Page 71 of Stranded with His Runaway Bride

‘Yes, now! Our people are here to bear witness. As is your archbishop. And he conveniently has all the documentation we would have used last July. It’s all still legal. I checked with him.’

Leo’s eyes narrowed on her. ‘You planned all this?’

She studied him from beneath her lashes. ‘You don’t mind, do you?’

No, he thought, not even a little bit. He didn’t want to waste another moment of his life without her.

For answer he gathered her up and kissed her. ‘If we’re going to do this, there’s something I need to collect from the palace first.’ He was about to stride away but turned back suddenly and caught up her hands. ‘You will be here when I get back, won’t you?’

Violetta’s face lit up in a smile that made him giddy as a schoolboy.

‘Yes, I’ll be here,’ she said. ‘I’ll always be here for you, Leo.’

Guests had squeezed into every available spot around the dance floor. Royalty and subjects alike, jostling for the best view. Leo’s castle staff filled the battlements or craned for a better view on the walkways, some were even tucked in cheek by jowl amongst the VIP guests.

He paced nervously at the edge of the dance floor. Behind him, beneath a flower-strewn arch placed there by four footmen under the careful direction of Helene, the archbishop waited to perform the marriage ceremony.

Then his bride appeared.

Leo’s heart just about stopped as she walked towards him, all light and joy and spellbinding loveliness. She carried a bouquet of roses his gardeners had gathered for her. A gardenia was tucked behind her ear.

But her dazzling smile was all her own and all for him.

She reached the edge of the dance floor and placed her hand in his. His nerves fled; his heart swelled. He knew for certain that nothing he’d done in his life had ever been so right.

The ceremony was broadcast across both countries, on the giant screens in the squares, onto the castle ramparts. All the people of San Nicolo and Grimentz were able to bear witness to this union.

When the archbishop asked Violetta, ‘Do you take this man?’ her yes was answered by a great roar that went up across the city and through the flotilla gathered below.

Before Leo could answer his own question one of his footmen shouted, ‘Don’t do it, sir.’

A nearby butler gave him a good-natured cuff for his pains, but laughter rippled through the guests. Violetta was helpless with giggles, her smile growing even wider.

Leo raised their clasped hands to his lips. ‘I do,’ he said, and this time the roar of voices was accompanied by car horns blasting across the city and then sirens, as the boats gathered on the lake joined in.

The archbishop was obliged to wait several minutes before he could continue. He beckoned to the best man. Seb stepped up and opened his palm. Where two gold bands sat. The rings that had been ordered for the wedding last year.

When Violetta looked up in surprise, Leo gave her a crooked smile.

‘I kept them. For some reason I couldn’t bring myself to let them go.’

After he’d placed the plain gold band on her finger, he retrieved a second ring from his pocket and slipped that too on her finger.

‘Your engagement ring,’ he said. Running his thumb over the exquisite rectangular-cut emerald set with a diamond on each compass point.

When they were pronounced husband and wife, the great cacophony erupted up again, joined by fireworks.

But Leo barely heard any of it. He was too busy sealing his marriage with a kiss for his bride.

There was a toast, in the finest champagne, and the cutting of a cake. Leo marvelled at the towering masterpiece his kitchen team had created. Five tiers that bore the Grimentzian and San Nicolo coats of arms wound together in royal icing. The Grimentzian guardsman from earlier, with a wry grin, presented his sword to the colonel-in-chief and his new bride so they might perform the ceremonial cut into the bottom layer.

Then came their first dance.

A waltz, of course.

Specifically the one they’d danced to at the chateau.

When his bride looked at him in surprise, Leo sent her his best angelic smile.

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