Christmas at Lilac Cottage - Holly Martin Page 0,128
tension from his voice.
Daisy giggled, the vibrations of her laughter travelling straight through Penny’s belly. ‘You’re the world’s worst worrier, and I love you for it, but I am relieved that some of your over-protectiveness has transferred to Penny recently. Lets me off the hook a bit.’
‘I still worry about you – worrying about Penny doesn’t mean I worry about you any less and don’t think that this…’ he gestured at Penny, ‘means I’m going to be more relaxed about you going out with Josh. No…shenanigans until you’re at least thirty.’
Penny laughed. ‘Daisy is far more sensible than you.’
‘Daisy I trust, it’s Josh that I doubt. I remember what it’s like to be a teenage boy, pretty much the only thing they think of is sex.’
Penny bit her tongue, stopping herself from saying that hadn’t changed for Henry; it had been a long time since he had been a teenager and he still had a huge sexual appetite. Henry blushed, clearly knowing what Penny had been thinking.
‘Dad, Josh is still terrified of you ever since you threw him to the ground. I imagine he’ll still be too scared to go near me on my wedding night. I really don’t think you have anything to worry about just yet.’
Henry seemed placated slightly as he turned his attention back to the snow, the frown returning to his face.
Bernard woke, stretched sleepily, kicking Henry in the face -which did nothing to detract his attention from the snow - fell off his lap and curled up in front of the fire.
Penny sat up with some difficulty, planted a kiss on Daisy’s head and walked over to Henry, his eyes immediately on hers, aware of her every move. He pulled her onto his lap and she gently kissed his scowl.
‘What are you worried about?’
He ran his hands over her stomach. ‘Everything, the snow coming down too heavily and us not being able to get out if we need to, what the roads will be like if we need to travel on them, whether we have everything we need here if we do get snowed in…’
Penny kissed him softly on the mouth. ‘We’re going to be fine. There’s something else bothering you, you’ve been on edge all day.’
The timer went off on the oven, indicating that the mince pies that Henry had made fresh earlier that day were cooked.
Henry looked over to the oven anxiously and then back at Penny. ‘I’m worried you won’t like my mince pies.’
Penny laughed as he scooted her off his lap, planting a quick kiss on her lips, and ran into the kitchen.
Daisy groaned. ‘Dad’s mince pies are the worst. I never know how someone can go so drastically wrong with mince from a jar and roll-out puff pastry but he does, every single time.’
‘These ones are different,’ Henry called from the kitchen as he plated some pies up straight from the oven.
‘I think I’ll leave mine till later,’ Penny called although the delicious scents did smell tantalisingly good.
‘No, you have to at least try it, let me know if I’m on the right lines.’
He came in with two plates, passed one to Daisy and then sank down on one knee to present his mince pie dramatically to Penny. Despite the huge quantities of food that she had eaten less than an hour before, she still reached for it keenly; it smelt wonderful.
Just as she was about to pick it up, she noticed something sparkle from the top of it. Realising almost immediately that it was a diamond ring, her eyes snapped up to meet his.
‘Penny Meadows, I fell in love with you a little over a year ago over your delicious mince pies and I was wondering if today, over my probably not so delicious mince pie, you would do me the honour of agreeing to be my wife.’
Penny stared at the ring, her heart thundering against her chest. It wasn’t that unexpected, she’d known they were heading this way almost from the first time they had kissed, but she hadn’t expected it to come today and certainly not over a mince pie.
‘Good god, Dad, it took you bloody long enough, I thought you were going to end up waiting until she popped out a whole football team of kids before you proposed.’
‘Well, I didn’t want to rush into anything,’ Henry said, not taking his eyes off Penny for a second. His mouth quirked up into a mischievous smile. ‘I had to make sure she was the right one.’