Page 238 of Storm of Bells
Whispers, sniffles and other superfluoussounds rose from the crowd all around. The vicar spread his arms,raising his voice.
‘Who giveth this woman to be married to thisman?’
Doesn’t really matter. I would take heranyway!
Not that I said that out loud, however. Ifthere was anything I had learned during my long career, it wasthat, sometimes, silence was the best option to take. So I simplystood and waited as the portly man I had recently come to know asMiss Linton’s uncle, stepped towards the altar.
The man had a rather sour expression on hisface. Did he have constipation?
Hm. Irrelevant.
The old man exchanged some muttered wordswith my wife-to-be that I didn’t pay any attention to. I only paidattention to the man taking her hand and solemnly placing it in myown.
Yes! Mine!
Nodding at us, he stepped back. Or at leastthat’s what I thought he did. I had long banished him from mysphere of awareness. All my attention was focused on the womanstanding next to me.Mywoman.
It was time. Taking a deep breath, I raisedmy voice so it echoed through the entire church, clearly audible toall.
‘I, Rikkard Ambrose, take you, LillianLinton, to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this dayforward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, insickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us dopart, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight theemy troth.’
The entire time I spoke, I didn’t once takemy eyes from her. And neither did she look away from me, staringinto my eyes as if they were pools of deep water and she were adesert wanderer dying of thirst.
Then she spoke.
‘I, Lillian Linton, take you, RikkardAmbrose, to be my wedded husband—‘
Yes!
‘—to have and to hold from this day forward,for better or for worse, for richer—‘
Definitely.
‘—or for poorer—‘
Highly unlikely.
‘—in sickness and in health, to love,cherish, and to obey—‘
This presents intriguing possibilities.
‘—till death us do part, according to God'sholy ordinance; and thereto I give thee my troth.’
I released her hand and, reaching into mypocket, pulled out a simple golden wedding band that had cost me afortune. A fact that, for some reason, didn’t particularly botherme right now.
It might have had something to do with theengraving inside the ring, which I couldn’t stop staring at.
R.A. & L.L.
I looked up from the engraving just in timeto see her do so as well, and felt a tug on my heart at the look inher eyes.
This once, silence wasn’t golden. This once,I needed to speak.
‘Withthis ring,’ I spoke out, slipping the golden ring onto her finger.‘I thee wed. With my body I thee worship…’ Hesitating, I took adeep breath—then surged forward. ‘…and with all my worldly goods Ithee endow.’[40]
She grinned. The bloody littleifrithad the temerity togrinat me! ‘Are you sure?Allyour worldly goods? You are making quite the promise there.’
I made a mental note to make liberal use ofthe ‘obey’ clause later. Ah, the endless possibilities…
