Page 80 of A Lady’s Fairytale Come True
“I know that I have hurt your beloved sister and daughter, but I have given her my explanations that she might know it was never my intention. Not only that, but I do love her very much. I believe that we were always meant to find one another,” he said, in a code that only Olivia knew.
“Will you forgive me?” he asked.
Louise and Gemma looked to their father and Olivia’s eyes followed.
He gave a slow, intentional nod and his face broke out in a wide grin.
“Of course I do. As I told you yesterday, I can see the honesty in you. I believe that you love my daughter and I shall trust you with her from now on,” he declared.
Louise sighed happily. “I am glad that father has given his approval. It gives me the freedom to give you mine. You are forgiven. I am glad to have you court my sister,” she remarked.
Gemma simply nodded along with everyone else and added a simple, “Oh, and I as well…” at the end. It was quite evident that the entire family had forgiven him and Olivia was thrilled to see it.
“As you can tell, my lord, you have the approval of my family in full,” she said.
“I am glad for that, for there is one more thing which must be done,” he said.
All eyes were trained on the earl and Olivia allowed hers to follow suit. She watched as he bent to the ground, one knee touching the floor and the other bent towards her. With tear-filled eyes, Olivia watched him.
“Miss Digby, I should like nothing more in all this world than for you to be my wife. Would you have me? Would you make me the most fortunate husband in all the realms of England and beyond?” he asked.
Olivia gasped and could not avoid the tears filling her eyes all over again. She was finally receiving the proposal she had wished for all this time. The earl was asking for her hand. He wished to marry her and they were finally going to be wed.
“Of course! Of course I shall marry you,” she wept with joy.
Her father and sisters cheered with delight.
They all looked at one another, pleased as ever. Her father gave Olivia a nod of appreciation and happiness before he ushered her sisters from the room, leaving her once more with the earl on their own.
“I am so pleased to know that you shall finally be my wife,” he whispered.
“And you shall be my husband,” she replied.
With that, as if to seal the declaration they had made to one another, Olivia and her betrothed embraced one another gently. Their eyes met in a delighted union and the earl bent his forehead towards hers.
“I think that after all this time, I have learned that nothing was ever more meant to be,” he whispered.
And then, cautiously and sweetly, the Earl of Glauston placed his lips upon Olivia’s and gave her his love through the innocence of the kiss.
Epilogue
A mere three months later Olivia was with her sisters, dressing for the wedding.
They were at the grand estate of Lady Kirby, where she had been offered a room to stay and prepare herself alongside her sisters. It had been a grand night, with feasting and all sorts of lavish gifts.
Her father had also been given a room to use for the night, being welcomed to join in all of the activities and entertainment. Olivia had been thrilled to watch him enjoying himself and being afforded luxuries that he had never seen before in all his life.
But the morning had arrived, and all of her thoughts were focused solely on one thing. She was finally going to be married to the man she loved.
The Earl of Glauston would be her husband in a matter of hours. They would have the future she had always hoped for. The stuff of fairytales.
From the very beginning, it had all been made a surprise. The earl had told Olivia that he would ensure that everything was perfect and she needn’t make a single effort in order to have the perfect wedding that she might always have desired.
And when she had awoken in the morning, it was evident how true that was.
There were flower petals across the floor of her bedroom. She wondered how they might have got there until her sisters confessed that the earl had arranged for them to do it on his behalf.
Olivia was completely stunned by it, remembering that it had not been so long ago that she had written one of her fairytales in which the prince had managed to cover her floor with petals on the night before their wedding. It left her in awe that he had learned that tale and she wondered if her sisters had told him, but they fiercely denied it.
