Bury the Ex, Wed the Heir novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: Under the Oak
"Marry me," Silvan said.
He said it with his chest bare, in a tangled bed, with the lamp still burning.
Linnet lay with her head on his arm and stared at the ceiling.
"We are married," she said.
"To a photograph. To a contract. To a man who wasn't there." He turned on his side to face her. "I want a day with my own name on it, with you walking toward me, because you want to."
"With the whole city watching?"
"With whoever you want. Your mother. My grandmother. A priest, and an oak."
She turned her head and looked at him.
His dark eyes were steady, and his hand was not quite steady where it lay on her hip.
"You're afraid I'll say no," she said.
"Yes."
"I could make you wait."
"I would wait," Silvan said. "I'd wait here, with the door open."
Linnet put her palm against his face.
"Yes," she said. "Ask me again under the tree."
The wedding was held three weeks later, on a gold afternoon in the first week of autumn.
The great oak stood over the front lawn, with its leaves going yellow at the tips.
There were sixty chairs under it, not four hundred.
Edith sat in the front row in a new blue coat, with her best hat on and her handbag in her lap.
Beside her sat Madam Ravenscroft, in dove gray, with her rosary threaded through her fingers and a silver oak leaf on her lapel.
The family chapel bell rang once from the east.
Linnet stood at the top of the lawn in a plain ivory dress, with her chestnut hair loose and nothing on her arm.
She had asked her mother to walk her, and her mother had said no.
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