first_in_time | Weddings are such dull affairs.

They had spent most of the day in bed talking, reading to one another from the newspaper, kissing, cuddling. When they eventually emerged from the sheets for a late breakfast, they realised that it was very nearly time to begin getting ready for Rhonda's wedding that afternoon.

Barbara stood in the bathroom sometime after their breakfast, applying makeup. She glanced at Ian's reflection next to her, only just having managed to squeeze himself into the tiny bathroom.

"What is it?" she asked, half smiling at the look on his face.

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From:

splendid_roman

"There's no great rush. We can wait for the right house." He briefly touched her hand before putting the car in gear and driving off. "And the longer it takes the more we'll have saved and the nicer house we'll be able to buy."

From:

first_in_time

"I'm not overly worried. We'll find somewhere eventually. We have only been married for six months." Barbara smiled over at him and pressed a kiss to her hand which she put against Ian's cheek as he drove.

"What I'm really looking forward to is showing off my husband," she said after a moment. "Even if some people there will already know you, I've not had a chance to do as much yet."

From:

splendid_roman

He glanced over to smile at her. "I am looking forward to introducing you as my wife to people we don't know." Even after six months that still hadn't quite worn off.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara couldn't help but smile. She was so in love with Ian that even being introduced as his wife made her heart flutter, but she kept that to herself and instead watched the road as they drove along it. She felt pretty, had an amazing husband and was on her way to a wedding.

So when they arrived, she was in high spirits. Barbara stepped out of the car and reached out to wrap an arm around Ian's waist. She smiled at the people who walked past them in the car park oft he chapel.

From:

splendid_roman

Ian put an arm across Barbara's shoulders, but dropped it when they entered the chapel and Brenda waved at them. They didn't have much choice but to sit behind her - at least there wasn't any space left on her pew.

"Fancy seeing you here," Brenda said, grinning. Her husband, Phil, was chatting with someone else and didn't seem to have noticed Ian and Barbara's arrival. "And married too," she added, grabbing Barbara's left hand to look at her rings. "When did that happen?"

Much as Ian wanted to come up with a lie, nothing was going to sound believable. They were just going to have to deal with the 'I told you so's that the truth would bring. "Six months ago." He sat with his hands in his lap for now, not wanting to give Brenda any more ammunition.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara let Brenda look all she wanted. It was Brenda who twisted awkwardly inher seat.

"Six months already!" Brenda gasped a little too enthusiastically, "I hardly remember six months into our marriage. Tell me how wedded bliss has been treating you, Mrs. Chesterton."

"It has been lovely,". Barbara said and grinned despite herself.

"So everyone was right about the two of you?" Brenda asked teasingly and poked the somewhat disinterested Ian.

From:

splendid_roman

"I wouldn't say that." Ian frowned at the poke. "We were just friends when we were teaching at Coal Hill."

Brenda snorted. "Didn't look much like it to me."

Phil finally broke off his conversation and turned round to see who his wife was talking to. He smiled when he saw Barbara.

"They looked like they were going to get married when we met them at the theatre, didn't they, Phil?" Brenda elbowed his husband, who woke up a bit, but said, "Did they?"

From:

first_in_time

"It was too early to tell," was all Barbara could say. Since the theater, Phil had made her a little uncomfortable. Particularly with that smile. She shuffled a little always from Ian when Phil reached out to shake his hand . "We hadn't been dating long when we ran into the two of you."

"Beside the point," Brenda scoffed.

Phil reached for Barbara's hand. She felt the need to be polite and let him take it. Until he kissed it.

"Are you sure?" she asked, pulling back from Phil and self-consciously wiped her hand on her dress.

From:

splendid_roman

Ian casually rested his arm across the back of the pew, so then he could put a hand on Barbara's back. He liked Phil's behaviour less than he liked Brenda's.

"It doesn't matter now," Brenda conceded. "You're married now anyway. You must tell us everything about the wedding."

"We eloped," Ian said, glad there wasn't much to tell.

"You did?" Brenda's eyes widened. She looked down at Barbara's stomach, but fortunately the mathematics didn't work there and Barbara certainly didn't look like someone who had recently given birth. "What's the story behind that?"

From:

first_in_time

She leaned back a little into Ian's hand, taking comfort in it as she said: "We were tired of everyone making a fuss, so we booked ourselves into Gretena Green and took a week in Scotland to marry and holiday."

"How scandalous! And did the families take it rather well?" Brenda prodded, ever the collector of gossip.

From:

splendid_roman

"Yes. They were just happy we were happy." Ian was hardly going to tell her all the details.

Brenda looked unhappy about not getting any more juicy gossip, but before she could ask more questions she was distracted by the arrival of the bride. Both she and Phil were captivated by Rhonda as she walked down the aisle, looking happy.

Through the ceremony there was something about the groom, and his family, that seemed off somehow, although he couldn't put his finger on it. Under cover of hymn singing Ian whispered to Barbara, "Does the groom seem alright to you?"

From:

first_in_time

"I'm not sure," Barbara whispered back, "maybe he's ill or just terribly nervous?"

