Extended Epilogue
Eight years later…
Colin listened to the squeals of his children as he chased them about the estate. It was a warm autumn afternoon, and they had been playing outside for hours. The sun was bright in the sky, the wind whispering through the trees, and he felt utterly contented, even as his lungs threatened to explode from the exertion.
He slowed his pace, puffing hard as Jonathan, his eldest son, scampered away over the long expanse of grass at the back of their country estate. The trees all around them were slowly turning to golden brown in the autumn air, and he watched the figures of his little family running and laughing together.
Jonathan, who had been born five minutes before his twin brother, Elliot, stopped in his tracks to begin bossing his sister about. Felicity, a precocious five-year-old, listened carefully to what he said and then ignored him, grabbing her baby brother’s hand and running away at full pelt into a small copse of trees.
Jonathan shouted after them but to no avail; Michael’s little legs struggled to keep up with his sister as she dragged him alongside, and Colin found himself smiling after them. Ever since Michael had been born, Felicity had adored him. They were utterly inseparable.
Deciding that he would take a break now that the children were occupied, Colin turned to seek out his wife and found her sitting on a stone bench in the dappled sunshine. She looked like a princess from a storybook, and he took a moment to admire her before making his way over.
She sat with their youngest daughter in her arms, a glorious head of strawberry-blonde hair falling about the baby’s face and blue-green eyes like her mother. Charlotte often complained that Bethany was Colin’s favourite, and although he would never say he loved any of his children more than the others, Bethany could do no wrong in his eyes.
Bethany giggled happily as he approached, and Charlotte lifted her up to him so that he could take her into his arms.
“Have they tired you out yet?” Charlotte asked with a knowing smile.
“I declare they have the energy of twenty children. I have never been so tired as I have been since we bought this house.”
She laughed cheerfully, her eyes scanning over the grounds with an expression of deep contentment. Colin could not count the number of times he would wake after Charlotte had already left their bed, only to wander to the window to see her walking about the grass or sitting on one of the benches writing in her journal. He adored the sight and would not change it for the world.
As he watched her, her eyes lit up with excitement and she rose to her feet letting out a long sigh.
“Finally,” she said with relief. “I thought they must have had an accident on the way.”
Colin turned as Bethany cooed in his arms to see Malcolm, Elizabeth, and their three children walking calmly across the lawn toward them.
Colin could only smile as the screams of his own children pierced the afternoon air. The Prestons, as a family, were generally quieter, more thoughtful. Their children tended to read, sit in quiet groups, or play together reasonably.
Colin had been rather nervous about that when they had first mixed. His own brood was so lively and opinionated, and he felt that the other children might prefer calmer companions.
But I would not change it for the world.
He had never been allowed to play like this as a child. His father couldn’t abide loud noises, and Colin had spent much of his youth tiptoeing around the house, terrified of the sound of his father’s study door opening. His children would be given the freedoms he had not.
He needn’t have worried, however, as with a word from their mother, the Preston children suddenly broke into a run and sprinted forward to join their second cousins, the group colliding in a flurry of limbs as Jonathan declared the ‘plan of the morning’ and they all went off to see if they could find a place to make a den.
Elizabeth and Charlotte embraced, and Malcolm shook Colin’s hand with his usual wide smile.
“Were you delayed on the way?” Charlotte asked.
Elizabeth gave Malcolm a sideways glance of exasperation. “Someone forgot Jonathan’s belated birthday present, and we had to go back for it.”
Malcolm chuckled. “Yes, someone did, and I am very pleased, for I missed his actual birthday, and it is an excellent present.”
“Please tell me you have not bought him any more toys that clatter about the floorboards. I have had a headache since Christmas,” Colin said imploringly.
“On the contrary, it is quite silent,” Malcolm said fondly, producing a beautiful leather-bound journal he held out to Charlotte. “I thought his mother might like him to keep up the tradition.”
Charlotte’s eyes were bright and happy as she thanked him, throwing her arms around his neck and calling Jonathan over so he could have a look at his gift.
Colin’s gaze was caught by two figures emerging from the trees on the other side of the house, and his smile could only grow.
Sarah was walking across the lawn toward them, arm in arm with Edward, as her hand caressed her swollen belly. It would not be long before their second child was born, and the house would be absolutely filled with children on every possible occasion. Edward and Sarah went to join Colin’s mother and Lord Wentworth who were seated upon the terrace some feet away, wisely watching the raucous children from a distance.
Lord Wentworth was a different man from the one Colin had met all those years before. His face was now lined with laughter instead of worry, and any financial turbulence in his past was long forgotten. He and Colin had spent many nights together reminiscing about the history between their families, and he was very pleased that Charlotte and her father were getting along better than they ever had.
Colin glanced up at Lord Wentworth, the man’s eyes fixed on Michael, who was making a nuisance of himself climbing the steps to insist that “Gampapa” came to play with him. With a long-suffering sigh, Richard stood and took the hand of his tiny grandson as they descended the steps. Immediately, the older man was set upon, and all seven children’s eyes grew wide with alarm as they dragged him toward the woods at the back of the property.
“Do you think we should rescue him?” Colin asked Charlotte as she turned to him and put a hand around his waist, the other supporting Bethany against her hip.
“Never. It will keep him young.”
Colin smiled, resting his head on her hair and watching their family with utter contentment in his heart. It was almost eight years to the day that he had attended his aunt Constance’s ball. He never knew what a good decision it would be to take a stroll about the gardens that night, remembering the moonlight shining upon Charlotte as though it had been a signal from heaven that he would meet her.
Now he stood in his own garden, with his children playing before him, the most beautiful woman in the world on his arm, and a joy so pure he could hardly believe he had ever been so lucky.
~ The End ~