Finally, the end of their night out. It's only lasted nearly 2 years! That has to be a record! Still a few chapters left of the story after this one.

Eddie decided to give up on trying to organize the children anymore as the attendant was mobbed. After claiming their prizes, they each began to fight for use of the gun again, attempting to re-enact Dempsey's performance. It was only when an announcement was made that the line dancing was to commence shortly on the main stage, that the crowd quietened as some of the children traded 'ducks' for dancing.

The girl who was holding Harry's hand asked, "Are you going to dance?"

Harry was taken by surprise by her question. "Oh, well, I'm not sure I know how to do line dancing, darling."

"That's a great idea," Eddie interrupted. "Come on Harry, you'll soon pick it up," he said, taking a gulp of his cocktail before placing it down and taking Harry's from her. "It'll be fun."

"I'm going too," the girl said excitedly.

Harry laughed. "Oh well, if you're going too, then I had better join you."

Harry glanced up at Dempsey then but he pre-empted her, saying, "You go ahead, I'll stay here and give these lot some pointers on how to improve their aim."

"Here," she said, "Look after Gordon for me… and I'm not sure that teaching children to use a gun is quite appropriate, but…" she trailed off, unable to finish her sentence as she was dragged away enthusiastically by Eddie and the little girl.

Dempsey spent some time teaching the remaining children how to shoot the gun effectively before the sound of Billy Ray Cyrus's 'Achy Breaky Heart' rang out and he glanced across the grounds to seek Harry through the rows of line dancers. For someone who supposedly didn't know how to line dance, she looked pretty damn good. Someone had placed a cowboy hat on her head and she was dancing quite confidently, her thumbs hitched into her belt, a smile on her face.

"Are you and the lady an item?"

The question cut into his reverie and he turned to see that the stall attendant had asked it.

Dempsey automatically lifted the glass that was in his hand and took a sip before answering, somewhat dreamily.

"She's a princess ya know. Well, she's related to The Queen an' all."

"No kidding," the man replied, glancing round to take another look at her.

"No, I aint kiddin'; and she's my partner too," he said. 'Well she was,' he thought to himself, 'and she will be again.'

"You're a lucky man," the attendant commented.

Yes, he was. But in truth, Dempsey was aware that the attendant had misconstrued his use of the word 'partner', and if he was honest with himself, he much preferred the thought of the attendant's interpretation.

Harry and Eddie returned from the stage laughing and in great spirits, with the young girl and a few more of her friends in tow.

"Looks like you had fun there, Harry," Dempsey said as she approached and he handed back the toy monkey.

She took it and hung it around her shoulders again. "Yes, but I'm quite out of breath now," she laughed.

"She's really good at line dancing," one of the girls spoke up.

"Yeah, she wasn't bad, was she?" Dempsey agreed. "Guess you must have picked it up quickly," he said to Harry, assessing her with sparkling eyes.

"I must have," she smiled, reaching for her drink which Eddie was handing to her and laughing as the girls did another impromptu dance demonstration in front of the Duck Hunt stall. The little girl gestured for Harry to join them but she shook her head, calling out, "I'm taking a rest. You carry on," she encouraged, "that's a marvellous dance."

Dempsey put an arm around Harry's shoulders as they watched the children playing. "You feelin' broody, Harry?" he asked out of the blue.

"What?" she said, choking on her cocktail as she inhaled and attempted to swallow at the same time. He patted her on the back, and she finally replied, "Err, no, not at the moment! Why?"

He shrugged. "Just wonderin'. All women want that, don't they? Ya know, marriage... kids."

"Hmm, I think that's a wild generalisation, isn't it, Dempsey? Besides, I've already tried marriage, remember? And it didn't work out too well for me."

"Sure, but it'd be better the next time," he said. "Don't you wanna get married?" he asked. "Ever again?"

She was fast becoming quite taken aback by this conversation. "I hadn't really thought about it," she answered. "Why do you ask? Do you want to get married?" she questioned, not really having previously considered him the 'marrying' kind.

A smile slowly developed. "Yeah, okay, ya talked me into it," he said, grabbing her hand and turning to Eddie, calling out, "Hey Ed, Harry said she wants to marry me, can you find us a ring?"

Eddie's mouth fell open, while Harry protested, "No, I didn't mean…"

"Ed, a ring please?" Dempsey shouted.

"Oh yeah, right," Eddie replied, suddenly jumping into action.

"Dempsey?" Harry began, "What on earth…"

"C'mon Harry, it all makes sense really. I mean, I'm a guy, you're a gal, we've already been partners for years, hell, we even argue just like a married couple," he said.

