Epilogue #2
“As will I, whatever the sex.”
The conversation faded for a moment as Rupert and Atticus grew bored with their sticks and began jumping in muddy puddles.
Emelisse watched them get absolutely filthy, knowing she was going to have to wrestle a pair of little boys into a bath when they reached home.
But it didn’t distress her; wrestling little boys was all part of the fun of life at Hawkstone these days.
“You know what I was thinking?” she asked softly.
He glanced at her. “What is that, sweet?”
She watched the boys kick water on each other. “I’ve been thinking I’d like to name our daughter something Alice would like. She has been such a great friend and I would like to honor her somehow.”
He squeezed her hand, knowing they were venturing onto a somber subject. Alice and Hallam, happily married all of these years, had not been successful in having live children. Alice had given birth twice to dead daughters, something that had been tremendously upsetting to everyone.
But Alice had been strong; so very strong, as Hallam had wept in secret.
Caius knew because he had seen the man break down.
Emelisse has effortlessly given birth to three boys, and now the imminent birth of a fourth child, and Alice had been thrilled for her friend every time.
She had even attended the births, helping the midwives, and it had been Alice who had told Caius each time that a son had been safely delivered.
Alice and Hallam had turned out to be a wonderful couple and the most generous, giving friends Caius and Emelisse could have asked for.
At the moment, however, Alice was pregnant again and it was more than likely her last chance.
She was into her fourth decade now and the pregnancy had been extremely taxing on her.
The midwives had put her on bedrest and that was where she had been for seven long months.
As Emelisse actively attended not only Hawkstone, but Richmond when they were in residence, Alice had been forced to remain in the keep of Hawkstone, on the floor of private chambers she shared with Hallam, in the hopes that this child would live.
It was something Emelisse prayed for daily.
“I think honoring Alice is a very nice thing,” Caius finally said, not wanting to bring the tears that usually came from Emelisse when discussing Alice. “I am sure she will be delighted.”
“I know she was going to name one of her babies Alix,” she said. “I would like to name our daughter after a child she hoped would live.”
“I think it would be a sweet gesture. You must ask her when we get back.”
“I will.”
Above, the thunder rolled and Rupert and Atticus began jumping up and down, yelling in delight.
Emelisse watched the boys, her mind wandering to the coming baby, to the future.
Life as Lady d’Avignon had been so grand that she often wondered what she had done in life to deserve such happiness.
Caius had been the model husband, a man she had grown not only to love deeply, but to respect greatly.
For two people who had suffered such a traumatic introduction to one another, their married life had been anything but traumatic.
It had been perfect.
Her life was perfect.
There were times, of course, when she thought about those first few days of their acquaintance.
She thought of her father and brother, who now slept for eternity next to her mother in the churchyard at Whitchurch, and how they would have loved Caius.
It had been Emelisse’s greatest regret that they never got to meet him, but she had always believed they were watching down upon her from above. They could see how happy she was.
They could see how much she was loved.
In the weeks to come, Alix d’Avignon never materialized. A massive little boy was born on the same day as Edward de Wolfe’s funeral mass, a black-haired son who was supposed to have been a blonde-haired daughter.
Sebastian d’Avignon was a big, fat baby and the apple of his father’s eye.
All the brothers were enamored with him, as was his mother, who was secretly glad that he had been a boy.
She loved looking at the little face, a mirror image of Caius, and happily enough, one month after little Sebastian was born, Alice finally delivered a healthy son.
They named him Caspian.
When The Britannia Viper was sent north to mediate the trouble with Winterhold and Hawkstone, none of them could have ever imagined how rich, how full, their lives would become.
Alice and Hallam were finally allowed to experience their own love story, but for Caius and Emelisse, it had been something more.
Far more.
Theirs was a love story that passed on into legend – The Britannia Viper, The Damsel, and the magic of Mynydd Adar that lived on. And, The Roden Twins, which were finally returned.
The legend of love, of a mystical mountain, and of two big diamonds that would last forever.
Children of Caius and Emelisse
Rupert
Atticus
Calix
Sebastian
Alix
Jasper
* THE END *