Lizzy
My throat burned with the effort not to cry. My heart softened at the sight of Darcy on one knee. I loved him so much. I wanted nothing more than to be his wife. But the second I opened my mouth to say yes, more rustling sounded from the hallway.
A bang.
Then a smash.
Like someone had toppled that huge blue vase on the hallway table. Shit. Who was out there?
The crowd went restless.
Bleating rose in a frantic chorus. The unmistakable sound of hooves—many hooves—tapped on the old stone floor.
With a triumphant snort, in galloped Goatee.
Then Lary the llama. The two pigs followed, smiling as usual, but looking even more delighted with themselves.
A flock of ducks waddled behind them, wings flapping, feathers literally flying.
Darcy leaped to his feet. “What the hell?”
How on earth had the animals gotten in? We’d closed the door behind us. Didn’t matter now; we had to herd them out of the house—they were all muddy.
Max and Oodles went wild, barking and racing around the animals.
“Out! Out! Out!” everyone cried, arms windmilling, no one quite knowing what to do.
Knightley zeroed in on the llama. He must have known the llama was the ultimate leader. Mum, always terrible in a crisis, ran in circles. The Balfours, even worse in a crisis, ran in opposite circles. Guests scattered, trying to protect their clothes from the animals and their muddy hooves.
Darcy cried out, “Oodles has the ring.”
Oh no! I lunged for Oodles, who, of course, pounced away. Both Darcy and I set off, chasing around the kitchen after my excited pup, crashing into each other, as Oodles leaped this way and that. Max joined in, in an enthusiastic, ankle-twisting game of chase.
Suddenly spotting the obvious getaway route, Oodles raced through the open kitchen door. Max followed close behind him, Darcy behind the dogs, me trailing in an awkward dash.
Darcy and I sprinted after the dogs speeding up the driveway, yelling out to them.
But the dogs were fired up and flying. I stumbled on the gravel.
Shit. I couldn’t run in this dress. How did women ever do anything in these dresses?
The cut wasn’t tight, but it did have a narrow hemline, so there was no leaping or sprinting or even striding.
It didn’t help that the neckline was low, and my boobs were bouncing all over the place.
Bloody painful. I hiked up my dress with one hand, held my boobs with an arm across my chest, and stepped up the pace.
Interesting that I’d never considered this in my books, and it felt like someone from the past was paying me back for my omission.
The dogs headed for the far pasture. The fence. A roadblock. Good.
Except Oodles dived under the fence, belly-slithering through the middle part, always the bad influence. Max followed. But there wasn’t enough room for humans to get under.
Darcy reached the fence first. He scrambled up. He tried to hoist his leg over the fence. Tried again. Clearly, his stretchy pants were hitting their limit. He tugged at his ruffly sleeve. The fabric was caught on the fence.
Swearing, he tugged harder. Riiip.
I winced at the damage to his clothing, but he didn’t pause. He pulled off his jacket, threw it over the fence, and pushed the sleeves up his arms.
Why didn’t the Balfours have a gate on this side? It made no sense.
I caught up, puffing, my chest burning.
“Shit,” I said, breathless. “I’m never going to get over that fence in this dress.”
Darcy was perched at the top. “I’ll help.”
“No, don’t wait for me. Go! Save the ring! If it falls off, we’ll never find it!”
With a determined nod, he jumped off the fence and took off after the dogs.
Praying no one was behind me, I hiked up my dress around my hips so I could climb over the fence. There was a full moon out tonight. Once at the top, I went to jump, but my foot caught the dress slightly, and I flew into the air.
I landed splayed all over the place but, thank God, not on anyone. Scrambling to an undignified all fours, I got to my feet and tucked my dress into my knickers so I could give chase. Then Oodles and Max tore off around the field.
I tried to run in front of Oodles, but he knocked me over, and I tumbled back—on top of Darcy.
“Holy shit,” he cried out from where he was under me. “Are you okay?”
I took a mental inventory of all my limbs. “Yes. You?”
Before he could reply, Oodles looped back and licked my face. Darcy quickly reached out and grabbed his collar. Thank God.
“Gotcha, you little ring-stealer,” Darcy said through gritted teeth.
“Well done, you.”
I held on to a squirming, squealing Oodles, while Darcy untied the satin pouch from around Oodles’s neck. With a wary eye on the dogs, Darcy took out a gold box from the little bag. He opened it and pulled out the ring to show me.
“Oh, Darcy, it’s beautiful,” I said, sprawled beside him.
An emerald—my favorite—surrounded by diamonds.
“Not as beautiful as you. It reminded me of your eyes and the forest in the sun when we walk together.”
The dogs bounced away, uninterested now that we weren’t after them. I could vaguely hear voices and bleating in the background as the Balfours tried to herd the animals into the next paddock.
“Are you okay?” Knightley called from the other side of the fence.
“We’re okay. We got the ring.” And I found the man of my dreams—someone I’d thought only existed in my books. I looked at Darcy’s eyes crinkling with happiness as he held that stunning and meaningful ring. My heart was full. Nothing else mattered now.
“Do you want a hand?” Knightley asked.
“We’re all good,” I called back.
“I’ll get the dogs, then,” Knightley said.
“Okay, we’ll be inside in a minute,” I called, unable to tear my eyes away from my man. The love of my life. The keeper of my heart.
Darcy looked at me like nothing else existed. “Quickly, let’s put this on your finger before another animal gets it in their head that it’s food or something.”
He held my hand, ready to slip it on, his hair falling over his forehead, but then he paused, seeming a little disconcerted. “You haven’t said yes yet.”
Oh, right. That small technicality. Unable to control my joy, I whispered, “Yes, yes, yes.”