Christmas Day
Once the turkey was washed, stuffed with sage and onion and wrapped in foil, and all the veg prepped, the four had sat around chatting on the sofa until just after midnight, when Daniel noticed that Marina was getting tired.
"Come on, it is time we all went to bed," he said, "I'll turn the oven on now, on a low setting and let us get some sleep after all the excitement this evening. Giles finishes at six in the morning, so when does he normally get in, Ginny?"
"We are only twenty minutes' walk away, but the chances are that his relief will come in early, so he might be here for six. He'll be tired and will need to get his head down for three or four hours."
"That's settled that then," Marina declared, "if none of you have any objection, I'm sleeping in the guest room with Daniel, so Giles can have the empty couch when he gets in. Besides, it would be nice to snuggle up against the man I intend to sleep with for the rest of my life. Don't look shocked, girls. See, your father is all smiles."
Sophie put her arms around Marina and squeezed her.
"I am going to miss you as a room mate and occasional bed partner, Marina, you have been such a comfort to me, that I can never thank you enough. Make my Daddy happy, because he is a wonderful man who deserves you and I can't think of anyone more deserving of him than you."
"Thank you, Sophie, but any other time you want a cuddle, I will always be there for you. And it looks like from now on we are going to be a real family together."
"I know, Marina, dear Marina. And I promise that I will speak to you in the morning, once I've slept on what you asked."
They kissed and parted, Sophie to hug her father and Ginny, to release her Daddy and embrace Marina.
"I know I haven't known you long and got to love you quite as much as my sister tells me she does, Marina, and you know that no-one could never completely replace my Mummy, but I do believe that I will want to call you my 'Mum', very soon."
"Thank you, Ginny, I would never wish to replace your mother, but I couldn't imagine having a better family and lovelier girls to call my daughters."
The two girls disappeared into the bathroom, while Marina followed her fiancé out into the kitchen, where he was checking over everything before setting the low temperature on the oven.
"Hope I didn't embarrass you then, Daniel, it's just that you -"
He turned from making his adjustments and pulled her into him, smothering her words of apology with his lips. Marina melted into him, it was the most searing kiss she had ever experienced in her life and she barely held on to her consciousness as her knees went to jelly and Daniel crushed her to him.
"I love you, dear Marina," as he broke off the kiss and she snapped back from her dreamy state. "I want to spend my every waking moment with you, so it follows that sharing all my sleeping hours with you immediately would be the answer to my prayers."
"Oh my, I've heard of and read about kisses so wonderful that your legs turn to jelly, well, that just happened! And, Daniel, every kiss just seems to impossibly eclipse the previous best kiss ever."
"Hey! Bathroom's free you two," Ginny poked her head around the door before disappearing, giggling, "sweet dreams, if you ever manage to get any sleep."
"Go to bed, girl!" Daniel ordered, though his face was smiling broadly.
"Daniel ..." she whispered, "tonight I am very tired and you know that I er, just want to ... sleep."
"That's fine with me, sweetheart, really it is."
"I want our first time to be private, just ... us in the house, you know?"
"Marina, we have all the time in the world, the rest of our lives. We have a whole lot of relaxed courtship to go through before then, kissing, holding hands, touching, building trust between us to reinforce our love. I want us getting so used to touching and trusting each other that the act of not touching will seem empty, missing something. We'll just let nature take its course, shall we?"
"Yes, that sounds heavenly, but Nature sometimes needs a little push, don't you think?"
"Oh, I agree. And I want us to be man and wife as soon as. I will speak to the vicar next week and see when he can fit us in."
"I suppose you have some influence?"
"Of course. The Medcalf pews used to be the Joseph pews and are somewhat grand, standing out from all the rest. Now, do you want to wait until we're actually married and on our honeymoon? I -"
"No, of course not," she laughed, "we're not that old, or that old-fashioned, are we?"
"No we are not, but Ginny and Sophie will be out of our hair in a few days and then we can please ourselves."
"Mmm, 'please ourselves', I like that. Come on, it's gone midnight. Merry Christmas, darling, let's go to bed."
"Merry Christmas, my love, the first of many I hope. You have made me the happiest man on earth."
