“Thank you, Duncan,” she said. “I will never forget what you did today.” She paused, her eyes wide and soulful. “But… where were you going?”
He sighed. He supposed there was nothing to do but tell the truth.
“Home.”
“Oh,” she said, seeming to sink deep into the cushions. “Home — to the Highlands?”
He nodded.
“Yes,” he said, swallowing hard at the dismay that swam in her eyes. He sat down next to her, lifting her now cold hands into his lap. “I must apologize, Jane. I made assumptions, and I was a fool.”
She lifted her brilliant blue eyes to his. “Assumptions such as?”
He looked away from her for a moment, toward some of the paper ornaments that covered the tree. He smiled at the one Amelia had made for him. Already forgetting his reservations of just an hour ago, he wondered if he would ever have a daughter of his own.
“I’ve never been much of a… reasonable man. I have more faults than I could even name. You are the best woman — the best person — I have ever met, and I have not treated you as well as I should have. Tonight, when I saw, once again, how well you and Nick got along, how you enjoyed one another and worked as a pair, how he knew what you needed… I thought it might be best if I give you space to decide what you truly wanted — me, or if you would prefer an Englishman, as your sister did.”
“Oh, Duncan,” she said, tilting her head to the side as she looked at him. “I never thought about how Mary—”
He held up a hand.
“I realized something tonight, however,” he said, gritting his teeth together as he looked at her, praying that he would find the right words to convey all that he felt deep within him. “I love you, Jane, and despite my faults, I promise that I will spend the rest of my life doing all I can to ensure that you know just how deeply you are loved. I will provide you with whatever you need, and be there any time you call. I am not perfect, but I will be the perfect man for you.”
He knelt in front of her now, bringing her hands to his lips, noting the tears swimming in her eyes, and his chest ached as he looked up at her imploringly. “Will you have me, Jane? Will you be my wife, and spend the rest of our days together, whatever that might mean?”
She leaned down, cupping his face within her hands, which had warmed from his own overtop of them.
“If you thought I would say differently, Duncan, then you are a fool,” she said, softening her words with a smile, “for I love you more than I ever could another and I will marry you and live with you wherever we choose to make home.” She bit her lip. “Although I dearly wish that was back in the Highlands. London is lovely, but it certainly isn’t home.”
He let out a bellow of glee before he reached up and lifted her into his arms, swinging her around in a circle as his heart seemed to burst in an explosion of happiness unlike anything he had ever known. This perfect, wonderful, beautiful woman loved him.
Now he had to make good on all his promises, and be the man worthy of her.
He set her down before crossing the room and finding a small package under the Christmas tree, wrapped in brown paper.
“Here,” he said, placing it in her hands. It read a simple “Jane,” printed on the paper. “You were rather busy earlier, so I never had the chance to give this to you.”
She looked up at him with a small smile of surprise before undoing the twine and ripping off the paper.
“Oh, Duncan,” she said when the wood beneath was revealed, “this is perfect.”
She smoothed her hands over the Celtic love knot he had worked on every evening. He had never been one to sit still for overly long periods of time but in this, he had been able to concentrate, for he had been thinking of her. When he finally realized how much he loved her, he had added the middle heart that completed it.
“It’s a small symbol of what I feel for you,” he said with the smallest of smiles. “I love you, Jane.”
“And I love you,” she said.
And as one of the babies upstairs began to cry, they sealed their vow with a kiss.
Epilogue
Eleven months later
Jane sat in the warm glow of the fire, enjoying the heat on her face. Galbury’s great hall could become somewhat chilly when the wind fiercely blew through December, but she and Duncan had made this home in more ways than they could have imagined since his father had passed a few months prior.
She smiled up at the wooden carving they had hung over the fireplace as she waited for Duncan to return home. She had no idea where he had gone off to, but she was trembling with anticipation for what she had to share.
The huge oak doors swung open, and the lightest wisp of snow blew in as Duncan’s grunts emanated through the huge room.
“Duncan?” she called, rising from the chair to greet him. “What in the—”
“I found one worthy of Galbury — and of you,” he said, and Jane could only stare with wide eyes as she searched for him within the huge branches of the tree. “Here it is, Jane.”
“You found a Christmas tree,” she said in astonishment.
“I did,” he said with a nod as he placed it upright, appearing beside it, his face red with cold but his eyes bright and his smile wide. “What do you think?”
“It’s beautiful,” she said, twirling around it. “But Duncan, we don’t really celebrate Christmas here.”
“We do now,” he said with a wink, and he leaned the tree up against the wall before disappearing into the kitchens beyond, returning with a small tub. “See? I have everything prepared.”
He busily set the tree up in the corner, and Jane watched with astonishment at the thoroughness with which he had planned this. “I would have helped you,” she said, but he shook his head.
“This was a surprise,” he said. “I saw your father on the way. He was appropriately shocked.”
“Did you?”
Jane’s parents had been relieved when Duncan had returned with her following their Christmas in London last year, and, as it happened, they were quite pleased with the arrangement for Duncan to marry Jane instead of Mary.
Jane wasn’t sure they would ever overcome the thought of Mary living in London, but they seemed to have finally accepted her choice in a husband.
Duncan interrupted her thoughts when he produced what Jane immediately recognized as a Christmas paper ball. “For you.”
“An ornament?” It was a heart with their initials, and Jane smiled at it lovingly before placing it on the tree. “Our first,” she said before turning to look at him, placing her hands on his chest.
She had her own surprise for him. She returned to the couch and found what she was looking for before passing it over to him.
“For you.”
“A Christmas cracker?”
“You didn’t get one last year,” she said with a small smile. “I hope this makes up for it.”
He took it from her, opening it up to find a list of names on the piece of paper within.
“Callum, Peggy, Finlay… what is this?” he asked, looking up at her with confusion.
“A list of names I like,” she said, unable to help the smile that began to spread over her face. “For our baby.”