She was to be a bride, a mother, an accomplished career woman. She wanted that—success in her own right, at last, not as somebody’s wife.

And it was about to start. All of it.

She picked up the telephone and dialled reception.

“This is Sophie Massot.” It was the last time she would ever have to say that. Thank God! “Please have a taxi waiting for me in reception.”

This was a very discreet hotel; if a bride walked through the lobby in a cloud of pewter silk and silver thread, by herself, at seven o’clock in the morning, nobody would say a word.

The church at Farm Street was gothic and quite spectacular. Sophie had attended Mass there now for ten weeks; she had felt instantly at home. There was incense, there were priests in old-fashioned vestments, there was Gregorian chant. Even Hugh had not objected to coming with her; he sat quietly in the pews with his eyes closed.

Sophie paid the taxi with a fifty pound note from her tiny satin purse, edged with seed pearls, and told him to keep the change. The heavy wooden doors were ajar. She walked inside, and saw them: Hugh, standing at the end of the aisle; Tom, looking wonderful in morning dress, his best man; old Père Sabin, stooping but smiling, waiting for her; and the organ, swelling—one soloist, singing, in a voice clear as glass, the ancient Latin hymn:

Veni, Creator Spiritus,
mentes tuorum visita,
imple superna gratia,
quae tu creasti, pectoral . . .

Sophie’s eyes prickled with tears, but she was smiling. She walked down the aisle, processing down the empty church with a dancer’s grace; she saw the love light up Hugh’s gaze, the amazement, all her beauty reflected there; she kissed Tom on the cheek; he squeezed her hand, and she saw that he was not unhappy. Her entire being flamed with a delight she had never thought she would know.

Fr. Sabin smiled at her as fondly as though she were his natural daughter, in a way her own father had never looked at her.

“Dearly beloved . . .”

They went out for a postwedding breakfast, which Hugh insisted was traditional. Sophie wanted to change, but he would hear none of it.

“They can’t ruin the wedding now,” he said. “And there’s no need to hide. Let’s have a little fun.”