His Emergency Fiancée (22 page)

Trust Kirsty to do things differently. Not for her the summer wedding in the middle of the day with the sun shining, in the parish church near her parents’. No, she’d wanted to get married in the tiny parish church in Scotland, on a late autumn afternoon, with the church lit by candles and Ben in formal Scots dress—kilt, white dress shirt and a Prince Charlie.

He glanced at his watch. She was late. Please, God. Please, don’t let anything have happened to her. Please, don’t let her have changed her mind. Please, don’t—

And then the organist broke into the first few notes of the Wedding March. Ben just stared and stared as his bride walked down the aisle towards him in her simply cut ivory dress, her eyes shining like gold behind the long ivory veil. Behind her walked Jenny in an equally simply cut dark green dress, Kirsty’s two-year-old niece Caitlin in a baby version and her five-year-old twin nephews William and Thomas in child-sized versions of his own outfit.

The ceremony passed in a blur for him. Kirsty actually had to kick him on the ankle to remind him to repeat his vows, but the bits he knew he’d remember all his life were when he gently lifted the veil from her face, when he slipped the plain ring onto her finger and the moment he was allowed to kiss the bride—a moment which went on and on until the vicar gently coughed to remind the groom exactly where he was.

And the reception afterwards was perfect, a traditional Scots meal in the local inn, filled to bursting by the wedding guests, followed by a ceilidh in the village hall. It was while Ben and Kirsty were sitting down, laughing and exhausted after several energetic dances, that he gave her his final wedding present.

‘Happy, Dr Robertson?’ he asked.

‘What do you think?’ she teased, her eyes glittering pure gold.

‘I think,’ he said, ‘that I’m going to enjoy this marriage stuff. When we decide where we’re going to live, that is.’ The posts Ben had been offered so far meant travelling to the other side of London from Kirsty’s flat—a journey almost as long, he’d discovered, as the journey from Southbay to London. But neither of them had wanted to wait any longer before getting married.

‘When,’ she said wryly.

He fished an envelope from his sporran. ‘Mind you, this came in the post this morning. For a Mrs K. Robertson.’

‘Mrs?’

‘You’ve passed your exams,’ he reminded her. ‘So, strictly speaking, you’re Mrs now.’

Frowning, Kirsty took the plain brown envelope, slit it open and read it. Her eyes widened. ‘They’re offering me a consultancy in Southbay.’

‘Mmm-hmm.’

But…’ She stared at him. ‘Hang on. I’ve only just opened it. How do you know what it says?’

He fidgeted in his seat. ‘I, um, know a couple of people.’

She wrinkled her nose at him. ‘You’re back to Dr Charming, aren’t you?’

‘Which makes you Kirsterella,’ he shot back.

‘Ha, ha. Seriously, Ben—what’s this all about?’

He sighed. ‘We’re not going to tarnish our wedding day with his name, but let’s just say that Jimmy’s had to replace a certain person.’

‘Why?’

He winced. ‘A patient—one of your old ones, actually—overheard him propositioning a nurse, then threatening to make sure she lost her job when she turned him down. He complained. There was an inquiry, and a certain SHO decided it was time to speak up.’

‘You mean, Paul told them what happened with me?’

He nodded. ‘So. They need a replacement. If I go to London, that’s two doctors they have to replace. If you come back, their problems are solved.’

‘And our accommodation problem,’ she added.

‘Not to mention that Southbay Infants is listed as a school of excellence.’

Kirsty grinned. ‘You’re going broody on me.’

He spread his hands. ‘I’m being nagged. Gran wants to be a great-gran, and my mother wants to—well, I suppose make up for me by spoiling my children. Your mum overheard them talking, so she cast her vote in favour of babies as well.’

‘And what do you want, Ben?’ she asked softly.

He smiled. ‘You, for the rest of my life.’ He kissed her lightly. ‘And a little brown-eyed girl to spoil.’

‘Blue-eyed boy,’ she corrected.

‘One of each?’

Kirsty gave him a wicked grin. ‘I’ll think about it.’

‘Just don’t keep me in suspense as long as you did when I asked you to marry me,’ Ben said, lifting her fingers to his lips and kissing each one slowly. ‘Four times, I think it was, before you finally said yes. You even made me put it in writing. And I thought
I
was supposed to be the one with the commitment problem.’

‘You were. But you came to your senses.’

‘Mmm.’ He pulled her close enough so he could whisper in her ear. ‘Let’s go make babies, Mrs Robertson, super-consultant.’

‘Now that, house-husband-to-be,’ she whispered back, ‘sounds like a very good idea…’

* * * * *

ISBN-13: 9781460377994

HIS EMERGENCY FIANCÉE

Copyright © 2015 by Kate Hardy

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