Chapter 5

Oh wow - this has been neglected as have all my stories! Oh well, here is some more if anyone wants to still read it!

Grace awoke and stretched out to run her hand tenderly across...an empty space. Running a hand across her eyes she blinked a few times and then opened them fully to see...her own room. With no-one but her in it. Now thoroughly confused, she pulled her silk robe across her body and tied the sash before heading to the door of her suite. Peeking out into the corridor and finding it strangely quiet outside, she headed further down the wing to seek out the man she so desparately wished to see. She looked into Annie's room on her way there and found that devoid of the ginger haired beauty she had come to hold so close in her heart. Now increasingly disturbed, she rounded the corner at quite some speed and delivered a sound knock to the door of the master bedroom. No answer was forthcoming, and she decided to simply take it upon herself to enter. After all, she half chuckled to herself, I'm sure that after last night, Oliver wouldn't mind!

But then it hit. That wave of doubt. Why did she awake in her own room at such an early hour this morning and not safe in the arms of the man she loves? Was he having second thoughts? Ashamed of his behaviour? Oh God! Of her behaviour?

"Grace?" A deep voice called down the wing of the house from the direction of the main staircase.

"Miss Farrell?" A louder, higher voice called after his, accompanied by smaller, lighter footsteps which came charging down the corridor.

Grace felt suddenly foolish as she realised that nothing was amiss, simply that her...well, her...family, had risen earlier than she, and the newly created father and daughter unit had been spending some overdure, quality time together. This beautiful vision continued calling down the corridor until it final showed itself in Oliver's suite; with Annie peering around the door first, and dashing over to where Grace had taken a seat on the bed.

"Good morning sweetheart," the secretary managed through the flurry of hugs and the kisses which were being placed on her cheek. "You seem awfully happy about something this morning!" She let out a laugh then to join Annie's giggles, before the reason became all too apparent.

"Daddy Warbucks told me that you're gonna get married and I think that really that means that you're my new mom and he said we could go shopping for a wedding dress and flowers and that he wants the wedding to be really soon but that I should maybe ask you before I start calling you Mom 'cos it'd be kind of a neat surprise for you this morning when he gives you the ring that we picked out-"

"Annie!" Oliver interrupted the little girl's rampage of speech with mock admonishment as her eyes grew wide, realising she had given away the secret in her excitement. Two pairs of eyes fell upon Grace, as they waited for her to digest all of this new information. Realising that Oliver must have had Tiffany's open especially early in order to pick out the item in the infamous blue box on the tray he was carrying, she attempted to sort through the other things that Annie had spilt out in such a whirlwind.

"Ok, Annie, well...would you like to call me 'Mom' from now on?" Grace finally asked, in a hushed tone laced with tears.

Annie nodded and Grace smiled.

"Well then, I think that I would like that very much indeed!" She gathered the little girl into a tight embrace and began to stroke her hair whilst asking, "and if you would like to help me choose a dress then you can also help me to choose your bridesmaid's dress, if you'd like to?" She felt another enthusiastic nod against her breast. "And...you say that Daddy Warbucks doesn't want to wait very long until the wedding?" Annie looked up at her new mother and shook her head, suddenly shy after having divulged information that wasn't really hers to share.

"Hmmm...well.." Grace released Annie gently and moved to stand in front of a very nervous billionaire, who was now focussed intently on the soft rug beneath him. "I wonder how soon one can organise a wedding these days? And I wonder why your father is so adamant that it be soon?" Oliver looked up sharply as he realised that far from being angry or embarrassed, his bride to be was, in fact, flirting with him! He smiled a lopsided smile and she returned a brighter one back, knowing she was teasing him mercilessly but not being able to draw her mind away from the three days and three nights of solitude he had promised her would be necessary after the wedding.

"I don't know? I guess it's because the weather is better in the summer, so you could have a party outside after the wedding? Maybe in the gardens!" Annie replied, eager to be of help and thankfully missing the subtext relaying between the two adults in the room.

