The Blue Rose by Esther Wyndham Page B

dressing-gown when there was a ring at the front door. Francie went to answer it and presently came to tell her that it was Stephen.
    “Oh, I must see him!”
    “You really oughtn’t to,” Francie warned her. “It’s not done.”
    “I don’t care how unlucky it is. I’ve simply got to see him,” and she dashed out into the hall in her dressing - gown, just as she was, and in a moment found herself caught up in Stephen’s arms. “I couldn’t wait to see you until the church,” he whispered through her hair.
    “Oh, I’m so glad you came. I’m so miserable Francie didn’t call me last night when you telephoned. I was wide awake thinking of you and so longing to talk to you.” They were happier at that moment than they had been for the past nine days.
    “How’s your cold?”
    “Francie shouldn’t have told you. It’s nothing, just a bit of a throat, that’s all. It probably won’t come to anything. Don’t worry. I shall be all right.”
    “You’d better be!” he said. “Darling love. I suppose I must go and change or I shall be late, and I gather that brides like their bridegrooms to be waiting for them ... I shall be waiting for you, don’t worry ... You feel thin, my love. There’s nothing of you. We’ll have to feed you up with plenty of spaghetti!”
    “It’s because she’s hardly eaten anything since she’s been engaged to you,” Francie told him. She had come out into the hall and had overheard his last remark. “And she’s eaten nothing at all this morning.”
    “Nor have I if it comes to that,” Stephen replied.
    “But you must make her eat or she’ll be ill,” Francie said. “I’m sure she’s lost pounds since she’s known you.”
    “We’ll have to change all that,” Stephen said. “When once she’s my wife she will have to obey me. I suppose you realize, you poor child, that I still have a legal right to beat you, as long as I don’t use any instrument thicker than my thumb? The law doesn’t seem to realize that thin whips hurt much more than thick sticks! ... So you’d better be careful. You will be all alone with me where no one will hear your cries—and even if they do, I shall be within my legal rights!”
    For answer she put her arms round his neck. “I trust you,” she said.
    “Well, don’t forget you will be mine to do exactly what I like with,” and for the first time with somebody present he kissed her.
    When he had gone Rose went back to her room to dress with her heart singing. “He looks to me as if he might quite well carry out his threat,” Francie said as she followed her into the bedroom. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a very possessive lover.”
    “He couldn’t be too possessive to please me,” Rose replied, laughing. In her excitement at seeing him she had forgotten her throat but at that moment she felt the first warning prickle in her nose which was followed by a thunderous sneeze.
    “Here, take some more aspirin quickly,” Francie said. “We mustn’t have you sneezing in church.”
    II
    As Stephen had promised, he was waiting for her by the altar, Robin Johnson, his best man, beside him. Defying superstition, he had turned his head to look at her as she walked up the aisle. As his normal dress was the striped trousers and black jacket of a City suit he did not look so strange in a tail coat as most men do. There was a white carnation in his button-hole and never had she seen him looking so wonderfully handsome. It was rather a comfort to be wearing a veil, for she could see everyone through it, whereas they could not see her. Derek was giving her away and they walked slowly up the aisle, perfectly in step, to the strains of “Here Comes the Bride”.
    Wedding services had always seemed rather long to Rose in the past but her own was over all too quickly. Stephen’s ring was on her finger and they had been proclaimed man and wife and had listened to a short address by the officiating clergyman; almost before she knew it