He dropped to one knee in front of her and Kate’s hand flew to her mouth. This she hadn’t expected.
‘What...? Ethan!’ She was trembling all over now, hardly able to stand. ‘I thought you’d booked a weekend away.’
He smiled. ‘I want more than a weekend. I’m aiming for the rest of our lives. Will you marry me, Kate?’
She might not have expected the question, but she had her answer ready. ‘Yes. Yes, I will!’
He got to his feet and kissed her. Kate was dimly aware of the city going about its business around her. That a few people had stopped when they’d seen Ethan down on one knee and that when he’d kissed her there was a murmur of approval. A woman’s voice came from somewhere, wishing her happiness. She nodded blindly. Ethan was the only thing she could see right now.
‘You’ll be relieved to hear that I didn’t take any of my wing man’s advice on choosing the ring.’
‘You have a ring?’ Here in his arms, that hardly mattered. All that mattered was that Ethan wanted to spend his life with her, and she wanted so much to spend the rest of her life with him.
‘Of course I do. I’ve got a plan.’ He took a small box from his pocket, opening it and showing Kate the contents. ‘Do you like it?’
It was a square-cut canary-yellow diamond on a plain white-gold band. Kate caught her breath. ‘It’s beautiful, Ethan.’
‘Let’s see whether it fits. Hold still. Stop jumping around.’
‘I can’t help it!’ Kate’s feet seemed to be doing a little dance of excitement, quite of their own volition and without any input from her.
He slid the ring onto her finger, pushing it carefully over the knuckle. It was a perfect fit and Ethan nodded in satisfaction. ‘Not so bad. I was hoping that I’d got it right.’
‘It’s perfect, Ethan. Beautiful... How did you get it right?’
‘I measured your finger while you were asleep. Ticklish business. I was hoping you weren’t going to wake up and catch me doing it.’
Kate laughed with delight. ‘It was a beautiful plan, Ethan. Thank you so much.’ She flung her arms around his neck, hugging him.
‘There’s more.’
‘I don’t care. This is enough, and nothing you could possibly do could be any better.’
He laughed, a low rumble of complete contentment. ‘Try this...’
He handed her an envelope and Kate opened it. It was a letter from a firm of land surveyors. She scanned the words, too excited to read them the first time, and tried again.
He’d made an offer on the land adjacent to her cottage. One acre, with planning permission to build. Kate flipped over to the next page and saw a plan. The land included the old orchard that she could see from her back window, and extended to the side right up to the curve in the lane.
‘This is... But aren’t we going to rent the cottage? What does it mean?’
‘It means that, if we want to, we can take your cottage off the rental listings and extend it. Very considerably, actually, as the planning permission allows us to double the frontage and go back to form an L-shape. It would give us three times the space you have now.’ He turne
d the page in front of her and Kate saw a plan of the new building, which ran along the side of her cottage, reaching almost to the end of the garden. ‘The planning authorities say that the frontage would have to be in a complementary style, but then I think we might want that anyway.’
‘But we can’t afford this, can we? Have we won the lottery or something?’
Ethan chuckled. ‘No. We’ll sell my house.’
‘No... Ethan, how things are at the moment is fine. You don’t have to sell up.’
‘It’s just a house, Kate. I like it, but this would be something that we’d built together. There’s a great little school in the village for Sam. And we’d have space.’
‘For Sam to grow. And...more children?’ Kate put her arms around his waist.
He smiled broadly. ‘That possibility hadn’t escaped me. Along with Arthur, and a few cats and dogs, and whatever else you bring back from the surgery needing a temporary home. You’ll keep your garden, and I can grow apple trees.’
‘You’ve got this all worked out, haven’t you?’