Her father was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs, stern and formal in his best black coat and breeches. His eyes took in her full appearance as she descended, the vertical frown line between his eyebrows prominently displayed. Judith braced herself for his critical comment, determined not to allow it to dampen her spirits.

“Well, Judith,” he said, “for years past I have been very afraid that all that beauty was going to be snatched up by a man who could see no deeper than surfaces. But I believe you have avoided that fate so common to extraordinarily beautiful women. You are lovely indeed today.”

She could hardly believe the evidence of her own ears. He had always thought her beautiful? Why had he not said so at least once during her life before now? Why had he not explained .. . But parents, she supposed, were not the pinnacles of perfection their children thought and expected them to be. They were humans who usually did the best they could but often made the wrong choices.

“Thank you, Papa.” She smiled at him. “Thank you.”

He offered his arm to lead her outside to the waiting carriage.

The village church at Kennon, with its ancient stone walls and stained-glass windows, was picturesque but small. That latter fact did not matter greatly since the guest list for the marriage of Miss Judith Law to Lord Rannulf Bedwyn was confined to their two families.

Rannulf felt as nervous as if this were a grand show of a ton wedding at fashionable St. George’s on Hanover Square in London. He almost wished they could have done what Aidan had done—he had taken Eve to London, married her privately by special license with only her great-aunt and his batman for witnesses, and then taken her home to Oxfordshire without informing even Bewcastle of the event.

Rannulf waited at the front, of the church with Alleyne, his best man. Bewcastle sat in the second pew, their grandmother next to him, Freyja and Morgan beside her. Aidan sat in the next pew with Eve and their two foster children— though they never referred to the children in any other way than as their own.

Behind them were the Marquess and Marchioness of Rochester, Rannulf’s uncle and aunt. Judith’s mother sat in the second pew on the other side of the aisle, between her son and her mother-in-law. The three sisters sat behind them with Sir George Effingham. Some servants from Grandmaison and Harewood sat farther back in the church.

The past month had seemed interminable even though he had had all his brothers and sisters with him except Aidan, who had come just a week ago. Every day he had expected a letter from Judith terminating their engagement for some flimsy reason or other. Her confidence in herself, he feared, was still a fragile thing. But the letter had not come, and when he had ridden over to Harewood last evening, it was to the happy discovery that she had indeed arrived, just as planned.

He still did not quite believe even this morning.

But then in the hush of the church interior he was aware of the church door opening and closing again, and Alleyne touched his elbow to remind him that it was time to stand.

The vicar, robed and smiling, was signaling the organist and the music began.

Rannulf turned his head and then his whole body.

Lord, but she was breathtakingly beautiful—not just because of the luscious body, displayed to full advantage in her wedding dress, or the glorious hair, half hidden beneath her bonnet, or the lovely face shadowed by her veil. Not just because of her looks and figure, but because she was Judith.

His Judith. Almost his.

She was not smiling, he saw when she came closer on her father’s arm. Her green eyes were huge. She looked terrified. But then her glance focused on him and she looked suddenly transformed by joy.

He smiled at her.

And believed.

“Dearly beloved,” the vicar began a few moments later.

It felt strangely as if time had slowed — quite the opposite of what she had feared would happen. She listened to and savored every word of the service that joined her in holy matrimony to Rannulf for the rest of their lives. She heard her father give her hand in marriage and turned to flash him a smile. She noticed the unusual brightness of his eyes and realized that he was affected by the moment. She saw Lord Alleyne, handsome and elegant and smiling. She heard the rustle of the people behind her and heard her grandmother sniff and someone shush a child who asked in a loud whisper if that was her new aunt. She could smell the roses, which were displayed in two large vases on either side of the altar.

And with every fiber of her being she was aware of Rannulf, of the fact that she had missed him dreadfully during the past month, of the fact that after today they would be together for as long as they both lived. He had had his hair cut though he still looked like a Saxon warrior. He looked achingly attractive in a brown, form-fitting coat with gold waistcoat, cream knee-breeches, white stockings and linen and lace, and black shoes. His hand was large and firm and warm as it held hers, and his fingers were steady as they slid her wedding ring onto her hand. His blue eyes smiled into hers from the moment she first saw him until after the vicar spoke his final words.

“I pronounce that they be man and wife together, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.”

She wondered how it was possible for happiness to be so intense that it was almost painful.

“My wife,” Rannulf whispered for her ears only, and he lifted the veil from her face, arranged it over the brim of her bonnet, and looked at her with bright, intense eyes. For a startled moment she thought he was going to kiss her right there at the front of the church with the vicar and both their families looking on.

They signed the register to make their marriage finally official, and then walked out of the church together as man and wife. It was September. The heat of summer was gone but autumn had not yet arrived. The sun shone from a clear sky.

“My love,” Rannulf said as soon as they stepped out onto the church steps, circling her waist with one arm and dipping his head to kiss her.

There was cheering and applause, and Judith looked up and saw a large crowd of people gathered about the lych-gate at the end of the stone path that curved through the churchyard. All the villagers must have come out to see them.

She laughed and looked up at Rannulf, who was laughing back.

“Shall we make a dash for it?” he asked.

The open barouche drawn up beyond the gate was decorated with large white bows, she could see. It was also surrounded by people.

“Yes.” She clasped his hand, lifted the front of her dress with her free hand, and ran with him to the carriage. For the final few yards they were pelted with flower petals and surrounded by laughter and shouted greetings.