***
Jenny Baker was up early on Christmas morning and made enough noise putting the kettle on in the kitchen to wake the whole household, with the exception of her brother, Andy, naturally.
Alex turned over and looked at the alarm clock, it was only ten more minutes before her alarm went off. She had set it last night, knowing that she had to take the prepared and foiled turkey from the cool conservatory and put it in the oven if it was going to be cooked in time for a three-o'clock dinner. She turned back over and cuddled up to Dave, who was, as he usually was, as warm as toast. 'Mmm', she thought, luxuriating in the warmth, ten minutes longer in bed on Christmas morning was too long a time to simply give up just like that.
Tracey decided to get up early too, before her parents went downstairs. She wanted to speak to Jenny about her condition as soon as possible, rather than have her hear it bellowed from her father. She wasn't worried about her brother, he would take whatever revelation she made in his stride and barely mention it until she was obviously starting to show. Fortunately, she hadn't had any problem with morning sickness, so far.
***
When Marina woke, Daniel was lying close up behind her with his arm draped over her, his hand nestling just below her left breast. He was hot and she could feel the light and restful rhythm of his warm breath on the back of her neck. She felt warm and comforted by his presence and embrace. She wanted to stretch and desperately wanted to pee, but at the same time she didn't want to move. She took her mind off her bladder by thinking about the previous night. There had been none of the awkwardness she had expected, getting undressed for bed. Daniel had deflected all her anxieties as soon as they closed the door on their, she repeated the word 'their', lengthening the vowels luxuriantly, th-ei-r bedroom by wrapping his arms around her.
"Relax my love," he had said, "this is how we'll play our changing for bed for now, until you are comfortable. You go to the bathroom first, while I get changed, then we'll switch, but, when we are at home all alone, we'll step it up when you're ready. I'll put on a strip show for you, and I will expect a show in return."
"Mmm, I'll have to practice my moves, will there be music?"
"Music you want? Then music you shall have... If we've nothing to play, then I'll whistle. If we had the London Philharmonic in here playing you a tune, I expect I will still wolf whistle at the appropriate moments!"
Marina smiled to herself at her recollection. She had already been tucked up in the middle of the bed, the duvet pulled up to her neck when Daniel returned from washing and cleaning his teeth. She laughed out loud as he silently stripped off down to his silk pyjamas, extravagantly kicking off each slipper in turn, twirling the cord from his dressing gown like a propellor. Then he turned his back on her and slipped the dressing gown off one shoulder while looking over his shoulder at her, wiggling his eyebrows up and down, then repeating with the other shoulder before letting the gown slid off his shoulders onto the floor. Then he bowed to her, which she could only reward with a round of gentle applause.
"Oh boy! I am going to have to practice some moves to upstage you, my love!" she said, "Now, what side of the bed do you want?"
"Right now I would definitely prefer the middle, but for the moment I'll take this side," indicating her right.
She pulled back the duvet on his side, so he could get in. They settled comfortably in each other's arms. It wasn't long before Marina drifted off to sleep, her breathing matching her fiancé's.
Now she was awake. It was still dark and quiet both outside and in. She couldn't reach her watch to check the time without disturbing Daniel, so she continued to remain relaxed. Let the others get up first, she determined, while she was quietly comfortable, until she was reminded of her bladder again.
"Daniel?" she whispered almost as quietly as her breathing.
"Yes, sweetheart?" he replied instantly.
"Have you been awake long?"
Marina started to turn and face her fiancé.
"Quite some time. I didn't want to move and disturb you."
"Well, I must get up and go to the loo. I have been awake a few minutes but can't hold on much longer."
"Me too, go on you get in there first."
They kissed briefly and Marina scooted out of bed and dashed across to the door to the hallway. The bedroom wasn't that dark, because of the streetlights outside. She looked back as she opened the door, and saw him stretch himself out on the bed with a big goofy smile on his face.
"You look very relaxed, my darling."
"And so I should be, I'm the cat that's got the cream. Now hurry! I need to go too!"
When Marina had finished in the bathroom and came out, she almost bumped into Giles, just returned from work.
"Hi, Marina, I thought you were staying at your sister's last night?" he whispered, the flat still sounded quiet.
"Change of plan, Giles," she held up her left hand with the engagement ring flashing in the light from the sitting room.
"Daniel?"
