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Everyone knew it was impossible to impress Eloise Bridgerton. There were quite a few factors causing this, but there were two main ones.
Firstly, Eloise Bridgerton was too nosy for her own good and always managed to find out or guess what someone would do, which always tempered part of her reaction when the person finally revealed whatever they were hiding or planning. Secondly, Eloise was too clever by half, and knew so much that her frame of reference was about as big as the world, meaning that little surprised her as she had such a wide variety of things to compare it to.
Phillip Crane, if he were being honest and blunt – two of his few redeeming qualities, if they could even be called thus since they’d given people as much grief as delight – knew himself to be rather boring and uninventive. As such, he never deceived himself into believing he could hide something from, or successfully impress, Eloise. Luckily for him, she never managed to tire of her rather dull and confused boyfriend. Perhaps because it was so easy for her to figure him out, she didn’t even have to waste time guessing at his motives or plans.
But this was the issue: Phillip, being as uncreative as he was, needed a Christmas gift for her. And this year, he could only conceive one gift that was appropriate. But the gift had to remain a surprise, and until now, there had never been a thing he’d given her which she hadn’t guessed the content of. Even when he hid the box that she could not even guess based on the shape and size, she knew the second he came to her with his hands behind his back.
Eloise was a wonderful girlfriend, frankly far above his level. Her creativity, wit and beauty were a shining beacon in his life. And not only his, she managed to inspire his children – unfortunately not only in the academic and creative way but also in the mischievous one – and make them happy. She was just as much their mother as he was their father, neither in a biological way but both in a very devoted loving way.
And that was precisely the issue: presenting Eloise as his girlfriend was just selling her short. She was the manager of his house, a mother to his children, the love of his life… and girlfriend just started sounding so small for all the things Eloise was to him. He needed her, in short, to be his wife.
And although it was impossible to impress Eloise, he very much needed to. Because despite that she laughed at every dramatic display of affection during family gatherings, and rolled her eyes and said love could be shown without ‘so much fuss’ when they watched romantic comedies on the television, Phillip knew that when she wasn’t trying to the wittiest person in the room, she very much loved melodramatic reveals and grand gestures. Otherwise, she wouldn’t consume so many romance novels and movies. Phillip wasn’t the quickest with people. He was better at plants. He had a hard time guessing at the small messages people conveyed through their intonation, expression and body language. It exhausted him to guess at people’s motivations and the true meaning of their words if they didn’t speak in a straight manner. But after three years, he was fairly confident he understood Eloise.
Although Phillip wasn’t creative, he was analytical. As someone who finished their doctorate a couple of years ago, he knew that the first step of every successful project was to look at what had been done in the past. If one wrote an academic article, one read everything that had been written in the past, if one planned to propose in a romantic manner… one went to the few people on earth that had experience in both proposals and Eloise.
Anthony Bridgerton was the eldest, and in many ways the one most like Phillip in the sense that he was an exhausted father figure who had met a force of a woman who was so gracious as to marry him despite his pig-headedness and slowness at realizing and admitting his feelings. As such, he’d hoped for guidance, understanding and support.
They had sat down on a night Kate was away with the children to meet up with all the other children and wives of the Bridgerton clan.
‘I mean to propose to Eloise. And I need it to be a surprise’, Phillip had admitted after the required amount of alcohol was consumed so Anthony wouldn’t freak at the idea of another one of his siblings marrying. One always felt rather old if a sibling they had changed the diapers of was getting married.
So the first thing Anthony Bridgerton did, was laugh. And then, when Phillip didn’t, his expression flattened in realisation.
‘Oh.’
‘Yes’, Phillip said, turning his glass with his two hands to keep occupied.
At that, Anthony burst out in loud laughter that ended in a coughing fit.
‘Oh, good luck bud. There’s no surprising her. We’ve all tried and failed.’
‘I never even tried.’
‘And of course your first attempt is with an easy lowkey little lie with modest stakes so you can hone your crafts’, Anthony said, sarcasm lacing his voice as he lifted an eyebrow.
Phillip just drank. ‘I never felt the need.’
Anthony hummed.
‘And… Why try?’ he asked then.
Phillip looked up.
‘I have to.’
