‘Who wouldn’t like the problem?’ Bridget quipped.
‘It will look amazing. That’s a spectacular set and your dress is plain enough to carry it,’ Nola opined.
The church was an ancient medieval building shaded by massive trees on the slopes of a sleepy hill village. When Bridget and Nola assisted Kathy from the limo, Sergio was waiting outside to give Kathy a glorious bouquet. As Sergio descended the steps the bridal couple were so busily engaged in looking at each other that in the exchange the flowers almost fell to the ground.
‘I like the dress,’ Sergio breathed tautly.
Kathy collided with his dark deep-set eyes. Lean, strong features serious, he was so dazzlingly handsome and so achingly familiar that she felt almost dizzy with delight. She didn’t even notice Bridget putting out a hand to steady her hold on the flowers. Moving into the dim cool of the church with the heady scent of roses heavy on the still air and the magic musical notes of a harp swelling to greet them, Kathy was conscious only of Sergio.
An interpreter translated every word of the lengthy service for her benefit. Every word had meaning for her and she could feel a kind of peace stealing over her: her life and her future seemed more promising to her than it had in a very long time. She wanted to believe that the dark times were over. She had her precious little daughter and now she was marrying the man that she loved. Just at that moment she refused to qualify those beliefs with a single negative connotation.
Walking down the aisle on Sergio’s arm and out into the sunshine, Kathy was radiant. ‘How do you feel?’ she asked him.
‘Grateful it’s over,’ Sergio murmured with all the off-the-cuff immediacy of serious sincerity. ‘I don’t like weddings, dolcezza mia.’
That sobering little speech engulfed Kathy like an unexpected deluge of cold water. It made her feel foolish and naïve. It knocked her right off her fluffy bridal cloud of contentment and back down to earth again. ‘It’s going to be a long day for you, then. Leonidas and Maribel are really pushing out the boat for us.’
Sergio laughed softly as he lifted Kathy into the wonderful fairy-tale flower-bedecked carriage awaiting them. ‘Maribel knows how I feel about weddings. She has a terrific sense of humour and she’s making the most of the opportunity.’
His irreverent attitude did nothing to raise her spirits. Drinks were served back at the imposing house where many more guests were arriving. Innumerable introductions followed and when the swamp of people seeking them became too pressing, Sergio swept her off to take a seat at the top table in the magnificent ballroom. Kathy paused only to remove the detachable train from her gown. She laughed in appreciation when she saw that the wedding décor was based on a chess motif with witty touches—that idea could only have originated with Sergio. She was pleased that he had had the interest to make that choice.
After the two best men, Leonidas and Prince Rashad had made brief and amusing speeches, Bridget said just a few words in which she described Kathy as the daughter of her heart. As she spoke the two women exchanged a look of warm affection and Sergio later asked his bride when she had first met the older woman.
Kathy tensed. ‘I don’t think you want to know.’
‘You’re my wife,’ Sergio said levelly. ‘There’s nothing you can’t tell me.’
Kathy resisted the urge to remind him that he had refused to listen when she had told him that she wasn’t a thief. She was all too well aware that plenty of other people would share his scepticism.
‘Bridget’s daughter died in custody ten years ago. She took her own life,’ Kathy told him in a hesitant undertone. ‘Ever since then, Bridget has volunteered as a prison visitor. We met when I was in hospital in the second year of my sentence. She’s a wonderful woman and she became my lifeline.’
Sergio closed a lean masculine hand over her slim fingers, which she was involuntarily clenching and unclenching on her lap in an unconscious betrayal of tension. ‘I’m grateful she was there for you, dolcezza mia.’
After the meal, Kathy went off to freshen up. It was time to allow her highly adaptable wedding gown to enter its final reinvention. She removed the full constricting skirt of her dress to reveal a shorter, more fitted skirt and returned with Maribel to the ballroom in fashionable style. When he saw her, Sergio stilled in surprise and admiration before moving forward to greet her, brilliant dark eyes intent on her stunning face. He swept her out onto the floor to dance. ‘You look spectacular in the family jewels.’
‘So would most women.’
‘But they wouldn’t have your hair, your face or your astonishing legs, bella mia,’ Sergio husked. ‘You look gorgeous.’