A Stranger at Castonbury(72)

‘You love me?’ Catalina whispered, as a bright happiness like none she had ever known before bloomed in her heart.

‘You are my true wife. Even if you left me and I married someone else from duty, I would always long for you. For the other half of my heart. I thought having you as my wife would be the only practical solution—now I know it was only because I love you that I need you so much.’ Jamie raised their linked hands, and Catalina saw that he had put her sapphire ring back on her finger. ‘Will you marry me again, Catalina? Will you stay with me for ever, even as broken and scarred as I am?’

‘Jamie, Jamie,’ Catalina said. She was crying in earnest now. She couldn’t stop the tears from falling as she threw her arms around his shoulders and held on as if she would never let him go. And she would not, never again. ‘I would marry you a thousand times over. You are my miracle.’

‘And you are mine.’ Jamie held her against him, and to her shock she felt his own tears on her skin. ‘We have been parted for much too long. I am never letting you out of my sight again. My wife, my love. My Catalina.’

‘My Jamie. Mi amor.’ And as they embraced each other, a ray of bright sunshine pierced the rain outside and the golden light shone down on Castonbury.





Epilogue

‘Happy is the bride the sun shines on,’ Catalina heard Lily’s grandmother, Mrs Lovell, say as the doors of St Mary’s church were thrown open and the bride appeared in a cloud of ivory satin and fine lace, pearls in her dark hair. The light that poured in after her could not rival the brilliance of her joyful smile as she looked down the aisle to her groom.

The church was filled with summer flowers gathered from the estate, brilliant bursts of white, yellow, pink and red that scented the air with the perfume of the Castonbury gardens. Every pew was filled, and there were even people standing in the side aisles, for no one wanted to miss the long-awaited marriage of Giles and Lily.

Catalina studied the congregation around her. The duke and Mrs Landes-Fraser sat in the front pew with Lily’s beloved grandmother, while Phaedra and Bram held hands beside them. Phaedra did not wear her riding habit, but a stylish gown and bonnet of pale blue and yellow. The duke’s niece, Araminta, was there from her new home in Cambridgeshire with her handsome husband, Lord Antony. His sister, Claire, whose husband, the renowned chef and hotelier André du Valière, had come to make the grand wedding cake, sat behind them. Adam Stratton and his wife, Amber, a new-found Montague, sat with his mother Mrs Stratton, who also cried just a bit as she watched Giles marry at last.

All the Montague family was there to celebrate, except for Lady Kate, who had written her congratulations from Boston—along with the news that she was expecting her first child.

The vicar Reverend Seagrove, Lily’s adoptive father, beamed from his place at the altar as Lily and Giles joined hands and stepped before him. The music from the organ swelled, but the bride and groom only had eyes for each other.

‘Oh, Mrs Moreno, isn’t it beautiful?’ Lily whispered. Then she gasped. ‘Oh, no! You are not Mrs Moreno now. You are Lady Hatherton.’

Catalina smiled as she felt Jamie, who stood on her other side, reach for her hand. Jamie—her husband, married twice now. They had said their vows by special licence last night in the drawing room at Castonbury, in a ceremony much quieter than this one. The duke, still in shock at the news of their ‘betrothal,’ had stayed in his chamber, but Lydia and Jamie’s siblings had witnessed their vows.

Another marriage had also taken place, even quieter and more secret, in the vicarage. Mr Everett and Alicia had been wed, and were already gone to the far north of Scotland where Jamie had obtained a position for Everett at an estate. Alicia was forgiven by the Montagues in thanks for how she had helped Jamie catch Webster, but they did not want to see her ever again.

And after all the wedding festivities were concluded, Jamie was planning to travel to London to endorse Mr Hale’s suit for Lydia’s hand with her guardian. The young rector smiled at Lydia now from across the aisle, making her giggle and blush.

It was a lovely day indeed, Catalina thought as she watched the sun come through the windows. Mrs Lovell was right—happy was the bride the sun shone upon.

She smiled up at her husband, and he squeezed her hand as Lily said, ‘I do.’

‘I love you, Lady Hatherton,’ he whispered.

‘And I love you, Lord Hatherton,’ she whispered back. ‘Always and for ever.’