He took her face in his hands, turning her so that she could look directly in his eyes as he spoke. “There is every need for me to marry the woman I love. I love you. And I want desperately to marry you.”
Her heart melted. Indeed, it had fallen for him a long, long time ago. “I have loved you forever,” she said.
“Tsk!” snapped Wendy from the seat beside her mother. “Then say yes and let him get off his knees!”
Helaine laughed and nodded, her heart in her throat. “Yes, Robert. Yes, I will marry you.”
Her family erupted into cheers. There were likely other comments as well, whispers and confusion, but Helaine didn’t hear them. She was too busy kissing Robert. And then he was pulling her forward down the aisle, back to the front of the church. It took her a moment to realize that he meant to marry her this very second.
She stumbled slightly as she looked at the grinning bishop. “What? You mean right now?”
“It is the best way,” Robert whispered into her ear. “Quickly, before anyone can look too deeply into your past. I don’t care, Helaine. Understand that. I don’t care, and your identity will come out eventually. But it is best to establish you as Lady Redhill first. There will be scandal either way, but this will minimize it.”
She swallowed, understanding the logic behind his decision. But this was Gwen and Edward’s day. She didn’t want to intrude. “Surely we can’t,” she began, but Edward just shook his head.
“You can. In fact, it was my idea.”
“Not the wedding,” Robert hastily added. “Just the timing of it.”
Helaine looked to Gwen. “You don’t mind?”
“Mind?” Gwen gasped. “I get a husband and another sister on the very same day! I am thrilled!”
And so it was done. Robert took her hand and led her to the altar, where they knelt before the Archbishop of Canterbury. They spoke their vows and Robert slid a pink diamond onto her finger, one that perfectly matched the gem in his cravat.
“You are mine now,” he said after he had kissed her silly right there in front of everyone. “Nothing can take you from my side ever.”
“Nothing,” she agreed. Because why would she ever want to leave?
“I love you,” he said. And she laughed because she had said the exact same words at the exact same moment.
In the back of the church where Wendy misted up and Helaine’s mother openly cried, Penny hugged her brother tight and whispered into his curls.
“That’s love, Tommy. Real love the way it should be. And someday, if we’re very lucky, we’ll have it, too.” She didn’t really believe it would happen, but she wanted to pretend. And more than anything, she wanted it to be true for Tommy. So she said the words and clutched her brother tight.
Having no words, Tommy didn’t answer except to gurgle happily and leave a sloppy wet kiss on his sister’s cheek.