‘But, let’s be reasonable here. Eloise cannot be surprised. So why, if you want to marry her, not just organize something nice and ask her? Do you think she’ll refuse you if she isn’t surprised?’ Anthony asked.
That was the thing, Phillip was certain Eloise would accept him. But she deserved more. She deserved him doing his utmost best. And while usually he didn’t bother with grand gestures or acting out of character just to please others, he really wanted to.
‘Allow me to try first.’
Anthony shrugged, taking another sip of whiskey.
‘Unfortunately, I’m terribly uncreative… so I was hoping…’
Anthony winced, giving a small shake of his head.
‘Can you advise me?’
‘Be romantic, there’s the advice’, Anthony said. ‘There’s whole tv shows of men trying to organize the most elaborate proposals… reddit threads… can’t they help you further?’
‘But that’s all… Different. That’s not as realistic. How did you propose?’
Anthony shook his head.
‘You really shouldn’t model your proposal after mine.’
‘Why?’ Phillip asked.
‘You just really shouldn’t’, Anthony said, pronouncing every word slowly, lifting his eyebrows in a way that was without a doubt very intimidating to his siblings when they were younger. But Phillip was in his thirties and clueless, so he continued.
‘Listen, I know it’s not nice of me to ask you for inspiration. I know it has to be original and meaningful to a couple. But I don’t know what to do. I shall copy your homework and be as subtle as I can.’
‘I am not flattering myself or being cruel to you. I’m honestly advising you to not be like me.’
‘What did you do?’ Phillip asked.
‘I was honest.’
‘That seems… like a good idea?’
‘We were looking for places to live and I just said, one evening: “If we’re going to buy a place we should marry. Registering ourselves as a couple living together doesn’t bring the same legal advantages as being husband and wife when one of us dies or lands in the hospital.”’ Anthony revealed.
‘Oh’, Phillip said. That was a bit too dry, even for Phillip.
‘And what did she say?’
‘She said: “Is this truly how you ask me to marry you? You better make sure you ask with a very pretty ring next time.” And so I took her on a weekend to the lake district and gave her a pretty ring. Not really surprising or sweet.’
‘But it worked.’
‘Of course, she’s not an idiot. We weren’t going to end a five year relationship which we wanted to last forever because I was well, tactless.’
‘Aha.’
‘Anthony told me there was a chance you’d come around’, Benedict said, looking entirely unsurprised when Phillip appeared at the art academy he was teaching at.
It was that time of day right before the school was out and Benedict’s pupils would start coming in, and just before Phillip’s usual end of the work day. But he’d worked over lunch break so he could quit a bit sooner and arrive home at the same time as usual. Eloise always noticed every change in Phillip’s patterns, no matter how small.
When Phillip had one time pointed out that no one ever managed to adhere to a certain rhythm to the minute, Eloise had pointed out that Phillip was the most routine-loving man she’d ever met and thus, while she would never be surprised if her siblings texted her to have lunch at four pm, she would be absolutely shocked if Phillip ever had breakfast after eight pm unless she seduced him to stay in bed. If he came home too late, she’d ask what had kept him. And then he’d have to blabber about traffic or some project at work, but there were always projects at work and traffic always sucked and that never managed to disrupt his routine otherwise. So yes, he had to work during lunch break, otherwise this proposal would be uncovered before he so much as had a ring.
‘Did he also tell you why?’ Phillip asked.
‘Are you accusing my brother of being a gossip?’ Benedict grinned, patting on a three-legged chair near an easel with a blank canvas.
‘Did he?’ Phillip asked.
‘Yes’, Benedict said.
‘And?’
Benedict shrugged.
‘I took Sophie to a field, said I wanted to paint her. I paint her a million times, and we go on picknicks a lot. Pretty picknick, but we always have pretty picknicks. I painted her and told her not to look. I say it a lot to her so again, she’s not surprised. When I tell her to come and have a look, she sees a painting of me on my knee and her standing straight, both of us in the clothes we were wearing that day. And as she’s staring at the painting I sit down, take out the ring. We re-enact the painting, she says yes because she loves me and obviously it is all very romantic. Boom’, Benedict said, with the calmest pronunciation of the word “boom” ever. The smug grin on his face told Phillip he was very proud of himself.
‘Any advice?’
