Epilogue

“ I t’s quite amusing to me that the duke was reluctant to have a single heir, only to end up with two!” Minerva said, looking down at the two baby boys that were asleep in the cradle and shaking her head. “Now that’s what I call irony!”

“Technically, it isn’t two heirs,” Samantha pointed out. “It’s an heir and a spare.”

“Don’t call little Edward a spare!” Cassandra gasped. “He’s far, far more important than that!”

“It’s not an insult,” Samantha said. “He’s still a boy, and he’ll grow up with far more rights and claim to the family title than any girl would!”

“Samantha, now isn’t the time for making an impassioned speech about the plight of women,” Cassandra lectured. “We’re here to meet the twins and gush over them as aunts should! And of course, to support Cherie during this tremendous change. Not lament the sad fate of the world!”

All three ladies looked over to where Cherie was resting in the rocking chair, watching them coo and bicker over her babies. She laughed as she took in their looks of concern.

“Oh, please, give impassioned speeches on the plight of women!” she said. “Those two are going to need to hear them, lest they grow up to be chauvinists like our dear Lord Rochford.”

“Do not even speak that name in front of them!” Cassandra exclaimed, but Samantha rolled her eyes.

“I like your thinking,” she said, grinning at Cherie. “We will thoroughly educate them so that by the time they’re grown and looking for wives of their own, they will have the highest respect for women.”

Cherie immediately felt a shock of dread go through her. “Okay, don’t speak about them growing up and getting married!” she exclaimed, half-laughing. “They’re so small and perfect and I never want them to grow up and move away and start families of their own.”

“Oh dear, are you going to be one of those mothers, are you?” Thomas had just entered the nursery, and all the ladies immediately began to talk at once, congratulating him and lavishing praise on the little lordlings.

“Gareth is so sweet already!”

“And Edward already has his mother’s stubborn spirit!”

“They’re so perfectly healthy and strong!”

“Theodora will love them,” Cassandra said this last line, referring to her daughter, who had been born six months previously. “I know the three of them will be best of friends,” she said, smiling brightly.

“I have no doubt about it,” Thomas said. “And I appreciate all of you coming to see us so soon after the birth. Cherie was threatening to go to all of you if you didn’t come here!”

“Cherie!” Cassandra looked at her sharply. “You must convalesce! You have just had two babies!”

“I know, but I was bored,” Cherie complained. “And I’ve been convalescing for nine months. I’m ready to do something else!”

Cassandra and Thomas both looked disapproving, but Minerva lit up.

“Why don’t I throw a party for you?” she suggested. “To welcome the twins!”

“I don’t know…” Cherie shared a glance with her husband. They had promised each other a long time ago that they wouldn’t let Minerva throw them a party. She was famously the worst party planner of the ton and somehow had never discovered it about herself. “A party might be a bit much. I really shouldn’t over-exert myself.”

Cassandra hid a smile behind her hand, and Cherie had to work hard not to laugh. Cassie was one of the original members of their wallflower group to declare she’d never let Minerva plan her another party.

“Hmm, what about a board game night?” Samantha suggested. “We haven’t done one of those in ages! And it would allow you to stay here in your home and rest, but you’d still be able to have a little fun—outside of the babies, of course.”

“Yes, since it’s been so much fun taking care of them,” Cherie said, rolling her eyes.

“It has!” Thomas protested now, nudging his wife playfully.

“Oh yes! The late nights… the screaming babies… the spit-up and nappies!”

“Don’t the nannies and wet nurses do that?” Samantha asked curiously.

“Well, yes, but I like to do as much as I can. They’re my children, after all.”

“Don’t scare your friends off from having children of their own,” Thomas warned, and Cherie laughed. She leaned forward and looked down at her sleeping sons. They were currently wrapped around one another, Edward spooning his older brother, while Gareth had his thumb in his mouth.

As she gazed down at them, she felt such a complete fullness of love that she felt tears prick her eyes.

Oh no. Not again. Ever since the beginning of her confinement, she’d been unable to stop crying. It was starting to irritate her to no end.

She looked back up at her husband, and a secret, knowing smile passed between them. They both knew what it said: Despite all the late nights, screaming babies, spit-up, and nappies, this is the best thing that’s ever happened to us.

“You won’t be scaring anyone away from having children if you keep looking at each other like that,” Minerva commented, and Cherie blushed and looked away. Her friend’s eyes were sparkling.

