Epilogue
Five years later
Jessica curtseyed and accepted the bouquet of red roses handed to her by the little girl who stared at her with eyes like saucers.
It was the final night of her run as Princess Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty at the Royal Opera House. This hadn’t been her first principal role, by any means, and it wasn’t even the first time she’d played Aurora, but this would be her last role and her final performance.
She’d informed the ballet company directors a month ago, but her retirement wouldn’t be officially announced until the following day. She’d wanted to celebrate with her husband first.
Her Substack and Instagram account had been joined by a YouTube channel and had gone from strength to strength as her dance career had, and she was now a regular contributor to several ballet-related websites and magazines. She would continue to write about the ballet world and review ballet performances. She just wouldn’t perform anymore.
She looked up into the box she’d reserved for her family. They were all there, standing and clapping for her. Her mum and dad, her brother and Molly, Peter, Emily and Sophie, who both still attended Diana’s classes, but much preferred football to ballet. Next to them was Diana herself, and then there was Nathan, her Nathan, clapping harder than anyone else.
They’d lasted only three months with Nathan in Bowerbridge and Jessica in London before Nathan had applied for a position at a GP surgery close to Jessica’s dance company. He’d been successful and had decided to rent out his house as an Airbnb and move in with Jessica.
They returned to Bowerbridge regularly, though, staying either in Nathan’s house when it was empty or with Jessica’s parents, and they never missed one of her nieces or nephew’s birthdays and often had them to visit for the weekend to give Andrew and Molly a break.
Jessica had danced for the first three and a half years of their marriage and Nathan had been so supportive, attending every one of her performances that he could.
Now she wanted to start a family with her husband. If there was space for Nathan at the Bowerbridge practice, they would move back there into his house, if not, they’d stay where they were until there was. She wanted to bring her children up close to their grandparents and cousins.
She was ready to retire, and she couldn’t wait to celebrate with Nathan later once she was alone with him in their home. She’d had an amazing dancing career, but she was done now. It was her decision and the right time for her, and she had so much to look forward to and to be excited about in the next chapter of her life.
THE END