Chapter 34
They’d completed the formalities at the maire’s office earlier that day, but this unofficial ceremony felt more like a real wedding.
Simple, beautiful, and held in the garden of their new house.
Bella had booked an English celebrant, mainly so the guests could understand what was happening, and they’d fashioned an aisle from mismatched chairs, each tied with a cream-coloured ribbon.
There were fifteen guests in total. Kitty and Stu, Pete’s parents and sister, two new friends from Peyrat they’d asked along and a few friends who’d made the trip over.
Still, the morning had been difficult. Bella had hoped that having the wedding so far from her childhood home would mean she didn’t feel her mum’s absence so deeply on the day itself.
Everything, from having her hair pulled into an updo, small tendrils curling around her head, to slipping on her dress, had felt somehow devastating without Mum by her side.
Worse, perhaps, because she knew that if her mum had had anything to do with it, she’d have been there. Yet Dad seemed not to want to know.
Kitty made a fuss of her, and fluffed her dress and handed her champagne and tissues. But she still felt the wrench of loss every time she realised that on this pivotal day, she was effectively an orphan.
The string quartet struck up a rendition of the Beatles’ ‘Something’ and she stepped forward on the grass, holding a small bouquet of white roses. Pete turned, his face splitting into a smile as she approached.
A small breeze was buffeting the longer grass that surrounded the part of the garden they’d prepared for the wedding site, and as she walked she saw it: a single white feather, softly travelling along the uneven ground, moved gently by the wind.
Noticing it, Kitty moved forward and quickly picked it up, tucking it into Bella’s bouquet.
For some reason it felt comforting.
I promise to love you every day, to share each adventure with you.
To always be around and never leave your side – unless you’re sick of me!
Pete’s vows caused a ripple of laughter at this point, and he grinned, pleased.
To hold you when you need to be held, to listen when you need to talk.
To be your rock from now until the day I die.
Couples in the audience gripped each other’s hands more tightly. Kitty and Stu looked at one another, and he winked.
Then it was Bella’s turn:
Thank you, Pete, for being the person I need – to laugh with, cry with, experience joy and pain with. I promise that I’ll always love and cherish you. And that from this day, neither of us will ever feel abandoned, alone or afraid. Because we’ll have each other and that will be enough.
Moments later the celebrant finally pronounced them husband and wife. And Bella smiled as she felt her future unfurl in front of her. With this new life, in this new place, where she could start again on her terms with a person who would never let her down.