STEVE Harris drove himself round the bend when he quit his job as a bus driver for a new life.

The former Stagecoach Oxfordshire driver had moved to Lincolnshire, but couldn’t stop thinking about the pretty girl from Brize Norton he used to pick up while driving the former No 100 service between Carterton, Witney and Oxford.

Mr Harris had never been able to bring himself to tell her how much he loved her and would often find himself wondering about her.

Meanwhile Miss Eason had been going through the same emotions – and eventually managed to track down her former bus driver down on the Internet.

On Saturday they once again joined each other on a double-decker bus to start the journey of life as a married couple.

The new Mr Eason-Harris said: “The first day we saw each other again, the conversation was when will we get married?

“It never entered our thoughts that we wouldn’t get married, and here we are.”

He was already married when he began driving Miss Eason to her job in Superdrug in Witney 10 years ago.

The father-of-five got divorced in 2003, and moved to Lincolnshire to start a new life as a researcher for a local authority.

Despite the distance, the 40-year-old could not stop himself thinking about the friend on his former route.

He said: “All this time I wished I had kept in contact with Victoria. I would sit for hours wondering if she was happy with her lot.

“I realised over time that I had made a very big mistake in leaving my friend and that something was always missing within me. I was in love with her but never managed to say it.

“Meanwhile Victoria had gone through much the same as I had.”

Mrs Eason-Harris, 29, who now works for an animal shelter, tracked down her future husband on the social networking website Facebook and they were reunited last August. Their Witney wedding took place exactly six months later.

They travelled to the reception in Eynsham, on one of the double-deckers Mr Eason-Harris used to drive on the No100 route, in a nod to the way they met. About 70 friends and family joined them for the journey.

Mrs Eason-Harris said: “I waited 10 years for this and it has finally happened. I’m very happy.”

The couple will live in Lincolnshire.

Mr Eason-Harris said: “We were both born and bred in Oxfordshire. Our families are here and it’s our home no matter where in the world we live, so it’s right that we should get married to each other in a place that means so much to us.”

witney@oxfordmail.co.uk