The sound of his name coming from her is possibly the sweetest he's ever heard. It even trumps hearing the Chant sung in its entirety at the Grand Cathedral in Val Royeaux as he did as a youth. There's something special that transcends words in just how good she is and the effect just one spoken word can produce.

"I love you, Bethany."

No hesitation or shame in that admission, no matter how much Mama had implored him otherwise. His heart had long since been given into the care of this gentle, loving woman and he no longer has any fears of her refusing it.

"I think about you constantly. Us. Where we'll live, what we'll do. What I could possibly do to give you even a fraction of the joy you've returned to me. I can't imagine my life without you in it now. And I don't want to." Maybe that's selfish of him, but he's greedy for the completion and wholeness that she's brought into his life. There's no more gnawing sense of emptiness and being alone anymore, and it's all the work of one beautiful ray of sunshine wrapped up in warm eyes and soft dimples. "Marry me?"

Which was not the speech he'd rehearsed in his head a dozen times or the delivery he'd intended for possibly the most important question he'd ever ask in his life, but... He's been fumbling his way through how to conduct a proper courtship until now, it's only mete that he continue fumbling through a proposal as well.