Epilogue
“Two weddings in one day,” Cecily laughed as Nathaniel twirled her around the large gathering room at the inn. “No wonder I’m exhausted!”
After a week of planning and another week of traveling north in two of his carriages, the “elopement” had finally borne fruit.
Mary and Patrick were married first at the blacksmith’s anvil, fulfilling all of Mary’s romantic fantasies.
Then, to satisfy Cecily’s wish to see her sister formally married before a priest, Nathaniel had paid a local minister to read the banns three times on a single Sunday and marry the young couple seven days later, pleading his brother’s imminent deployment as an extenuating circumstance.
“I think Mary and Patrick must be more exhausted,” Nathaniel responded with a grin, lifting Cecily off her feet and kissing her as the music came to a close. “They’ve already gone to bed.”
Looking around, Cecily saw that he was right and laughed. The young newlyweds had indeed vanished from the party, although it was barely eight o’clock.
“Well, they are married now, at long last,” she said with a smile, drawing Nathaniel back to their chairs for a break and yawning as she sat down. “Let them enjoy it. We’ve all had a lovely evening.”
The innkeeper had been extremely tickled by the story of Mary and Patrick’s peculiar road to marriage and had been more than happy to organize a party at Nathaniel’s behest, inviting other young couples recently married in Gretna Green to join an evening of food, drink, and Scottish reels.
“You’ve been very tired all week,” Nathaniel observed as Cecily yawned again and leaned her head against his shoulder. “Unlike Lilian.”
His daughter tore past them as the dance ended, rushing to the musicians to demand another reel, accompanied by the innkeeper’s two reticent young sons and a pink-cheeked but happy-looking Miss Osborne.
“This morning, I was afraid you were coming down with something,” Nathaniel mused, taking Cecily’s hand in his own, “but it seemed to pass quickly enough, like the morning before. Do you think it’s all the travel?
Perhaps you and I should stay up here for another week after Mary and Patrick return. ”
“No, I think it’s all your fault,” Cecily told him with a knowing smile.
“Are you complaining that I keep you up too late?” Nathaniel inquired with an amused smile as he raised her hand to his lips. “Or that I wake you too early? Or that my suggestions of a nap after luncheon are usually merely pretexts for my real intentions?”
“I make no complaints about your appetite,” Cecily said, her smile softening and growing at once. “But I suspect there are consequences.”
When she took his hand and laid it gently on her stomach, he looked amazed and then overjoyed and tender.
“Already?” he breathed.
“I suspect so,” she replied with a rueful smile. “The innkeeper spoke to me after she heard of my morning sickness and offered me all kinds of remedies for expectant mothers. After I talked to her, I realized she was probably right. She has had five children herself.”
“We’re going to have a child,” he marveled, as though unable to believe it. “I have sometimes… hoped for this, but I didn’t think it would be so soon.”
“I think it happened the very first time,” she admitted.
“On the floor of a sitting room at the Caruthers’ house?”
They looked at one another with shared amusement, before Cecily giggled and then yawned again.
“I don’t think I will last much longer down here,” she warned.
“Lilian, Miss Osborne,” Nathaniel called out. “One more dance, and then we’re all going up to bed.”
“Yes, Papa,” the little girl called back with a sweet smile for both her father and Cecily.
“So, we are going to be a family of four before next summer,” Nathaniel thought aloud as he settled back in his chair. “I dare say we shall have no peace at all for some time after the new arrival.”
“Do you care about that?” Cecily asked, snuggling up to him again.
“Yes, I do,” he replied, smiling. “I care very much, and I think it’s wonderful.”
The End?