Epilogue

EPILOGUE

“ O h my lady!” Daisy shrieked, rushing into the room. “My lady they are here, they are here!”

Elizabeth got up from her seat and grabbed her old friend by the hand, squeezing tightly. It had been a few weeks since the events of the hunting party and so much had happened since that she sometimes wondered if she had dreamed it all. “Come then, we must meet them at the door! Your mother will be so overwhelmed otherwise she will not know what to do with herself.”

They hurried, arm in arm, down the hall, laughing together. It was so strange to think that only a little while ago she had worried that her new family would look down on her for being friends with her maid or consider her an embarrassment. Now -

They ran to the front door just as it opened to show Mrs. Adams, flushed from the journey with little Annie pressed so hard against her side that Elizabeth thought they might never stop holding on to each other. Their bags were being unloaded behind them and her beloved husband was stood there just behind them, smiling at her over their heads.

She had told him all about how dear the family had always been to her, how Mrs. Adams was as close as she had ever had to a mother and Daisy and Annie were just like her sisters but she had never expected him to do this.

“My lady,” Mrs. Adams said in a soft breath, holding open her arms. “Oh my lady, look at you.”

Elizabeth felt the tears spring to her eyes and flung herself forwards to rest against her. “It is so good to see you again,” she said, sobbing a little. “I have missed you so much!”

“And I have missed you too,” Mrs. Adams said quietly, stroking her hair. “It has been too quiet to be living without my girls, too quiet indeed. I cannot thank His Grace enough for offering me a position here so I can be closer to you both.”

“And me,” Annie said in a little voice. “I’m here too.”

“Yes and my little Annie,” Mrs. Adams turned to look at her daughter, an expression on her face that Elizabeth understood in a sharp, cold moment and ached for. “Both of us here and far away from the Rosenburg Estate at last.”

“Come in,” Elizabeth said gently. “We have much to talk about.”

She let Daisy take her mother’s arm, chatting away already about everything she would grow to love at the Westall Estate, the cunning gardens and the ducklings and the peacocks and the kind staff and the family so nice and easy to deal with as she rested her own gaze on her own little sister and saw the guilt that was eating at her heart.

“You too, Annie,” she said, offering her hand.

Annie looked at her with naked hope in her eyes. “Me too?”

“Yes, I think we have some things we need to talk about, don’t you?”

Annie paled then and glanced back at Stephen, reproach in her face.

“No, he did not tell me,” Elizabeth said firmly. “I knew in my heart what the truth was, and I think it is time we cleared the air.”

She led Annie through to where Mrs. Adams and Daisy were waiting and then ushered them onwards to her own office, something Stephen had arranged for her as they had started to expand her education in being a good Duchess. Stephen walked behind, content to let her handle the matter but there should she need him.

It was so sweet to have someone there in that way, someone who would support her and hold her and be there to help her no matter what.

“My lady,” Mrs. Adams said as the door closed. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am over what happened with my Annie. I thought I had raised her better and it was you and your husband who suffered.”

“Mum!” Annie said, face bright red.

“No, Annie, it needs saying. You know what you did was wrong. You know you don’t have no right to be here now with these kind people instead of in some cell somewhere - oh my heart,” she pressed a hand to her breast and her face twisted in grief. Elizabeth darted to her and took her free hand in both of her own.

“Mrs. Adams no,” she said softly. “Annie made a mistake. She should have come to speak to Stephen and myself. But what she did was not so bad as what you think. Yes, she came here to poison me,” she heard Daisy’s sharp intake of breath and Annie’s small moan of sorrow but she pressed on. “However the reason she did it was because my devil of a brother pressed her so hard. She is just a child and he told her that if she didn’t do his bidding he would kill you in your bed. He also told her that all the elixir would do was make me ill for a little while. She never thought she would truly harm me. I think I can confidently say that she would have never done so.”

“Of course not!” Annie exclaimed hotly, forgetting her shyness. “I’d never proper hurt you, my lady, you’re my -”

“We are sisters,” Elizabeth said, turning and smiling at her gently. “And as sisters you need to know that I forgive you, Annie. So long as you remember that from now on when you are in trouble you must come and tell me or your mother or my dear husband straight away and we will do what we can to help you.”

Annie nodded, her face pale but her eyes brimming with tears. Good tears. The kind that would bring healing.

“Oh that bad man,” Mrs. Adams exclaimed. “Oh I would love to get him on my own, with a pan in one hand oh I would. He would soon be sorry he ever tried to hurt my girls, begging your pardon my lady... Your Grace.”

