To Make a Marriage(16)

Having agonised as she had over accepting Adam's marriage proposal in  the first place, she certainly wasn't about to let her father put a  dampener on it now!

'I won't have it, Andie,' her father's angrily grated comment broke the tense silence. 'It's just not on. No daughter of mine-'

'Daddy, this has nothing to do with you,' she broke in determinedly;  having made her decision where marrying Adam was concerned-painfully  so!-she wasn't about to have her father now telling her what she could  and couldn't do! 'I'm over eighteen, have been making my own decisions  for years now, and Adam and I have only come here today to pay you the  courtesy of letting you know what our plans are. You-'

'Very kind of you, I'm sure!' Rome exclaimed sarcastically.

'Andie-'

'Leave it, Adam,' the older man told him sharply as he would have  interrupted. 'I don't believe my daughter has finished speaking yet.'  Rome turned pointedly back to Andie. 'You were saying … ?'

She drew in a ragged breath. 'Adam and I-' She stopped, wondering if she  would ever get used to hearing their two names linked together like  that. 'We have decided to get married. We would naturally like you and  Audrey to be there, but-'

'How kind of you again,' her father drawled, lowering his lean length  into one of the armchairs, chilly blue gaze fixed on Andie.

She shifted uncomfortably under the intensity of that gaze. 'We intend  getting a special licence, and the wedding will be organised in a  register office for the end of next week-'

'No,' her father stated decisively.

Andie's cheeks flushed mutinously. 'It isn't your decision, Daddy,' she  burst out incredulously, looking across at Adam appealingly. Instead of  just standing there, why didn't he do something, say something? 'I am  going to marry Adam, Rome,' she began again. 'With or without your  approval. Although, of course, I would rather have it-'

'Again, how kind,' Rome said dryly.

Her cheeks flushed fiery red at his obvious continued sarcasm.

'But I don't need it,' she told him determinedly. 'And your permission I certainly don't need.'

'Andie.' Adam spoke quietly as he crossed the room to her side, his arm moving protectively about her shoulders.

'Rome, stop playing with her,' he turned to tell the older man. 'Andie,  your father is perfectly in agreement with the two of us getting  married,' he told her gently.

'How kind of you!' she snapped rebelliously at her father.

'He just isn't happy,' Adam continued, 'with the two of us going to a register office to do it!'

'My exact words were, sneaking off to a register office to do it,' Rome  said. 'Harrie and Danie have had full white weddings,' he continued.  'You and Adam will have the same.'                       
       
           



       

Andie stared at her father. He-they-what-? 'You don't disapprove of my marrying Adam … !' she realised dazedly.

'Certainly not,' Rome came back instantly. 'I'm actually amazed you've shown such good taste.'

'Thanks!' She was still dazed at his reaction.

'I'm not too pleased by the way the two of you have been creeping about  meeting each other in secret,' Rome commented. 'But other than that, I  couldn't have chosen a better husband for you myself!' he added with  satisfaction.

Andie had turned to give Adam a sharp look at her father's mention of  the two of them meeting each other in secret, the tightening of Adam's  arm about her shoulders, and his warning glance, telling her he would  explain later. When the two of them were alone …

Not that he needed to explain; she could already guess how the  conversation had gone between Adam and her father. Adam could hardly  have told the older man that the two of them had actually only been out  together once, and that Rome's grandchild was the result of anger with  each other over the way that evening had turned out!

She just wished Adam had taken the trouble to explain to her exactly how  he was going to broach the subject to her father! Although, in truth,  the two of them had barely spoken to each other on the flight back to  England earlier in the day.

She turned back to her father. 'We can't get married in church, Daddy,'  she told him huskily. 'I- It wouldn't seem right. In the circumstances I  certainly can't get married in white!' She was slightly pale now, the  strain of this meeting finally getting to her.

