Page 36 of Snowfall and the Duke (Cherish and the Duke #4)

J onas had stayed well up into the night talking to his brother.

Both of them could hardly keep awake the following morning while Vicar Temple, an eloquent but soft-spoken orator, delivered the lengthy sermon on the topics of forgiveness, sacrifice, and rebirth. Since Jonas and his family occupied the first pew, he and Edward dared not yawn or close their eyes.

Ailis, looking lovelier than ever in a festive gown of darkest green velvet trimmed with lace and silk, quietly stepped in through a side door as the sermon was well underway and stood partially hidden in one of the small alcoves along the side.

She must have kept some extra fabric when sewing her gown, for she had used a remnant of it to fashion a sling for her arm out of the same green velvet material.

She acknowledged him with a generous smile when he glanced at her.

When the sermon finally ended— praise heaven —she made her way to him. “Good morning, Your Grace.”

“Good morning. Are you ready for your big day, Miss Temple?”

She nodded. “Yes, the pies and cakes have just arrived and are all being set out. Mrs. Curtis is boiling water for the teapots as we speak. The volunteers are about to take their places at the game stalls and food tables. I must run back now to assist.”

“Do you need my help?”

“No need—I’ll merely be walking around with a teapot offering tea.”

“Then you definitely need my help. You should not be lifting anything.”

She arched an eyebrow. “So, you are going to do it for me?”

“Yes.”

She gave a merry laugh. “The parishioners will adore it. The duke serving them tea on Christmas Day. No one will soon forget that. But no, I would not ask it of you.”

Edward cleared his throat. “I think you could ask anything of my brother and he would oblige.”

Her eyes brightened. “Truly?”

Jonas nodded. “We are both at your beck and call, Miss Temple.”

“Make that the three of us,” their mother interjected. “I think it is a grand idea. The Duke of Ramsdale and his family serving the parishioners. Now, where shall we begin?”

Ailis looked stunned, but quickly recovered and graced them all with another of her breathtaking smiles. “Very well, follow me,” she happily chirped, and meted out the assignments.

Edward was soon flocked by young ladies offering to help him. Their mother was soon chatting up a storm with the elder ladies and gentlemen who looked upon her with sincere admiration.

Jonas was pleased. His family’s genuine warmth and dedication made him proud.

He realized something important while he continued to assist Ailis throughout the day.

She comported herself with the poise and grace of a duchess, not requiring any training or lessons, for these qualities came naturally to her.

In truth, she had more nobility in her than any of those diamonds brought along by his mother.

He watched Ailis as she gave out coins to each child as gifts. She had planned this as a means of providing a little something extra to each family without making it appear as charity, because many of these parishioners were proud and felt ashamed to have fallen upon hard times.

What he realized was that Ailis had a way of making people feel good at the same time she was making things right.

This was how she would always make him feel.

She had worked her magic on him just the other day, making him feel worthwhile even when showing her his damaged body. Until that moment, he had been feeling rather worthless . Then Ailis came along and saw him with the clarity of her good and gracious heart.

She loved him for everything he was…and was not.

It was his own foolish pride that had held him back all these years. Perhaps not in the beginning, for his injuries were dangerously raw and life threatening. Even the pressure of clothing against his body, something as light as a shirt, caused him agonizing pain.

But he hadn’t felt physical pain these past few years.

He’d stayed reclusive because of his wounded pride.

Having grown up being told he was handsome all his life, having women fawn over him with no effort needed on his part, and having them worship his perfection, had given him a false sense of what was important.

It had also given him a false impression of what perfection meant. Until now, he had placed too much importance on appearance. Did this not make him as shallow as these ton diamonds he had dismissed as marriage prospects?

For these foolish reasons, he had kept himself imprisoned by his pride. It took Ailis and her persistence to remind him that he was worthy of love.

That she loved him was a final step in his healing. Her love was all he needed and wanted.

As the evening drew to a close, he went in search of her.

He meant to propose to her.

But suddenly, she was nowhere to be found.

He spotted the vicar standing by the doorway, bidding farewell to each parishioner as they left. “Have you seen your niece?”

“Isn’t she here?” the vicar replied, frowning. “Perhaps she is seeing to the dismantling of the stalls.”

Jonas shook his head. “She told me earlier that it would not be done until tomorrow. Nor is she among the ladies boxing up food for the families in attendance.”

“She might have run back to the rectory to fetch something or other,” the vicar said, not appearing particularly concerned.

“I’ll go look.” Jonas strode off to the vicar’s residence.

The door was unlocked, so he walked in and called Ailis’s name.

When she did not respond, he assumed she was in the kitchen and must not have heard him.

But then a light stirring in the parlor caught his eye as he walked by, so he stopped to peer in and noticed a lone candle burning on a small table by the settee, its meager flame casting the room in a dim golden light.

He marched in. She was seated on the settee, turned away from him and crying.

“Ailis? What is the matter? Has something happened to overset you?”

Her response was an emphatic sob.

He knelt beside her and gently turned her to face him. “Why the tears, love?” He withdrew his handkerchief to dry them.

“Why did you come for me?” she asked, her breaths shallow and hitching. “Shouldn’t you be with Lady Viola?”

“Why would I be with her?”

She regarded him in confusion. “Aren’t you marrying her? You came to my uncle and obtained the license. She told me so herself, and my uncle confirmed it.”

Jonas groaned. “What did he confirm? That I obtained a license? Did you bother to ask why I wanted it?”

“I didn’t need to. Viola told me you had chosen her.”

