Epilogue

As certain as the family was that Owen would not dare to return to Godwin Castle, and that Minnie’s parents would never darken its doorstep again, Minnie was not convinced they would maintain a peaceful distance and allow her to live her life. And so, as soon as was possible under the laws of the Kingdom of Wessex, which was a very short time indeed, she and Lawrence were married in the castle’s chapel.

“I am deeply grateful for two things,” Minnie declared as she and Lawrence addressed their friends and family during the small gathering that took place in the great hall after the ceremony. “The first is that all of my dearest friends were able to rush from London and their homes, despite Joint Parliament being in session, so that they might be present on this joyous occasion.”

“Thank heavens there was a boat traveling from London,” Bernadette laughed, resting her hand on her round stomach.

“Thank heavens we all had plans to spent the holiday season at Godwin Castle to begin with,” Muriel added, patting her even rounder belly.

“Yes, it seems as though the family’s luck has changed this year,” Alden said, beaming at Bernadette.

“It is because we friends have married into the family,” Kat declared with a laugh, then raised her glass of wine to salute her sisters in marriage.

“We are better off for it,” Lawrence said, one arm looped around Minnie’s waist, beaming at her.

“I must say, the Godwin family appears to have performed miracles of their own,” Muriel went on, smirking at Minnie. “Is that a blue gown you are wearing and not black?”

Minnie laughed aloud. “I have decided that I shall never wear black again.”

“Not even when you are in mourning for those you love?” Lawrence asked with a falsely sad look.

Minnie giggled and rested a hand on the side of his face. “I shall wear midnight blue,” she declared. “But you are under strict orders not to go anywhere until I say you may.”

“What about his impending journey to Hamburg?” Lady Wystan, one of Lord Gerald’s daughters, who had also arrived with her family asked, sending Lawrence a teasing look. “Do you not wish to leave for a certain exhibition opening?”

Lawrence sent his sister a sly look in return.

Amidst all the furor of his and Minnie’s arrival and the subsequent dramatics of Owen and Minnie’s parents arriving, Lawrence had had the statue packed up and sent off to Mr. Loesser in London. A small notice had arrived the day before saying that the sculpture had been received and sent on its way to Hamburg, along with the others for the exhibition. Additionally, Mr. Loesser noted that interest in the exhibition was growing throughout the German Confederation, and should Lawrence ever wish to journey there, he would likely find himself lauded as a great artist.

“We have plans to travel to Hamburg for the opening of the exhibition together,” Minnie informed Dunstan. “In the new year, when everything is arranged and ready.”

“I suppose you’ll want to get away from this place, now that its fate, or rather my fate, is decided,” Dunstan said with a deep sigh.

“That being said,” Lord Gerald broke into the conversation. He pounded his cane against the floor three times in a ceremonial manner, then said, “Mrs. Weatherby, bring me the scroll!”

Carys, who had been invited to attend the family celebration on Minnie’s insistence, and who was dressed in a rather lovely gown of periwinkle blue with her soft brown hair in a style that was actually fashionable and not covered with a cap, set her wine glass aside and walked quickly, but with great ceremony, over to Lord Gerald’s desk at the side of the room. The family all watched with attempts at sobriety as Carys drew the now infamous scroll from the desk’s top drawer, along with a black chalk that Lord Gerald used on occasions such as this.

“Set it on the table where everyone can see it,” Lord Gerald ordered.

Carys hurried to rejoin the celebrating family. She unrolled the scroll and held it open.

“The chalk, Mrs. Weatherby,” Lord Gerald intoned, extending a hand to Carys.

With as much gravity and silliness as Lord Gerald showed, Carys handed the chalk over to him.

Lord Gerald cleared his throat and stared down at the elaborate parchment. It had the words “Heirs of Godwin Castle” written in beautiful, embellished script at the top and the names of all of the family’s male heirs listed beneath.

With great solemnity, Lord Gerald struck Lawrence’s name from the list, then said. “So mote it be.”

Minnie fought not to laugh. That became particularly difficult when she peeked to her friends, only to find them struggling not to burst out as well. Bernadette had a hand over her mouth, and her eyes were glassy with tears from her efforts to keep her laughter inside.