He couldn’t imagine making a painting for Eloise, it would be the ugliest two stick figures known to humankind, and the whole idea of a picknick would be suspicious as hell. And not only because it was November.
‘She has the same ring size as Daphne.’
‘What?’
‘Take Daphne ring shopping with you, or take one of her rings when you go to a shop. Eloise will notice if one of her rings goes missing. And you really want a ring to fit when you propose. Nothing makes a proposal as awful as having a good proposal, or even a bad one, and then having a ring that doesn’t fit and has to go back for alterations for two months. And yes, it takes two months. And then whenever you announce you’re engaged, everyone always asks for the ring… And then every single time you have to explain you were too dumb to guess the size of the woman you want to marry. And you’ll be ridiculed to hell and back.’
‘So you forgot?’ Phillip guessed.
‘Hell no, I teased the hell out of Colin and Simon’, Benedict grinned.
‘Simon?’
‘Oh yes. It was particularly stupid because Daphne is the type A personality that tells her boyfriend what her ring size is within the first year of them dating just in case “he ever wanted to give her something”. He still got it wrong. See, men panic so much, that even the most practical ones become dumb.’
Phillip didn’t know what that made him, since he hadn’t even thought about that yet.
‘Aha.’
‘Anthony couldn’t forget the ring size because Kate told him her size every week after he “informed” her they had to marry. Or that’s how she tells the story.’
‘And any advice on how to keep it secret from Eloise?’ Phillip asked.
‘You’ll have a very hard time.’
‘I know.’
‘I want to say impossible, but you don’t need that kind of negativity. I think you already know her well enough to accurately guess the hardness level.’
Right.
‘Put it in a box of candy she absolutely hates. Eloise is the kind that is too petty to even touch a thing that disgusts her. She gets all theatrical about getting those things out of her sight. I think she has a particular hate for chocolate-orange cookies. Store it in there until the right time. Absolutely do not put it in shoes that are stored, cupboards, dressers or closets. Because she will have a random impulse to clean all shoes, sort out her wardrobe, or clean said cupboard. Partially because she is impulsive and random like that, and partially because the second she suspects you have a surprise, she starts searching the house like a bloodhound. But she’s a petty bloodhound, so putting things in the box of water above the toilet – whatever the proper name of that box is – or in something of food she dislikes, or burying it in the garden because Eloise does not garden… She’s bound to find it. She even removed the plugs ones.’
‘The plugs?’
‘Yes, a loose electricity socket. She was convinced someone had put something there.’
‘Aha.’
Eloise always managed to inspire new levels of fear in him. But he was glad that she had her limits. Eloise indeed did not have green fingers, actually, she had black ones. She made everything die. Overwatering, underwatering, or even just knocking the plants over… Sometimes Phillip was convinced she could kill them by looking at them. Thus Eloise had happily never done a thing in the garden. Phillip could already think of a pretty garden gnome with an empty underside, or a pot near his tomatoes, filled with seeds, that could function as locations to hide a ring.
‘That is actually practical advice’, Phillip agreed.
‘Do something that suits her’, Benedict decided.
‘She likes books? What can I do with that? Propose in a library? That’s kind of public’ Phillip asked. That was one thing she, as a writer, as a journalist, absolutely loved. But he couldn’t think of a way to work with that.
‘Can’t help you, I’m sorry. That’s something you have to think of. It’s a bit like painting, you know? You take in your environment, and let it inspire you to create something. Do you get what I mean?’
‘So, Benedict couldn’t help you’, Simon said.
‘He lost me the second he said proposing was like painting. I can do neither, I think. No, I’m sure.’
Simon laughed, pouring them both a drink. They were at a party for Belinda’s birthday. And while it might be odd to pour drinks at your child’s birthday party, it was the type of party where though it had started in the afternoon for the children, it would last until the kids went to bed. It was the first week of December. Time was running short for Phillip, and he really felt the stress.
Phillip accepted the drink.
‘I just want it to be perfect.’
‘Low standards, excellent’, Simon laughed. And Phillip mused that their similar humour was what had drawn Simon and Anthony to each other long before Simon ever knew Anthony’s sister existed.
‘Listen, there’s a whole world between Anthony’s “We shall marry” and Benedict’s Nicholas Sparks proposal. Mine was neither awful nor magical. Just let it come from the heart and be earnest. It’ll work itself out.’
