Chapter 55
As she reached the door and peered in, a familiar figure reached out a hand. It was Harry, looking dapper and ever so slightly Mafia-ish in a dark suit and white tie.
‘You’re here,’ she breathed, taking his arm.
‘Even Jessica the donkey couldn’t have stopped me,’ he said, looking her over with tears in his eyes. ‘You look incredible.’
‘What is happening?’ said Felicity with a laugh as they walked into what had once been her childhood home.
‘I’ve no idea but coming back here to walk you down the aisle was not on my life bingo card,’ quipped Harry, but he looked thoughtful.
‘Me neither,’ said Felicity, gripping his arm. ‘It’s weird, that’s for sure. But good to see it full of life again.’
For the house looked very different to last time she had been here, finding a stray donkey in the kitchen.
Everywhere had been swept and painted. The dead leaves and broken furniture had been removed and it had been cleaned to within an inch of its life.
Everywhere smelt quite strongly of furniture polish and lavender.
For the new owners, she supposed. At least they’d obviously let her use it for this first. Her wedding.
Her insides did a little flip at that thought.
They did a much bigger flip as they reached the end of the hallway and she saw James standing by the fireplace in the enormous living room with a Christmas tree in each corner, waiting for her like the gift he was.
James was dressed in a charcoal-grey suit with a dark-blue tie and white shirt.
On anyone else it might have looked like a school uniform but on him…
he looked positively edible. His blond hair had been gelled but was still suitably mussy and his face…
on his face Felicity thought she could count at least five emotions at once.
He looked terrified and awestruck and deliriously happy all at the same time.
And handsome. Was that an emotion? He looked ridiculously handsome too. Of course he did.
Music began playing from somewhere unknown.
“Kiss Me” by Sixpence None the Richer in fact, a personal favourite.
As she started walking towards James, she was vaguely aware that there were other people gathered on chairs on each side of the room and that others were following her in, including the little donkeys, who still hadn’t put a hoof wrong.
Jessica knew this place of old, of course.
There was little Harper, James’s niece, with her mum and dad, wearing the most beautiful little pink sparkly dress, and at the front, James’s mum and dad were looking on proudly.
Rita and Jim lived in Scotland so they never saw them much but they had always been so kind to her and they were giving her the warmest smile right now.
Fancy them coming all the way over to Guernsey, Felicity thought vaguely as she walked.
But despite everything in her peripheral vision, Felicity really only had eyes for James.
Her gorgeous, kind Penguin Man, who had always seemed too good to be true and now, he’d proved it.
In fact, it was only when she had almost reached him that she realised he wasn’t alone.
Standing in front of the fireplace was a small woman with grey hair and red-rimmed glasses.
She was holding a black folder and wearing a black suit and looked as though she should have been officiating a funeral not a wedding but Felicity didn’t care.
Half Pint and his merry band of pigeon mates could have been flying around her head and she wouldn’t even have noticed.
Harry gave her arm a squeeze as they reached the fireplace and she forced herself to look away from James just for a moment.
‘Thanks… Dad,’ whispered Felicity into his ear.
‘That’s the first time you’ve called me that in a very long time,’ said Harry, beaming.
‘I know,’ said Felicity. And then, ‘I’m glad you’re here.’
‘Really?’
‘Really.’
‘I don’t know what to say.’
‘Just wish me good luck,’ she said.
‘Good luck, my darling girl. Thanks for letting me be part of your day.’
It wasn’t everything. But it was a start.
‘You look unbelievable,’ said James as Felicity moved to stand beside him, glowing with pride and excitement. ‘Is this okay? Tell me this is okay?’
Was she okay? Her face felt hot and her palms were sweating but she couldn’t remember ever feeling so happy.
‘This is incredible,’ she breathed, taking his hand in hers. ‘I mean, officially I’m mad with you but wow. You’ve blown my mind.’
James looked like he’d won the lottery, which only made her heart swell even more.
‘You understand, there’s no pressure, right? Sophie told you? I mean, I know there’s a lot of pressure but you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, okay?’
‘I think you mean, will you marry me?’ said Felicity calmly.
James smiled a huge smile then, his dimple dimpling away to full effect.
‘You’re right. Or should I say, I do.’
‘I do too,’ she whispered, her eyes filling with tears.
He winked at her, turning to the crowd who were all on their feet now, breaths held. Only Jessica the donkey looked like she couldn’t care less that it was Boxing Day and a wedding day all rolled into one.
James took a deep breath. ‘On behalf of Felicity and myself, I’d like to thank everyone for coming, especially for giving up your Boxing Day for us. We are so grateful and we love you all.’
Rita started sobbing in the front row while the rest of the crowd cheered and jumped up and down and then realised there were donkeys in the room and toned it down a little.
But the donkeys thought this was a great game and decided to join in, putting in some deafening hee-haws to the amusement of them all.
James had to wait an awkwardly long time before he could make himself heard again.
‘I realise,’ he went on when things had quietened down, ‘that this was a risk. Felicity is not good with crowds and she doesn’t like a big fuss so I nearly gave up on this whole idea but I can’t think of anyone who deserves to have a big fuss made of her as much as she does.
So, basically I thought, screw it.’ The crowd tittered.
‘Screw it, let’s damn well make a fuss of her and give her a surprise she’ll never forget and she’ll just have to lump it and deal with it and it was only this morning that I wondered what the hell I had done.
Bit late to stop it all by then.’ More titters.
‘But I’m delighted to say that the future Mrs Cowley has forgiven me for all my conniving, and – I hope – will consent to be my wife. Willingly, I hasten to add.’
He turned to Felicity. All eyes were on her and she knew her face was burning.
But as she looked up into the face of her Penguin Man, she realised something extraordinary.
As he looked down at her, his eyes wide, and full of hope, it occurred to her that no one in her whole life had ever known her or loved her like this.
And this was how he was showing her. James knew she would have hated the planning.
He knew her so well that he knew she would have detested trying to choose a dress or having people poke and prod at her, just as he knew Christmas was a really difficult time for her.
He knew all that, so he’d tried to find a way to give her new memories.
To give her hope. From now on, this day would not just be the source of the biggest trauma in her life, Christmas would also be a point of hope, of a future, of pure joy.
Forever her wedding anniversary. Something that couldn’t be taken from her.
And what was Christmas all about if it wasn’t joy?
Hell, maybe James was also coming round to the season too.
As her eyes roved the room, something caught her eye, and she took a deep breath.
In the corner of the room was an empty chair with a jar of white lilies on the seat.
Balanced above it was a framed photograph of her mother.
There was Jocelyn. Beautiful, complicated Jocelyn.
Looking down on her. Giving approval in absentia.
Felicity’s heart gave a lurch. It was so incredibly sad – beyond sad, really – that her mother wasn’t here to see this, had missed so much of Felicity’s life, but the fact that James and Harry had thought to include a tribute to her, it meant such a lot.
She sent up a silent prayer for Jocelyn, wherever she may be.
James took her hands between his, gently bringing her back to the present. She blinked up at him.
‘Felicity Brooks. Will you marry me?’ whispered James, his face pale.
Felicity looked up into his eyes and beamed, eyes glistening. ‘I will,’ she said.
The crowd went wild and even Jessica and Eeyore began to join in again which sent them all into fits of giggles. As she watched them all howling with laughter, Felicity wondered if her heart would burst.