and Maggie to set up the tables, chairs and decorations. She felt good about it, the community spirit, the fact that the charity would still get their money. But she still couldn’t raise a smile about her relationship with Henry.
She had barely seen him for the rest of the day. He’d returned once with more heaters but disappeared again without saying a word. He’d texted her later to say he had got caught transporting people around the town and, although lots of people had come and gone with food and cake, she hadn’t seen him again. She had no idea whether he’d even come home yet or was still helping out somewhere. She’d got a lift home from one of the local farmers in the end. She didn’t know whether they were ever going to get past this. They loved each other, but his fear of upsetting Daisy seemed to far outweigh any feelings he had for Penny. She wanted Daisy to be happy with them being together too but she was getting a little bit frustrated that Henry would allow his sixteen-year-old daughter – or rather the fear of hurting her – to dictate to him how he lived his life. And although she understood the history behind him being scared, there was a part of her that wanted him to fight for her, to put her on an equal footing with his daughter, not ten spaces behind.
She walked out into the bedroom and stopped. Lying on the bed was the beautiful silver dress she had tried on the other day with Daisy.
Resting on top of the dress was a little paper heart, with the words, ‘Put this on and meet me downstairs, Henry x.’
She found herself smiling hugely. Was she really going to go to the ball with her prince? Had he spoken to Daisy and straightened it all out?
She was tempted to run downstairs now and ask him, but she supposed she should get ready first. She dressed quickly, threw on some make-up and swept her hair up on top of her head.
She opened the bedroom door and was thrown by the trail of rose petals that led from her door and down the stairs, as if she was unable to find her way down on her own.
She stepped down the stairs and saw hundreds of candles flickering in the darkness of her lounge, but standing in the middle of them all was Henry dressed in a tux. She stopped halfway down the stairs and stared at him. If there was a finer sight in the world than Henry Travis in a tuxedo, she was yet to see it.
‘You look so beautiful,’ Henry said, softly, coming to the bottom of the stairs and holding out his hand for her.
She took it, her heart beating wildly as he pulled her into the middle of the lounge.
He kissed her gently on the cheek and then went down on one knee.
Her heart stopped, blood rushed to her head making her immediately dizzy. ‘Henry, shit no, you can’t.’
‘Don’t worry, it’s not that.’
She laughed in relief.
‘I’ve thought about this a lot over the last few days, before I shouted at you and made you cry and before I made my daughter hate me because I lied to her, before any of that happened, I wanted to tell you how I felt. And I didn’t want to just say the words in passing, as if I was asking you what your favourite colour is and I certainly didn’t want to throw the words out while I was trying to get you warm again after you nearly died of hypothermia. I wanted something bigger than that because what I felt for you was so much bigger than anything I’ve ever felt before.’
He pulled a little black box out of his pocket and despite, knowing this wasn’t a proposal, her breath hitched at the sight of it.
He opened it and offered it up to her. Two hearts entwined with each other lay on the black velvet, one wooden heart, one made from crystal. There was a scarlet ribbon tied round the top, but it was the curly words engraved into the wooden heart that caught her attention the most. ‘I love you.’ She ran her fingers lightly over it, the lines of the wood and the shine of the varnish reflecting the lights of the candles beautifully.
‘And this heart…’ He pointed to the crystal. ‘You have to pretend it’s made from ice, a special kind