‘But Hugh, we’re already legally married.’
‘Yeah, but my parents don’t know that. I don’t want to be seen to be a chip off the old block, having impregnated my PA and then having to marry her. I’ve always believed that marriage should be entered into for love, of the deep and forever kind. When we exchange vows the next time, it will have so much more meaning.’
‘I already loved you the last time.’
He shook his head. ‘I don’t know why.’
She reached up and stroked his cheek. ‘Then you don’t know women as well as you think you do. Now would you like to show me how much you love me, a little more slowly next time?’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ he said laughingly.
CHAPTER TWENTY
KATHRYN wasn’t at all nervous.
She’d thought she would be. Thought she might be overwhelmed by the occasion.
Instead, she felt quite calm, and very very happy.
‘You look absolutely divine!’ Hugh’s mother exclaimed. ‘That wedding dress is just made for you.’
‘Leonie,’ Kathryn replied, amusement in her voice, ‘it was made for me. And it cost a small fortune, as you very well know. You paid for it.’
Leonie, who was looking elegant and beautiful in pale blue, smiled back at her. ‘No, dear, Dickie paid for it. Now, can I tell you a little secret?’
‘Of course.’
The two women had become quite close during the run-up to the wedding, with Kathryn letting her future motherin-law make all the arrangements. Partly because she’d been kept very busy over the past two months, helping Hugh with his new business. But mostly because Kathryn had been afraid she might embarrass Hugh—and herself—by penny-pinching. That was one thing she wasn’t quite used to yet—having an unlimited budget.
‘Dickie and I are going to get married again,’ Leonie said in a conspiratorial whisper. ‘As soon as his divorce comes through.’
‘That’s wonderful, Leonie. Hugh’s going to be thrilled.’
‘Oh, I doubt that, dear. Hugh can’t understand why I still love his father. On top of that, he’s never too thrilled with anything Dickie does. But you seem to like Dickie. I know he likes you.’
‘He’sa sweetie,’ Kathryn said. And a scoundrel. And a flirt.
He’d insisted within five minutes of meeting Kathryn that she call him Dickie. And given her a sneaky pat on her backside when no one had been looking.
But he seemed genuinely fond of Leonie. And maybe, now that he was into his sixties, he might have finally seen the sense of having a wife more of his own age. A wife, more to the point, who genuinely loved him and who was the mother of his only son and heir.
‘It was good of him to let us get married on his yacht,’ Kathryn said.
‘Sensible, too,’ Leonie said. ‘This way the paparazzi can’t bother us too much.’
Dickie’s superyacht—called The Boadicea for some reason—was moored in the middle of Sydney harbour, a few hundred metres out from his main residence, a huge waterside mansion at Darling Point. A ship of The Boadicea’s size required a reasonably deep anchorage, the wedding party and guests having been ferried out from Dickie’s private pier by a smaller cruiser which the Parkinson family used for jaunts around the harbour. The ceremony was due to take place just before sunset on the biggest of the back decks, followed by a seated reception in the main saloon. There weren’t all that many guests—around sixty—Hugh refusing to let his parents invite people he didn’t personally like, or respect.
‘Which eliminates most of your business associates,’ he’d told his father.
Dickie had been extremely patient with him, in Kathryn’s opinion. Patient and indulgent. He seemed genuinely pleased that his son was finally getting married. And secretly proud, Kathryn thought, that Hugh had decided to go out on his own into the business world.
Kathryn certainly was. Proud, and more in love with Hugh than ever. He stunned her sometimes with the creativity of his vision, and his new-found capacity for work. Some days, she had trouble keeping up with him.
Even so, he still had the energy to make love to her every night.
After her honeymoon, however, there would be no more pills. She wanted to have Hugh’s children before she was too old to enjoy them.
‘I’ll just see if Nicole’s ready yet,’ Leonie said, and knocked on the door which connected the two rooms set aside for the bride and her bridesmaid, two rooms being necessary because the bedrooms on the yacht weren’t all that large.