Marrying Winterborne (The Ravenels #2) - Lisa Kleypas Page 0,131
alone in the ground-floor conservatory of the hotel. He and Helen would meet there before joining the others. Resisting the urge to pull out his pocket watch, he waited with forced patience, thinking he would have paid ten thousand pounds to have the next hour already done with, so that Helen would already be his wife.
A silky rustling sound came from behind him.
He turned, and saw Helen standing there in a white dress made of thin, glimmering layers of silk trimmed with lace. The dress clung to her slender form, the skirts pulled back to outline her hips and cascading gently behind her. She pulled back a filmy white veil sewn with lace and seed pearls, and smiled at him. She was unearthly in her beauty, as light and delicate as a wash of rainbow through morning mist. He held a hand over his hammering heart, as if to keep it from leaping out of his chest.
“I didn’t know they’d found you a wedding dress,” he managed to say.
“Somehow Mrs. Allenby worked a miracle. I’ll have to ask her how she did it when we return.”
“You’re so beautiful, I . . .” His voice drifted away as he stared at her. “Are you really mine?”
She smiled and came to him. “In every sense but the legal.”
“We’ll fix that soon,” he muttered, reaching for her.
Helen shook her head and touched a forefinger lightly to his lips. “Not until after our vows,” she said, her eyes sparkling. “I want my next kiss to be with my husband.”
“God help me,” he said feelingly, “no man has ever wanted to have a wedding done with as much as I do.”
Helen’s smile turned rueful. “Have you seen the crowd outside the hotel?”
Rhys shook his head, frowning slightly.
“I’m afraid we’ll have more company than we anticipated. When the guests at the hotel and some of the townspeople found out that Rhys Winterborne himself has come here to be married, they all invited themselves to walk to the chapel with us. I was told that in North Wales, it’s a tradition for all the neighbors to attend the wedding.”
He groaned. “There’ll be no getting rid of them. I’m sorry. Do you mind, cariad?”
“Of course not. I’ll rather enjoy the sight of all those people staring at you with awe.”
“They won’t be staring at me,” he assured her. Reaching into his pocket, he retrieved a smooth white stone and showed it to her on his palm. Helen smiled.
“The oathing stone?”
“Carys found it yesterday while we were out walking.”
“It’s perfect. Where will we throw it, after we’re wed?”
“I’ll let you decide,” Rhys said, replacing the stone in his pocket. “The Irish Sea is in that direction . . .” He pointed. “The Menai Strait is that way . . . or I can take you to a fair number of good Welsh lakes. I know of one that’s said to be the final location of Excalibur.”
Helen’s eyes brightened at the idea. But in the next moment, a thought occurred to her, and she looked disconcerted.
“I realized this morning that there’s no one to give me away.”
Rhys lowered his face until their foreheads were touching, and he was lost in the moonstone glow of her eyes. “Heart of my heart, you need no man to give you away. Just come to me of your own free will. Love me for who I am . . . just as I love you for who you are . . . and our bond will last until the stars lose their shining.”
“I can do that,” Helen whispered.
Drawing back slowly, Rhys smiled down at her. “Come, then, cariad. We’ve a wedding to take care of. A man can only wait so long for a kiss from his wife.”
Epilogue
Eight months later
“. . . AND PANDORA SAID THAT if her game turns out to be a success, she won’t participate in any of the events of the Season,” Helen said, deftly hand-pollinating vanilla blossoms. “She told Lady Berwick that she has no intention of being herded from ball to ball like a disoriented sheep.”
Rhys smiled and watched her lazily, his back braced against a brick column. He was a handsome sight, his presence incongruously masculine amid the rows and rows of orchids. “How did Lady Berwick react?”
“She was outraged, of course. But before they could start another row, Cousin Devon pointed out that Pandora has only just now filed a patent application, and the Season will probably have begun before we find out if it’s been