.”
“Is it? Mark, the best man suddenly asked. “Oh bollocks!” Everyone chuckled.
“Well it would be for me,” I assured him. “I’ll start by thanking everyone who helped make this day so special. Katie for her thesis idea, I promise I will get around to giving you that bribe for pairing me with Will one day.” For once, I didn’t even care if anyone didn’t get the joke and repeated that as a serious quote to the papers. “To John, for giving everyone time off so they could attend, especially my husband. To Maria and Laurie for talking me down from the brink a few times and especially Hannah, my beautiful sister, who has only ever wanted what’s best for me, even when she’s telling me off.”
That got a laugh at least. I turned to Will.
“And to my Will, the only man I know who can blend fearsome intelligence and childlike wonder, with a substantial dose of crazy and not only function, but somehow make it work for him. I also chose to steal someone else’s lines from the Italian opera, Falstaff. ‘When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew’. Maybe it wasn’t instant, but I knew that even after only an hour with you, I was in love. And I’m eternally grateful that you felt the same, because it would have been a real bitch to get over you.”
The guests laughed and Will took my hand pressing a kiss to my knuckles, his eyes saying more than his words ever could.
I sat down and the best man, Mark, stood up.
His speech was funny, with a few stories about Will’s childhood and their antics, but I could remember very little of it or the messages he read out from those who couldn’t be here, but the speeches were being filmed and the messages I would respond to once we came back from our honeymoon.
***
Our first dance was to All of You, by John Legend. Yes, maybe it is sappy and cheesy, but that’s the song we wanted. Neither of us was perfect, but we loved everything about each other, even the sharp edges.
Although we could both dance (I’d had lessons as a child) we didn’t have a choreographed routine, but the song had an easy 4/4 rhythm and Will was an instinctive dancer, so he led me around the dancefloor, spinning, twirling and sometimes even dipping me.
As the song came close to an end, Robert hijacked the DJ’s microphone and the music came to a screeching halt.
“Now, sorry for the interruption folks but you see, poor little Elle here had no father of the bride to walk her down the aisle and even worse, to dance with, so I would like to offer my services in that respect.”
He walked onto the dance floor, which was rapidly clearing, including Will, leaving me facing Robert all on my own.
“So, what do you say, pretty lady, can I have this dance?” He held his hand out towards me.
I’m British so no matter how embarrassing, I couldn’t refuse because that would be rude. I took his hand, hoping this wasn’t going to be too bad.
“Hit it!” Robert said, then tossed the mic to Mark.
Bringing Sexy Back began to play, which made me laugh, and Robert launched into a routine we sometimes did on set, during the downtimes and at various gatherings. Ever since he’d yelled at me that day, I was not at all intimidated by him. I wasn’t very good at our dance, especially in the wedding dress, but I had fun. We’d barely got through the chorus though, when I found myself being spun into Evan’s arms.
“That’s not how you dance at a wedding!” he chastised Robert.
The music changed to Come Away with Me and he began dancing a waltz. He’d asked me to teach him the waltz when he found out that I could dance.
Now that I thought about it, I realised that a few people had been teaching me something, or asking me to teach them a dance, and now I knew why. Sneaky little buggers.
I looked over to Will, who held his hands up and shook his head. While this might not have been his idea, I didn’t believe for a second that he was innocent.
“You call that dancing?” Mark butted in, and the music died. “This is a party, you need a Latin beat!”
The next thing I knew, I was doing the cha cha to Sexbomb by Tom Jones. I’d never danced with Mark before, I’d only met him in a handful of occasions but luckily, he knew what he was doing and kept the steps basic.
Again, we were soon interrupted but this time by Helen and Audrey.
“She doesn’t need any father of the bride, out dated, archaic BS,” Audrey said. “Let’s show them how it’s done, ladies.”
I knew what was coming, we’d worked out a little routine to Independent Women by Destiny's Child and sure enough, it began playing. I must have looked demented, dancing to hip hop in a wedding dress, but it was exhilarating ju
st having fun with my friends.
