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With the sun shining upon them, bees busy gathering nectar, a frog or two croaking in the ponds’ underbrush, while various birds called to one another, he would ask her to be his duchess.

“Jemmah, you are the jewel I’ve carried in my heart since I was a wee lad of ten. No one else makes me smile like you do. You consume my thoughts, and I cannot imagine any greater joy than spending the rest of my life with you.” He smiled into her shining eyes. “Will you marry me?”

Jemmah squatted and extended her left hand.

Leave it to her to do something wholly unexpected.

“I shall, Jules. I’ve loved you for so long, I don’t remember what life was before I did.” She gave a little self-conscious laugh, as he slipped the ring on her finger.

“As a little girl, I imagined myself a princess, wearing a sapphire and diamond tiara, and locked in a tower. And you were the handsome prince who rescued me. On a white steed, of course, and carried me off to his castle to live happily ever after.”

“Well, the duchy has a castle, and I believe several tiaras too. I own a white horse or two as well,” he said assisting her upright. “And I shall strive every day to make you happy.”

“I need nothing but to be with you to be deliriously so.”

Then, in typical Jemmah fashion, she levered onto her toes, and kissed him.

On the mouth.

In public.

And it was perfect.