Enlightened by Alice Raine Read Free Book Online

face flew up to mine so quickly I was surprised she hadn’t hurt her neck. ‘What?’
    Rolling my lips I prepared for my confession. ‘I actually made a reservation the week after I proposed.’ Now it was my turn to look contrite. ‘I didn’t tell you then because I was worried you might think I was rushing things. I came to this place years ago to play at a wedding, they have a beautiful music room just along that corridor,’ I added, indicating in a direction we hadn’t explored yet. ‘As soon as you agreed to marry me I thought of this place. I know how much you love the Lake District and seeing as most of your family are up this way it seemed perfect.’
    Shaking her head I watched as more tears formed in Rebecca’s eyes as she gazed up at me. ‘I’m speechless,’ she snuffled, swiping the back of her hand over her eyes again in a pointless gesture as more tears immediately seeped down her cheeks.
    ‘I love you,’ she mumbled shortly before burying her head in my jacket and slipping her arms around my waist. Cuddling her to me I ran a hand up and down Becky’s spine as my eyebrows rose in surprise – I’d thought she would be upset that I’d booked it without consulting her first, but thankfully that didn’t seem to be an issue at all.
    ‘So what date do we have it? Saturday the twenty-ninth of March like we’d planned?’ she asked, excitement now replacing her tears as she stepped away from me with drier eyes and started to lightly bounce on the balls of her feet.
    Hoping she wasn’t going to take my next statement as an over-the-top gesture I shrugged slightly awkwardly, ‘I booked the whole weekend. Friday night to Monday morning.’
    Rebecca ceased her bouncing and paused to gawk up at me with several long, slow blinks of her beautiful green eyes. ‘What do you mean you booked the whole weekend?’ Her voice was a mere whisper, as if she already knew the answer to her question but needed me to clarify it anyway.
    Here it comes , I thought, bracing myself. ‘I booked out the whole hotel for the entire weekend from the evening of the 28 th to the morning of the 31 st .’ Taking the chance of her stunned silence I put on my most boyish face and raised my eyebrows. ‘Please don’t be mad. I just want everything to be perfect for you – for us ,’ I corrected quickly, ‘and they don’t cater for evening functions here unless the whole hotel is booked out privately.’
    My beautiful girl was obviously stunned into silence because she just continued to stare at me as if I had suddenly grown two heads. Jumping into the lull in conversation I gently took hold of her shoulders and spun her around so she was facing into the room again. ‘See the balconies that overlook the room?’ I asked softly, and in response I felt a small nod of her head. ‘Well, I was thinking that if your sister was up to the journey she’d be able to sit up there and watch the ceremony.’ Feeling a small, sobbing shudder run through Rebecca’s body I quickly persevered, ‘I know that since the … accident … Joanne hates crowds, but I’m sure she’d also hate to miss your big day, if we got it set up so she was away from the other guests and was just sat quietly with your mum, or maybe her nurse, then she could still feel part of our big day. What do you think?’
    Spinning in my embrace I once again found myself wrapped up in Becky as her arms slid around my shoulders and she tucked her sniffling face into the crook of my neck. ‘You’ve thought of everything, Nicholas. I’m not going to moan at you about how stupidly extravagant you’ve been, because it’s all just perfect. Thank you. I love you so much.’
    ‘Not as much as I love you,’ I said with a smile, using our standard reply and making Becky flash a big watery smile in the process.
    ‘Do you think we can check in to our room now? Because I must look totally hideous,’ she joked, wiping at her reddened nose again. Admittedly she did look a