A Duke By Any Other Name

Epilogue

Ten years later

L una looked over at her three sons, tumbling about like puppies as they tried to decide who was the strongest. Their father, keeping a close watch on them, glanced at her with his brow cocked, and then reached to untangle them.

“Enough, you rascals,” he said. “We have work to do. There is a badger den I want to show you.”

They stopped their squabbling and stood before him. Dark hair and red, they were a mixture of Maxwell and Luna, their temperaments as well as their coloring. She was very proud of them. This life Maxwell had given her was all she could have wanted, and she had never been so happy. Sometimes she remembered her privileged time at Bonnyrigg, but it was never with regret for leaving it.

She knew that her husband felt the same.

“Luna?” he was holding out his hand, and she rose, putting her own into it. He squeezed tight. “Will you come with us?” he asked. “The way is a little rough.”

Luna patted her big belly and smiled. “If you will help me over the uneven ground. Our daughter would love to see the badger den.”

“Not another son then?” he asked her with a smile.

“This feels different,” she said. “And nothing is too rough for the girl who climbed down a castle wall.”

At once their sons were clamoring to hear the story, although they had heard it many times before.

Luna began with, “Once there was a duke’s daughter who was so unhappy in her castle she wanted to run away, so she tied her clothing together and climbed out of her tower. And fell into the arms of the gamekeeper...”

And Maxwell ended it, “And they wandered the countryside and slept under the stars and never wanted for anything.”

She smiled at him. “We lived happily ever after.”

And when he smiled back, she knew that it was true. And even when the time came to return to Bonnyrigg and take up the reins of the dukedom and leave their wandering behind, it would be all right. Because they would always have each other.

The End