Islands of Sunset Valley – Chapter 6: A Convincing Argument
She shook her head at my second proposal.
Stubborn woman, I thought. “Faith, be realistic. Can’t you see that this is the only workable solution?” She looked at me with eyes glistening again with unshed tears. This was not the reaction I was hoping for. But I’m nothing if not persistent. I heard that the third time’s the charm, so again I asked her, “Faith Kalamia will you be my lawfully wedded wife til death us do part?”
“I couldn’t bear another husband to die,” she replied, as the tears spilled down her cheeks. I sighed inwardly. That was a poor choice of words to woo a widow, irrespective of how recent.
I said to her as I kissed her tears away, “I have 12 deathflowers in my inventory. I can cook ambrosia and I am level 10 handiness. I assure you I have years till I reach elder and I’m not into sculpting metal or swimming. I don’t plan on dying anytime soon.”
“You almost did today. Falling asleep in the sun like that.” Faith contradicted me.
“But I have the deathflowers. Besides I usually sleep in the daytime. I hadn’t slept more than four hours in the last 48 hours and I was very tired. For the fourth time, will you marry me?”
She looked at me long and hard, “If I say yes, can we try for a baby now?”
“Not until you say I do, with my wedding ring on your finger,” I countered.
“How about if we were engaged?” she bargained.
“Not happening, sweetheart. If you want my baby, she comes with a wedding ring.” Again I went down on one knee. “Fifth and final offer, marry me Faith and I’ll happily fill this house with babies for you.”
Finally Faith nodded. “Yes Brandon Crumplebottom, I will marry you.” She held out her hand for me to slip the ring on. It was a perfect fit. Then she hugged and kissed me. “Marry me now,” she pleaded, “there’s a wedding arch out back.”
“I noticed, but tomorrow will be soon enough. You can still have that baby girl tomorrow you said. Anyway I have a fridge full of watermelons so you can have a baby girl any time. Let’s make the wedding tomorrow because I need to discuss this with Diana first. I have a family to convince I’m not crazy and you have a son who is yet to be convinced that husbands are worthwhile.”
“Will your family be a problem?” Faith asked.
“I don’t know for sure but I shouldn’t think so. Diana may take some time to come around but ultimately she wants me to be happy. My brother, on the other hand will be ecstatic once he gets past the shock. Chris told me he wanted to meet you,” I said. “His son, Joshua, is having a birthday party tomorrow afternoon and Chris asked me to bring you.
“Then we should get married at dawn, she said, “it’s a beautiful time for wedding photos and I’ve never had any.”
“I don't think my parents can get a flight that early,” I murmured into her hair, “how about sunset? It’s just as glorious.”
“Compromise,” she said, “Let’s do brunch.”
“Brunch, I can manage, here or elsewhere?” I asked my voice thickening as I remembered a similar conversation a long time ago.
“Did you know?” she said softly between kisses, “That there is a charming little beach wedding venue at Recurve Strand?”
“The actual beach or the Recurve Strand bar on Old Pier Beach?” I asked puzzled. Diana and I fished at the beach just last weekend and there was no wedding venue there then.
“The actual beach,” she replied. “It’s called the ‘Just Divine Beach Wedding’ venue.
“No, I didn’t know it had a wedding venue. Okay, the Just Divine Beach Wedding venue it is, tomorrow at 10:00 AM.” I said, “Oh, by the way, could you just pretend in front of my family, that you love me even a little bit. I don’t think they’ll appreciate that you’re marrying me for my incredible genes.”
“How can you be so clueless, Brandon,” she said shaking her head. “Blind Freddie could see that I’ve been falling in love with you from the very start. How could I not have been captivated by your charming introduction about dental hygiene?”
“Really?” I said astounded. “You sure have an odd way of showing it?”
“Love scares me. I didn’t expect it and I was taken by surprise.” Faith answered looking down at her hands. “I always imagined that if I found love, it would be like a Nat King Cole ballad not the 1812 Overture.”
I liked her analogy. I could relate to it. My marriage to Agnes had been a soft sweet melody. My relationship with Faith so far had been more like a Verdi opera. But I have high hopes of us making it now that one of the major obstacles to our future happiness has been overcome. Love was a good place to start. However, given that she’d been married twice before, I’d have thought she wasn’t a stranger to love; but perhaps that’s a question for another time. “Seriously, it would have helped if you had told me how you felt when I admitted I loved you.”
“I didn’t know how to. It seemed like it would sound too contrived if I just blurted that out,” she said appealing to me for understanding.
“You could have told me when I proposed. You did have five chances” I replied weakly.
