EPILOGUE
Epilogue
It had been eighteen months since Lady Catherine Compton’s grave had been found in the lonely bushland far up in the hills. After months of paperwork and negotiation, they finally had the go-ahead to re-inter her in the place she should have been buried more than a hundred and sixty years earlier.
The sky was a pretty periwinkle blue with not a cloud to be seen. The sun warmed the backs of the crowd of locals who’d gathered to attend the service and finally lay Catherine to rest.
Lottie wiped a stray tear from her cheek and sent her husband a small smile as he pulled her close to his side and kissed the top of her head.
‘You okay?’ Damian asked softly.
‘Yeah, they’re happy tears. I’m glad she’s finally where she belongs.’ The baby in her arms wiggled and squirmed at being held for so long, and Damian reached over to take him from her. It had been a crazy year and a half since they’d moved in together, then gotten married, followed by the arrival of their baby, Alexander Loxley. She had a whole new family, complete with three new sisters-in-law and Damian’s parents, who all doted on Alex—when they could pry him away from her own mother and Cher, that was. Life was full and busy—but never dull.
‘I think Catherine would have approved,’ Cher said, dabbing at her eyes delicately.
‘It was a beautiful service. You did her proud,’ Lottie assured her friend. Since the discovery of her real ancestry, Cher had led the fight to have Catherine’s remains stay in Banalla. It hadn’t really been much of a fight; Cher had taken it upon herself to fly to England and meet with some members of the Shoebridge family and plead the case to have Catherine laid to rest beside her husband. Using true Cher charm, she’d secured not only their blessing, but also a sizeable contribution towards the burial costs.
‘While I was pulling all this together, I decided I’m going to write Catherine and Alexander’s love story into a cabaret. Catherine Compton,’ she said, looking skywards and speaking dramatically. ‘The Lady, the legend, the untold love story,’ she announced. ‘What do you think?’ she asked, looking back at Lottie expectantly.
‘I love it,’ Lottie nodded. ‘If anyone can make that happen, it’s you.’
Her mother and Gordon walked up and shared a hug before Gordon walked over to where Damian stood rocking his three-month-old son to sleep.
Lottie watched as her mother and Cher swapped a brief glance but, before she could question it further, Cher cleared her throat and broke into a wide smile. ‘This has been killing me,’ she confided with a small flutter of her hand in front of her mouth. ‘Sorry,’ she said, squinching up her nose as she glanced at the graves beside her. ‘Honey, your mother and I wanted to give you something.’
Lottie sent a bemused glance to both of them, unsure what on earth these two had been concocting between themselves. She glanced down as Cher handed her a small paper gift bag.
‘What’s this?’ she asked nervously.
‘We had to wait to make sure,’ her mother started.
‘Hurry up and open it,’ Cher said impatiently.
Lottie reached into the bag and pulled out a box. A small. Antique. Ring box. Her startled gaze flew to her mother.
Hannah smiled gently, lowering her head in encouragement to continue.
Lottie slowly opened the box and—despite already knowing what she was going to find inside—still caught her breath as the beautiful opal glittered in the bright sunshine. ‘I don’t understand. You said you’d returned it to Catherine’s family.’
‘I did.’ Her mother’s smile widened. ‘I gave it to Cher.’
‘I can’t take this,’ Lottie said, pushing the ring box into Cher’s hands. ‘It’s yours.’
Cher clasped her big hands around Lottie’s smaller ones. ‘Honey child, as much as I adore that opal, I am a diamond gal through and through. That blue washes out my skin tone.’
‘Cher, it’s worth a fortune.’
‘Charlotte Fairchild–Loxley,’ Cher said, using the no-nonsense voice that made even drunken patrons sit up and take notice. ‘That ring has always belonged in your family. They’ve kept it safe and loved it for all these years. Your mum gave it to me and now I’m giving it to you—freely and with only loving intentions. May this ring bring you and yours only blessings and love,’ Cher said, glancing over at Hannah, who gave an approving nod, and then giving Lottie’s hands one final, heartfelt squeeze.
Lottie stared at the ring before looking up at her mother. ‘What about the curse?’
‘It’s gone.’
‘What if it’s not?’ she asked, sending a quick glance across at Damian, who was smiling down at the baby in his arms. She’d never believed in the stupid curse before, but now, suddenly, as a mother and a woman with everything she loved standing right there, the idea of something taking them away truly terrified her.
‘It’s gone,’ Hannah said once more, firmly.
‘But how can you be sure the curse was broken?’
The panic subsided and Lottie would have laughed at herself if it hadn’t felt so real. Get a grip , she told herself firmly. It never existed in the first place.
‘Are you ready to go home?’ Damian called when he caught her looking over at him.
‘Coming.’ She waved.
‘Put it on,’ Cher said, nodding down at the ring. Taking a deep, calming breath, Lottie slid the gold ring onto her finger. An avalanche of memories passed through her mind of a little girl twirling in her gran’s high heels, holding her small hand up high as she admired the pretty blue opal with its rainbow of hidden colours inside.
‘Let’s go. I’m starving, and all the morning tea is at your place,’ Cher said, heading off towards the carpark.
Damian walked up beside Lottie and slipped an arm around her waist as they stood in front of the newly erected headstone:
ALEXANDER COMPTON, BURIED HERE WITH HIS WIFE AND ONE TRUE LOVE, LADY CATHERINE COMPTON. REUNITED, NEVER TO BE PARTED AGAIN.
‘You did it,’ she said, resting her head against his shoulder. ‘You found her.’
‘I had a bit of help along the way,’ he said dryly.
‘You think it was Catherine who helped?’
‘Who knows,’ he dismissed quickly, and she smiled slightly. Her gaze slid across to the grave on the other side of the gravel pathway.
HERE LIES FINNEGAN O’RYAN, BELOVED HUSBAND, FATHER AND SON
Granted, it wasn’t a large cemetery, but somehow she knew it wasn’t just a fluke that Finnegan was buried so close to his father, the man who’d never had the chance to meet him in life, but who would spend an eternity near him. And now he had his mother there too.
Everything had come full circle at last.
‘I love you,’ Damian whispered close to her ear, seeming to sense the direction her thoughts had been going.
‘I love you too,’ she whispered back. The opal on her finger continued to glitter and sparkle like a thousand tiny stars in an enormous universe.