Rose looked surprised. “No, Your Grace, that is Mary’s line. You get to say ‘I do’ a little later.” She smiled kindly at him, but he had stepped around her to stand next to Mary.
“No, Rose,” he said, holding her gaze with his warm blue eyes. “That is the only ‘I do’ I will say today because I am stepping aside.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR
“Pardon me?”
Rose did not understand what he was saying. She thought he was saying that he no longer wanted to marry her. She was aware of him lifting the veil away from her face to lay it back across her hair and taking her shoulders in his hands.
“Rose, when I asked you to marry me, I did not know you. I wanted only what my brother had had, and I was not kind to you.” Rose was staring at him as he spoke. “But since I have been ill, I have come to know the remarkable woman that you are. But it has also come to my attention that there is one man in this world that you love more than any other, and I could never compete with him. I do not intend to stand in the way of true love between two people I have come to like very much.” Rose was sure she must be dreaming. “So today, Rose, I am giving your hand in marriage to my friend, William Browning.”
With that, Ernest took her hand and reached across to press it firmly into Will’s warm palm. Rose’s eyes flew to Will’s. He was grinning at her. This was obviously no surprise to him.
She spun towards Mary, who had the biggest smile on her face she had ever seen, and Ernest, standing next to her, was now looking supremely satisfied. All of the guests were smiling widely. Not a single person in the entire congregation looked surprised, even Anna and Jennings. It was only then that she saw John Carney and the Countess of Denbigh sitting together. John blew her a kiss.
Rose ripped her hand out of Will’s and confronted them all.
“You tricked me,” she shouted.
She glared at Ernest first. He was nodding furiously.
“And you, my own sister.” Mary was almost helpless with laughter at his side.
“And as for you,” she turned to face Will, who was standing with his hands held wide as if to declare his innocence or perhaps protect himself if she started punching.
“I cannot believe you! How could you? When you knew… this place…”
She could not contain her tears any longer. She had no idea why she was crying. She was marrying Will. He was standing right in front of her, and it seemed all barriers to them being together had just been lifted, but she felt like she wanted to cry until all the tears bundled up inside her had been shed.
“Rose,” Will took the white handkerchief from his breast pocket and dabbed at her eyes. “Don’t cry.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me?” she asked him plaintively.
“I thought you might not say yes.” He smiled.
“All you had to do was ask me properly, not torment me for days.”
Will grabbed her then and wrapped her in his arms, holding her so tightly she could feel his heartbeat through his jacket. She heard him whisper, “I love you, Rose. I have loved you since the first day I saw you. I am sorry for being so blind, for holding you at bay, for deceiving you, for making you feel I didn’t want you for my lover and my wife, for making you sit through that horrible dinner.” Rose began to laugh against his chest despite her tears. “I just wanted everything to be perfect for you.”
“It is perfect,” Rose managed to say from deep within his embrace.
“Well then, my gorgeous Rose,” Will said, and he suddenly let go of her to kneel down amid the petals strewn around them. “Will you marry me? Right here? Right now?”
There was a collective intake of breath from the congregation as Rose looked into those familiar deep brown eyes and was lost in them for a moment. Then she nodded.
“Yes, Will Browning, I will marry you.”
The congregation erupted into applause. Will sprung up from his kneeling position to grab her in his arms and whirl her around. She was laughing. Mary was laughing. She heard John blow a loud whistle with his fingers. The vicar, trying to bring order to the crowd, shouted, “Shall we begin?” as Rose batted at her eyes to lessen the redness around them. However, before she would stand at the altar in front of Will, Rose turned and took a few steps towards Ernest. She stood in front of him and took his hands.
“Thank you,” she said simply, and he just nodded. Then she put her mouth close to his ear and said, “I would have married you.” Ernest beamed back at her and said, “I know!”
She moved back to stand before Will. He reached up and brought her veil back over her face.
“Are you ready?”
He took her hands in his much larger ones, and she felt the heat race up her arms into her shoulders.
“I have been ready since I was thirteen,” she smiled up at him. “I just wish I wasn’t getting married in another man’s choice of dress and jewelry.”