Chapter 46
One week later, Eve stood at the altar with Michel, a man who was minutes away from being her husband.
He was dressed in the finery of his home—a dark blue jacket with gold accents, his dark hair brushed back, his eyes sparkling with happiness.
Eve wore a white silk gown, slim-fitted—not too tight around the waist—cut in the French style, but with beautiful colored designs woven through by her mother and sisters-in-law.
It was a perfect combination of all the things that were parts of her: her ancestry, who she had been, and who she would become.
She couldn’t wait for her future with Michel.
Thank goodness the day had finally come, though, because in the last week, her body had really begun to change.
It would feel very good to be the wife, the pregnant wife, of the future Duke rather than the daughter who had gotten herself into trouble.
Or the woman who had gotten herself kidnapped.
Who cares if people ever figured out the math?
Behind her were two families. Her lavishly ornate mother and father, her brothers, sisters-in-law, nieces, and nephews.
Their own guards, elders, and captains. On the other side sat Michel’s family, simply elegant and regal.
Michel’s two brothers were there, along with her new friend Alex, who had her hands up to her chin as she grinned away through the ceremony.
Her in-laws looked proud. Her parents, though they were as stoic as ever, did not hide their pleasure at the event.
Eve felt the ancestors’ approval, deep in her heart.
Then there was Michel. Her handsome, strong, wonderful man.
A man who would protect her, who would exalt her, who would do anything he could for her.
He had visited her every night in the last week, but tonight would be the first time they could be together with no one having to climb in and out of windows and without having to give him up to the sunrise.
She felt so elated that she hardly heard the ceremony taking place.
Everything had come together, the once unraveled threads of her life all finding their way into this perfect, beautiful pattern.
When the priest asked her to kiss her new husband, she did. Funny how their story had started with a very different wedding. This wedding, however, would be their true beginning.
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