Extended Epilogue
8 months later
Ravenscourt Castle
“We shall be late for Edith’s grand opening!” Juliet cried as she tried to hurry to the coach. Horatio held her arm because walking was an effort for her. The weight of the baby she carried, Horatio’s child, made it difficult for Juliet to move quickly, but still, she tried.
“Edith will understand,” Horatio assured her, “you cannot help the sickness our son causes you.”
“We do not know that it is a son,” Juliet reminded him.
Horatio grinned. He knew. He had known since she had first revealed her pregnancy to him. An instinct told him that their first child would be his son and heir. He had never experienced such a thrill of excitement before.
Juliet paused, breathing hard, the coach still a dozen yards away. She was large and round but radiantly beautiful in a way that Horatio had not believed possible. He did not think he could love her more. So what would his love for the child growing inside her be like?
“Edith is nervous enough about this enterprise,” Juliet continued, “she has not had the support of her family. In fact, I think they have actively been informing against her!”
“Thankfully, I think the social capital of the Godwin family is spent,” Horatio said.
That family had been hoisted on their own petard. After attempting to threaten the honor and reputation of the Templeton name, they had found themselves on the wrong end of gossip. Servants had whispered of attempts by Lord Gilbert to imprison his niece, now Duchess of Ravenscourt. The household of Ravenscourt had been incensed at the knowledge that Lady Margaret had tried to drug their master.
It was ironic that the whole affair had ended with the Godwins and Matthew Ainsworth being the ones whose names were besmirched, after they had worked to do the same to him.
“Edith has Henrietta,” Horatio reminded his wife, “Henrietta has not left her side since they became close, and is a great support to her.”
Juliet nodded, resuming her waddle to the coach.
“I know, I know. Edith would probably be more glad that Henrietta is with her than whether I am there. But I still do not want to be late!”
Horatio decided to let his wife have her way. When she had the bit between her teeth, she was difficult to sway. Impossible to sway, rather.
“Nigel and Nathan are also there. They would not miss it,” Horatio said as they finally reached the coach.
He helped Juliet up and then entered the coach himself. Finally, he leaned out of the door.
“Let’s be on our way,” he said to the driver.
“Pardon, Your Grace, but Graeme took sick today, so I thought I might try my hand as the coachman,” Hall’s voice came from ahead of the carriage.
Horatio and Juliet shared a smile between them.
“All speed, Hall,” he said to his butler, “but safely.”
“Right you are, Your Grace. Precious cargo,” Hall replied.
The coach rolled away from Ravenscourt. Horatio rested a hand on Juliet’s stomach. She smiled and put her hand atop his. Her cheeks were red from the effort of walking to the coach but it simply made her look more beautiful. She glowed.
“I did not have a chance to tell you before. I received a letter from Malcolm,” Horatio began.
Juliet’s eyes widened.
“How is he?”
“Excited beyond words. I could barely make out his scrawl. It seemed to get worse as he wrote. He has reached the region his father wrote of and has made contact with a native tribe in the area to find the tree whose bark provides this miraculous ingredient he seeks. He found that they seemed to be worshipping an effigy they had made. It looked, according to Malcolm, a lot like his father.”
Juliet laughed at the notion. “Malcolm will be in his element. He will probably be trying to dissuade them.”
“He says he did, but was talked out of it by his companions who would rather be revered than eaten.”
“Eaten?” Juliet exclaimed.
“This tribe is supposedly cannibalistic,” Horatio grimaced.
Juliet paled. Her hand went to her mouth.
“I think I need to stop,” she gasped.
Horatio banged on the roof and the coach came to a halt. He regretted sharing that particular piece of information, deciding to keep the rest of Malcolm’s account to himself. He helped Juliet down and calmly gathered her long, red hair as she became quite ill into a hedgerow. Horatio’s son did, in fact, leave his parents to arrive at their appointment very late indeed.
Lord Hemsworth greeted them outside the house on the outskirts of London that had been converted into the second branch of the Saint Columba’s School. Sir Nathan accompanied him, smiling in welcome.
“My wife was quite concerned but the Lord Mayor of London would not wait,” Hemsworth said, “we simply had to proceed with the grand opening without you.”
“Oh dear,” Juliet frowned, “is Edith very angry?”
“Not at all, dear lady,” Nathan said, taking Juliet’s hand and kissing it gallantly, “Henrietta was there to calm her. She was merely worried that you had crashed in a ditch somewhere.”
“Been sick into one, actually,” Juliet said, sheepishly.
“You are certainly a lot bigger than the last time we saw you,” Hemsworth noted.
“The last time we saw you was at our wedding. That was five months ago,” Horatio chided gently.
Their wedding had been an affair to remember, an intimate affair, held in the sun-dappled gardens of Ravenscourt with only their closest friends and family in attendance. Juliet had been a vision of elegance, her radiance rivaled only by the joy in Horatio’s eyes as they exchanged their vows.
Edith was Juliet’s maid of honor, and it was here she first met Henrietta, a distant relative of Horatio’s who had arrived from the Continent, and the two women had formed an instant bond over their shared love of literature and independence.
Meanwhile, Lord Hemsworth had quietly secured a marriage of convenience with a pragmatic baroness a month later, who carried her own secret: a lover in the form of a charming lady’s companion. Together, Hemsworth and his wife had become masters of discretion, their unspoken pact shielding each of their forbidden loves from scandal.
In private, among a select few, the truth was known. Horatio didn’t care a jot who his friends truly loved. They had become his closest allies and he would gladly lay down his life to protect them.
“Come inside and see what your money has made,” Sir Nathan enthused.
He offered his arm to Juliet and led the way inside with her. Hemsworth followed beside Horatio.
“Any news on your intrepid doctor?” he asked.
“He has reached his goal and expects to harvest the material he needs and be back by the end of the year. That will be six months before Juliet’s supply of the medicine runs out. Not to mention, he seems to have made a potential breakthrough on an all-out panacea for the disease.”
“Hallelujah!” Hemsworth said, fervently, “we have been praying for her.”
“I have been praying and threatening the almighty in equal measure,” Horatio confessed.
“He has indeed,” Juliet smiled secretly.
They entered through a tall, stone arch that housed a pair of wooden doors adorned with bright, brass door knockers. Within, a wide hallway led to a large high-ceilinged room. Desks had been set up in rows, with child-sized chairs for each. A blackboard stood on an easel at the front of the room.
Juliet had stopped at the door and was watching Edith talking to the children who sat at the desks. She had written her name on the blackboard and was slowly explaining the letters. A beautiful young woman with jet black hair was moving amongst the desks, helping the children to copy the letters onto tiles of slate on their desks.
Juliet watched Edith and Henrietta begin their new profession, teaching the children of the poor.
Horatio watched Juliet. She had an expression of awed wonder on her face. As though she could not believe the good that had come from the work she had put in alongside Edith and Henrietta. Not to mention the school’s ultimate founder, Jane Bonel.
Horatio had provided the money and gloried in his wife’s happiness. He had changed a lot since the evening that scandal had brought them together. He now lived for the happiness of his family, not the legacy of his name.
Juliet, in her turn, had begun to live for the same thing, not worrying about illness or even death. She had not expected to live long enough to bear a child. Had feared destroying Horatio with grief, as her father had been destroyed.
She no longer lived according to fear. She lived to hope and to love.
One day, she would make a fine mother. And the country’s first female veterinarian surgeon. She could achieve anything.