Epilogue

EPILOGUE

Three Months Later

“ I ’m not ready.”

“Of course you are.”

“I can’t do this.”

“Yes, you can.”

“Margaret!” Louisa rounded on her, though it was such a small fury that Margaret had to bite her lip in order not to laugh at her younger sister’s outrage.

Louisa looked quite stunning, her hair piled high at the back of her head and a glittering necklace at her throat that she had borrowed for her debut. The white gown she wore flattered her slim figure, even though she pulled at it repeatedly.

“I-I’ve changed my mind,” she stuttered. “I can’t have this debut after all.”

“It’s a little late for that,” Theodore said from nearby.

Margaret turned to look at him. Her husband had a rather amused smile on his face as he leaned on the wall beside the closed doors leading to their great ballroom. His hands were in his pockets, and though he was neat and well dressed, there was a little ruffle in his cravat that reminded Margaret of how they had kissed minutes before, and she had pulled at that cravat.

He is not so obsessed with neatness these days.

“That doesn’t help,” Margaret muttered to him. “Tell her nice things. Like she’ll be wonderful in her debut. That she has nothing to fear.”

Theo smiled and raised his eyebrows in answer.

“Well, you’re a big help,” Margaret said wryly, to which he chuckled.

Louisa looked sharply at Theo. She didn’t need to say anything for Margaret to know what she was thinking. The last three months had been the same. The more Theo had relaxed with her and the public, the more he had been seen to smile and laugh. This new, happy, even jesting Theo, had taken the world by surprise.

“There is nothing to fear,” Margaret assured her sister as she laid her hands on Louisa’s shoulders, comfortingly. “You heard what Evelina said earlier today. It can be a wonderful thing. Even enjoyable.”

“It can be…” Theodore whispered, mischievously.

“Don’t you have somewhere else to be?” Margaret asked him, unable to stop her lips lifting in his direction.

“No. In Evelina and Gabriel’s absence, it’s my responsibility to escort your sister into the room tonight. I am here to fulfill my duty.”

Though nothing was said between them on the matter, Margaret knew what he was thinking. The fact that James had chosen to spend the night gambling instead of introducing Louisa to the ton had shocked them both. It had taken all of a second for Theo to volunteer to take his place.

“It’s all so terrifying.” Louisa huffed and turned to face the doors, peering through the crack to the great hall.

Margaret had been certain to make the event a beautiful one. Spring flowers were everywhere all over the room, and the fashion for ladies with bird feathers in their hair had taken hold properly this season. It seemed to have had the effect of making the room feel like a giant aviary.

“I’ll be like a stuffed bird.” Louisa stood straight and wafted at the feather in her own hair.

“You look beautiful,” Margaret said sweetly as she stepped forward to adjust the feather. Had Evelina not been so heavily pregnant, she knew Evelina would have been here, too, to help calm their sister. As it was, that responsibility of care rested on Margaret’s shoulders alone tonight, and she was determined to see it through and protect her sister. “Please do not panic.”

“Too late,” Louisa muttered.

“Yes, the ton can be scary.” Margaret sighed with the words, for she knew it was true. “Yet there are good people in it as well. The trick is to find the people that are good.”

“And to stay away from my cousin, Cedric,” Theo added quickly. “He has something of a… reputation.”

“Bad reputations didn’t stop you two,” Louisa observed, looking between the pair of them.

Theodore winked and Margaret smiled, feeling her cheeks heat.

The last three months had been a wondrous and happy surprise to her. Ever since Theo had revealed her past to her, Margaret had seen who he was at heart more and more.

There was scarcely a day they spent apart now, and they came together for every mealtime. The door between their chambers was never locked either. The two of them had become quite inseparable, and Margaret was not afraid to tell anyone who would listen that Theo was not only the man she loved, but also her best friend.

“Oh, I cannot bear this!” Louisa wrung her white gloved hands as she turned on the spot once again.

“Louisa, let me assure of you something.” Theodore stepped forward, before Margaret could say anymore. “This is just a party. In its essence, that is all it is. There are plenty of shadows for you to hide in, there are good people to meet too, and there’s a particularly fine champagne on offer as well.”

