Epilogue
With her bejeweled cane tapping the marble floor, Joy limped through the largest of the two parlors, overseeing the Christmas decorations. “The bough on the right still needs to go a bit higher, Severns. It has gone all lopsided again. Why will it not stay?”
The butler exploded with a vicious sneeze.
“The fir and pine both are very sappy, my lady. The infernal things should stick up there with no ribbons and nails, but for some reason, they refuse to do so. The ivy stayed with but a tiny strand of ribbon. I shall add more to the evergreen boughs. Never fear. I shall prevail.”
“Take heart, Severns,” Jansen said as he toted his very chunky son in the crook of his arm. “She shan’t ask you to move them again. She will merely want you to add more.”
Little Lion clapped his pudgy hands and added his opinion in the form of raspy babbling.
He had become quite the vocal child of late, but always sounded a bit hoarse.
Joy didn’t care. In her opinion, her son sounded like an angel.
She also didn’t mind being forced to depend on the stabilization of a cane due to the continued weakness in her left leg.
At least she could walk and be more or less independent.
They had so very much for which to be thankful.
“I cannot wait to see how Lion feels about figgy pudding,” she said. “I am sure he will love it.”
“Nanny will have a fit.” Jansen chucked his son’s double chin. “She gets quite cross when we feed him something other than his coddled eggs and gruel.”
“Lion has the appetite of a lion. She might as well get used to it or seek employment elsewhere.” Joy still wasn’t all that sure about the woman. Blessing, Fortuity, and Grace had recommended the agency that sent her, but that didn’t mean she had to accept the first candidate they tried.
Jansen laughed. “Spoken like a true lioness.”
“Yes, well…rawr. By the way, where is Nimbus? We are missing more ribbon.”
“Last I saw him, he was…courting his lady love. Very loudly, as a matter of fact.”
The true meaning of courting was not lost on Joy. Especially since they had enjoyed some courting of their own, just this morning. “Well done, Nimbus. But I wonder where the ribbon got to?”
“Leave poor Severns alone and let him deal with it.”
“I suppose I should.” She tickled little Lion until he had them all laughing with his adorable baby cackles.
A contentment she had never known existed filled her and made her wish the same for her remaining sisters that were yet to marry.
“Felicity is next on the chopping block, you know. We must help her find the happiness we have.”
Jansen backed up a step and lifted his laughing son high into the air. “Lion and I decline that invitation, my angel. That is an Abarough task if ever I heard one.”
“Perhaps,” Joy said with a grin. “Would you care to make a wager on that?”
“With you, my love?” Jansen laughed. “I am always up for a wager.”
The End