Page 58 of Love Unraveled
“Oui,” she whispered as his thumb traced a path up and down hers.
“You will both stand witness,non?”
“Aye, indeed we weel.” The captain grinned and clapped his man on the shoulder. Then he produced a strip of tartan cloth and held it out like an offering.
Sophia tugged her hand free of Gaston’s and clapped in sheer appreciation. A thick Scottish accent and a Scottish tradition. However Gaston had managed it, she did not know, but it was an impressive feat. She stretched her right hand back out, and Gaston put his beside hers. The captain wrapped the cloth around their wrists, tying it in a bow before sitting back on his bench.
“Sophie Auclair, I have loved you since the day I met you and will never stop. Will you be my wife?”
Sophia could not believe after all the dark years, she was sitting on the River Thames with Gaston declaring his undying love. If she was dreaming, she did not wish to wake up. She would embrace it. Would throw herself fully into it as she did with everything. As she had done with Gaston since she’d first seen him on the street.
“Gaston Armand, I have never forgotten what we shared, nor stopped wanting to have you for myself again,” she said, speaking in French as he had done. “If you will be my husband, it would be my honor to be your wife.”
Gaston’s eyes were dark and glassy, and Sophia wanted to weep at the love she saw in them. He leaned in and kissed her lightly, his gaze lingering on her before he turned to the captain, who was eyeing them with uncertainty.
“We have said our vows,” Gaston explained, and the captain grinned. Gaston produced a paper, and both the captain and the rower made their marks, congratulated them, and stood. “Wait,” Gaston said, rooting around in the picnic basket. “You must toast with us,” he said, pulling out a decanter of Madeira.
Sophia loved that he had not four but seven glasses in the basket. He poured three, handing them to the two men and Sophia, then poured three more and carefully moved from under the awning to the rowers. When he returned, he poured one for himself. He raised his glass, and everyone followed suit.
“To the luckiest man in the world,” Gaston said to the men in English and turned to her. “And to the woman who has made him so. May he prove worthy of her love.”
The men cheered, and they all took a drink.
“If I may,” the captain said, raising his glass again. “May the best ye’ve ever seen, be the worst ye’ll ever see.”
All the years flashed quickly through Sophia’s mind as she raised her glass. Today, and from this day forward, his toast seemed like a possibility.
“I’ll drink to that,” Gaston said, clinking his glass against hers.
“Me too,” Sophia said quietly. “Me too.”
Chapter Forty-Three
We must laugh and we must sing,
We are blest by everything,
—William Butler Yeats, “A Dialogue of Self and Soul”
The men returnedto their positions, and Gaston had Sophie all to himself. He sensed her eyes on him as he untied each roll of material on the awning. The sheer fabric fell easily, covering the sides. Fluttering lightly in the breeze, it was the perfect balance between light and air and some privacy.
“It is like a harem’s den,” Sophie said, her dark eyes radiant as she took another sip of Madeira and eyed him over her glass.
“And what would you know of harems?” he asked, teasing her. He was pleased at her excitement. He’d returned to Jocelyne yesterday, and they had talked late into the night. When he’d told her of his intention for this day, it had been her suggestion, and she’d sent the bolt of fabric with him.
Gaston leaned in and brushed her cheek with his lips. “It was a gift from Jocelyne.”
“Jocelyne knows?”
“Oui, and she can be the only one for now,mon amour. We cannot risk too many questions.” He could see disappointment warring with logic, the latter practicality winning. “I know it is hard not to share with your friends.”
Sophie sighed. “It is not the only thing I hide from them.”
“Let us not dwell on it today, my wife.”
“You are right. Not today,mon époux.”
My husband.How many years had he dreamed of this moment? Even when he’d been convinced she was lost to him forever, images of it had haunted him. Her friends would survive not knowing. And the world could turn on its own for a while. This day was long awaited, and he was determined to claim it.