‘What do you mean?’ Phillip asked.
‘Listen, couples usually feel when it’s time to take it to the next step. You felt it, right, otherwise you wouldn’t think about proposing.’
Phillip nodded. ‘If you do, she probably started feeling the same way. Probably even sooner than you, women are always quicker… Both to feel the pressure to take their relationship further, and to feel what their relationship is ready for… Alright, that feels a little outdated. These days, I really feel like it is cruel and derogatory to call relationships between people who aren’t married “not as far” as married ones. A couple can share every day together and make the same commitments to each other regardless of whether they are married or not. But well, legally, marriage is attractive, and when you want children marriage is also practical… But for me it was…’ Simon paused, his eyes becoming distant. Phillip knew Simon was no longer advising him, he was reliving his memories and feelings out loud.
‘All those months of therapy, yet she stuck with me throughout… Despite knowing we might not work together if we, if I, couldn’t work through my trauma… She really put up with a lot. We were both crying every month, being in love, but knowing we would have to let the other go if we couldn’t change our minds about our future. When I slowly started separating my hatred for my father, and my feelings about how I was treated as a child, and my anxiety over the idea I killed my mother, and started seeing children weren’t the issue for me, but my fear of becoming like my father and my fear of Daphne dying in childbirth… A future suddenly became possible for us. I knew I had to make her my wife. I loved her. And she was so loyal, so kind, she never lost faith in me, in us. And I think she really wanted to be a wife. She’s traditional; you know. She still cares about that, those titles.’
Phillip just nodded, what could he say? He understood. Simon blinked, looking at his drink before throwing it back. When he looked at Phillip, he was back in the present.
‘So, Eloise probably already wants you to ask her, and you both probably feel it’s about time. So it will never be wholly surprising. So instead of surprising her, just focus on making a good proposal. Get a good ring. Prepare a very nice speech. Tell her what got you in love with her, why you want to marry her, that you look forward to sharing the rest of your life with her. You know, tell her why you want and need her, make her feel special, and then give her the ring. A proposal is about asking someone to be with you forever out loud. Giving them that verbal reassurance that they’re loved.’
That was useful enough advice.
‘Thank you.’
Simon gave Phillip such a strong pat on the shoulder he spilled his drink.
‘Anything else?’
‘Uhm… Yes, could I have one of Daphne’s rings?’
‘You can’t take it home with you’, Simon said.
‘What? Why?’
‘Eloise will find it.’
Phillip pinched his nose. Right. He was right. Why did he forget again?
‘I know, but what do you suggest?’
‘When are you looking for one?’
‘Uhm… I don’t know.’
‘When do you plan asking her?’
‘Uhm… I want it to be somewhat of a Christmas gift.’
‘Dude, my friend, you need to look this week if you want to make it in time for Christmas.’
‘Do I?’
‘Oh yeah. Daphne has the day off tomorrow. I’ll give you my whole wife for your quest, I think that’ll be more useful than just her ring. You’ll go to jewellery shops tomorrow.’
‘But –‘ Phillip protested, but then he thought about it. Eloise had a couple of meetings tomorrow evening. She’d only be home by six thirty, and Violet Bridgerton would be babysitting Amanda and Oliver until Phillip came back from work. The only thing he’d have to do is quit his work a bit sooner, which was possible since he was ahead of schedule with his projects, and ask Violet to babysit a couple hours more. Then he’d buy pizza for food and everything would be fine by the time Eloise got home.
Only, she’d ask him how his day had been, and then he’d have to omit the truth. And the children would have to pretend Phillip did not pick them up hours later than planned. Oh, he would have to tell Violet and the children that he planned on proposing and needed them to lie for him.
Phillip had quite a bit of work to do to make that plan work. But… It was the best he could do.
‘Yes please, tell Daphne…’
Wait, if he quit work soon enough, he could still pick up the children relatively on time. Then he could say he worked thirty minutes longer at work because he really wanted to finish a project. The smallest possible lie. It also meant he would
‘Tell Daphne to meet me at two thirty’, Phillip said. ‘Is three hours enough to buy a ring?’
‘If you’re lucky’, Simon said. ‘I looked for weeks until I found the perfect one. Some look for months.’
‘That’s out of the question’, Phillip said.
