"Emma! I wasn't expecting you!"

Emma stepped inside the unfamiliar room. "I'm sorry to come by unannounced," she said shyly, looking around Andrei's study.

"No, it's no trouble," he said, rolling up papers on the desk with a bashful smile. "I'm just sorry for the mess."

"It's hardly a mess. You're just working." Emma stepped over to his desk and drew a deep breath. "I've been thinking, Andrei, and I've decided--"

"You don't need to say anything," he said quietly, cutting her off, "I didn't expect you to say yes."

"What?" she cried, bewildered. 

He went on sheepishly, doing up the top button of his shirt. "I realised it was a bad position to put you in, Emma, and I don't want you to accept me as a form of blackmail. I realised as soon as I'd left that that's exactly what I'd sounded like, but I couldn't think of any better way to word it, and I'm sorry."

Emma stood in stunned silence. "Andrei," she laughed after a tense pause, her face flaming, "I was coming to say yes!"

His jaw dropped. "Why?"

"What do you mean, why?" She crossed to the other side, and Andrei stood up, his mouth still slightly open. "I never thought it would be blackmail. I realised that we would be a good match, and that I'd grown to know you so well as a person, and to appreciate you so much, that I couldn't imagine my future without you."

He took her hands and they faced each other.

"I love you, Andrei Liniski," she said weakly, with a smile. "I want to marry you."

He kissed her. It wasn't soft, as the night before had been, but exuberant and joyful, triumphant, and Emma kissed him back. 

"You're sure?"

"Of course I'm sure," she said playfully, pushing his chest. 

"Oh, Emma," was all he said before he hugged her tightly, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. They held each other a long time, in the bright study, and Emma leaned her head against his shoulder and took a deep breath.

Yes, she knew, this is right.

*****

It was a beautiful wedding, Emma thought, even if it was a bit small. Running Creek's only church was tiny and unheated, so she sat shivering in the front pew, grinning up at her sister. There were just a few guests-- Charles's mother and his two sisters sat beside Emma, while Iain and his family sat just behind them with the adopted girls. Jane and Liza were quiet, but Maria was scuffing her heels against the floor. A young woman Anne knew in town-- Emma couldn't remember her name, but they'd been friends for the brief time Anne went to school-- sat in the back with her own husband.

Anne was wearing the first new dress she'd had in years, of dark blue wool, but the same white gloves she'd always worn. Emma couldn't stop staring at Anne's face. It was pale as always, but she was smiling so brightly Emma wondered if her cheeks were sore. There was no music, no grand procession down the aisle, no flowers or even a veil. Anne had a new dress to wear on Sundays and both she and Charles had thin gold rings, and that was it. There wasn't even a Mass like they would have had in Ireland, just a few quick vows with the Methodist minister-- he was the only minister in town and neither Anne nor Charles really saw the need to spend money to get everyone to Denver. Marriage was marriage, after all. Emma felt she hardly saw any of the wedding.

After all, her own was to be so different. She'd written Anne as soon as she'd gotten back to Mrs. Remigrant's, three weeks before, but promised she wouldn't announce it to the rest of the family until after Anne's wedding. Anne needed a day of her own, and Emma didn't want to ruin it.

The wind blew cold against the windows. Emma hated the long Colorado winters-- snow lasting through May and starting in October, with those wonderful warm days randomly scattered throughout. Today was not one of them. It was windy and spitting wet snow on the frozen, patchy ground, but Anne and Charles didn't seem to care.

Anne slipped the ring onto her new husband's finger, a single tear escaping down her smiling cheeks, and then she took off her own glove as Charles put the ring on hers.

Emma slipped her own left hand under her right, smiling broadly up at the couple. It wasn't that she wasn't happy about her engagement, just that today was about Anne and Charles, and Emma and Andrei weren't getting married until autumn anyways. There was time.

Everyone cheered as Anne and Charles kissed, and then Iain and Emma stood as the minister beckoned them. 

"Here," he said, pointing to the marriage certificate, "the witnesses' signatures go here..."

Emma signed her name, clearly and darkly, as Emma MacEilan.

*****

There was an engagement party, of course, for Miss Emma Remigrant and Mr. Andrei Liniski. It was something of a farewell, too-- Andrei was announcing that he would be leaving Denver to spend the summer in the mountains, and it would be a long time before he attended another Denver society party.

"What would I need to attend another party for?" he laughed to the crowd, his toasting glass in his hand. He smiled at Emma beside him. "I've already found a wife, and I don't think I'd find a better one in a thousand years, which is how long these things seem to last anyways."

Everyone laughed, including Emma. 

"To my niece," said Mrs. Remigrant, raising her glass of sherry, "and to Mr. Liniski. May they survive the mountain winters."

"Cheers!" cried Emma and Andrei with a laugh. Emma raised the glass to her lips, but took only the barest sip of champagne.

It was sad that her family couldn't be here, but it was all part of the plan. She would spend her summer arranging everything, and then she'd spend a week down at the farm before returning to Denver in late September, where Andrei would meet her and they'd marry. Then Emma Remigrant would be gone, and they would go up to the mountain town where high society didn't exist. It couldn't come fast enough.

Besides, Emma knew if she waited too long to marry Andrei she'd only question herself even though she knew it was right. 

"Excuse me," said Andrei as he bowed, "but may I have this dance, Miss Remigrant?"

Emma took his glass and put both down on the table. "I'd be delighted, Mr. Liniski," she said with a grin, and they danced for a long, long time.