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“Bloody hell, woman!”
“I’m so sorry!”
His gray eyes burned as he swept his gaze over her. “A snowball? Again? What am I to do with you?”
Matilda, her heart racing, looked into his eyes, smiling past her tears. “You can marry me, you coward.”
His lips curved into a rakish grin. “I suppose I’ll have to now, won’t I?” He got down on one knee in front of her, and she covered her mouth with the back of one hand to keep herself from crying.
Only he didn’t offer her a ring. Instead he quickly packed a snowball in his gloved hands. Realizing what he meant to do, she spun to race back toward the house, only to be walloped in her bottom with the solidly thrown ball.
“Who’s the coward now?”
“Oh! Why you—!” She turned back to face him, arming herself with another snowy projectile, and retaliating. Arthur took to the trees for cover while he rearmed himself, filling the crook of his arm with several balls he could fire in rapid succession.
It didn’t take long for the two of them to exhaust themselves. In the end, they lay side by side, battered, beaten, and laughing.
When he had caught his breath, Arthur got up on one knee again. Only this time, he reached into his coat pocket and produced a ring. A beautiful sapphire ring surrounded by diamonds. She got up as he reached for her hand.
“You have beaten me fair and square. Here’s your ring, you silly,wonderfulwoman.” He removed her glove and slipped the ring on her hand, then put the glove back on.
“Life with you will never be dull, will it?” she said softly as he stood and held her hands in his own.
“I rather hope not. We have so much living to do, don’t we?”
She nodded, her eyes brimming with tears. “Kiss me before I cry again,” she commanded.
Arthur pulled her into his embrace, and their lips met in a blur of burning fire. She felt a flame grow between them, one so strong it would never burn out.
This was the second time in her life she had received a letter that had changed everything. But today wasChristmas, a day of miracles, a day of second chances, a day of love.
“Shall we go fetch Florence? We could be home in time for Miss Benson’s Christmas pudding. I’m told it’s quite something,” Arthur said before he kissed the tip of Matilda’s nose, making her laugh.
“We certainly wouldn’t want to miss that,” she said, and slipped her arm through his as he retrieved his horse and walked back to the cottage.
“I don’t want us to missanything,” Arthur said. His words burrowed deep in her heart, taking shape in the form of a future so bright, it filled her body with a beautiful warmth that glowed like starlight.
EPILOGUE
Five years later…
The Christmas Eve balls at Castleton Hall had become legendary. The best of London society and all the local villagers mingled on the dance floor. Matilda had flourished as the new Countess of Castleton, and the tall, dark-haired gentleman at her side had eyes only for her. In the last five years, Arthur had proven that at leastsomerakes could be reformed into better husbands.
Tired of dancing, Florence pulled her husband, Dr. Andrew Danvers, out of the ballroom and into a secret alcove. Nestled behind a tall potted plant, she kissed the man who had stolen her heart, the doctor who had seen to her care when she and Matilda had first come to stay at Castleton Hall. She told him she wanted to check on the children.
“Do you wish for me to come with you?” he asked.
“That’s all right. Stay here. I shall return and be ready for another dance, once I’ve rested my feet.”
She crept up the stairs to the nursery where her son, a miracle child she’d been blessed with at the age of three and forty, was sleeping next to Matilda and Arthur’s two children. She and Andrew had moved into Meadow Cross cottage after Arthur had finished his renovations, which had nearly doubled its size. The village had expanded as well over the past few years, and the small little world that she and Matilda had both felt so trapped in was becoming a bustling small city.
This transformation had partially been due to Matilda’s shrewd investments in local businesses, though where the money for those investments came from had been a bit of a surprise.
Arthur had listened to her investment discussions and secretly put money into the various schemes she’d wanted to participate in, then revealed the truth on their first anniversary when the accounts began to swell with money. Florence smiled as she remembered the look on Matilda’s face at breakfast that morning, staring at the account statements from the banks in London.
“It’s yours now. It’s the fortune you would have made, had you been able to,” Arthur had said. “Do with it as you wish.”
Matilda decided to become a silent partner in several shops that the village needed in order to grow, and Arthur had agreed it was a splendid idea. And those investments had paid off just as well as those that had been made in secret.
