THE WAR BRIDE CLUB (41 page)

      “Betty, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

      She scanned Luke’s face. Gone was the fury, the wildness of before. The wild-man who’d been pounding on her door was replaced with the Luke she’d come to love. With the kind, tortured man who only wanted to do the right thing. Who wanted her but was afraid what it would mean to admit it.
 

      And he’d kissed her! Kissed her like she’d never imagined he ever would.

      “I thought you were going to tell me to leave,” she admitted.
 

      He took a step to the side, then another, before dropping to the bed. His long legs folded as he sat on the edge of it.
 

      “I didn’t know what to do. I… I never should have run out on you like that.”

      She moved closer to him, reaching past to pull William into her arms as he flapped his hands at her.
 

      “Can I?”

      She passed him to Luke, tucked him into his outstretched arms, even though he was growing too big to be handled like a baby any more. He wriggled to sit up on his Uncle’s lap, hands on his jacket, pulling at his buttons.

      “I’ve missed you, little man,” Luke told him.
 

      William smiled.

      “I’ve been a fool, Betty. A bloody fool.”

      Luke transferred William to one arm and reached into his trouser pocket.
 

      Betty sat down beside them, her eyes on William. She was too scared to look at Luke. Too worried about what they’d done. How she’d responded. What it meant.

      Now he knew exactly how she felt. There was no going back from that.
 

      “Luke, we missed you too. Both of us.” Her voice was so quiet, so low, that she barely recognized it.
 

      He pulled out a ring from his pocket and held it toward her.
 

      Betty nearly fell off the bed. Her head was starting to pound like she’d just run up a flight of stairs. Why did he have a ring? What he doing?

      “Betty, this was my grandmother’s ring. If Charlie had still been alive when you’d arrived, he would have given it to you.”

      “No.” She couldn’t stop it, the word just came out. “No, no, no.”

      “
Yes
.” Now it was Luke’s voice that had dropped. “Charlie’s not here anymore, I know that, but I still want you to have it.”

      She didn’t understand. What was he saying?

      “Betty?” He passed William to her and knelt beside the bed, in front of her. “Betty, will you marry me?”

P A R T
 
T H R E E
 

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

THE sun shone from high above, without a cloud to hinder the rays as they fell over the long stretch of lawn. The grass had been mowed in stripes, falling away toward the white flowers adorning the magnolia trees.
 

      Betty had never felt so happy
. So nostalgic
. So at peace with her life.

      “Are you ready, darling?”

      She turned from the upstairs window to face Luke. He slid his arms around her waist, pulling her in tight.
 

      “Is he here?”

      Luke dropped a kiss to her forehead, eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled down at her.
 

      “He will be soon.”

      Betty watched as he walked away. There was nothing about him she didn’t love. He wasn’t Charlie, but that’s why she loved him. Because even though he was different, so different from his brother, he was a strong enough man to let her love Charlie, too. No one could ever take away how she’d felt for her first husband, and she saw him in their son every day, but Luke meant the world to her as well.
 

      She stole one last look out the window, down toward the white rose they had planted at the base of the garden. A simple white cross stood behind it, for the rose to grow up and around – a marker to ensure they never forgot Charlie.
 

      And the exact spot she and Luke were to be married.
 

      Betty took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. She stopped only to look at her silhouette in the full-length mirror. Her dress was simple. A dusky-pink chiffon that fell just below her calf. She had pinned her hair up, a flower pulling it gently off her forehead.
 

      Today was her wedding day, and she felt wonderful. Pretty, confident and happy.
So happy.
 

Betty had expected her nerves to start fluttering as she walked toward Luke, but her only problem was trying to stop smiling. The priest stood, bible in hand, waiting for her, standing beside her husband-to-be.
 

      “Are you ready?”

      Betty nodded. “Yes.”
 

      Luke took her hands in his. She was vaguely aware of Ivy and their gardener standing nearby, their only witnesses to the ceremony, but she was barely conscious of anything other than Luke before her.
 

      They hadn’t wanted a fuss, nor any guests, because this was about them. This was about pledging their love for one another before God, with Charlie still in their memories.
 

      
This was about the future.
 

      “I love you, Betty.”

      She blinked away her tears. “And I love you, Luke. More than you’ll ever know.”

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

THE only emotion in Betty’s body right now was happiness. She squeezed Luke’s hand as it lay on her knee beneath the table.
It was unreal
. After making her think they were going out for a simple dinner he’d turned their wedding evening into a night she’d never forget.
 

      Fairy lights hung from the branches above them, sending spidery shadows over the table, with paper lanterns swinging softly in the breeze. They had only a handful of guests, despite the extravagance, but there was no one else Betty would have invited.
 

      Laughter filled the otherwise silent night air.
 

      “Betty?”

      She turned to face June. Her friend sat beside her husband, with Ivy at the head of the table and Alice and Ralph on the other side.
 

