Epilogue
Several years later
Somewhere on the high seas
Ellen loved running the tea shop.
She was exceptionally good at it. She ran it like a ship’s captain, quite frankly, at least that’s what Hester thought.
Hester had come to realize that Ellen’s proficiency was far beyond her usual scope. Hester loved that Ellen was now in command of so much. While Ellen manned the shop, Hester had sailed the world three times now.
She and Calchas were often gone for months at a time. It had not always been pleasant. Sometimes it had been cold and wet and, quite frankly, boring. Months at sea was a test of endurance of both the body and the brain, but oh, she did love it!
She had discovered that she had an adventurous heart. That thing which had made her strike out from her own home? Well, that was what was inside the Briarwoods too. And that was what was inside so many people who chose to go out into the world and look for something new.
Now, after years of practicing, Hester could climb rigging, a feat that astonished her.
When away from ports, she dressed as a boy on the ship.
She put her hair in a tight braid and wore billowing shirts and sailor’s pants.
She could race barefoot up the ropes and slide back down again, and the men had learned to accept her, laughing at her antics, encouraging her to go higher and higher.
Much to his credit, though she knew sometimes his heart had been in his mouth, Calchas never tried to stop her because he knew how capable she was. She was finally free in a way that she’d never been before.
The Briarwoods were always waiting for them at home when they returned, and they did come home every year, loving England more for having left for a bit.
Their children? They loved the life too.
Three boys, all wild, all full of the spirit of adventure, embraced every turn, every challenge, every calm month, and every wild one.
They too could race up and down the rigging and run across the deck with legs wide, so that the rolling waves beneath them did not leave them toppled and crawling as so many were the first time they came aboard a ship.
They were born to a life at sea, as if, perhaps in another existence, they had been seals or dolphins swimming merrily alongside the ship. But they also loved their many cousins and played merrily when they were in England.
They had the best of both worlds, and as they stood now on the deck of Calchas’s ship, for they were returning to England for Christmas and the Season that started at the New Year, Hester looked at her family with unbridled pride and love. She marveled at how far she had come.
Her sons were in their coats, plastered with sea-salt wind, their hair tumbled about their faces, their cheeks rosy.
They were free. Free from every fear, free from every restriction, and bolder than anyone could ever hope to be.
And she thought back to her childhood, how small it had been, despite the fact that she’d been born to such privilege. How restrictive it had been, how full of suffering.
But now her world was full of joy and the promise of never-ending adventure because no matter how hard things were, she and Calchas had each other. They believed in each other, and they were always ready to choose each other and those they loved.
The End