Guy smiled, humour tugging at his mouth. ‘How could you doubt it? Did our wedding not have sufficient impact on you? A packed cathedral, a wedding breakfast that could have graced a Renaissance feast, and enough champagne to float a battleship! I lost count of how many hundred guests there were. And even I do not know just how many relatives I have. Even more than those who decided they could not bear to miss seeing you make me the happiest of men!’
He moved her more comfortably into the circle of his arms and she nestled close against him. More happiness than she could bear filled her.
‘Will your family forgive you for marrying an outsider?’ she asked.
Guy shrugged a shoulder. ‘It’s of no importance to me,’ he said, ‘and besides…’ wry humour tugged at his mouth again ‘…one good thing about marrying you is that it means I am not favouring one branch of the family over another. But if we are talking of forgiveness,’ he went on, and his voice was serious now, ‘although she was very civil to me as your bridesmaid, will your friend Imogen forgive me for my treatment of you? When I was desperately trying to find you after you’d run from London, and I contacted her to see if she knew where you were, she was not…well-disposed…towards me.’
‘I think,’ said Alexa mischievously, ‘that you have now convinced her of your honourable intentions! Besides, she is deliriously in love herself now, and that makes her charitable.’
Guy laughed. ‘Ah, yes—that man I thought might threaten my claim on you. It was actually Imogen who interested him! How blind can the man be?’ he said, his prejudice blatant.
‘Richard agreed to ask me out as a kindness, because Imogen was so keen to take my mind off you—but, so she’s told me now, it was her he was hoping to impress. And eventually she got the message.’
‘These obdurate women, hein!’ he exclaimed humourously. ‘So, dis-moi…’ He smoothed the pale fall of her hair from her shoulder. ‘Are you truly happy to spend your honeymoon on a mountain miles from everywhere? In a humble mountain chalet?’
‘Completely,’ Alexa assured him. ‘I like living in the back of beyond—I’ve done it in Devon, and I’ve done it in a desert. An alpine mountain is a welcome addition to my list. But are you sure,’ she asked, and the mischievous note was back in her voice, ‘that you can acclimatise to this after all the splendours of your natural environment.’ She waved an arm around the airy vista.
‘I revel in it,’ Guy assured her. His eyes softened. ‘Don’t you yet believe how much I crave the quiet life—not the three-ring five-star circus I usually have around me?’ His expression changed again—a more serious note entered his voice. ‘Now that Heinrich’s bank is safe—and so, thank goodness, are all the other parts of Rochemont-Lorenz—I’m going to ease off. Running everything hands-on brought my father to an early grave, I’m sure of it, and I won’t go that way, Alexa.’ His voice was resolute. ‘Our wealth is quite enough,’ he went on dryly, ‘and I’m going to set up a more federated management structure—spread the load more. The bank nearly cost me the most precious treasure of all—you.’ He tilted his head, cupping her cheek in his hand. ‘I could not live without you, Alexa ma belle, mon coeur—not for a day—not for a lifetime.’
He kissed her tenderly, and she kissed him back. Then they both relaxed back against the rock. All around was silence, with only the occasional tinkling of a cowbell from far away, or the wind soughing in the bare rocks of the peak towering above them.
‘It’s a good mountain,’ said Guy approvingly.
‘Better than a global historic banking house?’ Alexa queried wryly.
‘If I had to choose, then, in the end, yes. I am proud of my heritage, I will not deny that, but mountains last a lot longer than banks. I think Stefan is richer than I in that respect.’
‘They’ll be happy, won’t they, the two of them—Louisa and Stefan—turning this place into a nature reserve?’ said Alexa.
‘Blissfully,’ Guy assured her.
‘Will Louisa’s parents forgive her, do you think? Jilting you to run off with Stefan?’
‘Oh, yes,’ Guy said dryly. ‘Annelise and Heinrich are two of the biggest snobs I know, and they’ve got far, far more than they deserve. Louisa told me they went ballistic at first
, hearing she’d run off with some drop-out green crusader she’d met through those friends in London she’d been staying with. They saw all their hopes of having a grandchild of theirs running the whole of Rochemont-Lorenz evaporating before their ambitious eyes. But then—’ his eyes glinted mordantly ‘—they realised that I’d bailed out Heinrich’s wretched bank for them anyway. And then they realised that they’d snaffled a much, much bigger prize for their wayward daughter. One to set their snobbish hearts aglow. I would have just loved to have seen Louisa introduce him when she finally dragged him to that ducal schloss of theirs!’
‘Prince Stefan of Andovaria,’ supplied Alexa, her eyes laughing.
‘Yes, indeed. Only a younger son, but it’s the title that counts,’ said Guy sardonically. ‘And now Stefan can be as green as he likes, with their blessing, and live in any eco-chalet he wants—for he owns his own mountain and his cousin is a sovereign prince, so their daughter takes social precedence over every person in this family! Heinrich and Annelise are very pleased with Louisa.’
‘I’m glad,’ said Alexa. ‘And I’m glad, and so relieved, that your mother, Guy, doesn’t mind my marrying you.’
‘She approves of you enormously.’ His voice was wry again. ‘And not just because you have made me the happiest of men. You are unimpressed by all our wealth—but very impressed with our art collection. And best of all—’ he kissed her affectionately on her nose ‘—you are polite about her saccharine Rococo paintings!’
‘Well, they have their charms,’ allowed Louisa.
His mouth curved. ‘And so do you, Madame Guy de Rochemont.’ A new note entered his voice, doing what it always did to her, what she knew it would always do, all her days—weakening her limbs like honey. ‘Charms so plentiful, so alluring, so…enticing…that there is only one thing to be done…’
The jewelled green eyes poured into hers, reaching her soul. Her heart.
‘This…’ said Guy.
His mouth was soft as velvet. His touch as fine as silk.
His love as long as life.
And so was hers for him.