“You two make having twins look like the most beautiful and rewarding pinnacle of your love.”

“It really is,” Thomas said, and Cherie knew she could no longer hold in the tears. They began to spill down her cheeks, but instead of laughing at her, Cassandra leaned over and hugged her.

“I can’t stop crying!” Cherie moaned as she set her head on her friend’s shoulder.

“I was like that, too,” Cassandra reassured her.

It struck Cherie then, not for the first time, how lucky she was to have these three women in her life. Each was so different from the other and brought such unique perspectives into her life. There were moments when she wanted Minerva’s pragmatism, other times when she needed Samantha’s fiery opinions, and many more when all she craved was Cassandra’s gentle warmth.

“Parenting will be hard,” she said out loud to the room, as Cassandra hugged her close. “But I know that I will be able to do it, and do it well, with you three, and my husband, by my side.”

“We’ll be here filling your children’s heads with reformist ideas,” Samantha assured her.

“And love,” Cassandra added.

“I think Edward just pinched his brother!” Minerva exclaimed, and Gareth’s loud wail filled the room, breaking the spell of the moment—although not before Cherie was sure she’d seen each of her friend’s eyes grow bright with tears.

Much later, after the girls had gone home, Cherie and Thomas sat together in the nursery, once more watching their sons sleep. The twins were only a few weeks old and still so small that Cherie couldn’t believe they would one day grow into adults. They were so fragile, so tiny, so vulnerable, and yet, she didn’t feel as afraid as she’d thought she would. Perhaps it was because she had Thomas by her side, and she knew he would always keep them safe.

She looked at him. In the moonlight that shone in through the window, he looked so peaceful she almost didn’t want to disturb him. But there were things she needed to ask him, so she reached out and took his hand.

He looked at her at once.

“They’re so perfect, aren’t they?” he breathed.

“Yes. Absolutely perfect.” She hesitated. “And how does it feel so far, being a father?”

“It feels wonderful,” he said at once. “Other than being your husband, it is the best role I’ve ever taken on in my life.”

“Do you really mean that?” She looked deeply into his eyes, trying to see some kind of hesitancy or doubt. “It would be okay if there was still some lingering worry about all this, after all that time of telling yourself you wouldn’t have children.”

Thomas smiled and shook his head. “I know you would support me even if I were struggling, but I assure you, I’m not. All my anger at my father and my shame at not being a trueborn son--or so I thought at the time--evaporated when I confronted Rochford last year. Knowing you were in danger like that, it taught me what really matters. And it isn’t allowing the ghost of a dead man to haunt me and prevent me from being happy in life.”

“I know,” Cherie said, squeezing his hand. “But I also know that sometimes these feelings can come back.”

“Not for me. I have never been as happy in all my days as I am now, Cherie, as your husband; as Gareth and Edward’s father; as part of this family.”

“Stop, or you’re going to make me cry again!” Cherie laughed.

Thomas chuckled, then grew serious again. “You know, I was thinking earlier about something your brother once said to me when he first learned that the duchess was expecting. He said that when you and I had a child, I would realize I’d do anything on earth to protect you both and make you happy. And he said… you’ll know that there is nothing that child could ever do to make it unworthy of your love. Because your love is unconditional .”

“That’s very beautiful,” Cherie murmured.

“Yes. But I wasn’t sure if he was right. Of course, back then I thought you and I would never have children. But now that we have, I realize he was completely and utterly right.” He squeezed her hand back. “I spent so long feeling unworthy of my father. He truly made me feel that I was unworthy. But I would never make our sons feel that way. There is nothing they could do to ever make me treat them like that.”

“I know,” Cherie said, once more choking up. “And you know, my brother told me a little bit about that conversation you two had. He said that you wouldn’t always feel unworthy, once you learned to see yourself through my eyes.”

“And he was right again,” Thomas said, laughing. “I had to stop trying to be the man my father wanted me to be and start being the man you wanted me to be, which, coincidentally, is also the man I wanted to be.”

“And so here we are,” Cherie said. “Safe from your father’s disapproval. Safe from Rochford’s nefariousness, now that he’s behind bars. And safe from ever pushing each other away again.”

“Yes.” Thomas smiled and shook his head. “In fact, I’m sure it’s the opposite: you can’t get rid of me now.”

She laid her head on his shoulder and stared down at the sleeping boys. “No, I can’t get rid of you now,” she murmured.

And she never wanted to.

The End?