They drove off after Rannulf had taken a fat pouch from one corner of the seat and hurled handfuls of coins into the crowd. He sat down beside her, laughing, though his smile faded from all but his eyes as he took her hand in one of his again and laid the other on top of it.

“Judith,” he said. “My love. Are you happy?”

“Almost too happy,” she told him. “Happiness wants to burst out of me and cannot find a way.”

“We will find a way,” he said, dipping his head to kiss her again. “Tonight. I promise.”

“Yes,” she said, “but first the wedding breakfast.”

“First the wedding breakfast,” he agreed.

“I am so glad both our families are here to celebrate with us,” she said. “I think it is only today that I have realized fully how very precious families are.”

He squeezed her hand with both his own.

Family was indeed a priceless commodity. And the two families—the Bedwyns and the Laws—were not as awkward with each other as Rannulf had feared. Bewcastle unbent sufficiently to make himself agreeable to each of the Laws as he was presented to them and engaged the Reverend Jeremiah Law in a conversation during breakfast that sounded as if it were about theology. The Marquess of Rochester spoke at length with Sir George Effingham about politics. Aunt Rochester, that haughtiest of aristocrats, allowed herself to be drawn into conversation with Judith’s mother and grandmother as well as Rannulf ‘s grandmother. Alleyne maneuvered matters so that he was seated between Hilary and Pamela Law at table. Morgan, seated opposite them, conversed with Branwell Law. Eve, smiling and charming, spoke with everyone, her children at her side except when the little girl finally tired from all the excitement of the day and Aidan scooped her up on one arm.

Rannulf’s Uncle and Aunt Rochester were gracious to Judith when he presented her to them.

“If you have captured Rannulf’s heart you must be something out of the ordinary,” his aunt said in her usual forthright manner, her lorgnette poised for use in one hand, “even apart from your good looks.

Bewcastle informed me that you are a beauty.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” Judith smiled and curtsied.

Morgan and Freyja had kissed her on the cheek when they arrived from the church. Eve, whom she had never met before, hugged her tight.

“Rannulf came to Grandmaison a couple of months ago determined to resist all attempts to marry him off,” she said with a twinkle in her eye and a swift, mischievous glance at Rannulf. “I am so glad you thwarted him, Judith.”

Aidan—tall, dark, dour Aidan—made his bow to Judith, probably forcing her to the conclusion that he was even stiffer and colder than Bewcastle. But then he took her by the shoulders, bent his head to kiss her on the cheek, and smiled at her.

“Welcome to our family, Judith,” he said. “We are a ramshackle lot. It takes a brave woman to take one of us on.”

Eve laughed and reached down to set a hand lightly on the young boy’s head. “I can tell,” she said, “that Judith is as intrepid as I.”

Freyja moved from group to group, making herself perfectly civil. Yet she seemed the one most out of place in the cheerful scene of celebration, Rannulf thought. He drew her to one side while Judith was with her grandmother, who had just declared in his hearing that she had already soaked three handkerchiefs but still had three more dry ones in her reticule.

“Feeling maudlin, Free?” he asked.

“Of course not,” she said briskly. “I am happy for you, Ralf. I was somewhat appalled when you first arrived at Bedwyn House with Judith, I must confess, but she is not a milk-and-water miss or a gold digger, is she? I daresay you will be happy.”

“Yes, I daresay I will.” He tipped his head to one side and regarded her more closely. “You will be going home to Lindsey Hall with Wulf and the others tomorrow?”

“No!” she said sharply. “No, I am going to go to Bath. Charlotte Holt-Barron is there with her mother and has invited me to join them.”

“Bath, Free?” He frowned. “It is not a place where you are likely to find a great deal of young company or agreeable entertainment, is it?”

“It will suit me,” she said.

“This does not have anything to do with Kit, does it?” he asked. “And the fact that his wife is expecting to be confined soon?”

Kit Butler, Viscount Ravensberg, Freyja’s former beau and her expected husband just last summer, lived unfortunately close to Lindsey Hall. And Lady Ravensberg was soon to give birth.

“Of course not!” she said altogether too vehemently. “How foolish you are, Ralf.”

The imminent event and the wedding of a brother must be painful for Freyja.

“I am sorry, Free,” he said. “But there will be someone else, you know, and then you will be glad you waited.”

“Drop this ridiculous subject,” she commanded him, “if you do not want to be punched in the nose, Ralf.”

He grinned at her and kissed her cheek—something he rarely did.

“Enjoy Bath,” he said.

“I intend to,” she told him. She looked beyond his shoulder. “Grandmama, how are you feeling?”

Rannulf turned and wrapped his arms gently about the old lady. “Grandmama,” he said.

“You have made me very, very happy today, Rannulf,” she said.

He grinned at her. Having her grandchildren about her during the past month appeared to have done her health some good. Though one never quite knew with her, of course. Her health was one topic she would never discuss.

“I am happy too,” he said.

“I know.” She tapped him on the arm. “That is why I am happy.”

Finally the opportunity came to have a private moment with Judith. They would spend their wedding night at the dower house, which had been opened up, cleaned, and prepared for the occasion. But most of the rest of the day would be spent at Grandmaison with their families. It was a stolen moment, then, in the middle of the afternoon, when they slipped outside together and strolled to the rose arbor. It was not as laden with blooms as it had been earlier in the summer, but even now it was a secluded and lovely area, its terraces bathed in late-afternoon sunshine, the stream gurgling over the stones in its bed.