Extended Epilogue
1 year later…
Joana watched as the children filed out of the school under the watchful eye of their master. His eyes rose from his charges to meet hers, seeing her for the first time. A look of alarm crept across his face then. Some of the children looked up at her in awe, clearly seeing from her dress that she was a lady of some standing.
“Children, out to play now. Get some fresh air and some sunshine,” their schoolmaster, George Rayfield, admonished them.
He did so in a kindly tone and they resumed their exodus until they were out of the building and could run to their heart’s content.
“Is he…?” George asked.
Joana nodded, turning to the doors. Ewan stood on the other side of the large yard that fronted the school. He had not yet entered the gates but gazed at the building pensively.
“He came, but he is not sure how he will greet you,” Joana said.
She walked along the corridor and embraced George warmly. He seemed taken aback, and then pleased.
“And I judge that you seem to be on the verge of providing my nephew with an heir. And me a grand-nephew I suppose,” he said.
“I am. In just a couple of months now,” Joana said with a smile.
“I can only hope and pray that my nephew will allow me to see the child. I should very much like to,” George replied.
“When you announced that you were giving up your title, your lands, and estates, I think that went a long way to mending the bridge between you,” Joana said, “it showed how you were truly remorseful for what had happened.”
George nodded. “I had to throw that snake Bansfield out of my house. He begged me for hours not to reveal the mess of our finances. His investments I might add. Persuaded me to use Richmond money in his hair-brained gambles because he’d already lost his own. He knew that once I announced that I was renouncing my money, title…everything, the trap would close on him. The markets would look closely at who had been my business partner in all those ventures. Oh dear. I am told he wept when he was hauled away to debtors prison.”
Joana nodded somberly. She would not crow over someone else’s misfortune. Even if they had brought that misfortune upon themselves. Bansfield was in disgrace and would likely never be able to emerge from it. He was bankrupt and jailed. His lands and estates would be seized to pay his creditors. And perhaps it was, in a way, payment for his crime against her. That assault had set Joana on a path that took her to Ewan. That marriage had led them both into conflict with Bansfield and he had lost. Even his attempt to have Ewan frightened off by Thomas Shell on Vauxhall Bridge had only served to elevate Ewan in the public eye.
“Shall we walk, George? You can show me this school of yours.”
“I should be glad to, Your Grace. And it is not exactly my school. It is owned by a charitable institution that employs me. I don’t know why they requested me specifically. I do have a degree from Oxford and have always had a passion for education. But, the Lord works in mysterious ways with his wonders to perform. Come along, let me show you this wonderful school.”
George Rayfield began to proudly show off the school that he had been asked to run. Joana smiled and listened as he talked of it and showed her the children’s work. She did not tell him that his nephew was a silent director of the charity that had built the school. Nor that his influence over the board was significant and it had been him that had ensured that Mr. George Rayfield was chosen to be the master of the school. Finally, they came to the main doors, looking out over the playing children. Ewan stepped around the corner and stopped a few yards away.
“Hello uncle,” he said, simply.
“…Hello, my boy. Welcome,” George replied, a hitch in his throat.
“I thought that giving up your title was…heroic,” Ewan said, “the most selfless and heroic act I have ever seen.”
“I had to make penance. I set in motion the chain of events that saw my brother killed. It was my fault…”
Ewan raised a hand, tears in his eyes. “No, it was the fault of the man who is now dead. He will burn in hell for what he did. You will be forgiven. You are a good man and…one I am proud to call uncle.”
He lurched forward, seeming to lose all coordination, and embraced the old man. For George, there were no words but just tears of happiness. Joana dabbed at her eyes, watching uncle and nephew reconcile and feeling her baby kick within her, giving its own contribution to the moment.