He's Talking Secrets

by Rose, taylor

  “Um……..Um.”

  His heart was sinking. He had played his best card and it hadn’t worked. He didn’t know what to do next. She touched his hand that held the ring. She opened his now closed hand to look at the ring. It wasn’t what she would have expected from him. It wasn’t big and flashy. He looked at the ring…..It wasn’t very flashy nor big, he thought to himself. Maybe he should have gone with something else, he was sure he had had a good idea with this ring.

  Sophia looked up into his eyes. “What is the story” she indicated the ring.

  “It isn’t very impressive I know, but it belonged to my grandmother. She loved my grandfather and him her. They didn’t have a lot but she gave this to me before she died. She wore it every single day. Perhaps I should have gone with something else in hindsight. You may not want a second hand ring. I can always get you something else…….” He was churning on the inside, she hadn’t given him any indication what she was thinking.

  “Was it a good marriage? I mean were they truly in love, your grandparents?”

  “Yes even after 65 years of marriage they would look at each other with love in their eyes. As a kid I always found it really embarrassing, because they always looked like love struck teenagers.”

  “And you wanted to give me this ring?”

  “Yes, I was hoping that after your first marriage not turning out quite the way you thought it would. Well, I was hoping that our marriage would be all that you ever expected, full of good times, laughs and love and this ring has seen it all before.”

  Sophia saw some movement in her peripheral vision she looked over to see Lilly holding Agnes’s hand, Harrold, Miss Molly, Rachel, Jesse, Teddy, Steve all walking down Miss Molly’s driveway. Harrold called out “For goodness sake, Sophia, just say yes and work out the details later, the man is besotted with you.”

  “Thank you, Harrold……” She turned to Brandon who looked very white and realized that he was standing there looking terrified. She said one word “Lilly…..”.

  “If you had said to me a fortnight ago that I would like a little girl, any little girl, I would have said you were crazy. But I really like Lilly, she is interesting and funny and just plain lovely. She is yours, though. And I understand that she may not always want to share you with me, I don’t expect it to be all smooth sailing, and she will be a teenager as some stage. But I like her, and I think we will work it out as we go.”

  “And the rest of my dysfunctional family…….”

  “I understand you have a live in family but you live in a big house and I now have a big house.” He dropped his voice and lent in “I’m sure we can find somewhere to go when we need too….”

  Sophia’s face started to color.

  Brandon just laughed.

  “OK.” Was all she said.

  “Is that OK, I’ll marry you. Or just OK.”

  “Well I apparently agreed to say OK to everything you ask of me. So I am contractually obligated to say OK to your question.”

  “I’ll take that….” With a whoop and a jump Brandon basically told all those standing to the side what her answer was.

  With lots of movement and hugs and kisses the group was swept into the village. Eventually Brandon placed his grandmother’s ring on Sophia’s finger with a perfect fit. She looked at her hand and realized it was a really beautiful ring. She also realized that this ring was significant to Brandon and he had given it to her in good faith. She reached up and kissed him. The crowd started to make noises about them kissing, as her intended quick kiss became something else entirely. Lilly was heard saying…… Oh, Mummy you’re embarrassing me.

  Epilogue

  12 months on in New York……….

  Sophia and Lilly were standing off to the side watching Brandon who was completely at home in front of the camera. Sophia could see why he was just so successful. She still wondered why he was in love with her, she was so ordinary and he was…….Well look at him he was Brandon De Lecour. But she was not going to over think it. At that moment he looked at her and she saw a look of love and then he winked. She had the thought, not for the first time, that it must be the ring that had brought her such a love.

  Their wedding had been a rather large yet elegant event held at her Estate in the gardens, all happening exactly four weeks after Brandon proposed and involved nearly all the residents of both villages, Brandon’s immediate family, some of his friends and a number of his corporation staff.

  Agnes had become a combination of a prison warder and the wedding planner of the year having organized the whole thing to within an inch of her life. Sophia basically picked her dress and turned up on the day. It was a wonderful day, with Harrold giving her away, Lilly and Jesse as flower girls and Rachel as her bridesmaid. It was so very different from her first wedding. This time around was full of laughter, love and the promise of success.

  Since then Lilly and Brandon had become like a gang of two and mostly acted like two kids, He took time out to play games, ride bikes, kick a football around or run around the Estate with Lilly and the dogs in tow. They had taken to riding bicycles down to the village for a milkshake and a mixed bag of lollies which they then proceeded to fight over, as to who owned which lolly. Yes they were just like kids. Lilly loved him dearly and they seemed to fit in incredibly well with each other. So far it was smooth going.

  The trail riding idea was a raging success helped along by the publicity generated by Brandon buying an English Estate and then filming several of his shows on location. With his mother and grandfather making semi-permanent residence in his “shack up the road” as he referred to it, the family had grown somewhat. Sophia loved both his Mother and his Grandfather who both had a very dry sense of humor. Brandon’s grandfather had also been seen “stepping out” with Miss Molly several times……tongues are wagging.

  Harrold had announced his retirement yet still seemed to be in the kitchen every morning, sharply dressed, organizing everyone’s day. Sophia had a quite laugh about it.

  As for Sophia she had formed a beautiful friendship with Hamish. They had entered the Hunt this year and to her amazement he had a few bold goes at some of the bigger jumps. They went for a ride most days, often with Lilly and Brandon on their mountain bikes. Some days when Lilly was at school Brandon would ride Solomon with her. She was so very glad to be back in the saddle, it was perhaps the greatest gift Brandon could have given her.

  Sophia was brought out of her thoughts by Lilly pulling on her hand and saying “Come on Mum, Brandon and the audience are waiting”. Sophia became aware that the audience was clapping and Brandon had his hand out stretched towards her. She walked up onto the stage and listened as Brandon announced that this was his “Most beautiful English rose, my Lady Sophia……” and he bowed to her. Sophia now realized why the makeup ladies had insisted she have hair and makeup today. But she smiled to the crowd. Sophia had never been so happy nor had she ever felt so safe. She had never in her wildest dreams thought this is where she would be just twelve months on. After all she was never going to fall in love, and that was set in concrete.