Her expression softened. "You are sentimental."
"I have accepted it." She smiled. He took her hand. "I thought you might like them."
"I do." She closed the box, then kissed him.
From behind them came a loud cough. Lady Eleanor stood several yards away. "I can see I have interrupted."
Evelyn laughed. Nathaniel sighed. "Mother..."
"Happy anniversary."
"Thank you."
Lady Eleanor looked at the box. "What is that?"
Evelyn showed her. Lady Eleanor laughed. "Two pennies."
"The beginning of everything," Evelyn said.
Lady Eleanor smiled. "I suppose that is appropriate." She walked away.
Nathaniel watched her go. "She likes you more than me."
"She should. I raised you." And yet he laughed.
That afternoon, Nathaniel took Evelyn riding. She insisted on choosing the route; he insisted on carrying a coat; she insisted she did not need one. Twenty minutes later, she was wearing it.
"You see?" he said.
"Do not look pleased."
"I am always pleased when I am right."
"You are rarely right."
"Cruel. Accurate."
They rode through the fields. The old mare followed behind with a groom. Evelyn looked toward the hills. "This is beautiful."
Nathaniel looked at her rather than the view. "Yes."
She caught him. "You are doing it again."
"Doing what?"
"Looking at me instead of the scenery."
"The scenery has not changed. I have."
"Yes." Her voice softened. "So have you."
They stopped near the stream. Nathaniel dismounted and helped her down. She sat beneath a tree; he joined her for a while. They watched the water.
Then Evelyn asked, "If you could change one thing about the day we met, what would it be?"
Nathaniel thought. "I would ask your name first."
She laughed. "Why?"
"Because I spent the first week calling you 'Miss Bennett' in my head. That is not romantic."
"I was nervous."
"You? Yes." She looked at him. "You were nervous? I had never met anyone like you."
She smiled. "I had never met anyone who proposed marriage before introducing himself. That was poor manners."
"Very. I have improved somewhat." He leaned closer. "Would you marry me again?"
She looked at him. "You already asked."
"I am asking again."
She smiled. "Yes."
He kissed her. The moment lasted only seconds before William's voice came from the hill: "Papa!"
Nathaniel closed his eyes; Evelyn laughed. William came running.
"I found something!"
"What, a bird?" Nathaniel looked at Evelyn; she looked at him. Both remembered the early days of their marriage when life had seemed like a collection of strange interruptions.
"What kind of bird?" Evelyn asked.
"A very rude one!"
Nathaniel laughed. "Why is it rude?"
"It stole my biscuit!"
"That sounds less like a bird and more like family."
William frowned. "Papa..."
"Yes, you are strange."