Scene from Millie by AnneMarie
Brear.
Jeremy Remington twitched his
shoulders as though his officer’s uniform didn’t fit correctly, but of course
it did for it was made by the best tailor in London’s Savile Row. The coolness
of the church calmed him somewhat, not that he was nervous. He didn’t get
nervous. Well, not normally, but then, it wasn’t every day that you got
married.
Married.
He still couldn’t believe it. He
was getting married. And to Millie Marsh, the one lady he thought he would
never have. His heart did a little flip as it always did when he thought of
her.
How long?
How long had he admired her,
Lionel’s eldest daughter? He’d watched her mature from a young lady into a
beautiful woman and the whole time he never expected to be the one to take her
hand in marriage. He assumed she’d be snapped up the minute she turned
eighteen, but the years went by and the war took away the world they were used
to. When the war ended, he eventually returned home, eager to see the woman she
had become in his absence, and he wasn’t disappointed. Millie had turned
twenty-three during the summer and it only took one look, a few seconds in her
company the day he called to visit them, and he knew it was time. His time to
make a move.
He’d been patient long enough. He’d
wanted her long enough. Discreet enquiries gave him the answers he sought. She
wasn’t waiting for anyone to return to her. She’d spent the war doing the good
deeds women of her class did at such times, for her father had forbidden her to
join the nursing corp, which apparently had been her desire. And he was glad
she’d been stopped.
He shuddered slightly. The thought of his
lovely Millie seeing the atrocities he’d witnessed filled him with cold fear.
He quickly cleared his head of the
images that threatened to blind him. No, not today. Today was a joyous
occasion. His wedding day. The nightmares could wait, as he knew they would,
ready to grab him in the darkness and choke him. God, could he put Millie
through it? Should he have told her? Would she despise him for crying out into
the night, for his shakes?
‘Ready, Rem?’ His best man, Isaacs,
joined him by the altar, smiling hesitantly, looking as anxious as though he
was the one making his vows.
‘I’m ready.’ He nodded once,
determined to not let his emotions show. He was more than ready to take a wife,
to take Millie, to start a life that would fill him, fill the emptiness that
had opened up inside him since the war finished. No, he wasn’t going to think
of the war today. It was done, over. Now it was time for new beginnings. A new
life with Millie. If anything could help banish his night terrors it would be
her. The sweet smell of her, the soft feel of her lying beside him would cure
his dreams, he was certain of it.
My bio:
AnneMarie Brear has been a life-long reader and started writing in 1997 when her children were small. She has a love of history, of grand old English houses and a fascination of what might have happened beyond their walls. Her interests include reading, genealogy, watching movies, spending time with family and eating chocolate - not always in that order!
Contact links:
Twitter : @annemariebrear
Thank you!
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