Love In Store Books 1-3: Collection of three sweet and clean Christian romances with a London setting: The Wedding List, Believe in Me, & A Model Bride
Page 51
She gazed up at him, seeing the truth glowing in his eyes, so intense it stopped her breath.
“You wouldn’t have lost me so easily. I love you too, Mac.”
A smile lit his face, and he nodded. “Good.”
Loosening his hold on her, he reached into his pocket and pulled something out, holding it in his hand.
“It's too soon, but I need you to know. I want us to get married. I’m giving you fair warning I'll be proposing properly down the track a bit, once I have work, and can offer you a home.” Fingers gentle, he fastened a gold brooch made up of two entwined hearts topped by a crown to her sweater. “Until then, I have this for you. It means you are queen of my heart."
Heart full of love for him, and gratitude to God for bringing him back to her, she touched the brooch, tracing the outline with the tip of one finger. “It’s beautiful.” She tried to read the words engraved on it, but couldn’t quite make them out. “What does it say?”
“Of earthly joys, thou art my choice,” he read. “And you are.”
His sweet smile made her tremble. “But, where did you get it?”
“I found it in my bag while I was going through airport security. Mum must have put it there, when I was home.” He shook his head. “It’s been in my family a long time, every bride has worn it. Seems she realised long before I did how I felt for you.”
He drew her nearer, his words a warm whisper against her hair. “The Scottish church banned engagement rings for a time, so lads gave these brooches to their lassies instead, as a sign they were betrothed.”
Tiff tilted her head back, lifting her hands to hold his face. “Betrothed. I like the sound of that.”
“I do too.” He bent his head, to kiss her again.
Tiff joyfully surrendered to his sweet caress. She’d learned, God did have a bigger purpose for her. And that purpose included Mac.
God willing, for the rest of her life.
British English Glossary
As some of the British English terms the characters use may be new to readers, here are meanings for those most likely to be unfamiliar.
Please let me know if there are other British-isms in the book that you’d like defined!
AGA – large heat storage stove and cooker, traditionally the heart of a British country style kitchen
Bannock – traditionally a type of scone cooked as a large flat round and cut into pieces, though may also refer to a yeasted bread served buttered with tea
Birling – Scots word meaning carouse, or twirl
Black Bun – fruit cake wrapped in pastry, a traditional Scottish food for Hogmanay, either to serve to guests or give as a gift when first footing
Blitz – air raid bombing of London during World War 2, which caused widespread damage
Boiled lollies hard candy
Ceilidh – a social event including traditional Celtic music, singing, story-telling, and folk dancing (the origin of American Square Dancing). Pronounced “kay-lee”
“Daft and Barmy” – British rhyming slang for Army
Dog collar – clerical collar
First footing – tradition regarding the first person to enter the house after midnight on New Year
Five-a-side – modified soccer football game with five players per team, popular in Britain, often played indoors
Flat – apartment
Gammy – (when used about a leg) not functioning normally because of an injury or chronic pain
Gooseberry – a sour fruit, but also can mean a chaperone, or unwanted third person stopping a couple being alone together
Gyp – may mean cheat, or in this case as used by Darren, to cause pain
Hogmanay – Scottish New Year’s Eve, traditionally a bigger celebration than Christmas Day
Jumper – sweater
Kirk – church
Lad/ laddie – boy, young man
Lass/ lassie – girl, young woman
Luckenbooth – a heart shaped brooch, commonly used as a love token in Scotland, especially after the church banned wedding and engagement rings during the Reformation in the 1600’s
Manse – a church minister’s house in some denominations, especially Church of Scotland
Physio – physical therapist
Queue – wait in line
Raspberry – British rhyming slang for a person with a mobility impairment. May be considered derogatory if used by a non-disabled person to refer to a disabled person
Selkirk Grace – a short prayer said by the Scottish poet Robert Burns before a meal with the Earl of Selkirk. Scottish Wikipedia entry (in Scots!). The grace is – “Some hae meat and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it, But we hae meat and we can eat, Sae let the Lord be thankit.” English translation – “Some have meat and cannot eat, And some would eat but lack it, But we have meat, and we can eat, and so the Lord be thanked.”