“I think he is sorry already,” Stephen drawled, coming over to stand by Elizabeth’s side. “His trial did not go in his favor and I know they are debating whether to banish him or imprison him. I suspect they will choose the latter, it came out how truly dangerous he is during the trial and I think more than one noble family is afraid of what he might do if he were ever free again.”

Elizabeth smiled, leaning into his side and reveling in how easily he moved to wrap an arm around her waist. She could not believe that she had ever been a nervous little girl, unsure of her place in the world. It was so clear now, so easy to be big and bold and confident with this man next to her, her sisters both old and new supporting her and her new brother singing her praises. She felt like she was a whole new person. “I hear my father is struggling with the fall out?”

“Oh my lamb,” Mrs. Adams laughed her wonderful big laugh. “He is as harried as a chicken with no head, make no mistake of that. His wife won’t leave her rooms, she’s all over with a fever she says, quite bed-ridden but I think it’s the shame of it all, and your half-sisters, well they’re disappointed that they’re not getting invitations to parties anymore, would you believe it? They sit around the house all day complaining on what they are missing out on while your father paces and prowls and tries to keep all his business deals from falling apart.”

Elizabeth laughed merrily at the thought. Her half-sisters had always been more interested in their parties and excitement and company and flirtations than anything else. It didn’t surprise her one bit that even in the face of the ruination of their family name the thing that would bother them most would be the idea that they were no longer desired at all the best evenings and dances. “Oh no, poor Lottie and Rose, how their social lives will wither.”

“And the Duke of Seymour sent over such a letter, so polite and formal to break the engagement!” Mrs. Adams continued. “Your father smashed three plates upon reading it and your sister had such a fit that the doctor was summoned in case her brain was going!”

“Smart man,” Stephen said dryly. “I always knew that Seymour was too good for that match.”

“Quite so,” Elizabeth said firmly. “He would have soon been bored of Lottie’s company anyway. He seems too interested in deep conversation and she likes nothing more than gossip and scandal.”

“At least she’s finally the subject of some herself,” Daisy said pertly.

“Daisy!” Mrs. Adams said, pretending shock and the three of them embraced, Annie clinging to her mother and Daisy holding on to both of them as though she would never let go.

Elizabeth watched, her heart warming. She had been worried about how much Daisy would miss her family from the first, but Daisy had insisted that they would not let Elizabeth go on her own without a single friend into a house that might not be welcoming. It was good to see them finally together again.

She caught Daisy’s gaze and gave her a meaningful look. Her friend grinned, nodded and took the arms of her sister and mother.

“Come now, I will show you to your rooms my dears and we will see our lady again soon. Come, Annie, I have had your favorite cakes made and mother I have posies in your room that you will delight in.”

Both Mrs. Adams and Annie allowed themselves to be drawn from the room with protestations of delight and promises to see Elizabeth soon, and she turned and threw her arms around her husband, resting her head on his chest.

“I thought that you would want a longer meeting with your family,” Stephen said kindly, kissing the top of her head. “There was no need to cut it short.”

“Oh but there is,” Elizabeth said. “There is every reason, and I would not have had a witness to our news for all the world, Stephen.”

“What?” he took her shoulders gently and drew them apart so he could look into her face, his expression curious but merry. “What have you done now, my darling? What is it that you are looking to spring on me?”

She smiled, knowing that her mischievous smiles and her laughter were things he loved, things he encouraged. “Oh my husband, are you so wary of me already?”

“I simply know when I am bested, wife,” he drawled, running a hand through her hair. “Now come, speak your news. I am but flesh and blood and I can only take so much excitement.”

“Well, my dear,” she said, running a hand up his arm. “Do you remember that first night we laid together - just after we had that fright over your health?”

“Just after you were suspected of poisoning me, I recall,” he said, laughing and bending to steal a kiss from her. “The strange paths our lives have taken since then!”

“Yes, but Your Grace,” she said, ducking another kiss. He was trying to distract her and she knew that if he were able to kiss her much longer she would be distracted indeed. “Now Stephen, listen. My monthlies have not been since, and it has been past time for it to happen. I am quite certain I am -”

He let out a whoop like an excited boy and swept her up in his arms, spinning her in a circle. “You are with child? Elizabeth! You are with child!”

“Be careful,” she laughed, clinging to him. “Yes, yes I am with child. We are to have a baby, Stephen!”

Stephen looked at her then with love in his face so stark and beautiful that she could barely breathe. “I have never been so happy in all my life as I have been with you, my darling.”

“You gave me life to live,” she whispered, leaning in for a kiss full of promise and hope. “I will never regret marrying you, Stephen. I cannot wait to be yours forever.”

With that he swept her into his arms and started off towards their chambers, their laughter and joy mixing together in their moment of delight.

The End?