Epilogue
Petra and Ross were inseparable from that day on.
Ross’s cottage on the hill had been rented to another tenant, so they both returned to the little flat above the bookshop
after a stunningly successful fair. There had been extraordinary interest in the book, now titled I Cried to Dream Again: Caliban’s Story Retold. Ross’s honest disclosures around his struggles and inspirations helped to create the story’s success, as well as generating
a valuable discourse about mental health issues in publishing.
Ross and Alistair continued to insist that Petra deal with everything, and by Christmas she had sold rights to eighteen countries
with more to follow.
In the months that passed, back in Portneath, Ross berated himself constantly over what he had put Petra through. Over time,
with lots of talking, they managed to puzzle out how the destructive and unhealthy relationship between him and Henrietta
had formed, how Henrietta had exploited her power and his na?vete, and how her reappearance had instantly brought him back
temporarily into her thrall.
Slowly, with Petra’s patience and understanding, he forgave himself.
Thanks to Petra and Ross, Alistair’s agency was set to achieve its best year ever, and the monies due from fees allowed him
to recruit an excellent assistant whose sole job was to support Petra. This allowed Petra to stay in Portneath, where she
had Ross, her friends, and a whole new life.
However, the fatigue that had consumed her during Ross’s weeks of absence turned out not to be just depression after all.
Jules—being pregnant herself—spotted it first.
On hearing he was going to be a father, Ross immediately went out and put his whole advance payment on a darling little fisherman’s
cottage right on the seafront. It was in the curved row of ice cream–colored Georgian houses that faced out over the harbor—the
ones Petra had loved gazing at from the bedroom window of the flat over all those months.
Petra and Ross’s cottage was the rose pink one, with blue hydrangeas crammed into its little front garden and a glorious climbing
honeysuckle around the door.
There was a little sitting room at the front with a wooden floor, an open fire, and bookshelves in the alcoves on either side
of the fireplace. At the back was a kitchen with a glass-windowed conservatory, providing just enough room for a dining table
and chairs overlooking a gorgeous little walled garden. Ross took the bare, empty attic room as his writing space, placing
a plain wooden table under the dormer window, so his only distraction was the constantly changing weather blowing west to
east across the horizon over the sea.
Before he even started on novel number three, Ross built Petra a cozy window seat in the bay window of the sitting room.
Piled high with feather cushions and throws, it was her favorite spot, where she could read to her heart’s content and gaze out at the sea.
She never felt alone, because she knew Ross was looking out at the same views in the room above.
Also, as it happened, Petra saw a huge amount of Jules.
Being pregnant together—spending whole days either in the cottage or the converted chapel in Middlemass where Roman and Jules lived—the two women shared everything, including much of the sleep-deprived fug of early motherhood.
They were delighted that their daughters Esme and Harriet—just five months apart in age and destined to go through school together—showed every sign of becoming firm friends.
Speaking of friends, Petra and Ross quickly became close to all the others, but especially Roman and Jules.
Roman took on the main responsibility for Capelthorne’s while the babies were tiny. He was ably assisted by Flo when she wasn’t
working in her garden with Digger for company. If Flo wasn’t available, Petra and Jules took turns looking after the girls
while the other helped out in the shop. This suited Petra perfectly, because having Ross as her sole client—and with such
an able assistant in London—she had little to do until he finished his next book. In the meantime, I Cried to Dream Again continued to break sales records in all of its markets.
Readers were especially touched to see that Caliban—his reputation fully restored—got his happy ending with Miranda at last.