If she was truthful, the groom looked bored but Barbara wanted to be a little open minded about it. She hardly knew the man. Maybe he always looked bored.

From:

splendid_roman

"Maybe." He left it alone, partly because it was a short hymn and partly because it wasn't anything he could put his finger on. But Ian kept his eye on him and during the next hymn he whispered to Barbara again. "He doesn't know any of the hymns. He's pretending to sing, but not very well." His mouth wasn't forming the right shapes and he looked a little lost.

From:

first_in_time

"Maybe he isn't from here and sings different hymns back home," Barbara whispered back, despite a feeling of unease growing on her. "There are an awful lot of hymns in the world."

The song ended and everyone took their seats again. The priest gave the vows, which were repeated by both the bride and the groom each in their own turn. The groom did have a peculiar accent. Maybe Rhonda had met him abroad? But how could she travel with a baby? Maybe he was visiting and met Rhonda. Either way, Rhonda was marrying and she was happy.

The vows were sealed with a kiss and, nervous or not, Barbara couldn't help but get the impression that the groom would rather do anything else than kiss Rhonda, not that she seemed to notice. While everyone applauded the newly wedded couple, Barbara glanced up at Ian, an unspoken question in her eyes: did you see that?

From:

splendid_roman

He looked back at her with a worried expression. He had seen that. Maybe the groom was just nervous and didn't want a big ceremony, but he was still getting married - he should still be happy about that part. And he did look happier now, as he walked back up the aisle, hand in hand with Rhonda.

"We need to speak to him." Ian took Barbara's hand, so they could rush out of the chapel. But unfortunately they weren't the only ones and there was already a crowd outside when Ian and Barbara emerged into the sunlight. At least they'd got away from Brenda and Phil. Ian couldn't see them at all as he looked around.

From:

first_in_time

The crowd flocked around Rhonda and her new husband. well-wishers shouted their congratulations and others threw rice for luck. Barbara brushed some of it out of their hair.

"Let's wait our turn," Barbara said to Ian, keeping close to his side. "We can keep an eye on them and stick to the back of the crowd. Once it thins, we'll have a better chance of speaking with them."

From:

splendid_roman

He nodded. "Are you sorry we didn't have this for our wedding?" Maybe they wouldn't have got married in a church, but still to have your family and friends there would be nice. Although only until he thought about the arguments it would have involved when they found out Ian and Barbara hadn't taken all their conflicting advice.

From:

first_in_time

Barbara thought about it a moment, then said: "a little but our wedding was ours, which made it perfect in my opinion."

From:

splendid_roman

He smiled at her. "You're right." He squeezed our hand. "I certainly don't regret being married."

From:

first_in_time

"How.could you when you're married to someone like me?" she asked and leaned up to kiss his neck. They were at a wedding; everyone was kissing.

Except for those watching everyone kissing.

"Chesterton!" an older, male voice barked from a little ways away. Barbara jumped and stopped, adopting a look akin to a child who had been caught doing something wrong.

Nearby, their old headmaster was marching toward them both, a short, lithe women following along behind.

From:

splendid_roman

Ian stood up straight himself, trying his best not to look intimidated and not really pulling it off. "Headmaster," he said, before remembering that he wasn't their headmaster any more.

"You assured me there was nothing going on between you," he said sternly, looking from Ian to Barbara.

"There wasn't. We waited until we both left the school." Well, they hadn't exactly, but they were hardly going to tell him what they'd felt and when.

"Run away, you mean."

From:

first_in_time

"We didn't run away," Barbara said for at least the eighth time, "we have explained everything. And as for us, we always made sure to not make anyone feel uncomfortable. Now we're married and we've never been happier."

The little woman's lit up at the sight of the younger couple. "My my! Is that Ian Chesterton?" she aske with a grin and went up to kiss Ian's cheek in a very warm greeting.

The headmaster never could yell at Ian for long when his wife was around.

From:

splendid_roman

Ian smiled at her, glad there was someone to deflect the Headmaster's questioning. "It's good to see you," he said. "This is my wife, Barbara." He wasn't sure if they'd met, but he was going to introduce her anyway, and couldn't help grinning as he did so.

"It's lovely to see you too." She went on to shake Barbara's hand. "Isn't it nice to see Rhonda settled down at last?"

From:

first_in_time

"It is," Barbara replied pleasantly and smiled back, "and she looks so happy, too."

"Well that's marriage, isn't it?" the headmaster's wife replied as her husband reached an arm across her shoulders.

Barbara hadn't ever seen the headmaster like that before; affectionate and (almost) loving. It was nice to see.

From:

splendid_roman

It was odd to see their former headmaster doing anything so normal. And much as he might have discussed marriage with his wife, he wasn't going to do so with the headmaster.

"So." The headmaster coughed. "Did you get new jobs?" He would have known exactly how their disappearance coupled with his refusal to give them references would have made that hard.

"Yes, thank you," Ian said politely, but a little rigidly. "I'm teaching at a technical college."