Bertie had asked Edith to send him to bed happy. Now she had done just that.
...
He didn't know why she had kept him waiting for an answer. She was like a jig-saw puzzle, or a riddle he couldn't solve. Sometimes he thought he had the solution, and then all the pieces got mixed up again.
But now, at last, she had agreed to become his wife. And he was so happy.
...
"I love you Bertie", she had said. "I really do love you."
How he had waited for those words. She had told him she thought he had a lot to offer, she had told him that she was thrilled and delighted by his proposal but she had never before said that she loved him.
He had told her that he loved her hundreds of times, but he never got the expected answer to that. She said that's sweet or you are a darling or... or even you are too kind, which was neither here nor there and decidedly not very romantic.
He hadn't dared to ask her either - Do you love me? He had been too afraid of the answer.
But now she had said it, and after that he had been so happy that he hadn't really listened to what else she had to say.
...
There had been two reason he could think of for her wanting to think over his proposal.
One was of course that she didn't love him. He knew she felt comfortable with him, but perhaps that was all. She liked kissing him, nice and automatic as she called it, but she had really never said that she loved him. She couldn't love him the way he loved her of course, that was simply not possible, but he had hoped she at least loved him enough to consider a life with him. She had even said she would like to have children with him, so why not?
The other reason was that she hadn't been sure that she would be able to live with him in a simple estate agent's cottage. He couldn't blame her really, she was used to something much grander, but he himself didn't really mind where they lived as long as he could be together with her.
Well, he was ashamed to admit it, but that problem had been solved by Peter's death. Now he could even offer her something much grander than Downton Abbey.
He wished it could have happened in some other way, but this was what had happened. Through his grieving for Peter he had felt a growing hope that she would now say yes to him.
And tonight she had!
...
Just when he was about to fall asleep, Bertie started thinking of what else she had said. My life is not so simple. I'm afraid of living in a fool's paradise and dragging you into it with me.
Was that what she had said? What could she have meant by that?
He thought about it for a while, and decided to ask her later on. But he was sure it wasn't anything important enough to make him postpone his announcment of their engagement tomorrow at breakfast.
Then he fell asleep happy.
...
The next morning he would have the pieces of his puzzle mixed up again. But fortunately for him he didn't know that.
So, at least this evening, he was sent to bed happy.
AN:Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment!
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One more chapter, I think. The famous breakfast.