At the moment, the 35 year old Mallory intensely and honestly felt very touched and moved by the question from the person she was with. Mallory knew she was old, and most of her friends and classmates in high school and college, they have all been married with kids of their own. So to her, having a handsome and young man ask her to marry them for the first time would likely be a special and poignant moment.
She just also felt absolutely shocked and surprised to hear those words for the first time in her life, especially about the fact that she had never been married before. Alistair asking Mallory for the first time out of the blue, just caused her many emotions to come to the surface, such as shock, happiness, nervousness, and possibly even a bit of fear of taking such a huge step and a