‘If you need me, I got you’, Colin Bridgerton said to Phillip later that evening. Phillip looked at him, completely puzzled. They were playing poker, Colin having a losing hand, a Phillip wondered if this was another trick the Bridgertons used when they were losing and trying to cheat their way out of the last spot.
‘I got the best tool you could ever wish for: Pen.’
I’m sorry, I don’t understand’, Phillip said, looking around the room. There were no women in sight.
‘You’re proposing. If you ever need Eloise distracted, or absent in the house, or away and occupied… I can fix that. I just need to say the word to Pen and she’ll ask Eloise to see her. Eloise always drops everything when Pen asks her to meet. And their meetings are so random, she won’t be suspicious if Penelope says she really wants to see Eloise within the next two hours. And Pen always manages to make the most believable lies. So, if you need time and space to plan, I can help.’
‘That’s… very thoughtful. Thank you.’
‘Do think of me, when you manage to pull it off’, Colin winked. ‘And know I’ll think of you a lot when you fail, because Pen will know all the details straight from the source. But no pressure.’
‘A blade cuts two ways’, Phillip grumbled to himself, before presenting a royal flush.
The next day went so perfect Phillip wondered whether he was actually still living his own life. The twins and Eloise always made sure there was enough chaos in his life so that not a single thing ever went according to plan. But a ring was found within a matter of two hours, the perfect size, and neither too impractical, nor too utilitarian. It was a pretty thing, according to Daphne, and fitting for Eloise. A simple band of white gold with a rectangular aquamarine stone the colour of her eyes, surrounded by some diamonds, neither too big nor too small.
Phillip even managed to do an hour of work at home before picking up the children, and no one in his house was any the wiser that when they went to bed, one expensive ring was sleeping between the sunflower seeds in one of the pots in his greenhouse.
It is said, that when you want something done properly, you should go to the experts. So given that Phillip still didn’t know how to hide something from Eloise, or surprise her, he went to the only two people who did.
‘Loves, I really could use your help.’
‘Is this about the dishwasher?’ Amanda asked.
‘No.’
‘It wasn’t me’, Oliver said.
‘What?’
‘The clogged toilet. It’s not my toy. It was Amanda!’
‘Not true!’
‘It was your idea!’
‘Never mind, children’, Phillip begged.
‘Listen, I need to tell you something very important.’
‘What?’
‘Eloise and I have been together for a while.’
‘Oh my god!’ cried Amanda, who had seen enough romantic stories.
‘What?’ asked Oliver.
‘Calm, I want you both to know that you are both still my first priority. And I love you both very much. But I also really love Eloise. She’s been with us for a while now, and I do think she loves you too, and would make a lovely mother for you. You don’t have to call her mother, you can still call her Eloise if you want… But I would really like to call her my wife, if that is alright with you.’
‘You want to marry her?’ Oliver asked.
Phillip nodded.
‘I do.’
‘Are we invited to the wedding?’ Amanda asked.
‘Of course but –‘
The children carried themselves away, and Phillip let them for a while, staring at them with odd fascination. They barely even responded to the idea that him marrying Eloise would mean she would likely become their legal guardian as well. Or did eleven year olds not think of that immediately?
‘So you’re fine with it? With Eloise staying?’
‘Are you blind?’ Amanda asked. ‘You know we like her. We might have been a bittttt mean at the start.’
‘You almost put her in the hospital’, Phillip said.
‘Anyways, I would really like being able to call her your wife, or aunt. Because it’s so annoying that whenever I talk of Eloise I have to start explaining who she is and why she acts like a mother to us’, Amanda finished.
‘Yes, she won’t be mama, but then you’re not papa. And… well… It’s not that different, is it?’ Oliver asked.
Eloise had been in their lives since they were almost eight. By that time, Phillip had only been their guardian for two years. Before that, he’d just been their uncle. Their father, his brother, had died in the army, and Marina, God bless her soul, had sought to join him some tough couple of years later. He missed them. Terribly. But he’d managed to make it work.
‘Yes, well. Exactly, or so I hope. I truly would not love her if she wouldn’t want to be there for you all the time. But she doesn’t know yet. So I need you to keep this secret. I want to surprise her. And I need your help.’
For the first time in forever, his children were perfectly quiet as he explained the difficulty of proposing and the need to keep the ring and his plan secret.
