The Pregnant Bride Read online

  “Why? Because of the baby?”

  “Because I love you,” he said.

  She turned her face aside and stared across the room, because looking at him and seeing the pain in his eyes was more than she could bear. “You make me afraid, Edmund,” she said. “You touch my heart so easily; you always have. I’ve never been more vulnerable than I am with you.”

  He neither moved nor spoke. The only sound in the room was the shifting of a dying log in the hearth, the only motion that of sparks shooting up the chimney. For perhaps a full minute, he remained with one hand resting against her knee and his eyes tracking the expressions flitting across her face: hope warring with uncertainty; love fighting suspicion.

  Finally, he rose to his feet and went to where he’d left his jacket. “I have done this to you,” he said heavily. “My God, I should be shot.”

  He’d gone as far as the door before she found her voice and the courage to say what was in her heart. “Please don’t go.”

  “Why not?”

  She had never heard him sound so defeated. What had happened to her indomitable husband, the one whose favorite expression had once been I won’t allow…?

  “Because,” she said, twisting in her seat to look at him, “every child deserves to grow up with both his parents there to tuck him in at night. And everyone deserves a second chance. Even us, Edmund.”

  He needed no further invitation. “I won’t let you down again,” he whispered hoarsely, drawing her into his arms and holding her as if he’d never let her go. “And if I ever get out of line again, do me a favor and give me a good swift kick in the rear.”

  “Oh, I can do better than that,” she murmured, peeling the duffle jacket off his shoulders and running her hands over the lovely firm planes of his chest. “Remember what I said before, about you keeping your clothes on?”

  “Mmm-hmm.” He nuzzled her neck.

  “I’ve changed my mind,” she said. “Will you please take them off?”

  “I will,” he said against her mouth. “Provided you do something for me.”

  She was ashamed of the little start of uneasiness to which that question gave rise. “And what’s that?”

  “Marry me,” he said, undoing the buttons on the front of her dress and planting a kiss on her bare shoulder.

  “We’re already married.”

  “I know. But the last time, it was a furtive affair based on practical considerations.” His mouth traveled to her ear, his voice lowered to a whisper. “This time, I’m asking you because I love you and I can’t live without you. And I want the whole world to know it.”

  “But I’m pregnant,” she objected. “Can’t we wait until I’ve at least got a waist again?”

  “Not a chance, sweet pea,” he said, lifting her into his arms and making tracks for the bed. “I’m not risking losing you a second time.”

  It had taken them months to resolve their differences. It took only minutes for him to strip her naked, and only seconds longer for him to shed his own clothes. “I love you, Jenna Delaney,” he said, just before he entered her.

  Smooth and powerful, he filled her with his vibrant heat and she, as she always had, closed around him in a fusing of limbs and mouths; of hearts and minds and spirits. He was her soul mate. For the first time in weeks, perhaps for the first time ever, she felt truly complete.

  “And I love you,” she cried, clinging to him as the rhythm gained strength and the first spasms of slow sweet release took distant hold, rippling over her flesh, pebbling her skin, and turning her liquid with passion.

  Outside, the wind picked up again, driving the waves relentlessly ashore. Inside the room, a different kind of passion ruled, no less implacable but infinitely more splendid.

  EPILOGUE

  THEY renewed their vows in November, on a day of crystal blue skies, and sunshine which still retained a faint breath of late summer.

  The little church was full. Behind him on the left, his mother-in-law wore the look of a woman about to be martyred a second time. To the right, his mother adjusted her hat and whispered in his father’s ear. Immediately behind them, Adrienne smiled encouragingly and Bud gave him the thumbs-up sign.

  The air was heavy with the scent of flowers. The congregation hummed with anticipation. And he was nervous as a cat on hot bricks. What the devil had he been thinking, to suggest they go through with a second wedding when the first was still in effect? All this fuss, all these people…!

  The organ droned to a halt, then struck up the opening notes of the familiar Here Comes The Bride, Forty Inches Wide wedding march. The door to the private room at the back of the church opened, and Molly came skipping out, angelic in white and dainty as a butterfly as she came down the aisle scattering rose petals. “Hi, Daddy,” she piped, when she was still only halfway to the altar.

  Even Valerie Sinclair cracked a smile.

  Then Jenna appeared on her father’s arm, and Edmund knew why he was there: so that he could keep the memory of how she looked alive in his heart long after they were both old and gray.

  She wore blue, and carried a small bunch of creamy roses. Her long skirt brushed her ankles. The matching jacket hung full in front, proclaiming rather than trying to hide her pregnancy. Her eyes, her smile, her face…!

  He swallowed and blinked. She was a vision! Once she’d looked at him as if he were her guardian angel, but he knew that, in fact, it was the other way around. She was the angel who’d brought him to the place he was now at: a man at peace and able to accept the compromises which were part and parcel of life.

  “Jenna’s got a baby in her tummy,” Molly informed the congregation at large, as Jenna reached his side. “That’s why it’s sticking out.”

  A wave of laughter swelled from the pews.

  He swallowed again, wiped his damp palms on the seat of his pants and wondered why such a woman would want to spend the rest of her life with a schmuck like him. He didn’t deserve her. But, oh brother, did he need her! She was his lodestar, the one who kept him grounded. She had taught him what love was really all about.

  “We are here today,” the clergyman began, “to celebrate with Jenna and Edmund as they renew their marriage vows.”

  She’d pinned her hair up into some sort of fancy knot which she’d skewered in place with a couple of rosebuds. The diamond earrings which had been his wedding gift to her caught the light spearing through the mullioned windows and sparked with fiery brilliance.

  “You’re spoiling me,” she’d said, when he’d presented them to her the night before.

  “You’re worth it,” he’d replied.

  Worth that, and a whole lot more! “An eternity ring,” the jeweler had suggested, when, to mark their second wedding day, he’d asked to be shown something special to go with her existing engagement and wedding rings, but he’d not heard him right and thought the man said “maternity ring.” Either way, the narrow gold band studded with diamonds and engraved with that day’s date and the inscription For Jenna: my wife, my love, my life. did justice to only a fraction of what he felt in his heart.

  “Edmund, do you take this woman—?”

  “I do,” he said, gripping her hands so tightly that she winced.

  “Ahem!” the clergyman said. “—to be your wedded wife? Will you love her, honor her and keep her only unto you, so long as you both shall live?”

  “And beyond,” he said, winging it without warning. “For all eternity. I will cherish you forever, Jenna.”

  She turned a smile on him, so radiant that it put the sun to shame. Reflected in her lovely eyes he saw the affirmation of all that was in his heart and which, never in a million years, could he have put into words.

  Eternity wasn’t long enough for him to show her the depth of his love and commitment to her. But it would do for a start.

  ISBN: 978-1-408-93920-8

  THE PREGNANT BRIDE

  © Kathy Garner 2000

  First Published in Great Britain in 2000

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