"Yes, but.." She burst out laughing at the absurdity of the situation and covered her face with her hands for a few seconds. "Alright," she said, dropping her hands and making a quick decision to play him at his own game. "Let's do it!"

"Alright!" he cheered. "C'mon Ed!"

Eddie wasn't entirely certain what was going on, but he knew that it was something significant and quite exciting if the moods of Harry, Dempsey and all the children were anything to go by. With this in mind, he raced across the lawn and back onto the path, not really knowing how he was going to make a ring materialise, but certain that he would have to come up with something. For a while, he considered finding some sort of edible ring as all the stalls around him seemed to be food oriented, but somehow a doughnut, pretzel or bagel ring wasn't going to suffice. Finally, he resorted to calling out his offer to buy a ring from anyone who was willing to sell one to him, and to his amazement, he was approached by a group of teenagers who offered him a silver coloured, Celtic style band for fifty bucks. It was more than he really wanted to pay, but he was running out of options, so he managed to bargain them down to forty pounds and took the ring.

By the time Eddie had returned to the Duck Stall, Dempsey had railroaded the stall attendant into playing priest for them and everyone around Eddie seemed to be alive with anticipation, waiting for his successful return having secured the all-important ring. He scuttled straight to Dempsey, breathlessly holding up his purchase to the cheers of delight from the children. Dempsey looked impressed and went into his wallet, pushing some notes into Eddie's hand, which he noticed added up to much more than he had paid. Dempsey was adamant however, and so Eddie finally gave up protesting and put the notes in his pocket.

"Face the bride please," the stall attendant said, completely ad-libbing considering that he hadn't even so much as attended a wedding in years.

"Wait!" Eddie shouted. "This isn't right at all! There are things we need to prepare... traditions to uphold."

"What like?" Dempsey asked a little impatiently.

"A bouquet, something old, new and all that, an aisle, just the basics," he appealed.

"Can ya sort all of that?" Dempsey asked.

"Yes, yes, but give me a bit more time!" Eddie came back. He had always imagined being Harry's wedding planner but he'd never quite envisaged it being this much of a rush!

"Alright already, go sort it all out. I'll be right back. Just gonna get myself another one of these drinks," Dempsey said, heading back for the slushie bar. "Never thought some broad would end up tying me down," he mumbled to himself. "Ooh!" His face suddenly lit up. "Bein' tied down, by Harry... dressed in a skimpy leather bikini," he chuckled, "Guess I could deal with that."

Eddie made good use of the children's enthusiasm for this funny adult game they were playing and sent them out across the gardens to pick flowers for a small bouquet, most of which ended up being daffodils and daisies. Eddie tied a bunch of the daffodils together with a donated shoe lace from one of the boys, and set some of the girls to work making a daisy chain adornment for Harry's head.

"Right," he said gathering the remaining children on a grass bank in front of the Duck Stall, where Harry had seated herself. "We need something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. Any ideas?"

The children's hands shot up as if they were at school, and they waved them energetically in front of Eddie.

"Okay, you," he said, pointing to the girl that had earlier attached herself to Harry.

"She can borrow my necklace," she said, holding up the tiny crystal on a thin sliver chain around her neck.

"No darling," Harry cut in, "It's far too precious. You keep it. There'll be something else I can borrow."

"What about my lipstick," the girl offered again, pulling out a pale pink lipstick case from her little shoulder bag.

Eddie glanced at Harry.

"That would work," she said, gesturing to the girl. "Would you apply it for me?" she asked.

The girl happily obliged.

"Right, what about the other things?"

"The flowers for her head," one girl said, demonstrating by drawing an imaginary circle around her own head, "are new."

"And the bouquet," someone else joined in.

"And the ring," came the voice of yet another.

Eddie nodded. "Okay, I think we've got 'new' covered. What about 'old'?"

"That gunslinger is old," the mischievous boy shouted out, causing all the other boys to burst out laughing.

"You're treading on shaky ground," Eddie warned. "You had better not let him hear you say that."

Some of the boys at least looked a little bit sheepish.

"Come on," Eddie said, having had an idea. "Empty all your pockets. See if we can find something old in them. Come on, come on," he urged again, "We don't have all day."

The boys did as they were asked and produced some marbles, chewing gum, toy figures, balls, and a whole array of other bits and bobs, but finally it was the small rubber tyrannosaurus rex that caught Eddie's eye.

"What about this," he said, scooping it out of the now small mountain of items that had accumulated on the lawn. "It's definitely old."

"Late cretaceous period," the dinosaur owner shouted out, clearly knowledgeable on the subject.

