Chapter 14

He took the tiny gray mitten from his coat, and he put it gently into her hand, and he closed her fingers around it."Your mother kept a little boy warm one winter a long time ago," he said. "She gave him his life. Let him spend that life keeping her daughter warm. Lucy Ward, will you marry me?"Lucy looked down at him: at his tired gray eyes, at the snow on his dark hair, at the little mitten in her hand that her mother had made with her own two hands twenty-five years before. She was not a girl who cried in front of people; she cried now."On one condition," she said.The crowd held its breath."I keep knitting every winter, and the children of St. Anne's are never cold again. Not one of them. Not ever."The Earl smiled. It was the first time anyone in Millbrook had seen him smile; it changed his whole face. "That is not a condition," he said. "That is a promise. And I will keep it with you.""Then, yes," said Lucy. "Yes."He stood up, and she put her hand in his. And from the front of the crowd, a small boy with big ears threw both his arms in the air and shouted, "She said yes!"And the whole square cheered. The band began to play again. Somebody started to sing. The children of St. Anne's ran in circles in the snow, waving their mittens. And Mrs. Green, wiping her eyes on her old shawl, said to nobody in particular, "Well, it's about time somebody looked."They were married in the spring, when the snow had gone and the lanes were full of primroses.It was a small wedding in the same church where Mrs. Pratt had told her lie, but there were no fine ladies in the front rows this time: the front rows were full of children in new gray coats. Sam sat at the end in shoes that fit, holding the rings on a little cushion. He had asked to do it, and he took the job very seriously; he did not drop them once.Mrs. Green walked Lucy down the aisle because Lucy had no father to do it, and because there was no one in the world she would rather have. Mr. Pike sent a hat—it was the best hat in his shop. Lucy wore it and thanked him, and he cried a little.

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