Robert laughed, setting the glass aside. “Marriage will do that to a man.”
Jasper glanced back at the looking glass, adjusting the final fold of his cravat until it sat neatly in place. For the first time that morning, he felt ready. Not merely dressed, butready.
He turned to Robert. “Tell me, did you feel this nervous on your wedding day?”
Robert chuckled. “Terrified. But it passes the moment she walks in.”
Jasper smiled faintly. “Then I suppose I’ve something to look forward to.”
Robert clapped a hand to his shoulder. “You have everything to look forward to, my friend.”
And as the clock struck the hour and the house stirred with soft music and the murmur of gathering guests, Jasper felt the truth of those words settle deep within him.
About an hour later, Jasper was at the chapel, with his hands clasped behind his back, with his every nerve alive. He had faced duels, scandals, and Parliament alike without blinking, but waiting for Matilda felt like the most perilous moment of his life.
Robert stood beside him, steady and composed, though there was a glimmer of amusement in his eyes. “Breathe,” he murmured.
“I am breathing,” Jasper muttered.
“Not visibly.”
Jasper exhaled slowly, glancing toward the doors once more.Any moment now.
Then, the music shifted and the doors opened. Matilda stepped into the light.
For a moment, the world ceased to exist. Every sound, every heartbeat, every breath in the room vanished into nothing. She walked with quiet grace, her gown a shimmer of pale ivory threaded with tiny pearls that caught the light as she moved. Her brown hair was gathered loosely, with a few tendrils curling at her neck, and beneath the veil her pale grey eyes sought him. They were so full of life and love that his chest ached.
Robert leaned in slightly. “You’re smiling like a fool.”
“Iama fool,” Jasper whispered back, unable to look away.
As she reached him, she lifted her veil, and she smiled at him. “You look as though you’ve forgotten how to breathe.”
“I very nearly have,” he said quietly.
A ripple of laughter moved through the small gathering. Evelyn and Cordelia were smiling through tears, and even Hazel was dabbing discreetly at her eyes. The ceremony began.
The vicar’s voice was low and steady, the familiar words somehow transformed and more heavy with meaning. Jasper scarcely heard them. His attention was fixed on Matilda’s hands, how they trembled slightly before resting in his, how her fingers curled around his own as if anchoring herself.
When the time came for vows, his voice caught before he began. “I, Jasper Everleigh,” he said slowly, “take you, Matilda Sterlington, to be my wife… and my peace.”
Her eyes glistened. “I, Matilda Sterlington, take you, Jasper Everleigh, to be my husband… and my home.”
The vicar smiled, pausing as if to let the moment breathe. “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”
As applause rose softly from their gathered friends, Jasper leaned forward, his voice low for her alone. “You do realize you’ve just married a man entirely unfit for sainthood?”
Her lips curved. “I’ve no interest in saints.”
He laughed quietly and kissed her. The room erupted in warmth and applause. Cordelia’s delighted squeal mingled with Hazel’s quiet sigh of approval and Evelyn’s happy laughter. Even Robert, usually the picture of restraint, clapped him on the back with a broad grin.
When they stepped out of the chapel, sunlight burst around them, brighter than before. The air was filled with flower petals thrown with such enthusiasm by Cordelia that several landed squarely in Jasper’s hair.
He turned to Matilda with a mock glare. “Your friends are insufferable.”
“They’reyourfriends now, too,” she said, smiling.
“Then I’m doomed,” he replied, but the laughter in his eyes betrayed him.