She smiled, rather sadly.

“If all else fails and you still do not like your debut tonight, then rest assured on this point at least.” Theo offered his arm to her. “My library is just two doors away, and Margaret assures me there at least some books in there you haven’t read yet.”

Margaret and Louisa both laughed.

“Now, are we ready?” he asked, waiting for her approval. As Louisa breathed deeply, Margaret mouthed a quick thank you to her husband. He smiled, for her eyes only.

He knows how to be a part of a family, how to protect, how to love.

Margaret’s body was filled with excitement as Louisa eventually nodded and Theo opened the doors, escorting her into the ballroom.

As Margaret walked alongside her sister, the footman announced Louisa’s entrance and title. Many pairs of eyes turned to face them with curiosity. When Louisa threatened to look down at her feet, Margaret had to subtly elbow her arm, prompting her to look up again.

“Now, smile, sister,” Margaret pleaded. “Pretend you are not looking at so many frightening faces.”

“It’s like looking at an aviary.”

Margaret had to admit, the illusion was really quite accurate as ladies’ heads turned to look at them, beady eyes wide.

“There is nothing to fear,” Theo whispered to Louisa, escorting her further into the room.

“Evelina said there were men to be wary of in the ton. Have you not just warned me of your own cousin?” Louisa hissed in a whisper, through a smile she was forcing to keep in place. “Clearly, there is plenty to fear!”

“Not whilst myself and Gabriel are watching over you. No man would dare hurt you then.”

Margaret looked at Theo, such pride in what a gentleman he was making her beam.

“Now, let us introduce you to some people tonight who aren’t going to make you run and hide in my library.”

“She is doing well, is she not?” Margaret whispered as Theodore appeared to take her hand, holding it tight in his own. He quickly raised it to his lips and kissed the back, making her smile and falter, as she forgot what she was asking.

“Distracted?” he teased her.

“More than a little.”

He laughed then nodded at Louisa across the room. She was surrounded by people, and though perhaps not fully enjoying herself, she showed no sign of running for the library, which was a great relief to Margaret.

“She is doing very well,” Theodore said with an eager nod. “Though it may never be her natural environment.”

“On that, I quite agree with you. Louisa infinitely prefers the life she lives reading her books.” Margaret sighed a little. She admired Louisa greatly, not only for her commitment to her books, but her scholarly ways. She had to wonder though if sometimes it was Louisa’s way of escaping the real world, by living her life exclusively through her books.

“What do you say to escaping for a few short minutes?” Theo offered up his hand.

“Escaping?” Margaret glanced at Louisa nervously.

“She is well taken care of. Have you not seen?” Theo gestured to another in the room. Margaret smiled when she caught sight of Mrs. Lancaster hovering in the corner of the ballroom.

Though she was overseeing the staff arrangements of the evening, clearly, Mrs. Lancaster had taken it upon herself to look out for another in the room. She watched Louisa like a hawk, wringing her hands together nervously.

“If there is anything to worry about, Mrs. Lancaster will find us at once. Come, let us escape for just a couple of minutes.”

Unable to resist the temptation of him, Margaret gave him her hand. He led her out of the ballroom and toward a back door. Together, they slipped out into the garden.

Though spring had sprung, the nights still pulled in relatively early. The sky was black now, with a dappling of stars and a bright moon to guide their way. All around them in the borders, new shoots were starting to poke their heads through, flowers budding as the hellebores bloomed their last.

As they walked, Margaret looped her arm with Theo. They ambled further away from the ballroom, through the borders.

“Thank you,” Margaret said after some minutes of companionable silence.

“For what?” Theo asked, looking at her in surprise.

“For holding this ball. For escorting Louisa into the ball. For helping to calm her, too. You have done what another should have done tonight.” She smiled rather sadly.

“Your father…” Theodore sighed. “He is too lost to his addictions to be there for her. I am just sorry he could not come through for Louisa when she needed him, but I was very happy to step in and do what I could. Gabriel would have done the same, had Evelina not been so near her time.”

“You were the elder brother she needed tonight, and for that… I cannot thank you enough.” She leaned her head on his shoulder as they walked. He slowed their pace a little, until they came to a stop in the middle of the formal gardens.

