happy life as a spinster and manage it all on my own if need be. But I desire companionship and love. I want someone who will help me not because they think me incapable, but because they can and want to—something you have done time and time again.”
*
Miss Barrows’ heart burned in her gaze, lighting her like a winter’s bonfire. That passion filled every syllable as she talked, enumerating all the many things she saw in him, and the world around Finch shrank away. Hearing those words was like being told up was down and right was wrong; it was so incongruent with his view of the world that his foggy brain struggled to accept it.
In all honesty, Finch thought Miss Barrows’ wits must be lacking for her to view him in such a light.
Yet something warmed in his heart. Tiny echoes of it had come and gone during the past weeks. Something so faint and distant that Finch struggled to understand it. But hearing Miss Barrows’ defense of him fanned those faint sparks into a genuine hope.
“Why do you care for me?” she asked with a tone and expression that spoke of a lady so stubborn that she was bound to follow him around until she received a satisfactory answer.
“I haven’t said that I ‘care’ for you,” he mumbled.
Any other person might be offended by such a statement, but Miss Barrows merely straightened and narrowed her eyes at him, and as much as he wished to deny the truth, it was impossible with it standing before him.
“Why do you care for me?” she repeated.
“You are kind,” he murmured, dropping his gaze from her once more. “But that’s not right exactly…” Finch sought for the right descriptors, but he fumbled about like a man struggling to light a candle in the pitch black of night. “You are more than kind. Your heart is big and full. The sort that seeks to make others happy because it cannot stand to see them sad.”
He wanted to sneak a glance at her and see if she would be pacified with that, but Finch knew it would be a useless endeavor. So, sucking in a deep breath, he sifted through his thoughts.
“You make me laugh even when I am sullen.”
With another deep breath, he continued. “You have ample reason to be melancholy yet you view the world with joy and gratitude. And it’s not that you ignore the bad or pretend it does not exist; you simply choose to see the good in it.”
Finch sighed and shook his head with a huff. “And I adore those silly jests of yours, even though they would be tedious if anyone else recited them.”
Taking in a final fortifying breath, Finch opened his eyes, forcing himself to be brave as he said, “You make the world brighter simply by being in it. You are sunshine personified.”
*
The fire burned out of her, and Felicity stood there, blinking like a fool as her gaze blurred. Her chin wobbled, and she tried to chase the tears away with a deep breath, but there was nothing to be done as one trickled down her cheek.
How did one respond to such a compliment? No amount of carefully crafted verses could compare to such a simple and earnest declaration spoken in the tone of a man facing an endless winter without her.
“You speak as though you have nothing to offer me, Mr. Finch, but I assure you those words mean everything,” she whispered.
His head dropped, and Felicity drew closer, forcing his eyes to meet hers. Her hand rested on his arm, and she filled her gaze with all the certainty she felt in her heart.
“You do not view my worth in terms of worldly possessions, Mr. Finch. Do you truly believe it impossible that I feel the same about you?”
The spark in his eyes said he had not considered that, and Felicity felt a strong urge to thump him on the head for it.
“I care for you because you are blunt but not cruel,” she said with a hint of a smile. “You laugh at my ridiculousness—even when you think me a fool. You give me strength and comfort, and in the two months since we first met, you have become my closest friend and dearest confidant, whose opinion matters so very much to me.”
Felicity huffed, throwing her arms wide. “You are perhaps the most capable and talented person I know. Every time we speak, you share some new interest or skill, adding to