Epilogue

Epilogue

“ W hat do you think?” Lady Richmond asked, pulling Ruth over to the mirror so that she could look at her reflection.

Ruth gasped quietly at the sight. She was wearing her wedding dress — a stunning cream array of satin and lace that fell gently to the ground and pooled prettily there around her slippers. Her bare neck had only a single pearl pendant as decoration, and her blond hair was swept up in golden piles atop her head, dotted through with tiny cream roses. She blushed, moving her hand to gently touch the embroidery around the bodice.

“This is all too lovely,” she said.

Lady Richmond smiled. “You cannot look ‘too lovely’ on your wedding day, my dear. It is simply impossible. Besides that, it is you who elevates the dress, not the other way around.”

Ruth blushed deeply. “If that was true, my Lady,” she said, “then I would look this elegant in my simple muslin day dress, and I assure you I do not.”

“You needn’t call me ‘my lady’ anymore,” Lady Richmond said kindly. “I will be your mother within the hour. You may call me Esther, or ‘Mother’ if you prefer.”

Ruth felt tears in her eyes. “You are too kind,” she said simply.

Lady Cecelia walked into the room, arrayed in an elegant green gown that caught the light in her eyes with stunning mischief. She saw her sister and Ruth, and smiled.

“You look lovely,” she said. “I am glad we used our own modiste after all. She knew to find something that would fit your style perfectly.”

Lady Richmond patted Ruth gently on the shoulder and turned to go.

“I will see you downstairs,” she said with a smile. “Don’t keep us waiting too long, you know. I spoke with Stephen this morning and the poor lad looks like he can hardly wait another minute. ”

Ruth blushed again, and watched her future mother walk out of the room before turning to Lady Cecelia and embracing her.

“I am so sorry you had to come back from your honeymoon early,” she said. “I imagine you had hoped to spend many more months in Italy, but Stephen simply would not wait. He insisted that we be married at once so we could start our life together.”

“Life is short,” Lady Cecelia conceded. “Besides, Edward insists he has spent enough time travelling the world. It brings back bad memories for him. He wants to settle here in the countryside with me and make a happy, peaceful life together.”

“So you will not return to Italy after we are wed?” Ruth asked. “I thought you had the villa for much longer than the few weeks you were gone.”

“We do. We told the servants to leave it open for you and Stephen,” Lady Cecelia said with a smile, raising her eyebrow in a teasing fashion. “He will be taking you there after your wedding.”

“That is too kind,” Ruth said, her heart warming at the gesture. “I have never travelled.”

“I know. You both will enjoy it far more than we,” she said. “Edward was so excited to be back that he has been taking patients almost since he arrived home. I make sure the kettle is on when he gets home and pack his pipe for him by the fire, but for the most part I am learning what it is to be a doctor’s wife.”

“Do you regret anything?” Ruth asked.

“Never,” Lady Cecelia said with a little smile. “I unimaginably grow happier by the day.”

Ruth picked up her skirts and turned in a quick circle, feeling almost girlish.

“Do you think it will do?” she asked. “Do you think he will like it?”

Lady Cecelia gave a little laugh. “My dear, he would enjoy it if you walked down the aisle dressed like an Irish peasant. Still,” she added with a wink, “I will be startled if he manages not to faint with happiness at the sight of you in that gown. It will be like the night of the ball all over again, when he first saw you descend the staircase.”

Ruth frowned. “He hardly noticed me that night. He didn’t say a thing about my attire until the carriage ride was over.”

“It is in situations of utter speechlessness that men give us our greatest compliments,” Lady Cecelia said wisely.

“Are you certain about all the arrangements for the wedding?” Ruth asked, moving to take Lady Cecelia’s arm. “I know it is unconventional to marry outside of a chapel. The bans were read properly, of course, but we wanted to be here in the garden — at the manor where we first fell in love.”

“I have heard people wagging their tongues about it in the village for days,” Lady Cecelia said. “Yes, you may well look surprised — I go into the village fairly regularly now. I find it all rather enjoyable, seeing people whisper about the woman who remained hidden away from the world for years. There is quite a bit of folklore established around my person and history.”

Ruth laughed. “I have heard some of those tales myself,” she said.

“The point is,” Lady Cecelia added with a wink, “I honestly do not care what the butcher and the baker and parson think about the location of your wedding. I am glad it is here. The house holds so many memories for me — some good, and some bad. It is beautiful to see the memories weighted in favor of the good. Your wedding will do that.”

“I think, looking at you and Dr. Scott, your own happiness has already shifted the memories of March Manor towards the side of good,” Ruth said.

“Are you ready to go down?” Lady Cecelia asked with a smile.

Ruth took her arm and they walked out of the room and down the stairs together. It was quiet in the manor, like it had been the first weeks of Ruth’s stay there. If she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine it was only her and Stephen and Lady Cecelia moving up in the upstairs rooms. When she opened her eyes, however, she could see the happy truth.

Outside, through the great double doors, she glimpsed the people arranged in the garden on benches. She heard the tinny sound of strings starting up for the bridal march. She could see flashes of ribbons and bouquets of flowers fluttering in the breeze.

She held on to Lady Cecelia’s arm, and at the door they started down the aisle together, walking arm in arm towards Stephen. He was standing at the end of the aisle, and Ruth found that she could not look at anything but him. The people, the music, the decorations — they all faded into the background. All that mattered was that tall, red-haired man was looking into her eyes with such a depth of feeling and affection.

At the end of the aisle, Ruth left Lady Cecelia and walked forward to take Stephen’s hands. He looked down into her eyes, a smile playing gently on his lips.

“My lady,” he said quietly.

“My lord,” she answered.

The parson cleared his throat. “Dearly beloved…”

THE END