Then they were there, Linette realizing with a soft gasp that the pavilion was lit by a dozen tall candelabraadorned with flowers. Adam drew her into the very center and turned to face her. His gaze held hers, so serious still, as he took both of her hands in his.
“Forgive me for leaving you, Linette. Will you?”
She nodded, tears misting her eyes. “I knew you would come back to me, Adam. But what of your father?”
He slowly drew in his breath, clasping her hands more tightly. “We made our peace. Lovewon over hatred. I’m here…with you.”
“With me.” She gasped again as Adam knelt down on one knee in front of her.
“I’ve loved you since we first kissed. Will you marry me, Linette? Here…tonight?”
“Oh, Adam, yes. Yes!”
He rose so suddenly to sweep her into his arms that she felt her heart leap against her breast, and then his lips found hers.
His kiss so wondrous, so tender, that she couldbut close her eyes to the twilight sky, her arms winding around him.
She could not say how long they stood there together, embracing each other, Linette murmuring, “I love you, Adam,” against his lips…until the sound of Donovan clearing his throat, and Paloma’s giggle, made Adam lift his head.
He didn’t look serious anymore, his smile making Linette smile, too, and laugh with some embarrassmentas she realized they were encircled by family and friends. Her father, his Bible in hand, stepped forward…and only then did Linette understand his near blunder in the dining room and her sisters’ nervous excitement.
They must have all known Adam was coming! Yet no banns had been read in church and they weren’t anywhere near her home parish—
“A special license was procured, my love,” Adam murmured,guessing her thoughts as he drew her closer and once more clasped her hands. “Thanks to Donovan…who opened my eyes as well to how close I came to losing you.”
Her eyes brimming with grateful tears, Linette glanced at the beloved faces of all those gathered around them…Corie and Donovan, Lindsay and Jared, Marguerite and Walker, Estelle, beaming, with Luther tucked under her arm, and sweet Paloma,who looked as if she were witnessing a fairy tale come true. Then her father lifted his voice, Linette meeting Adam’s gaze as he tenderly squeezed her fingers.
“Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God…”
One month later
Arundale Hall, Hampshire
“Have I ever told you that you’re an extraordinary man?”
Donovan glanced at Corie, who sat next to him on the terraceas they watched their children run and play in the garden. She’d been smiling a moment ago, enjoying the warm May sunshine, but now she looked so pensive that he quickly sought to tease her.
“I believe a time or two…but no more extraordinary than the woman I married. What an extraordinary pair we make!”
“Oh, Donovan, I’m being serious,” she said with exasperation, leaning toward him in a softrustle of pale green silk to give him a peck on the cheek. Instead he turned his head just in time to kiss her full on the mouth, and what a beautiful mouth, too, which made her erupt into laughter.
“You’re impossible, husband.”
“And you’re the loveliest woman I’ve ever seen,” he said, kissing her smiling lips again for good measure. “To what do I owe such a lofty compliment?”
“I think youknow,” she murmured. “My sisters and Lindsay…they all owe their happiness to you. You’re a good man, Donovan Trent, and I love you with all my heart.”
Staring into Corie’s lovely dark brown eyes, Donovan found for a moment that his throat had tightened too much to speak. He squeezed her hand instead, both of them simply looking at each other until a boyish cry of protest made them turn back tothe garden.
“Dahlia’s taken one of Draydon’s tin soldiers again,” Corie said with a small sigh, though Paloma, always the peacemaker, intervened at once to retrieve the toy and return it to her brother. Dahlia, however, looked quite upset that her older sister had asked for the soldier back, and stomped her foot and crossed her arms over her chest.
Donovan chuckled. “Who does that remind youof?”
Corie laughed, too, but then focused once again on the letter she had dropped to her lap. “I’m so glad Adam will continue on as a doctor…well, that along with everything else occupying him now. He hasn’t wasted any time in starting the renovations at Linley Grove. Linette says she’s enjoying London, but thinks by late autumn they’ll be moving home to Wiltshire.”
“So I suggested to him todo. Strip away the bad memories to make room for the new. It worked for Jared at Dovercourt Manor. I told him the same thing, too. Renovate, add a loving wife and children, and thank God each day thereafter for the happier memories.”
Corie nodded, looking pensive again, which made Donovan sense that she thought of Nigel, his late brother, who’d already done the work of renovating Arundale Hallto rid himself of memories of their harshly domineering father. Except Nigel’s marriage had been loveless and there hadn’t been any children…
