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Keeping hold of her hand, he dropped to one knee in front of her.
‘Elspeth, I have wanted you every day for the last six months, and I will love you every day for the rest of my life. Will you please put me out of my misery and agree to be my wife?’
She looked down into the face of the man she loved and saw all the possibilities for their future in his hopeful gaze. ‘I will, Fraser. I love you and I’ll be your wife tomorrow if I can.’
She pulled him up by the hands until he was standing in front of her, then wound her arms round his neck and pulled him in close.
Fraser laughed, the deep, rich timbre of his mirth muffled by her hair. ‘I’m more than tempted to take you up on that, but I trust that you’re not going to change your mind. Anyway, now this wee bairn is so close...’ he smoothed a gentle hand around her bump ‘... I’d quite like to share the day with him, or her. What do you think?’
‘I think that sounds perfect,’ Elspeth replied, her face buried in his neck. ‘I think that sounds like everything I’ve ever wanted.’
EPILOGUE
AS ELSPETH RAPPED her knuckles on the black front door, the sunlight caught the pretty row of diamonds on the third finger of her left hand and she smiled, wondering if she would ever get used to seeing them there. If she would ever glance at them and not be reminded of that evening in her mum’s kitchen, when she had realised that despite all her best efforts to sabotage things Fraser loved her, and he wasn’t going to let her go. That, despite years of telling herself that she couldn’t have everything that she wanted, she was getting all that and more.
She dropped her hand back to her side and Fraser’s fingers curled through hers with an intimacy that was nowhere close to losing its thrill.
The door opened in front of them and Sarah was waiting for them in the hallway, beaming with happiness and pride. ‘Come in!’ she said. ‘Where is she? Where’s my niece?’
Elspeth glanced across at the car seat Fraser was carrying beside him and was almost overwhelmed by tears at the sight of her baby daughter, tucked up in a blanket and snoring gently.
‘She’s so beautiful,’ Sarah said, mirroring Elspeth’s smile, causing more tears to well up. ‘Come through to the living room—I’m desperate to cuddle her.’
‘I’m to warn you that there are severe penalties for waking a sleeping baby,’ Fraser said, in a voice of mock seriousness.
‘That’s an auntie’s prerogative, surely?’ Sarah fired back, pulling her chair up beside the sofa where Fraser had left the car seat in order to get a better look at the baby. ‘Does she have a name yet?’
Elspeth glanced at Fraser. ‘We’re thinking maybe... Isabel. But we haven’t set our minds yet.’
‘Plenty of time to get to know her,’ Fraser said, smiling at Elspeth and then beaming at his daughter.
It was something else she would never tire of, she realised, that expression. The pure joy and pride and love when he looked at their baby. It was everything she had dreamed of since she had found out that she was pregnant. Before she had even thought to dream of him for herself.
The baby snuffled, grunted and pursed her lips, and Fraser, Elspeth and Sarah all laughed quietly.
‘I guess that’s my cue to get comfy on the sofa,’ Elspeth said, scooping the baby up and latching her on for a feed. ‘You said on the phone you needed Fraser to do you a favour? You should get him while you can. We’re thinking of going up to Ballanross for a few weeks, making the most of my maternity leave and spending some time there.’
‘I think I’m going to like having a brother-in-law,’ Sarah said. ‘He volunteers for DIY and he brings a castle into the family. I’ll like him even better when I get to see Ballanross for myself. How’s the building work going?’
‘Slowly,’ Fraser said, his face serious for a moment. ‘But we’re doing it right. We’re rebuilding the estate from top to bottom, and eventually we’ll be self-sufficient again. By the time this wee one is old enough to remember,’ he said, and smiled across at the baby, ‘it’ll be just how I knew it.’
Elspeth squeezed his hand, watching the interaction between her fiancée and her sister, seeing how they were supporting each other and feeling a warm glow of happiness.
Fraser had played an invaluable part in getting Sarah’s apartment ready. It had taken a lot of planning, and a leap of faith and confidence, but Sarah had been determined to move into a flat on her own, and Elspeth had finally seen that it was up to her to support her sister’s dreams—not get in the way. And now she was here, and she could see the pride on Sarah’s face as she showed them round her new flat, showed them the changes that had been made since she had first moved in a couple of weeks ago.
Which was why Elspeth was curious about what Sarah needed Fraser for. They’d had a team of builders in here to make sure the flat was perfectly adapted for Sarah and her carers. She’d thought it had all been taken care of already. But if her sister needed a favour, and Fraser was happy to help out, then who was she to interfere?
She pulled a cushion from the other end of the sofa and tucked it under her arm, looking down and watching the baby’s perfect round cheeks wobble as she fed.
Fraser returned, carrying a very large box and with a smile on his face. Sarah was just behind him.
She pointed at the large blank space above the TV. ‘Right, you and I are going to direct, Elspeth, and Fraser is going to do the heavy lifting.’
‘Okay...’ Elspeth said, as if she had an idea what her sister was talking about.
She’d found, over the years, that it was often just easier to go along with Sarah when she had one of her grand plans. Now she’d realised that her sister was perfectly capable of making her own decisions about where to live, she couldn’t really dispute what she planned to do now she was all moved in.
‘Where do you think we should hang this one?’