      “Do you remember how much you ate on the ship? Seriously? I don’t think I had even one conversation with you that didn’t include the word chocolate,” said June.
 

      “Or chip!” announced Alice with a laugh. “As in chocolate chip.”

      Betty laughed along with them. “Well, I was eating for two then. It wasn’t like I was obsessed with food without good reason.”

      Luke touched her cheek and she turned her face into his palm. It felt right, being here with him in the company of her friends.
So right.

      “I would like to propose a toast,” announced Luke, taking his eyes off her to face the table.
 

      He stood, one hand extending his glass in the air, the other pulling her up beside him.
 

      “No one is more surprised than me that I managed to convince Betty to become my wife.” They all laughed, Betty included. “I saw something in Betty the day she walked into my home, and although I didn’t want to admit it, I loved her for a long time before I managed to say it out loud.”

      Everyone was quiet now. Listening. Waiting to hear what Luke was going to say.
 

      “You girls all came a long way to get here, put faith in the men you loved about the life that was waiting for you.” He paused, holding her hand tighter. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m so pleased Betty came here. I’m so pleased she married my brother, that he was able to bring this wonderful woman into my life. Today I became a husband
and
a father, and I couldn’t be happier.”

      “To the newly married couple,” declared Ralph, glass high in the air.
 

      “And to Madeline,” said Betty, holding her own glass before her. “For the friend we made at sea.”

      They all clinked glasses and took a sip. A waiter appeared from inside with dessert, and they all took their seats.
All except for Betty
. She’d been waiting for the right moment, and it felt like now.
 

      “Before we tuck into the sweet treats,” she said, “I have a letter from Madeline that she wanted me to read today. She said she hoped we’d all be together to celebrate.”

      She glanced at Alice then June. They were both nodding, desperate to have news of her.
 

      Betty reached beneath her napkin where the folded letter lay, and held it up to the closest light. She had read it so many times over herself that she almost knew it by heart, but she didn’t want to miss a word.
 

‘To my darling friends, and to Betty, on your wedding day. Well, I couldn’t say a bad word about your choice in husband, Betty, even if I tried. Not many men would offer the assistance that your good husband gave me, although I have my suspicions that he was only trying to impress you.’

Betty smiled and looked at Luke. He just shrugged, still grinning.
 

‘But what I can say with all my heart, is that I want you to be happy, and darling William too, even though I can’t be there with you. I am so pleased that I came home. It’s like I was asleep for almost a year and now I’m awake. The sound of my mother’s voice, the smell of tea brewing on the stove, even walking down our street. It is everything I missed while I was in America. I may never come to terms with my father’s passing, but I feel close to him here and that is what matters.

I don’t know how I ever thought I could live away from here, but alas I tried. What I don’t regret is meeting you girls, though, and of course I would be lost without my beautiful daughter. I tell her often of the special aunties she has living on the other side of the world in big sky country.”

Betty dabbed at her eyes. She didn’t dare look at her friends for fear of seeing them crying, too. It was hard enough reading Madeline’s words without seeing their reaction.
 

‘Have a wonderful wedding day, my love. I wish I could be there, and I want you to promise never to forget me, because I will never forget you. My love and kisses, Madeline.’

Luke put his arm around her shoulders as she sat back down. Even Ivy looked teary when Betty finally braved a look around the table.
 

      “To Madeline,” said Alice, standing with her glass raised, toasting their friend again, only with more gusto this time.
 

      “To Madeline,” affirmed June, catching Betty’s eye with her smile as she rose.
 

      “And to us girls, for surviving that God-awful trip here,” said Alice.

The music swirled around them like it had a personality of its own. Luke was fiddling with the sound as Ralph swung Alice to her feet and started twirling her around. They’d all kicked their shoes off to dance on the lawn, and June was waiting for Eddie to untie his shoelaces to join her.
 

      “I still don’t see why I have to take mine off, too,” he grumbled.
 

      June gave him a playful shove. “You could break my little toes with those big clod-hoppers.”

      “Clod what?”

      She shook her head. “Never mind, come on!”

      She might have liked teasing him, but June would have danced with Eddie even if she had to stand on stilts to do so. There was nothing she liked better than being in his arms.
 

      “So have you told them yet?” Eddie asked.
 

      She shrugged. “Told them what?”

      “About the baby?”

      June pulled him closer. “This is Betty’s big day. We can tell them about the adoption another time. Besides, until I have the baby in my arms it doesn’t feel real.”

      They’d signed the adoption papers only yesterday. The young girl had been so excited they’d found her, when they’d offered her unborn child the kind of home and family that any mother would dream of for their baby.
 

      “Can you believe we’ll have a baby in our home in less than a month?”

      June grinned as he squeezed her. “We might need to make two nurseries though.”

      Eddie stopped, his feet immobile. “You think she could be having twins?”

      That made June laugh. She had known he wouldn’t guess, but she hadn’t thought of that possibility.
 

      “I don’t think so.”

      She tried to keep a straight face.