The Hope of Love - Meara Platt Page 0,24

to explain?”

“The Nativity. You,” he said to Angus, “and Felicity. Yes, she’s in bed because of a broken arm…but you’re by her side. And the child, Pip, is… And the three Magi.” He smiled at Poppy, Penelope, and Olivia. “The three wise women in this instance. Bearing gifts. Bearing gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Oh, Lord.” He raked a hand through his hair. “Truly. Oh, Lord.”

Angus rose to go to his friend, but Adam waved him away with a tearful smile. “Your place is beside Felicity. Happy Christmas, my friend. I need to take a long walk and think. You need to think as well, but not too long. She’s a jewel. Don’t let her get away.”

“I won’t, Adam. I’ll take care of it tonight. Are you sure you’ll be all right?”

“Yes.” He turned to look at Felicity, nodding a silent farewell to her. “Yes, my friend. Better than all right.”

Felicity cast Angus the sweetest, loving smile. “What are you going to take care of tonight?”

Chapter Seven

“I’d appreciate it if you all stopped gawking at me,” Angus said, approaching Felicity and ignoring her gasp and that of their audience as he slowly bent on one knee and reached into his breast pocket.

He’d wanted a moment of privacy, but doubted it would happen tonight.

Everyone in Wellesford would learn the news within five minutes anyway, so he decided to plunge in now. “Felicity…love.”

She put a hand to her throat. The pulse at the base of her neck appeared to be beating wildly. “Oh, my.”

She did not seem to be breathing.

His breaths were erratic, too. He’d retrieved a small, glistening object from his jacket pocket and now held it in his fingers. “I meant to wait until we had a moment alone.” He groaned lightly when the bell above the shop door tinkled again. “But it seems you will have guests passing through here all night long. So, let me say this fast.” He took hold of her hand. “Miss Billings, I love you more than the moon and stars. I always have and always will. Nothing will ever change that. I’ve come to you on bended knee…” He paused to clear his throat. “Will you marry me?”

Poppy, Penelope and Olivia jumped out of their seats and cheered. “Of course, she will!” Olivia declared. “We’d all marry you if we weren’t taken already.”

Heavy footfalls pounded across the kitchen floor toward Felicity’s bedchamber. “What was that you just said?” Olivia’s husband muttered, filling the doorway and crossing his massive arms over his chest. His grin revealed he hadn’t taken his wife’s comment the wrong way.

“Dr. Carmichael is going to marry Miss Billings,” Pip said excitedly.

The vicar had also stepped back in and now allowed the latest arrivals to pass. Behind Olivia’s husband who was aptly named Beast for the size and strength of him, not to mention the black eyepatch he sported over the eye he’d lost in battle, was the Earl of Welles, Poppy’s husband, and grinning beside him was Penelope’s husband, Thaddius MacLauren.

“Beast, who’s minding the party if the three of you are down here?” Olivia asked, suddenly alarmed.

“We’ve left Lavinia and Matilda in charge. We won’t stay away long, just wanted to make certain things weren’t out of hand down here. It seems everything is fine, more than fine. Forgive us, Doctor, if we interrupted something important.”

“We’ve all interrupted, but I don’t think Felicity minds,” Penelope said, walking over to her husband who had his arms outstretched for her.

Thad laughed heartily. “Doctor, I hope ye did a better job of it than I did with my wife. I don’t think anyone could have botched it worse. Thank goodness she loved me anyway.” He planted a tender kiss on Penelope’s cheek.

They all turned to Felicity in expectation of an answer.

Angus shooed them all out. “Start the feast. We’ll be along in a moment.”

They obliged willingly and in good cheer. But Poppy’s husband, Nathaniel, Earl of Welles, slapped him on the back. “I received a missive from London. Come to Sherbourne tomorrow…Appin. We need to talk.”

“That didn’t take long to get out.” Angus frowned.

“This sort of news never does.” The earl left to join his wife and friends in the bookshop, but Angus remained in the doorway watching Adam with some concern. The Nativity? Of all the nonsense. Yet, Adam—the vicar who’d lost his faith—seemed to have suddenly found it.

He raked a hand through his hair. Oddly, he was beginning to believe it, too. What they’d experienced this evening was something special.

Perhaps divine.

“What’s wrong?”