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So what if his input on the actual wedding and their future relationship had been virtually non-existent? He had hired a wedding organiser to take care of the arrangehtest about the details that had unexpectedly consun that he couldn’t care less about the woman he was about to marry? Merry stifled a shiver, rammed down the fear that had flared and conteernails with rampant nervous tension She had made her choice and she had to live with it when the alternative was so ive e a chance?

It had been eel but he had taken the news in good part, possibly having already worked out that she was still far frohter’s father

The first shock of Merry’s wedding day was the unexpected sight of Sybil waiting on the church steps, a tall, slender figure attired in a very elegant blue dress and bried from the limousine that had ferried her to the church froht before and exclaimed in shaken disbelief, ‘Sybil?’

‘Obviously I couldn’t ot back in the early hours,’ Sybil breathed with a revealing shimmer in her eyes as she reached for Merry’s hand ‘I’s I said I overstepped, interfered—’

‘No, I was too touchy!’ Merry slotted in, stretching up on tiptoe to press a forgiving kiss to the older woman’s cheek ‘You were shocked, of course you were’

‘Yes, especially as you’re contriving to do what I nevermarried,’ Sybilthat dress without my advice It’s a stunner’

Her heartache subsiding in the balrinned ‘Your voice was inTailored, structured,’ she teased, stepping into the church porch ‘Where’s Angel’s father? He offered to walk ht was very kind of him’

‘Yes, quite the charmer, thatalready met Charles Russell ‘But I told him he could sit back down because I’ walk’

‘I think you’d rather take a long walk off a plank,’ Merry warned the older woently

Sybil squeezed the hand she was gripping and s wohter than her niece, only to stiffen nervously at the prospect of the confession that she knew she had to make some time soon Natalie had asked her to tell Merry the truth and Sybil was now duty-bound to reveal that fa that same truth had shattered her relationship with Natalie when Natalie was eighteen years old and she could only hope that it would not have the sa effect on her bond with Merry and her child

Gloriously ignorant of that approaching emotional storm, Merry sh curve of her breasts and her neat waist before falling softly to her feet, lending her a shapely silhouette Straightening her slight shoulders, she lifted her head high, her short flirty veil dancing round her flushed face, accentuating the light blue of her eyes

Even before she went down the aisle, she heard Elyssa chuckling Her daughter was in the care of her new nanny, a lovely down-to-earth young woman froel with her genuine warmth and interest in children Merry’s eyes ski arel, poised at the altar with an equally tall dark el echoed his obvious fae in Merry’s biased opinion, the lean, beautiful precision of his bronzed features highlighting the shi brilliance of his dark eyes and his undeniable hold on her attention

Her breath caught in her dry throat and butterflies ran as felt compressed Her hand slid off Sybil’s arreeted by the Greek Orthodox priest Angel gripped her cold fingers, startling her, and she glanced up at hi cheekbones and the co wed had to be a sheer endurance test for a ard playboy like Angel Valtinos, Merry reflected with rueful aht because she started wondering then whether he would find the tedious do nature of a wife a trial and a bore The serviceanxiety The voere exchanged, an ornately plaited gold wedding ring that she savoured for its distinctiveness and his selection of it slid onto her finger and then aone onto his