'Across the Hebrides, in fact right across Scotland, the weather is set fair and will be warm and sunny for the next few days,' the BBC Scotland weather forecaster told his anxious listeners, none more so than Rose.

'Come on then you hooligans,' she called to the twins, and 'Robert bring that box will you,' as she popped a note on the table for Michael, telling him that he'd have to get his own lunch and that she see him as and when. In this case as and when, referred to however long it took to get everything set up in readiness for the party. Was it really tomorrow, where on earth had the week gone?

'Some things will obviously have to wait until tomorrow afternoon,' she told the fifteen plus parents and family members, as armed with enough kit to bug an entire hotel or in this case provide music and the lighting for the wedding party, Malcolm and Tariq were already busy.

'Right children follow me,' called Aidan's mother Meg who was in charge of the singing, and now with less than twenty four hours to go was having to re arrange their performance. There was a lot more scope in being able to perform outdoors and she was pleased that Harry and Ruth had made the decision, in fact she agreed with their reason for doing it. Singing out of doors might lessen the acoustics, but at least now she had the opportunity to throw in a few actions, or moves as one precocious little darling had corrected her, although for the life of her she couldn't remember which one.

Following on the heels of a small group of the fathers, Graham and Callum headed back up the steps to carry the remaining items down onto the beach, whilst Catherine and Lucy mingled and introduced themselves to the mothers, who were sorting out the elevenses and discussing tomorrow's catering.

'Why here?' asked Lucy, who was seeing the location for the first time and was stunned by the beauty of such an unspoilt coastline.

'It's Dad and Ruth that should really be answering that question, whatever I say won't do it justice,' Catherine told her, struggling to find the right words that could adequately explain how important this particular spot was to Ruth and her Dad.

'Dad's a romantic, although it wouldn't be the first word that comes to mind would it?'

Lucy thought it would, she thought Harry was lovely and how lucky Catherine was to have him as her father.

'He's always loved the sea, but there's something about this beach that makes it special. They think of it as theirs, a sanctuary I suppose you could call it.'

In all senses, it was a community working together, and was confirming to Graham that he'd made the right decision in persuading Lucy that they should move here.

'Look at her Lucy,' he said, pointing to their daughter who had been included in the choir and was jumping up and down in time to the children's singing, without a clue as to what the words were.

Callum hadn't really changed and saw an opportunity. Get your brain engaged before you say something, didn't apply to him.

'She'll be the star of the show, just as your dad wants her to be,' was said without a word about Thomas. A big mistake if ever there was one, especially as it was aimed at Graham.

'Don't you believe it Cal,' Catherine interrupted, 'you just wait until you hear what Graham and I've come up with for Dad and Ruth's first dance,' fell on deaf ears, as Callum continued to pour fuel on the already stoked up fire.

'Your Dad can dance now can he?' Catherine ignored, it was just Callum's way, but Graham wasn't about to let Callum's comment go unanswered. Now fiercely loyal to his father and his new family and still believing that Callum was a prat, he fired back.

'You could learn a lot from Dad if you took the time to watch and listen. He and Ruth are taking Thomas and Alice camping in August, I suppose you've got an opinion on that as well have you?' He snapped.

Callum had, but wisely he stopped himself from calling Graham sunshine and telling him to keep his hair on.

Free from children both large and small and with no prospect of seeing them again until the following morning, the couple in question had the prospect of a let's make the most of it day. Taking advantage of the weather, they'd opened the large windows in their bedroom and were enjoying a late and leisurely breakfast in bed.

I bet there aren't many people as lucky as we are,' said Harry wistfully, pointing to the crystal blue sea, but by the sound of his voice meaning something else.

This was a happy day, tomorrow they'd be husband and wife, so if there was something worrying him at this late stage, then Ruth needed to know what it was.

'Come on Harry, you don't fool me anymore, out with it,' she said, crawling round so that she was kneeling in front of him. 'If there's something that you're not telling me …..'

'You'll what Ruth, say you won't marry me, I doubt that.'

Right, that answered the one question that would have sent her through the roof. He wasn't going to ask her if she'd changed her mind.

'Talk to me Harry,' she was frustrated now as he continued to prevaricate.

'I should have told you before and I'm sorry, but it's been playing on my mind and we've never had a moment to ourselves since the family arrived.'

She couldn't argue with that.