‘Have you tried hiding something else?’
‘What?’
‘If you look for another present, say for New Year’s. Then whenever you’re worried, you say it’s about that. And you want to keep that present hidden too. So when she’s suspicious and it falls through, say it’s the New Year’s present. She won’t think you’re hiding two things at once.’
‘And don’t give her the chance to discover. Wait until the very last minute. Then she can’t stop you anymore and she will be surprised, because there was nothing to find out earlier.’
‘But I have to prepare, I have to write a speech.’
‘A speech?’ Oliver asked.
‘To tell her that I love her.’
Oliver scrunched his face in disgust.
‘But don’t you know why you love her?’ Amanda asked. ‘Why would you need to write that down?’
‘Honey, you flatter me, but I’m not eloquent.’
‘She knows.’
‘Yes but… I want to be.’
‘Well, if you do it on the day itself you can still prepare, without her noticing… Probably. A good surprise is equal parts planned and improvised. Otherwise the surprise isn’t flexible enough. Plans always change due to unforeseen things.’
His children were terrifying sometimes, but this was not surprising. Their knowledge of surprises, sneak attacks and secrets were exactly what had brought him to this room.
‘I don’t even know how to ask her. They said to make it special for her. But all I know is she likes books’, Phillip sighed, sinking between Amanda’s bright blue teddy bear, pink unicorn and angry mood octopus. He doubted this was how a father would have this conversation, but he’d never pretended to be perfect.
‘That’s not true. She loves us. She loves family.’
‘She loves Christmas!’ Oliver grinned. And that was true, Eloise adored Christmas. She had four Christmas sweaters and was always baking or doing some other Christmassy activity in December.
‘But what do I do with her loving books? Do I just fall on one knee and give her a book?’ he asked.
And then, a coin dropped.
‘Uncle Phil?’ Amanda asked.
Phillip turned the mood octopus inside out, making it smile.
‘I know it.’
On December 24th, everyone was gathered in Violet Bridgerton’s house. Every room had its own Christmas tree, together with Christmas gnomes, elves, sparkly candle jars and other decorations. The table was a true battlefield, red wine soaked into the linen, a napkin thrown over it to absorb it, glasses with half finished wine, plates with some leftovers on them, a Christmas sweater laying on the ground behind a chair, forgotten by someone who was too warm.
The picture oozed domesticity and cosiness. In front of the fireplace, the whole family sat on the couch or on the ground, watching as everyone unpacked their gifts.
It was Phillip’s turn, giving everyone their packages, palms sweating with nerves when he took the final one.
‘My book’, Eloise grinned.
Phillip paused, watching his girlfriend in her horrible red woollen dress with silver and golden Christmas tree on it. Around her head, she’d tied a bow that had been around a gift she’d been given by Daphne.
‘You knew it already?’
‘I found it hanging behind your coat. I swear I wasn’t even trying to look. I was just trying to find my scarf, and I saw the bag, and I caught a glimpse of the book. And then when I was scrolling through the top books of this year on Goodreads I recognized the cover as being the cover of the book you had in your bag and….’ Eloise started.
Phillip lifted his hand.
‘It’s fine.’
‘I really love it though, I love that author. I added it to my to-be-read’, she smiled, looking up at him with an apologetic smile. Phillip knew she liked that author, and he had tried hiding the book. He’d only left it hanging on the rack for two hours, but clearly, that had been enough for Eloise.
Phillip gave her the wrapped book, and she gave him a sweet smile and a kiss.
Many pairs of eyes whipped to him, though everyone tried to keep the conversation going as Eloise tore off the wrapping.
‘Damn, it’s a lot lighter than I expected. I mean… Look at this, it’s a massive hardback yet it feels as light as a feather… Here, feel this, Daph, isn’t it strange.’ Eloise took the book back from her sister. ‘Almost like it’s…’
Eloise’s voice trailed off into nothingness, her eyebrows scrunching together before she looked up at Phillip, eyes narrowed.
Phillip could not lie, but he had a good poker face.
He’d only cut out the book this afternoon.
Eloise opened the book, and started rummaging the pages, her foot impatiently tapping on the floor.
By the time she found the page where he’d started carving, Phillip was on his knee.