“Blessed saints, and you believed that lying witch? Do you have so little faith in me, Ailis?”

She stared at him through her beautiful, sad eyes. “I dared not believe it, but then the other ladies confirmed it.”

“You mean Lady Willa and the Tenney sisters? And you believed them ?” he muttered, dabbing more tears off her cheeks.

“I am not that gullible, so I asked your mother and she confirmed it.”

“What?” He set aside his handkerchief. “Ailis, that doesn’t sound right at all. My mother would not lie to you.”

She nodded. “I know, which is why I believed her and finally accepted the painful truth.”

“What did she say, exactly?”

“She confirmed that it was still to be kept confidential until the terms were finalized, but Lady Viola was to marry.”

He let out a breath. “Yes, but her unfortunate groom will be Lord Pomeroy. Her father has given his consent. I expect poor Pomeroy will obtain the license once they return to London, since that is where they all reside.”

She said nothing for a long moment. “She is to marry Pomeroy? Not you? But my uncle said you obtained a marriage license.”

“I did.”

“Whom are you going to marry, then?”

He laughed softly. “Gad, do you really need to ask?”

“No. In fact, I do not want to know. But I wish you every happiness. I just hope you are in your right mind, if your choice is one of those diamonds.”

“It isn’t one of them. And I am fully in control of my senses. As for your not needing to know, I am afraid I must tell you because you are a necessary party. Ailis, my choice is you . If you will have me.”

“Me?” She stared at him incredulously. “You are asking me to marry you?”

Someone behind him let out a shriek.

“I knew you could not be on bended knee again merely to check her sling,” Mrs. Curtis cried out with a joyful laugh.

Jonas turned around to find not only Mrs. Curtis but the vicar, Edward, and his mother standing in the doorway, all of them grinning at him like happy baboons. Behind them were more familiar faces, including those of Grimes and Mrs. Fitch.

Jonas nodded to acknowledge them all before turning back to Ailis. “Well, Miss Temple? Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

“Yes!” the crowd answered for her before she got in a word.

Ailis looked at him in the softest, most loving way. “I did not think dukes were in the habit of marrying beneath their station.”

He turned serious, standing up and drawing her up beside him.

“Ailis, let us be clear about one thing—I may stand taller in height, but you are above me in every respect. Kinder, wiser, gentler. I readily admit you are far better than I deserve. But I want you by my side for now and always. What’s it to be?

Are you going to disappoint me and an entire village of your friends? ”

She grinned. “I dare not. I would not. Nor can my heart give any answer but yes, I will marry you.”

The spectators cheered.

“I expect everyone realizes by now that I have fallen in love with you,” she continued as the crowd began to filter in to offer their congratulations.

His brother called for champagne, and bottles of it miraculously appeared along with glasses for everyone.

“I knew you would ask her tonight,” Edward said, giving Jonas a congratulatory clap on the back after everyone had given their toasts and well wishes.

“You did not disappoint. When is the wedding to take place?”

Jonas turned to Ailis. “Is tomorrow too soon?”

She thought he was in jest, but he was not.

He ought to have proposed to her years earlier, for he’d felt their attraction from the moment they met.

But he was his own worst enemy, was he not?

Unable to admit he was not perfect and too busy building prison walls around his heart to ever allow her in.

It had taken her injury during the snowfall to make him realize how wrong he had been to close her out of his life. But having her forced to remain with him for days and days, watching the snowfall and hoping it would never end, had brought home how desperately he needed her and wanted her.

She belonged with him.

They resolved to marry on the eve of the New Year, only five days hence but still an eternity as far as Jonas was concerned. However, it was for practical purposes, since his staff needed to prepare a wedding breakfast and all the villagers were to be invited.

As the crowd dispersed and momentarily left Jonas alone in the parlor with Ailis, she turned to him. “I hope one day you will come to love me as much as I love you. I’ll do my best to be a good wife to you. I—”

“Let me stop you right there.” He wrapped his arms around her. “That day has already arrived. I knew I was hopelessly in love with you when you mouthed off to me on the day of that heavy snowfall. You put me in my place, and then you were caught in the storm and fell off your horse.”

She winced. “I should not have said those things to you. You were entitled to your privacy.”

“No, I deserved to be told off,” he said with all sincerity. “Once we are married, I hope you will never fear telling me when I am wrong.”

She smiled up at him. “Oh, you need never fear that. I was never good about keeping my opinions to myself. Is this really going to happen, Jonas? I’ve longed for this moment, but never thought it possible.”

“Quite real and going to happen, that is my promise to you.” He drew her closer into the warmth of his embrace. “Are you ready for kiss number ten? This one comes with a marriage proposal and a promise to love and honor you for all of my days. Is that acceptable to you?”

Ailis lifted up on tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. “It is perfect. And look.” She pointed to the parlor window.

“Snowfall,” he muttered with a laugh, watching the delicate flakes fall softly upon the ground against the moon’s silver glow.

She sighed. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

Ailis was the true thing of beauty on this memorable night, and he told her so as he gave her kiss number ten, which was not an end to their bargain but the beginning of something new and wonderful.

As his mouth captured hers, the last of those walls he had built around himself tumbled and vanished. Gone was the bitterness and private anguish that had chained his heart and held him back from happiness for all these years.

Gone was the need to hide in the shadows.

All these bad feelings vanished like so many snowflakes melting under the radiant sunlight that was Ailis’s smile.

He kissed her long and deep, kissed her endlessly as he gave over his heart that she had long ago claimed. “Ten kisses, Ailis, and a thousand more to come,” he promised.