Page 59 of Discovering Grace

“Because I have already made up my mind about you, and if you cannot decide what you want quickly—”

Jacob laughed and bent to kiss her again, silencing her well-meant threats. “My Grace. There is no need for a long courtship. After all, you are my dearest friend. I have discovered everything there is to know about you, now that I know how you feel. Forgive me for being blind to it before.”

“Your attention was focused in a vastly different direction,” she said without any hint of the sorrow it had caused her. That was in the past. She knew Jacob as well as he knew her. “And you must be certain, Jacob.”

“I am. I love you, Grace. Determined, stubborn, compassionate, brave Grace.”

His words settled in her heart, filling her whole soul. Their courtship would be proper, and public. Jacob was the new vicar, after all.

“I love you, too.” Grace leaned into his shoulder; his arm tightened around her. Together they stood still for a time, listening to the rain against the orchard’s leaves.

Epilogue

Jacob took Grace about with him in his gig as often as he could, riding together through Aldersy, visiting his parishioners.

At first eyebrows raised, but Grace won back the good opinion of their neighbors easily. Jacob was not entirely sure how, until he listened to her chatting with several ladies after services one Sunday. Grace shared kindness with them, compassion, and a true interest in what each woman had to say. He had never thought of it before, but she personified her name quite beautifully. No one stayed upset long, especially given how enamored their new vicar was with her.

Isaac had practically crowed when they told him of their plans to wed. “I knew it. As soon as I saw you both together, when I came home, I knew it would work out this way.”

His friend, Mr. King, was not all that enthusiastic in his good wishes. Jacob did not entirely blame him, either.

Mr. Spratt came out of retirement two months later, everything done properly, to join Jacob Barnes and Grace Everly in holy matrimony.

At their wedding, they were surrounded by friends and their families. The only person missing on that day of days was Hope. Jacob had asked if Grace wished to wait the year until Hope returned.

“I have certainly waited long enough,” Grace had said, a stubborn tilt to her chin. “And Hope, who is the most impatient person I know, will not object. We will make it up to her. She can be the godmother to our first child.”

The night after their wedding, when they sat curled together on a couch before the fire, Grace snuggled against his side, Jacob considered himself the most fortunate of men.

“Are you happy, Jacob?” she asked, arm draped around his middle.

He pressed a kiss to her dark curls. “Happier than I have ever been in my life, with my dearest friend and beloved to share in it with me.”

Grace raised her head, her beautiful face before him and her lips temptingly near. “What will we tell our children about all that happened? I imagine if we do not speak of it, others will.” She bit her lip, regarding him with far too much seriousness.

Jacob kissed her temple. “We tell them the truth.” Then he kissed the tip of her nose. “That their Aunt Hope caused a great deal of trouble.” He kissed one cheek, then the other. “And that their clever mother found a way to save herself and her sister from pain, and in the process—” Jacob’s lips hovered over his wife’s, almost brushing them as he spoke. “In the process, the beautiful and compassionate woman helped their foolish father realize how much he loved her and needed her as his bride.”

Grace closed the small distance between them, kissing him deeply as her lips curved upward, her heart content at last.

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