Chapter XXXVIII: This Is Our Song
A/N: Another Christmas in the story! Quite fun to write. But still difficult in some ways. I cannot wait for Harry and Cecily to be married! It'll open up so many doorways for me. *smirks* Cowgirlbookworm knows what I'm talking about. Pretty sure everyone has a good idea what I mean. Looking forward to seeing what you all think! SSD.
December 18th, 1913
Harold Lowe was more than happy for the foreseeable future. As of today, he was off from work till after his honeymoon with Cecily.
The wedding was roughly six weeks away. And his dreams... were nothing he was going to tell anyone about. Except perhaps Cecily herself as they involved her in a lurid manner. Harry had multiple plans for her and sneaking around for the next several weeks!
He gulped upon seeing Albert waiting for him at the train station. When he got closer, Harry could see his smirk. All Lethbridges had that scary smirk.
"Come along Harold. Once your things have been gathered, we'll leave. We need to move the wedding up from your last visit in November and all," Albert caressed the shotgun in the carriage.
"I swear we didn't do anyth-" Harry spluttered before seeing Albert's grin again.
"There's been some minor difficulties with the dress fittings," his future father-in-law teased further.
He looked to Max and Antin for help, but they were trying to not laugh as well. And failing.
A mercifully short carriage ride later, they were at the Lethbridge house.
Harry and Albert got into the living room when a vision of beauty came into his sight.
Cecily was wearing a tea gown, which flared around her legs. It was a light green, setting off her eyes.
Driving him wild!
His arrival drove his fiancée mad as well, for Cecily pushed him into a wall to pull him down by his collar for a kiss tangling her tongue with his.
Cecily was wearing that citrus perfume of hers. He hoped she wore it for the wedding. Her skin was soft as she squirmed. Warm too, from not being outside. Cecily also tasted like cinnamon as her tongue dueled with his. She did love those cinnamon disks.
As the cinnamon was rolling over his tongue, Harry heard a rather loud cough. The two of them disengaged from each other's mouths, but still stayed where they were.
"There are others present. And you aren't married yet," Albert glared at them, but with little heat.
"We will be soon enough," Cecily huffed.
"Six weeks. And a September grandchild would raise eyebrows. As for shenanigans I expect there will be some; I don't want to see or especially hear it!"
December 21st, 1913
In a thick, warm, woolen robe Cecily padded across the house to Harry's room. Underneath the robe was a flimsy green nightgown given to her by a grinning Lucy.
She'd had to dodge Max. The man was a night owl. One never quite knew where Max would be at night. Even when he didn't have night duty, he was generally awake, operating mostly on cat naps.
Her father had left the stairs to the guest rooms creaky on purpose, Cecily thought as she made her way around on the stairs.
Right before she knocked on the door to her Harry's room, it flew open with Harry yanking her in, pinning her to the wall, kissing her with all of his ardor.
Cecily could feel every inch of him pressed up against her and wriggled in delight. This only seemed to inflame him further, pushing up harder against her.
"Stop wriggling or I won't take the robe off," he growled against her lips.
She stopped moving, for the moment. Harry went to the task of revealing what was underneath. His eyes gleamed at the sight.
"Is this all for me," he drawled.
"All for you schatz," it took all she had to moan as he suckled at her breasts through the gown which made her squirm again.
Looming over her, he said, "I thought I told you to stop that."
"I can't help it. You'll have to do something to make me stop," Cecily giggled.
Harry's response? He bit her in the shoulder. Lightly though.
But enough for her to yelp and stop moving.
"Now that I have your attention. Stop moving, or we'll likely have to move up the wedding!"
"I wouldn't mind that," Cecily grinned.
"Your father would. And you would if people started to talk." Harry let her go from the wall.
"So what could I do for you," Cecily looked Harry up and down, licking her lips.
"You could get on your knees."
December 23rd, 1913
Mina completely enjoyed Father O'Leary's sense of humor as he interrogated Harry and Cecily on what they knew about each other and their plans for the future of their marriage.
When her niece and future husband walked out, she could see the good father smirking.
"The two of them are fine. I was just making some joke at their expense right at the end."
"There are several members of the wedding party you will get along with quite well then. They will be giving those two no shortage of chaffing from the moment they arrive." Mina knew that Charles Lightoller had plans, according to a telegram from Sylvia.
"That's good to hear. No one likes a miserable wedding party. I've seen a few of those. Mostly when I suspect the bride and/or groom are under duress."
"That is not the case here," Mina giggled. Harry and Cecily were anxious for the wedding to happen.
"Certainly not. I imagine your brother will have a grandchild on the way in short order," the priest smiled
"My brother is working hard at making sure they make it. Including using the hose on the trellis outside Cecily's second floor window to make it slick," Mina smiled at the memory of her older brother wrestling with the garden hose.
"Did your father resort to such measures before your wedding?"
"My father had to prevent me from running away in sheer terror. The days leading up to my wedding I was virtually imprisoned in the house. My brother was forcibly drugged by our father so he wouldn't object," Mina growled at the memory of the state Albert had been in.
"I certainly hope you've divorced him. It sounds like you have a good case for marriage under duress," Father O'Leary offered.
"Oh he's dead. I'm reasonably certain Albert had him murdered about seven years ago," Mina replied brightly.
The Jesuit took off his glasses to clean them. "Thank God for small mercies."
"I just wish that my boy had a better example of a father growing up."
"They may now be adults, but a man never truly stops growing. Maybe now you can find a better example for them?"
Mina smiled to herself. If Matt's increasingly outrageous hints were anything to go by, her sons were quite enthusiastic about Arthur joining the family.
Preferably sooner rather than later!
December 24th, 1913
Will had charged him with some of the planning for Harold's stag night. But how to plan anything when the groom didn't drink? Sylvia came over to see him fiddling with a short list. She gave him a hard swat to the back of the head.
"You will not try to get Harold drunk through trickery. Besides, Lucy and I are planning ways to get Cecily drunk enough for the two of them. We'll get her into his bed one way or another!"
"I wasn't seriously going to get him drunk. Notice I crossed it out?"
December 25th, 1912
Albert was going to murder his sister. She was not being as stringent in her supervision of Cecily and Harold as he was so there had been plenty of shenanigans he would have lived a longer, happier life without seeing!
It made him want to uninvite his sister's special guest. But as invitations had already been sent, Albert would have quite a difficult time explaining himself. And Mina didn't even know who it was anyway.
At the moment, the lovebirds were trying to decide which song to dance to first. A waltz had been agreed upon, but the song had not. Mina patted the seat next to her.
"They move well together. It'll lend well to other things." Albert ignored her attempt to wind him up.
Soon he heard the familiar strains of The Waltz of the Flowers. The soon to be newlyweds were dancing to it and smiling.
"I think they found their song," Mina said in a low voice, not wanting to kill the moment.
"I believe they did.
A/N 2: Glad to get this done! Next chapter is 1914 and wedding guests arriving. Well, the wedding party anyway. Today is Veterans Day or Remembrance Day depending on where you are. 106th Anniversary of the ending of WW1. WW1 will play a large role in this story. Looking forward to seeing what you all think! SSD
Father O'Leary is played by Gregory Peck as he looked in the movie The Scarlet and the Black.