Marion Lennox - His Miracle Bride

‘Susie Belle?’

‘You haven’t met her. You will. She’s about to make our Wendy very happy.’

‘Our Wendy.’

‘She is our Wendy,’ she whispered. ‘Our gorgeous little girl. The bravest kid. I love her so much.’

‘How much love have you got?’ he demanded, and she chuckled.

‘It just keeps on oozing out. I blame the ice water. It was sort of a cathartic experience. It released the inner me.’

‘Shanni…’

‘Yes, my love?’ She was still on tiptoes, still within kissing distance, still holding him.

‘I don’t know about the love thing.’

‘You don’t think you can love me?’

‘It seems I can,’ he said, sounding dazed. ‘It seems I do.’

‘But?’

‘I didn’t think I could do it. I’m still not sure.’

‘Okay, here’s a test,’ she said, kissing him again. ‘I’m moving in here anyway. I love these kids to bits. Ruby’s met them for one night and she loves them. So does Olga. You’ve just reclaimed a whole lot of money for me-so I can rent a great big house at Dolphin Bay, have an art gallery at the side and Olga and Ruby and I can take these kids off your hands and love them for ever. We can be one huge family. And you can slope off back to your independent life in Sydney, being the world’s best architect.’

‘I…’

‘I’m serious, Pierce,’ she said, and she sounded serious. The laughter had gone from her voice. ‘Wendy told me you wouldn’t ask me to marry you because you thought I’d hate being tied to the kids. Is that true for you? For I’m making you an offer, and I mean it. You can go back to your old life and we’ll live happily ever after without you.’

She took his breath away. What she was offering was so immense that he felt dizzy.

His old life back. Independence.

Wendy, Donald, Bryce, Abby, Bessy, Shanni, Ruby and Olga living in a glorious muddle of happy-ever-after in Dolphin Bay.

Without him.

The choice was a no-brainer.

The thought of being without them was suddenly so bleak he couldn’t bear it.

‘No.’

‘No? Then the next alternative is the same thing only without me in the equation,’ she said. ‘If you really don’t want me, then I can visit.’

‘No.’

‘I can’t visit?’

‘No, I don’t not want you.’

‘I’m having a little bit of trouble here,’ she said.

But suddenly it was crystal clear. A man had to do what a man had to do. She’d done the proposing. She’d thrown her heart into the ring. She’d told him she loved him. The abyss she’d put before him-life without any of them-made him see what he hadn’t been able to see until now.

He was deeply, madly, wildly in love with each and every one of them. Even Olga’s curlers.

But most of all…

He dropped to one knee.

‘Shanni.’

‘Ooh,’ she said.

He took her hands in his. ‘Shanni, I love you.’

‘Really?’ She looked pleased.

‘If you make any wisecracks I’m stopping.’

‘I’m not making any wisecracks. Though there’s a cow pat right to your left.’

‘Shut up.’

‘Yes, dear.’

‘I love you and I want you to marry me,’ he said, and suddenly the laughter was behind them. She was still smiling, but her eyes were misting with tears.

‘Pierce, are you sure?’

‘I’ve never been so certain of anything in my life. I love you so much I can’t bear to think of you giving up anything. I want you to have the perfect life, and here I’m saddling you with all of us.’

‘If you weren’t attached you wouldn’t be half as sexy.’

‘Really?’

‘Well, no,’ she admitted. ‘There’s jam on your collar.’

‘Shanni…’

‘Yes?’

‘Will you marry me?’

She gazed down at him for a long minute. She smiled and smiled and smiled.

Then she dropped to her knees to join him. She tugged him into her arms and she held him

The world shifted. For Pierce the world had been hauled out of kilter, somewhere about the time he’d been born. Ruby had tried her best to right it, but it had taken this woman, this glorious red-headed wood sprite, to finally teach him how the world should be. His Shanni. His miracle. His miracle bride.

And it seemed she was. ‘Of course I’ll marry you,’ she whispered. ‘Of course I will. Oh, my love. My Pierce. Welcome home.’