The next thing I knew, Jack and Emma stopped us, and Chris Watson pulled me off the floor. Apparently the next bit was for me to enjoy.
What happened next was both surreal and highly entertaining, as select duos of our guests began a dance off. Some, like Helen and Audrey were excellent, some, like Chris and Greg, were not so great but they gave it their all. John and Mark got points for effort and even Ben and Helen took a turn. I had no clue when they’d managed to get together and coordinate their moves, but they were pretty good.
The highlight though, was when Will and Zac took to the floor, easily trouncing the others, and Jackson Moore, renowned for playing hard-nosed, foul mouthed tough guys, took that moment to hijack the mic.
“What the hell do you motherfuckers think you’re doing? This is a goddamn wedding, now sit your asses down and behave like normal people, for once.”
Looking chastened, everyone returned to their seats to a huge round of applause. Will sat next to me, panting and grinning.
“That was wonderful, thank you,” I grinned at him.
I suppose I shouldn’t have really been so surprised, my boyfriend, well, husband, was theatrically minded, but I hadn’t had a clue that any of this was being planned.
Will danced with his mum, then his sister and again with me but by 9.30, our duty was done and we were able to duck out. Well, I had to throw the bouquet, so it wasn’t exactly without fanfare.
We practically ran to our room, locked the door, then found out exactly how quickly one can get out of a wedding dress.
Epilogue
For our honeymoon we were staying at a hotel in a former castle on one of the Orkney Islands, but there was a plane from Edinburgh Airport to mainland Orkney, then we would catch a ferry to the island our hotel was on.
We were surprised to find a paparazzi with a hand held camera at the airport, they generally only harass people at larger airports, where the chances of seeing someone famous are greater, but there were quite a few famous faces coming through here during the Edinburgh Festival, so perhaps that explained it.
“It’s too early for this,” I muttered to Will. We had got to the airport for 7.30am so that we had plenty of time to check in and go through security.
“Just be nice,” he told me, placing a protective arm around my shoulders. “He won’t bother us for long.”
“Hey, Will.” The man had an American accent, which was odd.
“Hello.”
“Where you headed?” he asked as we got close.
“I don’t think anyone needs to know that,” Will replied.
To his credit, the pap didn’t press. “Hey, congratulations on your wedding.”
“Thank you.”
“Did you have a good time?” He was walking backwards through the terminal, keeping the camera on us.
“It was a wonderful day.”
“What about you, Elle?”
“It was amazing,” I answered. I could see that he was trying to get a close up of Will’s left hand, which was resting on my shoulder.
“Can you tell me who some of your guests were?”
“I’m sure my mother will do that soon, and in much greater detail than I have time for.” We had reached the ropes that delineated the queues for the check in desks.
“Sorry, man, but we need to check in now,” Will said.
“Sure, of course. Thank you for your time,” he said.
“No problem.”
“Have a great honeymoon.” Then the pap turned to leave, without a second glance.
“Why are you so nice to them?” I asked Will.
“Why not? He’s just doing his job.”
“I know, but doesn’t it bother you?”
“Of course, but getting upset doesn’t stop it from happening. In truth, if you react angrily, it might inspire more attention, since they can sell that more easily than a calm exchange.”
“You must have the patience of a saint.”
He smiled at me. “Today, I have the patience of all the saints combined.”
Once we were through security, we found somewhere to have breakfast and Will got his tablet out, so we could look through the pictures from yesterday and choose some to release to the press.
The photographer had only sent the best pictures (I knew that because normally in at least one in every five photos, I looked like I’d had some terrible botox accident that had paralysed parts of my face) so I was pretty relaxed about which ones to release.
“We should release one with Mum in,” I said as we browsed the ones which included the guests. “It’ll make her decade.”
“You still care after everything she did?”
“She’s the only parent I still talk to, so I kind of have to. Besides, the older I get, the more I feel like I’m the parent, and I think when you change to that mind-set, it’s harder to stay mad at your child. Why, are you upset with her?”
With everything that had happened, I hadn’t really stopped to think that Will might also be angry. He’s so easy going and polite, that it’s sometimes hard to tell when he doesn’t like someone.