'I know how you hate gossip,' and now she was worried, until he went on to tell her that when he'd gone into the shop to buy the children their ice creams, that there were two women that he didn't recognise, debating whether or not they were getting married to enhance their chances of adopting Thomas.

She stopped herself from telling him that village shops were renowned as places for gossip, that the days when she'd been worried by gossip were in another lifetime and that once the wedding was over, these people whoever they were would move on to someone else.

'If what Catherine says is right Harry, then while we've been sitting here twiddling our thumbs and a whole lot more besides, if you take into account what happened half an hour ago,' got his attention. 'There are at least twenty adults if you include the family, plus every child in the school, working their socks off on that beach. They're the ones that matter Harry, not two people that we don't know and Rose hasn't invited.'

The following morning:-

'Now remember what we told you,' Catherine told Thomas and Alice, knocking on the door at eight, wondering if prospective bride and groom might still be in bed.

'Come on Dad,' she muttered, only to have the door opened with a flourish and Harry standing there wrapped in a towel. Ready for the big day was apparently a stupid question as he stood there dripping and with a big grin on his face, having obviously just come out of the shower. She'd expected him to say ready as I'll ever be, or something equally predictable but he hadn't.

'Coffee's on,' he told her as though it was just a normal day, as Ruth arrived behind him with an equally big smile.

'I'll grab a quick one and then I'll have to dash, it's chaos at the vicarage with so many of us needing to get ready. Malcolm and Tariq are staying with, could it be Aidan's parents? I can't remember their names.'

'You've still got two hours Catherine, calm down,' made no difference.

'Bye Dad, bye Ruth, I love you,' and she was gone.

'What was all that about?' he asked Ruth. Catherine was focussed, together and as far as he knew calm. She didn't get flustered, well not up until now.

What Ruth knew and at this stage Harry didn't, was that Catherine had been Rose's right arm in putting together the arrangements. If it doesn't go well, she'd told her, she'd be devastated.

'Right,' said Ruth, turning her focus back to the children, both of them already dressed for the wedding. 'Promise me no biscuits, we can't have messy fingers can we?'

Sitting them in front of the TV, she switched it on. Her heart melted just looking at them, so grown up and the perfect complement to what she and Harry were going to be wearing, and so far behaving. Fingers crossed it lasted.

Harry had disappeared back upstairs to get ready and with just over an hour to go, she still had a checklist in her mind. Apart from that she was cool calm and collected and hopefully so was Harry. The table outside was laid, the food had been prepared the previous day and the drinks was chilling. It was time for her own finishing touches.

The drive up the road was a short one and it had always been in the plan that they drove themselves. Keep it simple had been their motto and they'd stuck to it to the letter. Turning right rather than left, they parked away from the other cars and walked the short distance to the High Point and to Ruth's bench. In the distance they could see the Isle of Skye and beyond it the mainland, the only reminder that there was life beyond their tiny island paradise. When I sat here, you were sitting beside me, she'd once told him, and now he was and always would be.

It was time to move.

'You look beautiful,' he told her, as she linked her arm in his, her pale blue dress sparkling with silver flecks in the sunlight. So do you, she thought, in the paler of the grey suits, with the blue shirt and the silver tie.

Just as they'd practised, but this time in a church that was filled with their family and friends, they walked side by side with the children. Their eyes fixed on Michael who was waiting to greet them. There was an unspoken and unshakeable belief, that this was their moment and had it not been for the music, you could have heard a pin drop.

As the congregation were told to be seated, to Harry's right stood Malcolm and to Ruth's left stood Thomas. They wanted him close.

'We've come here today to witness the marriage of Harry and Ruth,' said Michael, smiling at the congregation and at them, 'and we'll start by singing the first hymn, Love Divine All Loves Excelling.' Please God let George get the speed right, he kept to himself.

Just as it had been at Christmas, the majority of the congregation were in the church choir and were used to adapting to any speed, as were the children who had been practising for weeks.

Harry wasn't singing, not because he didn't want to but because his mind was on fire. He glanced first at Thomas who was singing his heart out and then at Ruth and caught her eye. He didn't turn round, but he wondered whether Catherine and Graham were singing and what was going through their minds, knowing that his vows to Ruth came next. The minutes were racing by, it was all going too quickly. He wanted to slow it down and to memorise each moment, but the singing had stopped and Michael had asked him to turn and face Ruth. He wanted to kiss her, but that came later ….. Christ he had never felt like this.