"Is that old enough for you?" Harry asked. "It's even older than Dempsey," she chuckled. Eddie handed the dinosaur to her. "What am I supposed to do with it?" she asked.

"Put it in your pocket," Eddie replied.

Harry leant back and attempted to squash the plastic dinosaur into her tight trouser pocket. "Somehow, I don't think that's going to work. Think my pockets are a little less used to dinosaurs than the boys'." Finally, she managed to secure it to her person by burying its front claws into her belt strap so that it hung on precariously.

"Are we ready yet?" came the impatient shout from Dempsey as he returned to the stall with a champagne bucket and glasses in hand. Ooh, Eddie noted that there must be a champagne stash somewhere and he was going to find it just as soon as the ceremony was finished.

"Not quite yet, Eddie replied, "we just need something 'blue'."

"No problem, she's got Gordon," Dempsey said, swiftly resolving the issue and reaching for Harry's hand to pull her up from off the grass. "Now can we get on with it?" he asked.

"So romantic," Harry commented, helping Eddie to organize the children into two rows to create a makeshift isle for her to walk down.

Dempsey was standing at the far end, in front of the duck stall, with the attendant. And Harry was standing at the other end, being fussed over by Eddie and a few of the girls, and wondering if she'd unintentionally slipped into some strange alternate reality where getting married wearing a pair of black trousers and top, and carrying a bunch of daffodils, not to mention a plastic dinosaur and a blue monkey, was perfectly normal. Goodness, had her drinks been spiked or something? The whole thing was extremely surreal.

After having arranged the daisy chain around her head, the girls and Eddie appeared to finally be satisfied and Harry descended the isle to the sound of the children humming 'The Wedding March.' As Harry neared Dempsey, it suddenly hit her through the alcohol haze that she was walking down the aisle towards Dempsey! It was not exactly what she'd had planned for the evening. It was not exactly something she'd had planned at all! But there she was.

"Okay, so where were we?" the attendant said. "Oh yes, please turn and face the bride."

Dempsey turned to Harry, a smile playing at his lips. He reached out for her hand but she realised that she was still clutching the daffodils. Turning, she handed them to one of the girls. As she turned back, she noticed Dempsey glancing quizzically at the dinosaur clinging to her belt.

"Something old," she whispered.

"Ah," he nodded.

She could feel laughter bubbling up inside her and it must have shown because Dempsey stifled a chuckle in response.

"Are you ready for this?" Dempsey whispered.

Harry thought for a second. "I'm not entirely sure. Are you?"

"Repeat after me…" the attendant said.

Dempsey filtered out the sound of the attendant for a moment to reply to Harry. "When do we get to the weddin' night?" he grinned.

She rolled her eyes. "Is that all you're interested in? Typical!"

"Hey, don't it say somethin' that I'm willin' to actually marry you to get you into bed?" he replied.

She frowned. It wasn't exactly the most romantic endearment, but he sort of had a point. She shook her head to clear it. The whole thing was so bizarre.

The attendant went on, "I Mr Gunslinger, do take you, Miss Line Dancer…"

"I, James Dempsey," he corrected. Was this guy drunk too? "Do take you, Harry Makepeace…"

"To be my lawfully wedded wife," the attendant went on.

"Hey, she aint marryin' you," Dempsey accused.

"No," Harry whispered. "You are supposed to repeat what he says."

"Oh. Oh yeah, right. Yes, I do take Harry to be my…" he paused. Harry registered the small hesitation and her eyes darted sideways and then back to Dempsey questioningly. "…my wife," he grinned.

"To have and to hold," the man continued.

"Oh yeah, I can do that… havin' and holdin'," Dempsey confirmed.

"For better, or for worse…"

"Yeah, that too," Dempsey agreed, trying to speed the proceedings up. He wanted to get to the, 'you may kiss the bride' part.

"For richer and poorer…"

"Yep," he nodded, but then a thought hit him and he turned to Harry to whisper, "You want a prenup by the way?"

"A what?" she asked.

"Ya know, a prenup, stop me from gettin' all ya money," he explained.

She frowned and looked horrified for a second. "That's not very romantic, Dempsey. Is that usual where you come from?"

"Kinda," he replied, "If you're real rich."

She huffed her disapproval and then she was hit by a thought as a question entered her head. "Do you imagine I would ask for one?"

He shrugged. "I dunno."

She searched his face for a moment with intense interest until she was interrupted again by the attendant.

"In sickness and in health…"

"Yes, yes," Dempsey replied.

"To love and to cherish…"

Dempsey took a breath to instinctively reply but hesitated again and looked almost a little awkward for a second. Harry watched him, raising a questioning eyebrow.

