Brynthwaite Church was packed to the gills the morning after the summer festival. Even though half of the town was sleepy or still a little blurry from the previous night’s festivities, no one wanted to miss what was sure to be the perfect add-on to the day’s celebrations.

The final hymn finished, and those in the congregation lucky enough to have snagged a seat in the pews sat. Rev. Goodall stood behind his pulpit, cleared his throat, and smiled as he said, “I publish the banns of marriage between Theodore Folley of the Parish of Brynthwaite and June Lakes, also of this Parish. If any of you know cause or just impediment why these persons should not be joined together in Holy Matrimony, ye are to declare it. This is the third time of asking.”

The congregation remained silent, everyone either sharing whispers and grins with their neighbors or craning their necks to get a look at June and Ted, who sat in the very front pew. June was well aware that they were watching, but she was too giddy to care.

“Very well, then,” Rev. Goodall said. “As no one has any objections, and though it is most unusual, Ted and June have asked that we proceed directly to a renewal of their vows, now that the banns have been officially read.” He nodded to Ted and June.

June glanced to Ted with a smile as wide as the horizon, and together they stood. Hands clasped, they moved to meet Rev. Goodall at the front of the congregation.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” Ted whispered once they were in place.

June grinned at him. “After last night, I think it’s best for everyone.” Her cheeks burned at the exciting evening they’d spent together after leaving the rest of Brynthwaite to celebrate the festival on their own. Their private celebrations had lasted well into the night, leaving them both happy and sore. “And yes,” June went on, giggling. “This is absolutely what I want.”

Rev. Goodall took up his place in front of them, open Bible in hand. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to celebrate the union of this happy couple in God’s sight. I know I just asked it in the banns, but as the words of the ceremony state, marriage is not to be entered into lightly, but reverently, soberly, and in the fear of God. Therefore, if anyone knows of just cause why this man and this woman should not be married, let them speak now or forever hold their peace.”

“Stop!”

June’s breath caught in her lungs, and dread pooled in her stomach at the deep shout. The congregation gasped as everyone turned to the church door.

For one, horrible moment, June was certain that her father or one of her brothers had invaded the church. She’d told them the day before in no uncertain terms that they were not invited. Ted had supported her decision, going further and banning them from the pub for life. It would have been just like her father to try, yet again, to ruin her life with his own selfishness by interrupting the wedding.

But it was not her father who stood at the back of the church, face pale and drawn with alarm. To everyone’s surprise, it was Mr. Robert Crimpley.

“Oh. Oh, dear,” Mr. Crimpley stuttered as June and Ted turned to stare at him. Deep splashes of red spotted Mr. Crimpley’s cheeks, and embarrassment made him appear to shrink in on himself. “I’m terribly sorry,” he continued to fumble. “I just thought…oh my. I mean…that is…has anyone seen my daughter, Agatha?”

June’s eyes snapped wide. She was too startled by the question to be angry with Mr. Crimpley for interrupting her proper wedding. But as she searched back through her memory, she realized that she hadn’t seen Aggie at all during the entire festival.

“Or…or that blackguard, Andrew Noble?” Mr. Crimpley asked on.

Ted made a sound at June’s side, and when she peeked sideways at him, he wore an odd look of realization.

“Do you know something?” June whispered.

“I might,” Ted whispered back. “I saw Andrew yesterday morning, on my way to look for you.” After leaving the festival, Ted had told her all the events of the previous morning from his side, leaving June angrier than ever at her father’s duplicity. “Andrew said to tell people I’d seen him if they asked for him later.”

“So he must have gone somewhere very early on Saturday,” June said. “And with Aggie.” She couldn’t help but smile. She’d known there was something going on between Agatha Crimpley and Andrew Noble, but she’d never guessed it would go this far.

Most of the congregation was as baffled as she was, but as June looked around, she realized not everyone wore looks of innocent confusion. Lord and Lady Waltham were carefully not looking at anyone, or at each other, but their faces had gone pink. Lawrence Smith and Marshall Pycroft from Brynthwaite Municipal Orphanage looked downright guilty too. The fact that Jason Throckmorton wasn’t sitting there with them was as suspicious as anything else.

“Anybody?” Mr. Crimpley asked, clearly impatient.

“They’ve not been here all morning,” Rev. Goodall said. “Do you know when they were first noticed to be missing?”

Instead of answering, Mr. Crimpley hissed something under his breath and shot out of the church once more. The congregation descended into a rush of murmurs that threatened to grow loud enough to lift the roof.

“Please,” Rev. Goodall said, raising his voice to be heard. “If we could all please stay quiet for just a few more minutes. Let’s finish with the wedding before we get too excited about the next mystery.”

It took a lot more shushing and throat-clearing from Rev. Goodall and several other, more serious-minded members of the congregation before things settled enough for the ceremony to continue.

“I suppose we should get right to the point while we still have everyone’s attention,” Rev. Goodall said to June and Ted with an apologetic smile. “Do you Theodore Folley, take this woman, June Lakes to be your lawfully, this time, wedded wife?”

“I most certainly do,” Ted answered, turning a bright smile to June.

“And do you, June Lakes, take this man, Theodore Folley, to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

“I do,” June answered, her heart as light as it could possibly be. “Absolutely.”

“Then by the power invested in me, I now pronounce you, quite officially this time, husband and wife. You may kiss your bride.”

Ted let out a breath of relief and swept June into his arms for a solid kiss. June kissed him back with the fullness of her heart, feeling as though she’d reached the end of a long and tiring race. She threw her arms around his shoulders and clung to him with everything she had.

“I love you,” she said, even as the church erupted into murmurs and movement behind them. “You’re the most wonderful thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“And you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” Ted replied, hugging her closer as the noise in the church grew louder. As far as the two of them were concerned, they were the only people in the world. “I promised once that I would do everything possible to make you happy, and I make that promise to you again. Every morning when I wake up and every night when I go to bed, I’ll renew that promise.”

“And I’ll be right there with you, promising the same things.” She kissed him again for good measure. “And I swear to you, that the two of us together will be unstoppable.”

Ted and June have finally had their happily ever after, but what about Aggie Crimpley and Andrew Noble? They have far more odds stacked against them, after all. Where have they gone, and will Mr. Crimpley catch them? Find out shortly in Brynthwaite Summer!

And get ready for the next full-length novel in The Silver Foxes of Westminster series, . Will Lady Lavinia Prior finally be able to stand on her own two feet as an independent woman, or will she go right out of the frying pan of her mother’s influence and into the fire of marriage to a man she knows nothing about? And will Dr. Armand Pearson, who has been forced to abandon his medical career to take up a viscountancy he never expected, be able to find love with the younger, naïve Lavinia, or is their match doomed before it starts?

And if you would like to read more stories about the town of Brynthwaite, stories that involve Jason Throckmorton, Marshall Pycroft, and Lawrence Smith once they’ve grown up and pursue romances of their own in 1895, check out the serial !

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