A cake.
It was one of their words, wasn’t it? Part of a private language that lovers created.
She bit back a smile. ‘It’s picturesque,non?’
‘Non,’ Angus echoed. ‘It’s romantic.’
Tilly blinked. ‘You don’t have to be romantic,’ she told him. ‘I love you for exactly who you are, Angus McLeod.’
Oh, mon Dieu– she’d said it first, hadn’t she?
She’d broken the fairy tale.
Except it didn’t feel like that. It felt like Angus had been telling her that he loved her from the moment he’d come back to France and sent that text message. Because he’d arranged a balloon ride even though he’d sworn he’d never do it again. He’dcared enough to tell her to wear something warm. He’d crinkled his eyes at her and he’d kissed her like she was the only woman on earth that he could ever want to be with.
And… she trusted him.
So she kept talking.
‘You are the most genuine, loving, funny, amazing man I have ever met,’ she told him into the silence. ‘I don’t need icing on a cake like that. I could never stop loving you.’
Angus was smiling. ‘But why have a naked cake when youcanhave the icing and make it even more delicious? Romance isn’t meaningless at all. I was looking at it all wrong – as a means to an end. But it’s not – it’s a way of enhancing what’s already there. Like… singing a love song instead of just saying the words.’
They were right over Saint-Paul-de-Vence now.
‘Look,’ he said, because Tilly was staring at him and missing what was right below them.
The sculpture. L’Envol.
They both looked down as they floated past the beautiful half-man, half-bird about to take flight.
‘I’m not going to sing to you,’ Angus said, firmly. ‘I’m tone deaf. But I am going to say the words. I love you, Mathilde Pascoe. I’minlove with you. Being away from you even for a short time has made me realise I want to bewithyou for the rest of my life.’
He kissed her again. Or maybe it was Tilly kissing him. It didn’t matter and they didn’t break the kiss when the burner reminded them they weren’t alone. By the time they did, they were over the centre of Vence. Another cathedral, this time with the chestnut tree behind it that they’d been able to see from the summit of the Baou des Blancs.
Tilly looked up to find the cross – a dark metal shape against the milky sky behind it. But the sun was there and, as shewatched, it got high enough over the horizon for the light to touch the cross and make it gold instead of black.
‘Oh.’ Tilly gasped. ‘It’s so beautiful.’ She looked up at Angus. ‘Did you know it was going to do that?’
His smile told her just how carefully he’d planned this and she loved him even more for it.
‘I wanted you to have the most breathtaking view I could think of,’ he said. He stood behind Tilly, his arms around her, both of them watching the sunrise bathe the summit of the mountain, and he deliberately used words he remembered her saying to him. ‘Because I want to give you the world.This’ – he paused for a heartbeat – ‘is how much I love you.’
Tilly’s face turned up to his again. She could also remember exactly the words she’d spoken that day. ‘You are the person I want to be with,’ she whispered to finish them. ‘Only you. Now and forever.’
* * *
Angus reached into his pocket and took out the small suede envelope.
‘This doesn’t have to be anything more than you want it to be,’ he told Tilly. ‘It can be a friendship ring but I want to give it to you because you were right. I did choose this for what it symbolises and it wasn’t associated with a person. Until now. You are the woman I’ve fallen in love with. The person I want to spend the rest of my life with.’
He slipped the ring onto the finger she’d put it on herself in what felt like forever ago.
‘You can wear it on this hand for as long as you need to be sure,’ he said. ‘But, one day, I hope you’ll be ready to wear it on your other hand and I promise I’ll try and dream up the most romantic proposal ever.’
Tilly had tears sparkling in her eyes. ‘I’m the woman who’s just as much in love with you,’ she told him.
So why was she pulling the ring off her finger, with almost as much determination as she had the first time she’d worn it?