"Yeah, that too," he finally said.

She chuckled at his response and noted that he couldn't actually repeat the words.

"Till death do us part…"

"Yep, to the bitter end," he confirmed. "Now, can I kiss the bride?" he asked.

"Wait, don't I have to make the vows?" Harry asked.

"Oh yes," the attendant replied, feeling a little foolish. "Do you…"

"Yes, she does," Dempsey interrupted. "Now can we get on with it?"

"What about the ring part?" Harry asked.

Dempsey sighed. "Okay, where's the ring?" he said, glancing around for Eddie.

He stepped forward and handed Dempsey the ring.

"Now, repeat after me," the attendant said again. "With this ring, I thee wed…

"With this ring, I thee wed," Dempsey said, slipping the ring onto her finger. For some reason Harry's heart began to accelerate at that moment and Dempsey's voice became quieter as his mouth became a little dry.

"All that I am, I give to you," the attendant continued.

"All that I…" Dempsey's mouth was suddenly so dry that he was very much afraid he couldn't continue to speak.

"All that I am I give to you," Harry said for him. "I really should say some words," she pointed out to the attendant, stepping up to help Dempsey out.

"And all that I have, I share with you…"

Harry smiled and repeated, "And all that I have, I share with you." Her expression softened. "No prenup," she whispered to him. A curious lopsided smile gently developed across his face.

Damn it! She wasn't helping his dry mouth or aching throat at all. Maybe he shouldn't have drunk that last cocktail. Or maybe he needed another one!

"You may kiss the bride."

Finally! But suddenly all the reasons he'd been focusing on for wanting this fake marriage that evening no longer seemed important. Not the wedding night, or even the kiss… well, at least not the kind of sizzling hot kiss he'd been imagining all evening. Suddenly, other feelings were taking over which seemed ultimately stronger, although he would never have imagined there being any other feelings stronger than the ones that made him desire Harry.

She turned to him and he placed his hands on her waist, bending slightly with the aim of kissing her. She edged back a little however, halting him in his tracks.

"A promise is a promise," she reminded him.

He frowned for a second in miscomprehension. Then he realised what she was saying. It was ironic; all he'd initially been focused on was the potential of a kiss at the end of the ceremony and a possible wedding night. But all along, he'd already promised not to kiss her on the lips, and as for the wedding night… well, he'd definitely prefer to wait for a night like that when he hadn't attempted to drink every bar dry beforehand.

So, he couldn't kiss her on the lips, but he could still seal the ceremony with an expression of his affection for her.

He nodded. "I remember," he assured her, lifting his hands to hold her face gently between them and bending to kiss her lightly on her cheekbone. He then moved to the other side of her face and kissed, and breathed in her scent.

She closed her eyes as his gentleness touched her deeply. She hadn't expected it. Soon, his lips were brushing her eyelids and temples, as soft as butterfly wings, caressing and sending a beautiful warm tingling feeling right to her toes.

Then, to the confusion of them both, suddenly all hell broke loose as the children screamed and hollered and laughed, throwing handfuls of hay into the air and letting it cascade down over them.

"Sorry," Eddie shouted over the mayhem, "Couldn't find any confetti." And then he was gone, last seen running across the lawn towards the bar, and leaving Harry and Dempsey to the mercy of fifteen or so children who gave up on throwing the hay and decided to dive on top of them instead. They all fell to the floor in a heap.

"Be gone with you!" Dempsey shouted out, wrestling with the children. "Don't fear my damsel," he shouted to Harry, "I will soon disperse with this rabble, these vagabonds and bandits!" he said, digging his fingers into the sides of any children he could get his hands on, to the extent that they could only stand a few seconds near to Dempsey without being completely taken over by a tickling fever and rolling away in hysterics.

Soon they found themselves in relative peace as the children had become exhausted with trying to battle Dempsey and had left them to their own devices.

Dempsey popped his head up from his position on the grass, amongst a carpet of hay, and scanned the area for more of the enemy. There were still a few of the children playing nearby, but there didn't appear to be any imminent threat of attack. Or so he thought, until Harry reached out behind her, grabbed a handful of hay and thrust it down his shirt when his attention was diverted.

He looked down in confusion. "What's this? Has my damsel turned on me? Am I to be forced to lock thee up and bend thee to my will?"

She burst out laughing. "Dempsey, are you getting naughty thoughts again?" she asked.

He glanced down at his shirt full of hay. "Yeah, kinda," he admitted. "It sorta tickles," he said, gazing down at her and wondering… hoping.

"Really?" she replied, "Then I had better get it out," she said, pulling the hay from his shirt and reaching her hand down past the material in search of more. He felt her skin brush his chest.