‘Oh my fucking bloody go-ohd’, she went from shouting to stammering when she saw him sitting down on one knee.
‘Y-you… you….’ Eloise said.
Eloise was speechless, and everyone was grinning, waiting with baited breath.
He’d bested Eloise Bridgerton.
‘I thought you were hiding the book’, she protested.
‘I was’, Phillip admitted.
‘But…’
‘And a ring.’
‘How did you even… How did I not –‘ she looked around, seeing all the eyes on her.
Eloise never missed anything.
‘You knew’, she said, pointing an accusatory finger to Colin. ‘You grin way too cheerfully and way too unsurprised.’
Benedict choked on a laugh, too proud by half that Colin had been noticed, but he hadn’t. But that smugness was exactly what gave him away.
‘You too? I thought we were besties’, Eloise whined.
Benedict shrugged.
Eloise looked around the room, clearly searching for even more co-conspirators.
‘I don’t even want to know’, she said.
‘Uhm… Do I… ?’ Phillip asked.
‘I just don’t see how I missed it’, Eloise mumbled to herself.
‘Eloise?’ Phillip asked, getting a bit closer until he was on his knees right before her.
She looked up, bright blue eyes confused, and then shocked, as if she realized she had completely forgotten why she’d become upset in the first place.
‘Oh my god’, she stammered.
‘I fell in love with you the moment I picked my children up at Benedict’s art class and found them covered head to toe in paint because you’d taken revenge at them for painting your hair that one time you tried making an article about the importance of art for youngsters.’
‘Last time I ever did that’, Eloise chuckled.
Phillip paused, smiling at her beautiful face, when he realized he had to start with what he felt when he first saw her. Oh no. He should’ve studied his speech better.
‘You are… Fuck it. Eloise, I love you. I love how you make me laugh, I love how you read Harry Potter to the children with dozens of voices, I love the sound of your laugh, and I love how you can rant about everything and never have patience. Even when it results in burnt food or only half of a window washed before you lost track and started on something else. You always manage to calm me down and cheer me up. There’s not a thing I don’t love about you. And frankly, I never thought I’d find love, let alone such a perfect fit to the circus that is my life. And even though you and the children conspire to kill me at least once a month by either giving me a heart attack or by attacking each other, I love you. And please, marry me.’
‘Please’, Amanda asked. Phillip looked over his shoulder, finding Amanda had also slipped off the couch to sit on her knees. ‘He really wants you to say yes.’
‘Yes, stay with us Eloise’, Oliver begged, also sitting down.
When Phillip turned back, Eloise was crying.
‘You impossible man’, she said, shaking her head with a watery smile. And that was the last he saw before he was tackled to the ground, arms wrapping around his neck and a small body landing straight on his.
When he opened his eyes, Eloise was lying on top of him, only an inch removed from his face.
‘Of course I’ll marry you’, she said before pressing her lips against his.
Later that evening, after all the gifts were unpacked, as they were all watching a Christmas movie, Phillip turned towards Eloise, who was nestled comfortably against him.
‘So, can I take it you were surprised?’ he asked.
She looked at him from the corner of her eyes, not even turning her head, shooting daggers at him.
‘Happily surprised.’
‘You sneaky bastard. Smug, aren’t you?’
‘To be honest, more surprised than anything. I needed quite a bit of help to pull it off.’
‘Who else?’ she asked.
‘Colin, Benedict, Simon, Anthony, Daphne… Amanda, Oliver.’
‘How the fuck did not one of them leak a thing? I don’t know whether I should be impressed or insulted they want to help you keep secrets from me.’
‘Everyone wanted to surprise you. Not that anyone thought I could pull it off. They were all convinced you’d find out.’
‘Ha! Excellent.’
‘What?’
‘Well, I love it when they’re wrong. They all thought you didn’t have the Bridgerton qualities.’
‘Being?’
‘Loving a challenge and cheating your way to accomplishing your goals.’
Phillip rolled his eyes.
‘So do you like the ring?’
‘I’ll show you how much I do once we get home.’
‘How long is this film?’ Phillip asked.
Eloise grinned, her nails tracing up and down his leg.
‘Way longer than you’d like.’
It was a long forty minutes before the movie was over. But once it was, Phillip practically flew home. Turned out, Eloise really liked the ring.