Epilogue
“I can hardly believe that you are soon to be married, Esme. I do hope that Rupert understands perfectly that he will see almost as much of me as he sees of his new wife,” Isabella said with gentle forthrightness.
“I have made it a condition of my agreements to marry him,” Esme said and laughed. “And Rupert knows he ought not to attempt to come between us, my dear Isabella. So, you have no need to worry about it.”
“I cannot imagine that the poor man would dare attempt it,” Elliot said with a laugh as he reached out to lay his cup and saucer back on the tea tray.
“Quite so, Your Grace,” Esme said with a bold smile. “More tea?” She raised her eyebrows at him as she looked into his face.
As Isabella watched her friend and her husband in conversation, she reflected upon the fact that Esme had never once blanched at Elliot’s appearance. From the first time he had come out into Esme’s company almost two years before without his curious hood, Esme had treated him as an old friend.
She had never stared and, equally, she had never avoided looking at him either. Esme really was the most marvelous friend, and she had, just as she had always wanted, made Elliot as much a friend of hers as Isabella was.
And she had been instrumental in Elliot’s return to the world. Esme’s easy manner and determination had seen many others in their close society follow suit and determinedly admit the Duke of Coldwell into their circle.
With Esme Montague as their example, they had tried to emulate her ways to behave in a most natural manner for as long as it took them to overcome their own consternation. And when it had been overcome, it was clear.
Just as Crawford Maguire had always said, it was a matter of familiarity and nothing more. And Elliot was doing everything he could to make himself a familiar figure in the county.
At first, it had not been easy. Of course, Isabella had always known how hard it would be for him to take those first steps back to life again.
But it had not been quite as hard for Elliot as it had been all those years ago when he had been alone. He had a wife by his side, one who loved him and did not shriek or look away. Rather she looked at him, touched him, kissed him. She told him she loved him every day, and he knew in his heart that she was as attracted to him as he had always been to her. And that, he told her, had made everything much easier.
He already had what he wanted more than anything. He already had a wife he loved and who loved him in return. Society could choose to accept him or not, as was their wish. And if they chose not to accept him, it mattered not, for he was already accepted by Isabella.
Over time, the small circle of society had grown, little by little. And Isabella was amazed by the amount of people who, in the end, were far more swayed by the title of Duke than by the scarring. How little it took for shallowness to be tipped from one end of the scale to the other! And how very amusing.
Still, even the shallowness made things easier for him.
But the thing that had finally pushed him out into the world had been the one thing he had never expected to have. A beautiful daughter.
When Isabella had first told him that she was with child, not weeks after they had first been reconciled to a true marriage, a true life together, Elliot had felt excitement the first time in almost twenty years.
Life was coming, a new life, with new hope for the future. It had enabled him to finally let go, not of Eleanor and his mother exactly, but of the guilt he had suffered for so long. Little by little, Isabella had managed to convince him that the guilt stood in the way of the grieving. And the guilt, he soon came to know, was unjustified. It had no place in his world, and neither Eleanor nor his mother could have stood to watch it.
In the end, Elliot had chosen to have the tower destroyed. He had kept it as a memorial for so long, and yet it had never served its purpose. It was not a place of remembrance, not a place to celebrate the lives of those he had lost. It was a dark place filled with too many anguished, painful memories. As much as his sister had loved the tower, in the end, it had served as a place of fear and pain, and he knew the time had come to let it go.
Before Isabella’s pregnancy had even begun to show, Elliot had pulled the tower to the ground. He did not want his child to fall in love with the building and to make it their own as his sister had done. He wanted his child to find contentment and fantasy anywhere but there. It had come as a great relief to Isabella when the tower had finally come down, even though there was much sadness attached to the deed itself.
But it was a sign for her that her husband, the man she loved so dearly, was finally beginning to live his life free from the shadows which had held him so tightly and for so long.
As Isabella had wandered the house and grounds, growing larger by the day, she had been surprised at how his constant company made every day exciting and new.
They walked together and spent time in the little walled gardens. They played music together every day, and Elliot’s attempts to teach Isabella to play the violin had not been without their rewards. Isabella had taken to the instrument with ease and spent many hours in happy practice.
When Catherine had finally been born, it seemed to Isabella that Elliot’s world was now complete. His happiness at the appearance of his baby daughter touched her more than anything had done in her life before. He loved his little girl instantly, taking her everywhere with him.
As Catherine began to grow and become more inquisitive and mobile, she often stared at her father with adoring eyes and reached out with chubby hands to grasp his cheeks. It made no difference to the infant that her father had scars. It was clear that Catherine, as a baby, had never even noticed. He was her father, and that was that. He was the man who would love and protect her for her entire life.
It was about that time that Elliot had surprised Isabella by accepting an invitation to a county ball being held by Lord and Lady Tavistock. It was to be a large and lavish affair, and Isabella had thought it would likely be just a little too large and overcrowded for her husband’s liking. She knew that they needed to take things little by little, without pushing.