'Harry, repeat after me,' said Michael again, prompting him quietly. He'd seen it dozens of times and had read the signs.

'Sorry,' Harry whispered, squeezing Ruth's hands even tighter.

'I Harry James Pearce do take you Ruth Catherine Evershed, to be my lawful wedded wife,' were words that he'd practised in his head a million times and knew by heart. Now finally he was saying them, and in a voice that at one time would have been alien to all but Ruth, who alone had always known the man behind the façade.

'You may kiss the bride,' Michael finally told Harry, who this time didn't need promoting or to say he was sorry.

Outside the church, Alice was up on her father's shoulders, her pale blue dress and her long blonde hair unimportant for an instant. Armed with a box of confetti as were the rest of the children, who'd sat through the service itching for this moment to arrive. The party started now as far as they were concerned and a ducking and diving Harry and Ruth were their targets.

Somewhere in the background as chaos reigned, Tariq was already taking photographs.

'Be quick,' said Harry, opening the front door and shedding himself of his jacket as Ruth followed him in. Ten minutes and we'll be with you, Catherine had told them as they'd climbed into the car for the short drive home, with explicit instructions that that they had to relax because everything was taken care of. Harry didn't want to relax he wanted to kiss his wife, and this time without an audience. Fat chance of that as Thomas appeared as if from nowhere.

'I don't want to take my jacket off, I like it,' Thomas told them. Having been told by Ruth that he needed to wash his hands a face if he wanted any lunch he'd noticed that Harry was now jacket free.

'That's fine, keep it on if you want to, I won't be a moment,' Harry told him, bounding up the stairs in search of Ruth and his kiss.

Five minutes later, with lipstick and a huge smile on his face, his jacket was back on and his tie refastened. Harry in a suit and tie was a thing of the past, in fact he hadn't worn one since the New Year's Eve dance, but to Ruth it was a reminder of when she'd first fallen in love with him and wanted him to wear it. Calling it sexy had done the trick, and he'd bounded down the stairs as fast as he'd gone up.

It was time for lunch.

'Come on sweetheart try it,' Catherine suggested.

Thomas wasn't so sure, because fish came with chips and this didn't, besides which it was a funny colour.

'It's salmon,' Catherine told him, as Thomas who was sitting on his chair next to Harry, put his fork down and stood up to pick a stray piece of confetti out of Harry's hair.

Just as it had been at Christmas, they were sitting in the same places but with Malcom and Tariq added at the far end. As Harry pulled the corks on two bottles of wine and Ruth poured the children a soft drink, Catherine headed back into the kitchen where Lucy was spooning the vegetables into their dishes.

'What is it about men and chips?' she asked her, 'Does Graham still like them with everything?'

Thomas ate his salmon and his vegetables, plus a huge helping of trifle that followed the main course. Tariq was eating his and as he'd been promised that he could help him and Uncle Malcolm with the music that evening, now wasn't the time to be thought naughty. Added to which, for his Mum and Dad it was the most important day of their lives, Michael had explained that to him and his friends in assembly one morning when they were practising the hymns. Besides which the salmon was tasty, he'd enjoyed it.

'Can I have your attention please,' said Malcolm, getting to his feet and pausing. 'Now was the moment when I was supposed to make a speech.'

He looked apologetically at Harry, before promptly sitting back down. In a blind panic he'd spoken to Catherine and Graham, saying that he would either say something stupid or worse still not get through it.

Now what, thought Harry as Graham stood up, until in a calm and confident voice, he listened to his son tell the entire family, what he had prepared himself to say in private to Ruth and to his father.

'It's no secret that Dad and I didn't always seen eye to eye,' he told them, 'but to me he was always my Dad, even then.

Harry knew that, Graham had said as much when they'd been in Canada, but it took a lot more courage to say it in front of a group of people and Harry reached for the support of Ruth's hand.

'We've moved on, time does that to you, and I'm pleased to be able to say that I've never seen him looking happier and it's Ruth that I need to thank for that.'

He took a breath, looking towards Lucy.

'From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of everyone around this table, I wish both you all the happiness in the world, and not forgetting that little monkey,' he added to a grinning Thomas.

Nobody expected Harry to respond, instead they raised their glasses.

Party Time:-

'Time we were on our way Ruth,' Harry called up the stairs, having had a few hours to themselves after the others had departed, with a shout of don't be late from Catherine.