"Annie, I think that's a wonderful idea!" Oliver replied, finally breaking eye contact with his lady love. "In fact, why wait until the wedding, let's have a party right now! Well, tomorrow anyhow. That's right, yes, Independance Day is this Saturday so let's have a great big party right here in the gardens. We can invite all of our friends, and Annie, all of your friends, to celebrate your adoption, and their adoptions, and of course of engagement? Grace?"

"Sounds wonderful," Oliver couldn't help but relax ever so slightly at that soft, lilting voice which came from the woman stood behind him.

"Leapin' Lizards! A great big party! Can we have apple pie? And candy? And meatloaf and potatoes and - "

"Annie! Why don't you go and see Mrs Pugh right away and help her to draw up a menu? Whatever you want at this party, well that's what we'll have!" Oliver let out a joyous peal of laughter when he saw how quickly Annie fled from the room in the direction of the kitchen.

Grace had joined in by the time his laughter died down, and the pair turned to properly face each other. The soft, lilting voice was just about enough to break through Oliver's concentration and he managed to draw his mind away from the kisses they had shared the previous night, in this very room, in order to listen to what this beautiful creature was telling him. "You know, if you let Annie choose everything on the menu, there will be nothing but sweets and homemade meatloaf! I doubt the Republican representatives would be too happy!"

"I'll have Mrs Pugh prepare the usual food to go alongside Annie's menu, don't you worry!"

A silence fell upon the two for just a few moments, as Oliver drank in the image of his fiancee in the same nightgown he had held her in just hours before, and she reached out to wrap his arms around her waist just waiting, increasingly impatiently, for him to finally kiss her for the first time that day. And then he did. The kiss was simple at first, just a light touch of his lips upon hers, before his wandering mind began to control his mouth, and kisses were peppered across her cheeks, her eyelids, hairline, and that spot behind her ear, just like the night before. Eventually the exploration ceased and the two pairs of lips met again in a more passionate morning greeting. With her arms about his neck, Grace was the first to pull away, flushed but content, and whispered,

"Good morning."

Oliver smiled and reached behind him to the breakfast tray he had prepared with Annie's help. The eggs and bacon lay forgotten now as the excitement of the day had left them to go cold. Instead, Grace was presented with that blue box. As Oliver led them both to sit on the small sofa he kept underneath the window, he gathered the delicate left hand of his fiancee into his and left small kisses on the fingers there. They sat, and the box was opened. Not feeling the need to prostrate himself on one knee after last night's much more honest and romantic proposal, Oliver simply assisted Grace in lifting the stunning diamond solitaire from its casing and sliding it onto the appropriate finger. Looking into her eyes one more time, Oliver leant over to place a gentle kiss, full of the promise of a beautiful life to come, on the lips of the woman soon to be his wife.

As the kiss ended, Grace remembered that there was something that still remained unanswered. "Oliver? Why did I wake up in my own room this morning?"

"Well, I knew that I had to leave early if I wanted to get this ring for you before you woke up, and I didn't want to cause anyone any embarrassment by having one of the maids find you in here."

Finding yet another reason to love the man before her, Grace smiled at his consideration and the romantic image that formed in her head. "So you carried me back to my rooms?"

"No. I asked Punjab to do so."

"WHAT? OLIVER! You mean Punjab saw me in my nightgown, he put me into bed?"

Another peal of laughter rung out as clear as church bells and Grace looked down from her now standing position to see a suddenly playful husband emerge from her stern employer's facade.

"Of course not my darling! I will be the only man ever to see you in this again, you needn't worry about that!"

"Oh you!" Oliver found himself swiped playfully around the head with a cushion at this admittance, and stood swiftly to take Grace into his arms and deposit her onto the centre of the bed. The lovers started the day as they had ended the last, talking, laughing, kissing and holding, but with a tiny addition that meant the world to them both; a simple, yet beautiful, diamond ring.