Epilogue
Four Months Later…
St. James’s Church was bursting with flowers and elegant guests who’d come to witness the wedding of the century.
But it was the invisible ones who mattered most to Sophie.
Her aunts and her parents all had a purpose to be by her side today, and as she and Simon recited their vows, her heart was fuller than it had ever been.
The spring sun filtered through the beautiful stained-glass windows as Simon placed the sparkling diamond-encrusted ring on her finger—the very same ring her mama had received on her wedding day.
I shall cherish it, Mama. She turned and smiled at the ghostly, but still beautiful, form of the woman who’d brought her into this world.
Her mama, forever a young woman aged two-and-twenty, returned the smile.
Sophie shifted her gaze to Simon, who looked dashing in his dark suit. She felt like the luckiest woman alive as he promised to love, cherish, and protect her for the rest of their days.
Finally, the reverend pronounced them man and wife, and Simon lifted her veil and kissed her tenderly on the lips.
Her heart almost burst with joy as they made their way, arm in arm, down the aisle and outside into the sunshine, where their carriage waited, ready to transport them to their new life.
Sophie leaned forward and waved to the guests who’d gathered outside the church.
Her aunts, her papa, and her mama, frozen in time, blew her ghostly kisses, which she inhaled and stored in her heart.
Then she turned from the ghosts to look at her very human husband.
They would have a wonderful life together, and she knew for certain, they too would have a love that would last for an eternity.
People passed, it was true, but love never, ever died.
The End