Chapter 21

From the moment Veronica's article was published life became normal again. Wayward celebrities and sports stars regained their ascendancy in the media. As far as Samantha was concerned, Dr Cavendish's prescription worked like a charm. She regained the weight she had lost. Colour returned to her cheeks as did the liveliness to her eyes. The constant love and attention of Henry made her radiant. At the end of the fortnight they returned to London bubbling with vitality and happiness. Jean was thrilled as was Samantha's director. He had been worried that one of his stars had burned out.

They invited Mr Ellis, Corporal Tomes and the team of escorts with wives and girlfriends to dinner. It was a huge success once initial shyness was overcome. Samantha complained of stomach ache from laughing so much. All the guests were captivated by her beauty, grace and natural friendliness. The affection and respect that Henry was held in was very apparent to her and her heart filled with happiness and pride.

"Why didn't you stay in the army?" she asked him afterwards.

"I'm not really sure," he admitted. "I enjoyed every minute of it, even the scary bits. Copying Dad? There was a bit of that. The lure of more money? There was that too. At the time I could have signed on again though you had told me of your unhappiness and I felt very strongly that I had to be here for you; not playing goodies and baddies, as you call it, in Afghanistan or somewhere."

Samantha looked at him in wonder. "You did it for me?" she asked incredulously.

Henry nodded. "You were always my Sams even if I had to let you be with someone else."

"Oh God!" she breathed. "We wasted a lot of time, didn't we?"

Henry smiled happily. "We're making up for it though, aren't we?"

"Mmm, I've never been so happy in my life and I've never felt such love for someone. Somehow it just keeps growing. Kiss?"

They did: lovingly, tenderly. Then they clung to each other.

"If only we could be together twenty four hours a day," she moaned.

Henry chuckled. "We'd get precious little done what with all the hugging and kissing that would go on."

"That would be very precious lots done."

"Wordsmith."

"No, love smith."

They both laughed happily and, of course, had to have another kiss.

Before they knew where they were the wedding was upon them. They had both agreed that they did not want the reception to be an all night affair with dancing but a traditional, old fashioned one lasting two or three hours with drinks and small eats. Many of the guests were coming down from London so, to obviate the need for drivers to abstain, they hired buses to meet the three fifteen train at Pitsbury and then take guests back again for the seven twenty-five back up to London.

The guest list was huge. Rupert and Henrietta had a large circle of friends, many from far away. They also made sure that anyone and everyone who had had a hand in Henry and Samantha's childhood was there. Henry and Samantha had school friends, London friends, regimental friends, including the escorts, plus some specials such as Jean Simkins, the Frobishers, Veronica and Alison Worthington.

The marriage itself in the morning was attended by the four Cavendishes only. It was brief and functional. Afterwards, they had lunch at the Crown. The Jays, who were coming on to the reception, insisted on treating them. James had excelled himself, driving down to Poole early that morning to buy fresh lobster, and then producing a quite delicious thermidor. Jenny had done one of her multi-fruit compôtes.

"Ooph!" exclaimed Samantha afterwards. "Can we put the reception off until tomorrow? All I'm going to want to do is sleep this lot off."

"Henry could take you for a run," suggested Rupert.

"No he couldn't," retorted Henry. "He's too full himself."

In fact, by the time they were home and had changed they were all in fine fettle.

It was a lovely June day. The sun was shining and there was a gentle breeze which stopped it becoming too hot. The last of the hawthorn warmed by the sun gave off its honey scent. The garden was looking lovely. The marquee had its sides raised and was purely there for shade.

There were only two speeches. Rupert made the most of being not only the father of the bride, stressing that that had been Samantha's choice as he had only offered to be a step-father, but also father of the groom. He also alluded to the fact that, apart from a two year gap, Henry and Samantha had been living together for the past twelve years. He added that if they had stuck each other that long and could now have fallen in love it boded well for their continuing to love and live with each other for ever.

Henry thanked everyone for coming and for the generous presents they had given. "It's funny," he went on, "that Dad said that we had been living together for twelve years and had only recently fallen in love. That's not entirely true. Since we've been engaged Samantha has admitted that she has been in love with me for years but didn't dare say so because I was her brother. I thank God I am her step-brother. In much the same way I could never admit even to myself that I was in love with her. Instead I used to have bouts of what Mum called Samanthaitis whenever she went away. Now we've discovered that the parents saw this coming years ago. Anyway, it's happened and there could not be two happier people than me and my lovely Sams."

He paused and the smile left his face. "Most of you will be aware that the early part of our engagement was spoilt by the media and two particularly nasty individuals. The fact that the later part became as happy as it should be is due to a handful of people who Samantha and I would like to thank publicly in front of all of you. First of all Veronica Butler, who will be the first to admit that she was far from helpful to start with. She became a friend though and it was she who finally routed the rest of the media and the internet gossips. Thank you, Veronica. Then there is my old regiment which out of the blue produced a team of volunteers to escort Samantha and eventually to catch the man who was stalking her: Regimental Corporal Major Ellis, the ringmaster, Corporal Albert Tomes, the oiler of wheels, and then the escorts themselves Troopers Drew Harris, Ray Wolstenholme, Paul Smith, Ged Truesdale, 'Wally' Hammond and 'Stalks' Peterson. We're also grateful to the commanding officer, who I will not embarrass by naming, for turning a 'blind' eye to the shenanigans that were going on in his regiment." There was laughter and then loud applause.