Marriage is for life, not just for Valentine's Day – unless they both amount to the same thing…

Until Death

by

thedragonaunt

Prologue

'Three cheers for the happy couple!' yelled one of the guests, enthusiastically, and all those assembled on the gravel driveway complied as the car carrying the newly-weds pulled away. The couple gave a final wave through the rear window then settled back in their seats, each breathing a sigh of relief. They were married! It was done!

It had been a happy day but a hectic one and they were both relieved to be alone together, at last. They glanced, briefly, into each other's eyes as their hands met and their fingers entwined.

'Spouses for life', the celebrant had said.

'Until death do us part,' they had replied.

They smiled at the shared memory and leaned in for a tender kiss.

At the end of the driveway, the chauffeur turned left and drove through the village, the windshield wipers slapping vigorously from side to side. That was the only blot on an otherwise perfect day. The rain that had fallen relentlessly for the previous month had not let up, even for this special occasion, forcing the guests to resort to wellingtons and raincoats. But it had not marred the joy of the day. And in a few hours, the newly-weds would be in southern Italy, beginning their married life with a week-long honeymoon.

The wedding car approached the ancient stone bridge in the centre of the village. The normally gentle, meandering river had been transformed, by the unusually heavy and prolonged precipitation, into a raging torrent and here, where the four hundred year old bridge funnelled the water though its narrow single arch, the roar of the racing water could be heard even inside the car.

The chauffeur slowed to check for oncoming traffic, as the bridge was only wide enough for traffic to cross in one direction at a time. There was nothing approaching from the other side so the driver slipped the car into first gear and eased forward onto the bridge.

Even as he did so, there was strange grating, growling, rumbling sound and the car shook and shuddered. Looking out through the windscreen, the driver watched in stunned surprise as the low parapet on the left side of the river crossing seemed to split, in a zig-zag path, along the cracks between the blocks of masonry. But as the split reached the roadway, it didn't stop. It continued on, across the tarmac surface and the bridge cracked in two, across the apex.

The car continued to creep forwards, the driver transfixed by the strange events unfolding around him. As the front wheels rolled over the crack in the road, the rear end of the vehicle seemed to dip and twist.

'Drive on! Drive on!'

The driver was shaken from his shocked stupor by the voices of his passengers, yelling from the back seat, but it was too late. The sheer force of the current had weakened the underside of the construction and the weight of the wedding car was the final straw. As the bridge split, the roadway collapsed into the roiling water, dragging the vehicle with it. It plunged backwards into the maelstrom and was swept away, downstream.

ooOoo

Up at the big house, the phone in the front hall rang out.

Andrew, Mycroft Holmes' valet cum butler, lifted the receiver.

'Colbert House,' he intoned.

ooOoo