Page 21 of A Little Christmas Magic

Olive reached up, touching his bruised jaw. There had been a particular boxing challenge that had been issued to him—one that paid well enough to purchase the ring which, even at that moment, rested in his pocket. “I ran into something.”

“Looks more like it ran into you… several times,” Mavis noted.

“That’s enough, Mavis.”

Oliver glanced up at that quiet admonition. Polly stood in the doorway, just beneath the sprig of mistletoe where they had first kissed. She looked tired. Beautiful, of course, but tired. There were hollows beneath her eyes, but still, her eyes sparkled as she looked at him. “Hello, Polly. It’s so very good to see you again.”

Mavis snorted again and walked away, heading back to the kitchen as Polly stepped deeper into the parlor. “It is good to see you, Oliver. Is that why you are here? For a visit?”

“No. I’m here because I told you I would return and that, upon my return, I would have a question for you.”

“Then you should ask it,” she prodded gently.

“It requires a bit of preparation, actually,” he replied. With that, Oliver slowly lowered himself to the floor on one knee.

“You’re hurt!” Polly gasped.

“A few bruised ribs. Nothing serious,” he insisted. “And this is the traditional posture for a proposal, is it not? On bended knee?”

She swallowed convulsively. “Is that what you’re doing? Proposing?”

“What else would I do when I love you to distraction? I do not have the gift of knowing things before they happen, as you often do. When I look into a cup, the tea leaves tell me nothing beyond the fact that it is empty. But I love you, Polly. I fell in love with you almost from the first moment I saw you. I knew you would change my life… I simply didn’t know how much I would want you to.” Oliver pulled a small velvet box from his pocket and flipped the latch on it so that he could open the lid. Nestled inside on a bed of silk was a simple gold ring with one slightly larger diamond surrounded by a cluster of smaller stones to form a flower. “Will you marry me, Polly?”

“I’d marry you today if I could,” she said. “I love you. I think I was born loving you… it just took me so long to find you!”

Oliver slipped the ring on her finger. “Then we are in agreement. I have a special license in my pocket. We can go to the church in the village and be married immediately… assuming that Mavis and your brother would stand as our witnesses.”

“I think that can be arranged!”

* * *

Two hours later,they stood in the small stone church. Polly wore the dress that Claymore had given her and the diamond ring winked on her finger as they signed the register. Married by special license in their small village! What a stir that would cause.

“Well,” Claymore said when it was all done, “We do not have a wedding breakfast awaiting us, but we do have our Christmas feast. Let us return to Mansford and celebrate.”

Polly frowned. “I hadn’t even thought to ask, Oliver… where shall we live?”

He grinned at her. “Twyford. It’s outside of London… quite bucolic and peaceful, but there’s a train that takes me directly from the house I’ve obtained for us there to Paddington in London. It’s the best of both worlds.”

“It’s our world,” she said. “Happy Christmas, Oliver.”

“Happy Christmas, Mrs. Hawthorne… may we never spend another day apart. And may every Christmas we share feel as magical as this one.”