It struck him then just how much of an advantageous situation he was in, lying there on the grass, in the hay, on the floor, with Harry. "There's still some down there," he grinned.

The beginnings of a smile could be seen on Harry's face as she reached up to start unbuttoning his shirt. His eyes widened and he took a closer look at her. She seemed mesmerised by her fingers and the buttons that were slowly, one by one, being released. This was a different kind of Harry; the one Dempsey had gotten the smallest glimpses of but was bursting to know better.

When his shirt fell open, her hands were suddenly on him and a white hot shot of desire ran through him so suddenly, and so intensely, that he was completely overwhelmed by it for a moment. When he got half of his wits back, he glanced down at her hands, stroking and caressing his chest, and he groaned a warning,

"You're playin' with fire Harry."

She was lying beneath him, so pliant and willing. "Is that why I feel so hot?" she asked.

"Oh god! Do ya know what you're sayin'?" he groaned. Ahh, to hell with all his previous resolutions; the wedding night was back on!

"I've gotta be alone with you," he said, glancing up for a solution. Then, fuelled by the entire emotional wedding scenario, a whole lot of alcohol, and Harry's current state of mind, Dempsey had one hell of a crazy idea and decided to go with it. Grabbing hold of her hand, he jumped up off the grass and began running with her.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"You'll see," he replied.

After they raced back up the hill, down the pathway, past the front steps of the mansion house and round the building, Harry realised where they were heading.

"You got your badge with you?" Dempsey asked her as they neared the hot air balloon.

"Yes, why?"

"Can I have it?"

She reached into her bag to pull out the item Dempsey had requested. "Is this going to be illegal?" she asked.

"Probably," he replied, "Any objections?"

She chuckled, having an inkling of what he had planned. "No."

"Good," he said, approaching the security guard and flashing the badge. "Police. We need to secure this balloon for police business. It must be removed from the premises immediately. Help me to untether it please. Get in Harry, quick," he urged.

The security guard just watched for a moment as Dempsey struggled with the ropes. Then he asked to look at the badge again and stood, studying it in great detail, before giving up and simply allowing Dempsey to free the balloon.

Finally, Dempsey jumped over the lip of the basket just as it began floating upwards. Well, there was no going back now!

"You are quite literally mad, you know that?" Harry laughed.

"Yeah, but I aint borin'," he winked.

"Good God," Harry suddenly exclaimed, clambering to the side of the basket as the floor appeared to move. "What's that?"

Dempsey took hold of a blanket on the floor of the basket and peeled it back to reveal, none other than, a very tipsy Eddie.

Damn it! There goes his plan to be alone with Harry.

"What on earth are you doing here?" Harry asked.

Eddie held up a champagne bucket with three bottles in it. "I found the champagne stash. Thought this would be a quiet place to enjoy it. Must have fallen asleep," he giggled.

Dempsey laughed. "Come on then, might as well open one of those bottles."

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Dempsey was sitting on the floor of the basket with his arm around Harry while she slept against him, her head resting on his chest as he softly stroked her hair.

"It's blue, by the way," he said to Eddie.

"What is?" Eddie asked.

"Her favourite colour. Should have known; same colour as her eyes," he said wistfully.

"How did you find out?" Eddie asked.

"Gordon," Dempsey answered.

"What?"

"It's a long story," Dempsey said. "Pass me that bottle, will ya?"

Eddie handed the half empty second champagne bottle to Dempsey and he refilled his glass. "Want some?" he asked, handing the bottle back.

"Why not," Eddie said, topping up his drink.

"Well, she did say she wanted 'wild and reckless'. I think we just about achieved that, don't you?" Dempsey said.

"Yeah, I should say so. I think we achieved that sensationally," Eddie agreed.

"Err, any idea how to land this thing?" Dempsey asked casually.

"Not a clue," Eddie replied.

"Hmm, know where we are?" Dempsey enquired, glancing back over the edge of the basket.

"Well, I think I spotted some mountains over there, and the coastline is in that direction," Eddie pointed out.

"Mountains?" Dempsey questioned. "Don't suppose there are any mountain ranges anywhere near London?"

Eddie shook his head. "Not that I know of."

"Which direction are we headed?" Dempsey asked.

"The coast," Eddie answered.

Dempsey appeared to contemplate something for a moment or two while he downed his glass of champagne. Then he spoke. "Ed, will ya do me a favour?"

"What?" he asked.

Dempsey wriggled down the side of the basket and settled himself comfortably next to Harry. "Wake me up if we get to New York."

Eddie nodded, sipping his champagne as the balloon floated majestically through the darkness.