Scot:Lands – a programme of events for New Year’s Day in Edinburgh, organised as part of the Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations since New Year 2014
Squaddie – low ranking soldier, usually a private in the infantry
Stramash – disorder, commotion. (Thanks to Useful Scots Words)
Strathespey –a slower and more stately traditional Scottish dance
“Stripping the Willow” – a traditional folk dance
Tatties - potatoes
“The Dashing White Sergeant” – another traditional folk dance
Wee – small, tiny
Acknowledgements
I’m writing this at Thanksgiving. A holiday that isn’t celebrated in the UK, but should be. We all have so much to be grateful for, and it’s a joy and a blessing to think on these things.
So here goes:
Thanks as always above all to God, for all His goodness and for the blessings He gives me when I least deserve it. He is strong in our weakness.
Thanks to my editor Laurie Sanders for the above-and-beyond she puts in.
Thanks to my wonderful writing buddy and critique partner Shannon Marie, who I owe one very large and very pink refrigerator. Unfortunately, the Barbie sized one will have to do for now. But one day that delivery truck will pull up in her driveway and unload the biggest pinkest fridge on the planet! And maybe now you’ll send me Chapter 6?
Thanks to my husband Arthur, for his love, support, patience with my strange sleep patterns, and for accepting that I talk about my characters as if they are real people, even if he doesn’t quite understand.
And thanks to you, the reader of this book, for coming this far with me. You’re who I do this for!
Copyright 2014 © by Autumn Macarthur
First Kindle Edition, December 2014. First published in this collected edition, December 2014.
Published by Faith, Hope, & Heartwarming
http://faithhopeandheartwarming.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means— for example, electronic, photocopy, recording— without the prior written permission of the author. The only exception is brief quotations in printed or broadcast reviews.
If you obtained this book in any other way than downloading it from Amazon or as a gift directly from the author, please be aware you are reading a stolen copy! Your support and respect for the work of this author by purchasing a copy instead is appreciated.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Living Bible copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All r
ights reserved.
Edited by Laurie Sanders and beta read by Shannon Marie
Proofread by Trevor Jones
Thank you for reading…
I very much hope you’ve enjoyed reading the first three books in the Love in Store series! If you did, please consider telling other readers and posting a short review on Amazon, Goodreads, or anywhere else readers discuss books. Word of mouth is an author’s best friend and it helps people find the books they want to read. Your opinion counts! Thank you so much!
Books in the Love in Store series:
Book 1 – The Wedding List, Book 2 – Believe In Me, & Book 3 – A Model Bride : all included in this set!
Book 4 – Forget Paris, is a Paris Valentine’s Day story;
Book 5 – Teapots & Tiaras, features James and Beth’s summer wedding;
Book 6 – Heart in Hiding, due later in 2016.
The Macleans series follows a Scottish family as one by one they fall in love
Book 1 – A Model Bride (also Love in Store book 3, included in this set), Mac’s story;
Book 2 – More Than Friends, Catriona’s story, summer in Edinburgh;
Book 3 – A Lesson in Love , Fraser’s story, a sweet Edinburgh spring romance;
Book 4 – Brodie’s story is due early in 2017.
Huckleberry Lake, a new US set series, commences in September 2016 with Calm & Bright, available for pre-order now in the Candy Cane Kisses 8 author Christmas boxed set!
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About the Author
Autumn Macarthur is an Australian writer of Christian romance living near London with her very English husband and three spoiled rescue cats. She loves reading, growing food, and writing deeply emotional stories to make you smile and remind you how big and wide and deep God's love and forgiveness can be.
When she's not writing, in her garden, or trying to herd cats, she can be found here: blogging at http://faithhopeandheartwarming.com, on Facebook as Autumn Macarthur, and on Twitter as @autumnmacarthur. You can sign up for her newsletter here, or at any page on her website www.autumnmacarthur.com !
She’d love to hear from you!
Faith, hope, & heartwarming –
inspirational romance to make you smile.
Copyright 2014 © by Autumn Macarthur
First Collected Kindle Edition, December 2014
Published by Faith, Hope, & Heartwarming
http://faithhopeandheartwarming.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means— for example, electronic, photocopy, recording— without the prior written permission of the author. The only exception is brief quotations in printed or broadcast reviews.
If you obtained this book in any other way than downloading it from Amazon or as a gift directly from the author, please be aware you are reading a stolen copy! Your support and respect for the work of this author by purchasing a copy instead is appreciated.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Edited by Laurie Sanders and beta read by Shannon Marie
Proofread by Trevor Jones