It was a honeymoon haven.

No person under the age of eighteen may visit Paradise, the brochure had said. Visitors to this island can be assured of a tranquil, tropical idyll, without the intrusion of children and their associated noise. Pristine beaches, magnificent rainforest, luxurious chalets and most of all…privacy.

Shanni and Pierce had been there for three days. Their honeymoon. Three days of married bliss, with not a child in sight.

‘For, much as I love our kids, I’ll be damned if I’m taking them on my honeymoon,’ Pierce had decreed, and he’d been masterly in his ultimatum, taking charge, a man who’d had to do what a man had to do.

And by the time her parents, Ruby, Olga and Susie had had their way with their Dolphin Bay wedding-two flower girls, two page boys, six groomsmen, one gorgeous, beaming seventy-year-old matron of honour and so many friends and relations that even Shanni had felt overwhelmed-she’d meekly agreed.

They lay now in a sheltered cove, their own idyllic place. No more than six couples at a time came to Paradise and there were beaches to spare. Shanni lay in Pierce’s arms. The sun was shining softly on her face. She was sated with love and with happiness…

‘Anchors ahoy, look lively, avast ye swabs…’

The peace of their morning was shattered. They looked up and saw a huge inflatable dinghy being paddled their way. Two men on paddles. Four kids within.

Blake and Nik and Wendy and Bryce and Donald and Abby.

Pierce scrambled to his feet, tugging a dazed Shanni with him. They were coated in sand. They’d been tumbling in the shallows. They’d been…

Well, some things were best left unexplained. Suffice to say Shanni was blushing as Pierce tugged her down to the water’s edge to meet the incoming dinghy.

‘You haven’t rowed all the way from the mainland, have you?’ Pierce demanded as the dinghy beached and the kids tumbled out, whooping, splashing, surrounding them with laughter.

‘We hired a yacht,’ Nik said proudly. ‘Ruby and Olga and Bessy are still on board.’

‘Ruby’s the captain,’ Wendy said, and giggled. ‘But Sam’s helping.’

Sam. Another brother.

‘You’re not allowed here,’ Pierce said, trying to sound stern, and failing.

‘We know that,’ Wendy said. ‘We rowed into two beaches before we found you, and the people told us. But we’re just checking.’

‘To make sure you aren’t missing us too much,’ Abby explained. ‘Are you?’

‘Yes,’ Shanni said, laughing so much she felt like crying. She swept Abby into her arms and hugged her.

‘You want to come home with us?’ Bryce asked.

‘No,’ Pierce said, and his brothers grinned.

‘Hey, bro, you really telling us, your family, that you don’t want us?’ Nik sounded wounded.

‘For two weeks I don’t want you,’ Pierce growled. ‘Then I’ve got you for the rest of our lives.’

‘You can have another honeymoon,’ Abby said. ‘When you really, really need one.’

‘Are you sure you’re not sick of this one?’ Wendy said. ‘It looks lonely to me.’

‘It’s not so lonely as you’d notice,’ Pierce said and then, as her face fell, he grinned and lifted her with the same ease Shanni had lifted Abby. ‘You’re having fun on your holiday. We’re having fun on ours.’

‘We’ve got lunch,’ Abby said. ‘Sandwiches. Do you want to have lunch with us?’

‘Yes,’ Shanni said, and giggled.

‘You can start your honeymoon again after lunch,’ Nik said, grinning at her.

‘Don’t grin at my wife,’ Pierce said.

‘He can grin all he likes at me,’ Shanni declared. ‘He’s family. Uncle Nik. Where are the sandwiches?’

‘You’ll be arrested,’ Pierce said.

‘Then we’ll all be locked up together,’ Shanni retorted, put Wendy down and grabbed Pierce’s hand. ‘Which is as it should be. This is perfect. Little bits of honeymoon interspersed with little bits of family.’

‘Lots of family,’ Pierce said.

‘You love it and you know it,’ she said serenely. ‘Little bits of honeymoon interspersed with lots and lots of family. For the rest of our lives.’