“Are you quite sure, Elliot?” Isabella had said when Elliot told her that he had accepted the invitation.
“I would be a fool not to go out into the world, would I not? When a man has a beautiful wife and daughter who love him and look upon him without fear or disgust, then he has everything in the world that he needs. Believe me; once a man has that, he can do anything.”
His happy smile and bold assertion had reduced Isabella to tears of pride and happiness on the spot, and Elliot had teased her greatly for it for days afterward. But he had teased her kindly, knowing how much his wife had wanted him to have the life which seemed to have been stolen from him all those years ago. He knew what it meant to her.
“Yes, I should like another cup of tea, Esme.” As Esme poured the tea, Isabella was drawn back into the present moment.
“Are Catherine and Kitty still outside?” Isabella said vaguely. “I do hope our child is not wearing Kitty out.”
“I do not think there is much chance of that, my dear,” Elliot said and laughed as he looked over his shoulder and out of the large French windows onto the terrace beneath. “If anything, I think Kitty would be loath to give up her new responsibilities.”
“I should say so.” Isabella laughed.
“I do not know how that dear woman manages to be your personal maid, Isabella, and nurse your child.” Esme shook her head in admiration.
“It is determination, Esme. It is determination to be a great part of Catherine’s life, and the child was born just minutes before Kitty had offered herself up as the role of nurse. How on earth could I have refused her?”
“And she is a very good nurse, is she not?”
“She truly can turn her hand to anything. The fact that she loves Catherine dearly helps.”
“And her duties as lady’s maid?”
“As you know, I can already look after myself very well indeed.” Isabella laughed. “And the larger part of Kitty’s duties have always been more as counsellor and companion to me than as a lady’s maid. It is very fluid.”
“I just hope that Kitty will accept help when the second one is born,” Elliot said, and Isabella drew in her breath sharply.
“Second one?” Esme said sitting suddenly bolt upright. “Is there something you ought to tell me, Isabella?” Esme’s eyes were already bright and shining; she knew the answer to her own question.
“I had hoped to tell you myself,” she said casting a mock annoyed glance at her husband who, for his part, looked suitably chagrined.
“I really am terribly sorry; it just slipped out.” He shrugged.
“It slipped out because you are just so excited, my dear, are you not?” Isabella laughed and reached for his hand.
“I am excited, it is true. And this is not the first time that I have forgotten myself, I am afraid.”
“Let me hazard a guess and say that you have already told Crawford.” Isabella was still laughing.
“It just happened, my dear.” He shrugged again only with more gusto this time. “And then, of course, I had to hurriedly let him know that he and his lovely new wife were not expected to be godparents to our second child also. I told him that he could relax safe in the knowledge that Esme and Rupert would be…” He winced. “Sorry.”
“Esme, forgive me. If I had realized that my husband would turn from hermit to social butterfly in a heartbeat, I would have come here today without him. Truly, I had wanted to ask you for myself.”
“My dear, are you asking me to be godmother to your new child?” Esme was already dabbing at the corner of her eye with a handkerchief.
“Yes, just that. I should like you and Rupert to be our new child’s godparents when he or she comes into the world. As long as both you and Rupert are agreeable, that is.”
“We shall be married by then, my dear, and Rupert will be agreeable whether he is agreeable or not.”
“Dear me, poor old Rupert,” Elliot said and gave Esme a teasing smile. “It is probably best that he does not yet know all that is to come to him.”
“Quite so, quite so.” Esme nodded slowly and smiled. “After all, I do not want him to run away to Liverpool and take a boat to Ireland before I have even had a chance to marry him.”
All three of them laughed at the humorous allusion to Isabella’s daring attempt at escape in the weeks before she had been due to marry Elliot.
“I am teasing you, of course. Dear old Rupert is a very lucky man, and I should never hear it said otherwise,” Elliot said seriously. “And he is due to have a most interesting and fulfilling married life, of that I am certain.”
“Between your kindness and the knowledge that I am to be a godmother, I am sure that I shall spend the rest of this day in happy tears. Now then, you really must stop it before I wash myself away.”
As Esme and Elliot continued to chatter happily, Isabella stared out through the French windows to where Kitty was desperately trying to keep up with the faltering but surprisingly speedy steps of baby Catherine.
She smiled and blinked back a few happy tears of her own. Everything that Isabella had ever wanted in the world was there before her at that moment. She had a loving husband who was kind, amusing, intelligent, and very handsome. She had a beautiful child and another on the way. And to add to it all, Isabella had the promise of her oldest friend at her side for the rest of her life.
And with Kitty as the mother figure she had never truly known, Isabella knew that her life was complete. Of course, ups and downs would come as they surely did to everybody, but the foundations of her world were the strongest that she could ever have imagined, and for that she was truly grateful.
THE END
(Please turn the page to read the first chapters from “A Governess for the Brooding Duke”, my Amazon Best-Selling novel!)