Epilogue
THE REST
Before we hit the plum parlor, Battle texted the girls to meet us in his room, without Hamish and Christian.
I was lounged in a couch with good hair, a bum knee and a post-orgasm glow as they started parading in.
Prue was first.
Chassie was second.
And Tempie came last, doing it bitching.
“Whatever this is, I’d first like an explanation of why Hamish cannot be here,” she demanded.
One could say Tempie had done a total turnabout in the whole arm’s length thing with Hamish.
I loved it.
“Did you read the letters, Vivi?” Prue asked before anyone could answer Tempie.
“I did,” I answered.
“And considering Vivi uncovered irrefutable evidence a member of the Talyn family committed justifiable homicide, this is the reason why Hamish and Christian aren’t here,” Battle put in.
Tempie hissed in shock, Prue and Chassie gasped.
But on that intro, they didn’t mess around and found seats.
When they did, I told the story.
Battle followed me up with, “And it’s been decided we’ll not be going to the authorities so they can put the case of the missing viscount to bed. As family, we’ll do what Harmony’s immediate family did. We’re going to protect her secret.”
“Of course,” Tempie agreed easily.
Prue and Chassie also quickly agreed, though they did it by just nodding.
Battle looked between Tempie and Chassie.
“I’ll leave it up to you whether you share this with Hamish and Christian.
Hamish won’t breathe a word, I know.” He focused on Chassie, and his voice gentled.
“But you and Christian are new. He’s rather a straight arrow, so I’d request you please be cautious. ”
Chassie nodded again.
At this point, I asked her, “How’s your ankle?”
“It’s totally fine,” she answered. “And I knew it was. Christian was overreacting.”
So she traded one overprotective man for another.
Good on her.
“Can we get a drink now?” Prue requested. “After that story, I need one.”
I was with her on that.
Apparently, so was everyone else, since we all headed out to join Hamish and Christian in the plum parlor.
And get this, I didn’t have to walk down the stairs because my unofficially, soon-to-be-official fiancé carried me down them.
Wasn’t he the best?
Battle waited until everyone had drinks in their hands and were lounged in the seating area before he announced, “Mum phoned me.”
I stared at him because we agreed Sunday lunch.
And this was not Sunday lunch.
Then again, both Hamish and Christian were there, and I knew it was weighing heavily on his mind, so might as well. Especially if he could take that weight off his mind.
“Excuse me?” Tempie asked ominously.
“She’d heard I was in a serious relationship, and she wanted to know, if I were to marry, if she was still able to refer to herself by her title,” Battle finished.
No one said anything, except Fitzy, who, in a tight voice, announced, “I need to check on something with Cook.”
And then with a stiff body, he strode out.
Just to say, Fitzy and Patsy had been there a long time.
I didn’t know precisely how long.
I just knew they held affection, and even love, for the Talyn family. As such, they couldn’t miss the four of them had been forced to navigate life essentially without parents.
And he excelled at his job, so being infuriated, he’d take that elsewhere.
Once Fitzy left, Prue queried in a small voice, “That’s all she asked?”
I got up and hobbled over to sit beside her on the sofa, where I took her hand.
“Sorry, sweetheart,” Battle said when I was in position. “That’s all she asked.”
Hamish tucked Tempie closer. Christian nabbed Chassie’s hand. I held Prue’s fast.
Again, there was silence.
“Does anyone have anything they want to say?” Battle invited.
“Or shout,” I added.
“She was grasping and vacuous when she was around,” Tempie noted. “It’s hardly a surprise she hasn’t changed.”
After Tempie said this, Chassie made a noise then started crying.
Battle began to make a move to go to her but settled when Christian got up, pulled her out of her chair and into his arms.
I watched Battle watching this.
This meant I watched Battle struggle with handing over the reins he’d held so steady and strong for twenty-eight years, providing love, support and protection to his baby sister.
Witnessing this struggle, I wished I was holding his hand.
But for Chassie, no real shocker, her big brother bested it.
Chassie pulled from Christian and cried, “God, she’s such a bitch!”
She then started sobbing again and Christian tucked her right back to his chest.
“How are you hanging in?” I asked Prue.
“It”—she pulled her shoulders in and released them—“hurts. But it always hurts. I can’t say I’m surprised. Except at the level of cruelty it took for her to call Battle to ask that question when she can just Google rules of the peerage and know.”
“It’s not cruel. It’s selfish and thoughtless and lazy, all her, all the time,” Tempie stated. “It didn’t even occur to her to think how Battle, or any of us, would respond to her call.”
