Epilogue II
Alistair sipped thoughtfully from the small bowl of the dessert glass. ‘Mmm, that’s good.’
His cousin, Hayes, smiled. ‘I am pleased with how it turned out. It’s been a long five years of waiting and wondering. It’s the batch from our first year.’ The year of the fire that had devastated most of the vineyard and nearly claimed the life of Hayes’s wife, Evelisse.
The two of them were sitting in the wine cellar beneath the villa, enjoying a quiet moment after supper. Overhead, they could hear the sounds of children playing before bed. Hayes’s daughter, Amelia, was just a few months older than Alistair’s twins, Alex and Helena.
‘They play well together,’ Hayes noted as a burst of laughter trickled down to the cellar.
‘They’re growing up just like we did with summers together running wild.
’ They spent more than summers together.
There were Christmases, too, and their two daughters especially had the makings of a friendship that would last them all their lives.
Alistair took another sip. ‘Who would have thought we’d end up in Italy, raising our families together?
’ Certainly not him. But over the last five years, there was a lot that had happened he never would have guessed.
Sir Thomas had all but retired from his artefact business in order to devote time to his studies and his grandchildren, leaving Alistair and Ismay in charge.
Alistair enjoyed the work, but he enjoyed his family time more.
He was seldom without his children. He and Ismay made a point of taking them both to the warehouse and letting them play among the crates of artefacts, letting them learn the business on their own terms, just as they took the children to the small building that housed Ismay’s burgeoning publishing house, where her scientific journal was published quarterly in competition with the academy’s.
The journal’s circulation was small but well-received.
‘Is Ismay ready for her presentation tomorrow?’ Hayes refilled his glass.
This trip had multiple functions: to spend some time together before Hayes had to see to the grape harvest, and for Ismay to present her paper regarding quake trends on Mount Vesuvius.
She’d presented it earlier this spring at the academy in Naples, and it had been so well-received she’d been invited to Florence.
They would be going tomorrow in force, children included, to support her. Even her parents had come.
There were footsteps on the stairs. ‘Our wives have come to fetch us,’ Hayes murmured with a smile that said he didn’t mind.
‘It’s time to say goodnight, gentlemen.’ Ismay had a twin by each hand, faces clean and shiny from baths. Evelisse came down behind her with Amelia. The two women had become fast friends.
Alistair exchanged a look with Hayes. They were the luckiest of men, married to these two incredible women who’d given their lives shape and then given them a family to love. Alistair could not ask for more. Together, he and Hayes had made their own family.
‘Come here, you two.’ Alistair put a child on each leg. ‘What’s the best thing you did today?’
‘Fishing with Uncle Hayes,’ Alex said immediately, always more impetuous than his sister, Helena.
Across the table, Hayes laughed. ‘You have good taste, Alex. I liked fishing with you, too. You have the makings of a fine angler. We’ll go again before you leave.’
‘What about you, Helena?’ Alistair prompted.
‘I liked fishing, too.’ Her aqua eyes widened in concern. ‘Is that all right?’
‘Why wouldn’t it be?’ Alistair said as Ismay came to kneel beside him.
‘Because I’m a girl. Fishing is for boys.’
‘Fishing is for anyone who wants to do it, sweetheart,’ Ismay was quick to put in.
Hayes echoed it. ‘Women can do anything a man can do. Aunt Evelisse runs this vineyard, and your mother is presenting a sophisticated scientific paper.’
Helena beamed. ‘Good, because I like fishing.’
‘I don’t like the worms,’ Amelia put in, not wanting to be left out.
Helena jumped down and went to her cousin. ‘It’s all right. We like doing other things together, like daisy chains and making up songs.’
Ismay trailed her hand along his arm as she rose, her eyes promising love. ‘Don’t stay up too late, Alistair. I’ll be waiting for you.’
He caught her hand and squeezed it. ‘I won’t be long. Hayes and I will be right up.’
‘You’re probably up already,’ Hayes joked as the women disappeared with the children in tow.
‘I am not ashamed to say so,’ Alistair laughed. ‘Ismay was the making of me, and I hope every day that I am at least a part of the making of her.’ He raised his glass. ‘One final toast before bed. Here’s to the journey that started it all, and the greatest journey of them all, love.’
Hayes touched his glass to Alistair’s. ‘Here’s hoping we’re on that journey for the rest of our lives, cousin, with the women who dared to join us.’
* * * * *