“Love hasn’t been good to me. I’ve learned not to trust it,” she replied candidly.
“Fair enough – trust is something that takes time to establish. Can I at least hear you say the words?” I asked. “I think I need to hear you say it.”
“I do love you Brandon.” She said holding my head and looking deep into my eyes. “I love you so much it hurts. It’s frightening to find that I’ve given you so much power over my happiness. I’m terrified that it can all be snatched away.”
“Faith, I love you too. But love isn’t about power. Love doesn’t dominate, it cultivates, it inspires and it unites us. Have a little bit of faith in us. Love is what makes us stronger not weaker. I never expected to find love again but since I have with you, I want to embrace it.”
“Are you a Hopeless Romantic?” she asked.
“No, I’m a hopeful one. Now all we have to do is convince our families that we’re not insane. You could tell Julian you married the fifth guy who asked you, not the first.”
“Same guy.” Faith countered.
“Nope, it feels like I aged 10 years between first and final offer.” I remarked wryly. “I’ll have to dye my hair to get the grey out before tomorrow.”
“Oh Brandon, I love your dry humour. But seriously, can we discuss our name. I don’t want to be Faith Crumplebottom. I know some witches in Moonlight Falls who guard that name zealously. They’d probably think a fairy will disgrace their pure family name. I believe it was your late wife’s name anyway. Will you take Kalamia as your name?”
“You want me to take Elias’s surname?” I asked somewhat taken aback.
“No, Elias took my name. My father is Leonidas Kalamia. I’ve kept my name through both marriages.”
“So I’m to be the third Mr Kalamia you’ve married.” I asked incredulously.
“Put like that, it does sound awkward, doesn’t it?” I nodded in response. “We could take your birth name? What was it?”
“St Clair,” I said deadpan.
“The Simfield St Clairs you mentioned?” I nodded and Faith continued, “Annette St Clair now Annette Price, was she the grandmother you talked to on the phone this morning?” I nodded again.
“One and the same,” I replied, “Although Annette is my great-great-grandmother, not my grandmother.”
“Are there more fairies in your family?” Faith asked.
“Grandmother Annette became a fairy through an Alchemy potion fairly recently,” I replied. “So no, there were no other fairies in my family until you and Julian.”
“And Hope,” she said. I wondered if that was the name she was planning to call our future daughter but she continued before I could ask. “So do you want to take the surname of St Clair?” she asked.
“Not particularly, when I hear someone say Mr St Clair these days, I look around for my father.” I said wondering how on Earth I was going to tell him all this.
“We could take my mother’s maiden name of Baker if you like.” Faith suggested. I felt chills at the very mention of that name.
With my hair standing up all over my arms and neck I asked, “Please say your mother was not Rosalie Baker from Simfield?”
“No,” she looked at me curiously, “my mother was Deborah Baker. Rosalie Baker was my Uncle Roland’s wife. I know she died a long time ago in a house fire. You must have grown up in Simfield, do you know what happened to Uncle Roland and his daughter Audrey? I couldn’t find out anything about them when I went there.”
Since there was no way under the sun that great-great-grandmother Annette didn’t see the similarity between Faith and her great-grandson’s wife, I’d say Annette didn’t tell Faith the truth out of spite but I don’t know why the rest of the town didn’t tell Faith the truth.
“Sit down my darling cousin, you’re in for the shock of your life.” I said far more calmly than I felt.
Faith promptly sat on a chair her mouth agape. I sat on the other chair. “Rosalie Baker died decades ago as you know. Roland Baker died of old age a year or so before I was born. Their daughter Audrey Baker married Alastair St Clair, my father. They are very much alive and currently living in Union Cove with twins Lucy and Rosalie, who are teens as of last week, and another set of twins, Deborah and Roland who are now toddlers.”
“So my cousin Audrey is your step-mother?” Faith asked leaping to her feet, a beaming smile spreading all over her beautiful and so familiar face.”
“No, my darling Faith, you misunderstand me,” I stood and hugged her. I whispered into her hair, “Audrey St Clair is my mother. To cut a ridiculously long convoluted story short, my parents took Young Again potions to age back to young adults to give Audrey her almost pathological desire for a large family. It must be a recurring family trait.”
My cell phone rang shrilly in the intervening silence. I looked at the caller ID but didn’t know it so I cut the call. It rang again almost immediately with the same caller ID. I cut the second call but it rang for the third time. Annoyed, I answered it, because this caller was clearly not going to go away. “Brandon Arthur St Clair-Crumplebottom, you have a lot of explaining to do!” my mother’s voice so very like my beautiful bride-to-be’s, filled the air.
