Extended Epilogue

Two Years Later

“I want!” James declared, scrunching up his face and pointing toward Amelia. “I want!”

“I am sure you do.” Hannah chuckled as she scooped her little angel into her arms, making sure to hold him tight so he couldn’t go running off.

“I want!”

“James! James!” Amelia cried joyously as she waded deeper into the pond. “Is he watching!?”

“Amelia!” Frederick cried out. “Be careful!”

“I am, Father!” she shouted over her shoulder.

“Don’t go too far! Amelia!”

“Oh, she is fine.” Hannah chuckled, finding her husband’s panic rather amusing. “Leave her.”

Frederick grimaced as he watched Amelia dive into the water, submerged for several seconds, only for her head to pop out and her laughter to echo through the small clearing.

“See?” Hannah said rightly. “Perfectly fine.”

“James!” Amelia cried and waved to her brother. “Look!”

“I want!” James tried to pull free from Hannah’s arms, but there was little chance she was going to let him.

“Amelia…” Frederick stood by the edge of the water, having already taken off his boots, his shirt unbuttoned as he readied to take it off should the need arise.

“She is fine, dear,” Hannah called after him. “Now, come and pay some attention to your son.”

Frederick didn’t look at all convinced. He watched his daughter swim a moment longer, forcing himself to turn away as he then trudged back to Hannah.

“You will forgive me if I don’t have the fondest memories of this place,” he muttered as he stepped closer to Hannah. Then, he bent down and scooped James into his arms.

“That was nearly three years ago,” Hannah reminded him. “And by now, Amelia is almost as good a swimmer as you are.”

He snorted. “I don’t think so.”

“Daddy!” James cried. “Amelia!” He tried to wiggle free of Frederick’s arms, desperate to get to his older sister. “I want!”

“He’s even more stubborn than you are.” Hannah laughed.

“Impossible,” Frederick said.

“Father!” Amelia called from the water. “Bring James in! Please!”

Frederick grimaced again as he looked to Hannah for permission. Hannah rolled her eyes but conceded, waving him away.

“Are you sure?”

“I would do it myself, but…” She rubbed her belly, which was very much swollen, as she was six months pregnant. “You know. Circumstances.”

Frederick laughed. “We will only go as deep as my knees.”

“I trust you,” she assured him.

“James…” Frederick turned his son in his arms so he was looking at him. “If I take you to the water, you have to promise to behave. All right?”

James scrunched up his face again. Not even three years old yet, and he was already the spitting image of his father, such that when he grew angry and threw tantrums, Hannah had the hardest time disciplining him, as he reminded her so much of Frederick.

“Amelia!” James cried. “I want!”

“Oh, all right!” Frederick sighed, tucking his son under his arm.

The little boy giggled manically as his father carried him to the water’s edge.

“James!” Amelia cried out when she saw them coming. “Watch me! Watch!”

She jumped into the air and then dove beneath the water. She stayed under for several seconds, only to suddenly emerge by the edge, jumping up into the air and crying out as if trying to scare her baby brother.

“Yaya!” James clapped happily. “Amelia!”

“Boo!”

“I want!” James tried to wriggle free of his father’s arms so that he might go into the water himself, but there was no chance Frederick would allow that. Not at all.

The three played by the water’s edge for some time, Amelia swimming about and splashing her father and brother, James trying to get to her, Frederick holding him back and laughing the whole while.

Hannah was happy to sit back and watch. Far too pregnant to join in, she saw no need, for this right here was as good a time as she could imagine having. Her husband, her daughter, and her son playing together as one big happy family. Which is very much what they were.

Years ago, there had been a time when Hannah had worried how Amelia might act once she fell pregnant and gave birth, that fear that Amelia might see herself as separate from the three of them because she was not Hannah’s biological daughter. But the second Amelia laid eyes on James, that fear fell away, for it was clear that she loved him nearly as much as Hannah and Frederick did.

Funny to think that it almost didn’t happen. Funny to think how this all started. An accident that turned out to be planned. A forced marriage that had the potential to be hellish. A rule not to kiss or even touch. And love bloomed in the fires of passion, still roaring as strongly and as powerfully as it had all those years ago.

“Mummy!” James cried out. “Come! Mummy!”

“Hannah!” Amelia joined in. “Come on!”

Hannah rolled her eyes but could not resist the calls of her children. Slowly, and with some effort, she pushed to her feet. Then she waddled to the water’s edge, where Frederick held out a hand to help her into the shallows.

“Easy there.” He smiled. “That’s my child you’re carrying.”

“Our child,” she reminded him with a kiss. “And until you carry one yourself, I will ask you to mind your own business.”

“Carry one?” Frederick indicated James, who was still tucked under his arm. “What do you think I am doing?”

“Oh! That is not the same thing!”

“Hannah! Look!” Amelia stood in the shallows, made sure they were all watching, and then dove into the depths.

“I want! Mummy!”

Hannah laughed at the scene. Yes, sometimes it was hard. And yes, sometimes it drained her such that she wondered how she managed to wake up each morning. But the truth of the matter was that she would not change any of it for the world.

From the moment she first met Frederick, all that happened in between, right up to this moment here, she would keep it as was. For everything that had transpired had led to now.

She was happy and in love. She finally had a family of her own. A family that would soon grow with one more child who would be just as loved and just as adored as all the rest.

Frederick had her heart, but her soul was for her children. For now until forever.

Happy endings were a rare thing, and Hannah made sure to be grateful every single day that she was lucky enough to find herself in one of them. Honestly, for how her journey had started, how would have thought?

The End