The only person in the room decidedly not laughing was Lord Dunstan, and with good reason.

“It is done,” Lord Gerald said, handing the chalk back to Mrs. Weatherby, then rolling up the scroll. He handed the entire thing to Lord Dunstan as though handing him his own noose. “I shall write to my solicitors tomorrow, informing them that you, my boy, are now the sole heir of Godwin Castle.”

“And the sole inheritor of the curse,” Lord Cedric said in hushed tones.

Minnie blinked at the man, surprised that he seemed to take the curse so seriously. He was no longer pretending. Muriel held his arm and patted his hand as if to console him. She arched one of her eyebrows at Minnie, as if to communicate that as silly as it was, she respected her husband’s superstition.

“I suppose I knew this would be my fate all along,” Lord Dunstan sighed, looking at the scroll in his hands. “My life has been one mortifying tragedy after another from the start. It is only right that I bear the brunt of this curse.”

“But surely there must be a way around it,” Minnie said, hoping to comfort the man who had become her friend in the last week. “The curse is not written in stone, is it?”

“In fact, it is,” Lord Gerald said, his humor waning as well. “The Curse of Godwin Castle is written in the very stone of this building, in the stone of the foundations upon which it stands.”

“There is a way to break the curse,” Carys said, resting a gentle hand on Lord Gerald’s arm. “The legends of the castle allow for that much, at least.”

“By reuniting two halves of an amulet,” Lord Gerald said. “How do you propose to do that, my dear, when one half has been missing for nearly a thousand years?”

Carys sighed and sent a sad look to Lord Dunstan.

At least, Minnie thought it was sad at first. The more she looked, the more she was convinced her new friend’s look was one of longing, not sadness.

“Let us toast the bride and groom at least,” Lord Waldorf said, raising his glass and preventing Minnie from questioning what else might be going on under her very nose.

“To Minnie and Lawrence,” Kat offered the toast.

“To Minnie and Lawrence,” the others joined in.

“Minnie?” Lawrence said, his eyes going bright as everyone drank to their health. “Is that what your most intimate friends call you?”

“No,” Minnie answered with a scowl.

“Yes,” Bernadette offered as she hugged Lord Alden’s arm and leaned into him.

“Minnie,” Lawrence breathed, the sparkle in his eyes ridiculously amorous. “I shall have to refer to you as my very own Minnie from henceforth.”

“No, you will not,” Minnie said, her scowl darkening.

“You are the sweetest and fairest of Minnies I have ever known,” Lawrence continued, sweeping Minnie into his arms.

“Don’t you dare,” she said, attempting to still appear outraged, when really, her heart was melting with love for the man who was now hers.

“The sun doth rise and set at the whim of my Minnie,” Lawrence pushed on in full, teasing force.

“It is a vile name that is nothing at all like myself.”

“You are just as precious and demure as your name, my lovely Minnie.”

“Would you like it if I began addressing you as Larry?”

“What sweet wonders will my Minnie reveal to me next?” Lawrence beamed.

“Larry, Larry, you are so hairy,” Minnie tossed back at him.

Neither of them could keep up the teasing. They and everyone else in their cheeky family burst into laughter at last, even Lord Dunstan. It was laughter that was beautiful and welcome. It meant that Minnie had, at last, found herself surrounded by precisely the sort of love she had always craved.

I hope you have enjoyed Minnie and Lawrence’s story! Believe it or not, Clarence is actually based on a real skull/person! In the science lab of the high school I attended, there was (and probably still is) a real human skeleton named Clarence. I don’t know if this is true or apocryphal, though honest to God, I think it’s true, but apparently, Clarence was the school’s janitor way, way back in when it was founded in the late nineteenth century. As the story goes, he loved the job so much that he asked to have his skeleton preserved and donated to the school! I thought it fitting to pay tribute to one Clarence by immortalizing him as another.

But what about the Curse of Godwin Castle? It’s all on Dunstan’s shoulders now, but can it be broken? Is it possible that the second half of the amulet isn’t as lost to history as Lord Gerald believes…or that the Whitney family hasn’t actually died out? Maybe Carys Weatherby has the answer. Find out more in Unlucky in Love , book five, Written in Stone !