'Sit down,' Adam told her firmly, pushing her gently down into a chair  before pouring some fresh coffee into her cup and handing it to her.  'Drink it,' he instructed evenly, standing over her.

After a rebellious moment of stubbornness, Andie did exactly that, her  eyes flashing deeply green as she glared at her future husband over the  rim of the cup.

Rome chuckled gleefully. 'Out of the frying pan, hmm, Andie?' he teased with obvious enjoyment of the situation.

She shook back her hair as she turned to include her father in that  glare. Adam was as forceful as her father, all right. And as  domineering. Which meant the two of them were probably going to have  more than their fair share of arguments before they came to some sort of  compromise. But that would probably be preferable to the two of them  continuing to behave like polite strangers!

'Andie, you don't have to wear white for the wedding.' Audrey was the one to step tactfully into the rising tension.

'Most women wear cream nowadays, anyway. Or almond, even. It's a sad  reflection on society, I know, but I'm afraid there aren't too many  virgin brides left any more!'

Andie deliberately didn't look at Adam as her cheeks coloured fiery red,  but she could sense his searching glance on her. Except for that one  act of heated impetuosity between the two of them, they both knew she  would have been a virgin bride.

'Don't you think I'll look slightly ridiculous?' Andie began sharply.  'Floating down the aisle on the arm of my father, over three months  pregnant!'

'No.' Adam was the one to answer. 'You'll just look beautiful. As you always do,' he added emotionally.

This was going to be a nightmare, Andie decided. They had overcome the  hurdle of her father's anger and disapproval, only to find themselves  confronted with the prospect of a church wedding rather than the  register office Andie would have preferred- That she would have  preferred … ?

She turned sharply to look at Adam, his deadpan expression telling her  nothing of his thoughts. Deliberately so? He hadn't said anything in  Majorca when she had told him she wanted a quiet wedding, as unobtrusive  as possible, with only close family in attendance. At the time she had  assumed his silence on the subject had been agreement, now she wasn't so  sure …



'It just seemed better to tell your father we had been meeting in  secret,' Adam defended wearily at her attack. 'After thinking about it-'

'For all of two seconds,' Andie accused, the two of them sitting in Adam's car as he drove them back to London.

Adam accepted it had been an evening of tension for the two of them, the  subject of the wedding-in church-the only conversation over dinner.

'What would you rather I had done, Andie?' Adam challenged, hands  tightly gripping the steering wheel. 'Explain to Rome that we only went  out together for the evening once-and his grandchild is the result of  that evening?'                       
       
           



       

Of course Andie wouldn't want that. And Adam had known that only too  well. But Adam could also understand Andie's problem with that; this way  Rome, and the rest of her family, were going to assume this was a  love-match …

'Of course not.' She sighed wearily. 'But how do you expect the two of  us to keep up this obligation we now feel to act as if we're in love  with each other?'

His mouth set grimly. 'We would have had to do that anyway, Andie, you  know that,' he said. 'Rome wouldn't accept anything less for one of his  daughters.'

If Rome so much as guessed this situation was at all contrived, then he  wouldn't have given his blessing to their marriage. Despite what Andie  might have claimed earlier, Adam knew her well enough to know she would  find any estrangement from her father extremely stressful. And, in her  condition, that simply wasn't on as far as Adam was concerned.

'It wasn't so bad this evening, was it?' he asked teasingly, sensing  rather than seeing the sharp look she gave him in the dark confines of  the car. 'I thought we managed quite well,' he opined with satisfaction.

'And I think you went too damned far when you tried to tempt me into  eating dessert by actually feeding it to me yourself!' Andie replied  impatiently.

That was a pity; he had quite enjoyed that part of the evening! 'But you  enjoyed the dessert, after all, didn't you?' he reasoned sardonically,  having eventually persuaded her to eat every mouthful of the sherry  trifle.

'It isn't a question of enjoying it,' Andie said snappily.

'I simply don't want to end up as big as a house before the baby is born!'