This was the sad truth.
The room descended into silence again.
Eventually, Chassie stopped crying, and Christian sat her back in her chair, but he pulled his closer to hers so she could list to the side and rest her head on his shoulder.
“This is what I know,” Hamish announced.
Everyone looked to him.
He didn’t disappoint.
“For better, or for worse, the challenges life gives us make us who we are.” He looked down at Tempie tucked to his side. “If she was not an awful woman, you might not have had to become savvy and strong and able to love with an invisible depth that has no ending.”
God, I just loved Hamish for Tempie.
He so got her.
Hamish looked to the group. “That woman was a reprehensibly terrible mother. But you four would not have what you have if she wasn’t. It doesn’t make the flaws in her character right. But it does bring out in stark relief the strength of all of yours.”
Jeez.
I so totally liked that guy.
Tempie did too, if her grabbing his beard and pulling his mouth to hers so they could make out hot and heavy on the couch was anything to go by.
As fabulous a moment as that was, it went on a long time.
And Prue got done with it.
“Yuck!” she cried. “Go to your room!”
They broke, and Tempie snuggled up against her hot Scotsman with a smug smile on her face.
“Hamish is right,” I said. “I told my sister I felt comfortable here, in this beautiful jewel of a massive house, which could and maybe should be formidable, but it isn’t.
Because it’s so full of love. You four built that.
And I’m so honored I was even invited to walk through the front doors to experience it. ”
“Oh, Vivi,” Prue said and gave me a hug.
I hugged her back.
“Shall we metaphorically bury mother like our ancestors buried dead bodies and move on?” Tempie suggested, to Hamish’s head jerking and Christian’s eyes narrowing on her.
Battle sighed.
I returned to the chair next to him and my drink.
Bartholomew started snoring.
And a loving family in a house filled with love sipped cocktails while they waited on dinner.
* * *
The next Monday, when Battle was back in London, and my hands had healed enough I was back in the studio (with electricity and phone line repaired), Prue came out and knocked on the door.
She stuck her head in.
“I know you hate interruptions, but I need to ask you something,” she said.
“Girl, I need to stand or my hip flexors are gonna be locked in sit position for the rest of my life.” I looked out the windows at the sun shining and suggested, “Wanna take a walk?”
She nodded.
I left the cats snoozing (as was their wont), and we walked out into the sunshine and Chassie’s flourishing garden.
“What’s up?” I prompted.
“Natalie and I just had a long chat, and I’m accepting an offer for my book.”
She then told me the advance, and I stopped dead.
She stopped with me.
“Holy fuck,” I whispered.
“Is that a lot?” she asked.
“Uh…yeah.”
I was really becoming a master of the English understatement.
Go me!
“Okay, see, I want to publish under a pen name,” she declared.
This came as a surprise.
“You don’t want to put your name on your books?”
“I don’t want to put the Talyn name on the books.”
Another surprise.
“But why?” I asked.
“A lot of reasons,” she answered, starting to walk again, so I did too.
“One, I don’t want to do book tours. I don’t want to do signings.
I want to stay anonymous. I know you all talk about it, really excited about that possibility for me.
And I know that sounds ungracious. But, if people, uh…
like my work, and there are a lot of them.
I might get…”—she wagged her head side to side—“you know.”
I did know.
Uncomfortable in a crowd and being the center of attention.
“A lot of artists, heck, a lot of people are introverts,” I said. “But you don’t have to agree to do signings. And just so you know, your publisher probably won’t pay for a book tour unless the books become huge successes. So you might not even have to worry about it.”
Though, her books would be successes, leading to publishers pressing her to do tours.
She could still say no.
“You’re right, but the name Talyn will be on the books.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “And you’re not proud to do that?”
“I would be. Definitely. However, people will know it was me.”
“Yes,” I repeated.
“And attention will come to me, and maybe our family.”
Ah.
The Talyn Privacy Thing.
I didn’t remind her I was marrying her brother, and I put my name on my books.
That said, post-unofficial/official engagement, Battle and I had the discussion, and so I could honor Mom and Dad, we agreed, even though I was oh-so going to take the name Talyn when we married, I’d continue to write under Vivienne Dupree.
“I was thinking, if you’re okay with it, my pen name could be Harmony Charles,” she said.
I stopped dead again as emotion clogged my throat.
Therefore, it was croaky when I pushed out, “Oh, Prue.”