Having parked in their usual spot in what was now an orderly line of cars, they headed the short distance in the direction of what could only be described as the sound of people enjoying themselves. Tariq was on point duty as for the second time in the space of as many hours, applause and whistles rang out.

'I'm fine Harry stop worrying,' Ruth told him as she followed him down the steps. She'd managed to get Catherine to tell her what to expect when they first arrived.

Completely bowled over, by what was obviously more than a simple party, they were handed a drink and told to enjoy themselves, as they tried to spot Alice and Thomas.

'I'm just a sleeping partner this evening,' a passing Malcolm told them, pointing to Tariq who was adjusting the volume on the sound system, with Thomas as his assistant, jiggling about to something that they didn't recognise, but was none the less musical. 'Ground rules,' Malcolm went on to explain, 'the music has to be bearable.'

As the sun began to set and with a countdown from ten to one, the bonfire had been lit. It was the moment for the children to sing. What they'd chosen was a complete secret, not only from Harry and Ruth but from their parents as well.

'Once we knew that we'd be singing outside we had a vote and we'll be singing a different song,' Meg told her audience, who were sitting on the various chairs and rugs that had been provide. 'Oh and by the way, this song won hands down and we've changed the words in places, the children hope you'll like it.'

'Now don't forget that we've changed on to our, and to shout it,' she told the sea of small and excited faces, none more so than Thomas and Alice who were understandably in the front row. 'After three,' she whispered. It was Island Of Dreams.

I wandered the streets and the gay crowded places

Trying to forget you but somehow it seems

My thoughts ever stray to our last sweet embraces

Over the sea on our island of dreams

...

High in the sky is the bird on the wing

Please carry me with you

Far far away, from the mad rushing crowd

Please carry me with you.

...

Again I would wander where memories enfold me

Here on our beautiful island of dreams

...

Far far away, on our island of dreams.

rang out clear and true, it's meaning clear.

It wasn't a night for speeches and Harry didn't intend making one, but no one could have doubted how much he and Ruth appreciated the children's efforts.

'It looks as though I'm out of a job,' Ruth told Meg, when she thanked her for all her efforts, only to be told that she was exhausted and she had no idea how Ruth managed to organise the Christmas concert. Neither did Ruth at that precise moment.

As the food and drink continued to be passed around, Catherine tipped Tariq the wink and then walked over to stand behind her father and Ruth and leaning over his shoulder, told him they were on. They'd known it was going to happen it was the custom these days at weddings and despite the fact that Ruth was nervous, Harry was right, it was getting dark and today of all days, she so want to dance with him.

It felt surreal to be walking across the sand and holding Harry's hand in front of a lot of people. But it didn't feel as imposing as it had on a dance floor, she was coping.

Romantic, of course he was, thought Catherine and Lucy who had been watching their every move. With the tenderness that he'd always had, but until Ruth had come into his life he'd kept guarded, Harry leant forward and said something to Ruth, before he gathered her towards him. It was slow, it was gentle and to anyone who was watching, it was a clear message as to how much he loved and cherished this woman that he'd just married.

Under a sky that was teeming with a million stars and in front of the people who had taken them to their hearts, Malcolm pressed play. To the strains of Beth Neilson Chapman's pure voice singing 'All I Have', Harry danced with his wife for the first time and Lucy passed Catherine a tissue.

You can say you love me

And I'll believe that's true

Trusting you is easy

Cause I believe in you

...

There is nothing I would miss

As long as we're in love like this

...

All I have is all I need

And it all comes down to you and me

How far away this world becomes

In the harbour of each other's arms

...

I feel like I've known you forever and ever

Baby, that's how close we are

Right here with you is where my life has come together

And where love has filled my heart

...

You know I'd go anywhere

As long as I have you to care

...

All I have is all I need

And it all comes down to you and me

How far away this world becomes

In the harbour of each other's arms

'Promise me that the music will never stop Harry,' came from deep within his shoulder, where Ruth's now sleepy head was buried.

'I promise,'

'How do you know?'

'Man of many talents, you know me Ruth,'

'I'm sorry, but I really need to move Harry,'

'Why, I'm so comfy?'

'I can't feel my legs.'

'They're fine believe you me, now go to sleep.'

They'd said their goodbyes to the stragglers and had been home for a couple of hours, all but a few minutes of which had been in spent in bed. Emotionally and physically tired after such a long day, Harry had made good his promise to have and to hold, as had Ruth. There was always the following morning to look forward to.