Mary was up before the sun. She couldn't sleep any longer and she knew that William would already be awake, waiting for the right time to slip through the house and spend the day outside. Today, Mary wasn't allowing him to run away. She quickly got dressed, making her way towards the kitchen where she heard the most noise. Sure enough, she saw William standing in the kitchen, cutting himself a slice of bread with some butter.
"Cut me one, will you?" William jumped, turning with a knife in hand before seeing that it was just Mary. "Sorry, forgot about that."
"It's alright. What are you doing up at this hour?"
If we're to be married, you have to be with me when I tell my family we really said fuck all the traditions. Besides, we can't just be hiding away from the world for the rest of our lives."
"We can try." He smiled, going back to slicing the bread. "I want nothing to do with you telling you family, your mother may actually murder me."
"My dad will hold her back." Mary laughed at the sheer terror on William's face before she pushed herself up onto the countertop next to him. "We'll be alright. If you really want to stay away from my mother, we can go back to London today, but we have to tell them we're engaged."
"They'll have my head." Mary smiled, pulling William close to her. "I've done nothing but wreak havoc in your family. Now I've proposed to their daughter without any permission from either parent."
"Tommy would've approved, it's fine. Besides, the only person who needs to say yes is me and I've already said yes." William smiled, kissing the tip of Mary's nose before going back to slicing bread.
"He probably would've thrived in this chaos. He loved being in the crowd in France." Mary laughed, watching as William quickly spread the butter onto the slices he had made. "I received a letter from him, probably the last one he sent. I haven't read it yet, but I found it again last night and I want to read it with you."
"Mary-"
"Please? I don't want to be alone when I read it. I don't think I can handle it. Besides, don't you want to know what he says about you in it?" William looked up from the bread, seeing Mary shrug. Before he could respond, the door to the kitchen opened and it was her parents walking in, both looking tired. "Morning, we'll be out of your way soon. Will's just-"
"We just need tea," her father cut her off, smiling at the couple. William smiled back, not having any bad blood between him and Mr. Blake. "Where are you two off to today?"
"I think we'll just be in the orchard. It's nice enough to stay out. If it starts raining, we'll be in the library probably." Her mother scoffed, as she waited for her water to boil. Mary ignored her. "We wanted to tell you two something, now's as good as ever." William looked at her, his eyes widening as he shook his head. Mary wasn't scared of her parents. She knew that they loved her and even if her mother still had some grieving she had to go through, Mary knew that eventually, her mother would support them. "Well, I took William to the field last night and we got to talking about things. Things such as the future and where he and I stood. You always told me to follow my heart, Mum, and I mean, I suppose you can say that's exactly what we did last night. William asked me to marry him last night. I said yes. We're engaged." Mary looked at William who looked like maybe sick, as she finished. She didn't want to look at her parents, scared that they may actually be upset.
"You're what?" It was her father who spoke. Mary and William looked at him. His mouth was partially open and he was looking back and forth between the two.
"Sir, I know I should have asked your permission first, but I was-"
"You just knew that we would say no." Mary sighed as her mother butted in before William could finish. "It's not going to happen, I won't let my daughter-"