“She’s not my favourite person,” he admitted. “She’s far too narcissistic for my tastes but my only anger stems from her treatment of you. If you can forgive her, I can too.”
We chose the pictures and sent them to Lee, then browsed the shops. I bought some perfume (not that it was duty free because we weren’t leaving the country) and Will bought a bottle of Jameson.
We headed to a newsagents to browse the books and I was stunned into stopping by a sign in the window.
“Exclusive! Will Braxton’s Wedding Pictures” proclaimed the Daily News poster.
Will’s arm came around my shoulders.
“It’s okay,” he said gently.
I turned to smile at him. “I know.”
“Come on,” he tried to guide me away.
“I still want a book,” I said, continuing to the shop.
“Are you going to look at the pictures?” he asked.
I stopped and turned to him. “No,” I tried to reassure him. “I don’t care if they’re good pictures or grainy and blurred or if people tear me to shreds. I’m not going to let this stuff bother me any more, I’m going to ignore it and get on with living my life. Our life. And I haven’t had a chance to sit down and read for ages, so I’m going to look for a book.”
“Well said, darling.” He visibly relaxed and grinned at me.
I picked out the latest James Patterson. I wasn’t an avid reader of his work but the few of his books I had read had all been entertaining. Will picked out the latest Dan Brown book, not his usual fare but I might borrow it from him when he was done.
Will was recognised a few times and posed for pictures, which I offered to take. Everyone was friendly to me and those who knew, congratulated us on our wedding.
We flew to the Orkney mainland, then caught a ferry over to the island of Shapinsay. It was home to fewer than 400 people and with no cinema, we were relatively anonymous there.
The hotel was lovely, luxurious even and while we enjoyed our bed frequently, we also ventured out often. We played tennis, tried clay pigeon shooting, enjoyed the spa facilities, went seal watching and walked for miles over the island, taking in the scenery and some of the historic sites.
We dined mostly in the hotel restaurant but we also ate at the local village pub a few times.
We were pretty blessed with the weather, having sun almost every day, and it was on such a glorious day that we were returning to the castle, having walked to the quayside of the Harbour to see the old cannons there.
“You’re quiet,” Will said as we walked.
“I was just thinking,” I smiled at him, reaching out to take his hand.
“About?”
“Wondering what I did in a past life to have been so lucky in this one. I think I must have been a miracle worker of some description.”
“Well that’s funny, because I feel li
ke the lucky one.”
“How do you work that one out?” I asked.
“Well, as lovable as I am, as far as I can see, all I’ve done is disrupt your life and force you into a world you had no desire to be a part of.”
“Yes, but that makes me the weirdo, you’re supposed to aspire to fame these days.”
“Well, I don’t know about that,” he chuckled. “But I certainly don’t think you’re weird.”
“Maybe we’re both weird,” I suggested. “We’re just each other’s perfect idea of weird.”
He laughed. “Maybe,” he agreed. “Do you ever regret taking part in that study?”
“I think I can honestly say, that if I’d been given a choice of who to love, I would have picked you… had I known you. Well, no, I did know of you, but I didn’t know you, know you, if you know what I mean.”
He nodded. “I know what you mean, and if your career doesn’t pan out, I think you have a promising future writing greeting’s cards.”
I elbowed him gently in the ribs for being mean.
“What about you?” I asked.
“‘The very instant I saw you, did my heart fly to your service’. I wouldn’t change a thing, love.”
Other Books by Catherine Winchester
Historical Romance
Murder at Locke Abbey
Her Saving Grace
Love, Lies & Murder
The Convenient Bride
The Reluctant Duchess
Hope for Tomorrow
Degrees of Hope
The Lady and the Cowboy
What You Wish For
Northern Light
Short Stories
A Merry Little Christmas (a companion story to Northern Light)
Contemporary Romance
Season’s Meetings
Love Through a Lens
Past Series
Past Due
Half Past
Past Life
Urban Fantasy
Bemused
How to Train Your Zombie
Love Through a Lens
Making Love (Destiny Book 1) Page 23