“For so long, I had never considered having a family of my own. Hardly surprising after my parents and what they showed me a family could be like.” He grimaced at the words, and Margaret looked up at him.

The matter with his mother had proceeded much as they expected. Though it had come to a trial, it was quickly dismissed when Catherine had started screaming to the rafters of the courtroom that she had given birth to the spawn of the devil. Rather swiftly, a bill of insanity was brought forward, and she had been placed in the Bedlam.

Theo had not once visited her, and Margaret had no wish to make him do so, though she knew Catherine’s sister sometimes went. She had her friend, and Margaret prayed that at least where she was now, she would get some help.

“Your sisters have shown me how different a family can be though. How loving,” Theodore remarked softly. “How protective.”

“You were always protective,” Margaret reminded him. “Even before you made the effort to get to know my sisters the last few months.”

“There is more to it though.” Theo smiled. “You have shown me what else a family can be.”

She knew what he was referring to. More than once over the last few months her sisters had been invited to stay at the house. If they were not laughing and playing card games, or battledore outside, then they were off walking. Sometimes they just collapsed in the sitting room as Louisa read aloud, and Evelina complained how uncomfortable she was, and how much she couldn’t wait for her baby to arrive.

They were happy memories. On many of those occasions Margaret had seen Theo watching them all, with a smile on his face.

“Are families not so scary now?” she teased him, to which he chuckled.

“Indeed, they are not.” He nodded slowly. “Seeing Gabriel’s and Evelina’s excitement too for when their child arrives, it has made me think…” Then he trailed off, shifting his weight between his feet.

“Wait.” Margaret blinked. Surely Theo wasn’t suggesting what she thought he was suggesting. “Theo, are you saying that someday you may… that you think you… you want a baby ?” Her voice squeaked in surprise.

She had shut down that hope long ago. Was it possible that Theodore had changed his mind? That he would give her the family she had always wanted to have after all?

“I’m saying,” Theo paused, making her wait with a mischievous smile on his face.

“Do not keep me on tenterhooks now!” She practically bounced on her toes, prompting him to laugh.

“I’m saying that maybe I’m read.”

“Maybe? Is that a yes? Or a not?”

“Ha! You really want to make sure nothing can be misunderstood here, don’t you?” He caught her hand and raised it to his lips, kissing the back. He maintained the connection of their gazes between them, tantalizing her with the softest brush of his lips across the back of her knuckles.

“Indeed, I do,” she whispered, rather breathlessly. “Are you saying that you would like to try for a baby, Theo?”

He turned her hand over, moving his lips to kiss her palm and the inside of her wrist. There was just a thin white line across her wrist now, a reminder of the day he had returned to her life, pushing his mother’s brutality away from the pair of them for good.

“I like the idea of starting a family afresh. Of having a child to love, to raise right this time.” He nodded at the house behind them. “Plus, with all the changes you have made, it’s only right that this house become a proper home for a child, isn’t it? A place of happiness.”

Margaret flung herself at him with such fervor that she nearly knocked him over. He caught her in the embrace, laughing as he found their balance and rocked her from side to side.

“Shall I take that as a ‘yes’ then, Margaret? Was that you saying you too would also like to try for a baby of our own?”

She leaned back far enough in his arms to look up at him and capture his lips with her own. They kissed softly, their lips moving together in unison.

She forgot the house behind them, hectic with the guests that had gathered for the ball and all the staff who were running to and fro balancing glasses of champagne. She forgot her father and how his addiction still plagued her family. She even forgot the stress of trying not to make Louisa fear her debut so much. In that moment, all she could think of was Theo and the future he was now offering up before her.

“It is a yes,” she whispered as she pulled back, gazing him in the eye. “Thank God you are the man I walked in on that day my gown fell apart, Theo.”

“Well, I did find it very annoying,” he said playfully. “My obsession for neatness just wanted to set the dress straight again.”

“That is all you can say?” she laughed and tapped him around the arm in reprimand. He caught her arm, chuckling as he pulled her back toward him, and kissed her again.

The End?