EPILOGUE

‘THAT dress is perfect,’ Gabi said to Kirsten, as the two of them sat on Daisy’s sofa a month later and watched Alana twist a garland of tiny orchids into Daisy’s dark hair.

‘She’s not as anti-shopping as some people,’ teased Kirsten. ‘Heaven knows what you must have been like, getting your dress. Daisy would have tried on everything I suggested, only this one was the first and it was perfect on her.’

Gabi sighed. She could barely remember fitting into something with a waist.

‘There!’ Alana said, and turned Daisy so she faced the two friends on the sofa. ‘What do you think?’

‘Beautiful,’ they chorused, and Daisy blushed.

‘Y-you’ve all b-been wonderful,’ she stuttered, excitement all but choking her. ‘Julian and I didn’t intend this, you know. We were eloping, like Alana and Rory.’

‘No way,’ Kirsten said firmly. ‘That pair deprived us of one wedding, and though we’ll miss the wedding part of yours, we’re not missing out on the party. Or seeing you as a bride.’

Daisy glanced towards the gilded mirror in the entry foyer of her flat.

‘I don’t look too bridal, do I?’ she asked anxiously. ‘I mean, we have to trail through the hospital—I don’t want to look too obvious.’

‘You look just right,’ Alana assured her, while Gabi found her eyes misting as she nodded agreement. In a filmy dress in varying shades of lavender and lilac, Daisy was hardly a conventional bride, but the colours enhanced her beauty, already heightened by the glow of love.

But Daisy still fretted, not convinced the special dress wasn’t too much for a quiet wedding ceremony. A tap on the door told her Julian had arrived.

‘I think I’m panicking,’ she said to her friends, holding her hands out in front of her and watching them shake.

‘No, you’re not,’ Alana said firmly. ‘You’re simply overwhelmingly excited about the wonderful step you’re about to take.’

Then Julian was there, Kirsten having answered his knock, and the glow of admiration and love in his eyes put all her fears to rest. He reached out his hand, and she took it, remembering as she did what he’d said to her the night before.

‘We’re already committed to each other, Daisy, in every way that counts. The ceremony is for others, not for us.’

To a chorus of ‘Good luck’ and ‘See you later’ they left the flat, taking the lift down to the basement.

Julian held tightly to Daisy’s hand, and though he seemed about to speak several times, in the end he said nothing. Which suited Daisy as her vocal cords were so constricted by nerves she’d not have been able to answer.

In the end, the normality of it all calmed her. Driving to the hospital together, Julian pulling into the familiar parking space, walking to the lift—where the usual group of people waiting to go either up or down did give her strange looks—then up to Paediatrics and into a ward bright with streamers and balloons.

‘Happy wedding,’ the ambulatory children, gathered in the play area, all chorused, and Daisy relaxed. It felt so right to be getting married here—and getting married to Julian—that the tension she’d been feeling gave way to a wave of elation.

The celebrant waited by Bella’s bed—a Bella barely recognisable, dressed in a lavender fairy costume she’d chosen herself from a toy-shop catalogue. Instead of a posy, she held a fairy wand, which she waved excitedly as Daisy and Julian approached.

Bella’s parents, down for the weekend, had agreed to be witnesses and, with Bella as a fairy flower-girl, Daisy and Julian were married.

‘It’s not over yet,’ Julian murmured to her as, the ceremony and small celebration with the children complete, they finally left the ward.

‘No,’ Daisy said, pressing close against her husband’s side as they waited for the lift. ‘But at least we’ve still got your flat to escape to if the party in the penthouse goes on too long.’

She sighed, then added, ‘I’m sorry about the party, but you know Gabi and Kirsten and Alana. Once they get an idea in their heads, they’re impossible to stop.’

Julian smiled at her.

‘Add my mother and Madeleine to that list and you’ve got a force capable of moving mountains. And having the party in the penthouse meant your mother could attend, if only for a short time and with the least possible effort to her.’

Daisy shook her head, once again bemused by the understanding and compassion of the man she’d just married. Julian had arranged for her mother to stay overnight with Madeleine, so she could attend the celebration for a short time.

The love Daisy felt for him all but overwhelmed her, but she waited until they reached the car, then she stopped him before he bent to open the door for her.

‘You’re wonderful,’ she said quietly, hoping he’d hear the depth of sincerity in her words. ‘A really special man!’

Julian looked surprised, then he smiled—the warm, all-enveloping smile she now knew he kept, in his repertoire of smiles, especially for her.

‘No,’ he said, shaking his head to add to the denial. ‘I’m just an ordinary man who’s had the extraordinary luck to find and fall in love with a very special woman.’

He took her hand.

‘I’m glad you said something, because although I might have gabbled out the odd sentence, and hopefully made all the right responses in the ceremony, for the last hour I’ve been as close to tongue-tied as I’ve ever been. I walked into your flat, and there you were, looking so beautiful it took my breath away. I wanted to say something—to tell you—but no words would come.’

He bent and kissed her gently on the lips.

‘I love you, Daisy Austin, more than life itself.’

Then he kissed her again and added, ‘To think that deciding to have a baby could lead to all of this.’