Three Years Later

In the last three years of her marriage, Catriona had come to love London and the many delights that it offered. 

She had come to enjoy the balls and parties, where, even though she was crowded in with hundreds of other people, she could dance and laugh late into the night with all the wonderful friends that she had made since moving to London. 

She had come to look forward to the social obligations, where she got to see the many people who had shown her great kindness and welcome in the city, despite her Scottish heritage, and who even seemed interested in learning more about the Scots. 

She had even come to find the constant hum of traffic less annoying than comforting, knowing that she was surrounded by people, many of whom she knew and who would tip their hats at her as she passed by with her daughter in tow, off to get a dress altered or to visit an acquaintance. 

That being said, as she strolled through the gardens of Wycliffe Manor and breathed in the sweet, briny smell of the ocean, and heard the sounds of birds calling out to one another in the distance while the crash of the waves filled her ears—she was very glad to be back in the countryside. 

It might just have been Margate, not Scotland, but it was still where she belonged. Among the trees and animals. Where the air was fresh and clean. And where she could walk for miles and not see a single person. This was the place where she was most happy. 

This afternoon, however, she was not alone, and if she had walked even twenty steps she would have run into something. 

She and Sebastian were throwing a party to celebrate the christening of their son and heir, Alistair, and all of their friends and family were there. 

Turning away from the view she had been enjoying of the cliffside, Catriona took in the scene behind her. 

Closest to her, Louisa was sitting on a blanket playing with her son, Theodore, and Nathaniel, a picnic spread out in front of them. Also on the blanket was Mrs. Kerr, who was rocking little Alistair in her arms. 

Behind them, Sebastian was talking to the Duke of Straithcairn and the Dowager Duchess of Wycliffe. The three of them were gently debating some recent Scottish legislation that had some of the English in an uproar. Something about trying to make it easier for Scots to buy back the land that had been appropriated from them during the last war. 

“It is their right!” Catriona’s father was saying. “And more than that, it is a show of good faith toward the Scottish lairds, that they are loyal to the crown and can be trusted with their lands and wealth.”

“But what of the English lords who received that land as payment for their loyal service?” the dowager duchess argued. “They cannot simply lose their lands!”

“And they are not losing it,” Straithcairn said. “They are being paid for it. Which is more than the Scottish lairds got when they lost theirs.”

“I am inclined to agree with Straithcairn,” Sebastian said, and the dowager duchess looked at him in shock, her eyes wide. 

“You are?” she cried. “I find that very disloyal to your own countrymen, Sebastian.”

“We are all Brits,” Sebastian said, and he caught Catriona’s eye and winked. “I am loyal to all of us who are working to make Great Britain welcoming and fair to everyone.”

The dowager duchess shook her head. “You truly have changed since taking a Scottish wife.”

“I have,” Sebastian said, laughing. “You must remember…I now have two Scottish children. And you have two Scottish grandchildren, Mother. You must also be more understanding of the Scots, now.”

His mother muttered something that Catriona could not hear, and Sebastian laughed. 

“Where is my daughter?” he said, looking around. “And, come to think of it, where is Arabella?”

“Something tells me that the two of them will be together,” Catriona said, stepping forward and interrupting their conversation. “I shall go and look for them.”

She stopped first to check with Mrs. Kerr that everything was well with the baby, but Mrs. Kerr assured her that all was well. 

“He is sound asleep,” she said, gazing with starry eyes down at the infant in her arms. “And he is the most perfect angel in the world.”

Catriona’s heart filled with love as she looked down at her son. He was barely two months old and still so small and soft. She felt the strong, motherly urge to take him from Mrs. Kerr and hold him herself, but she did not want to disturb him. He looked so peaceful asleep like this, and she knew that if she were to take him, he would wake up and start crying. 

And he will be much less adorable then, she reminded herself ruefully. 

“Very good,” she murmured instead, “I shall leave him with you for a few minutes while I go look for my daughters.”

Daughters. 

She often caught herself referring to Arabella as her daughter these days. In the three years since she had married Sebastian and taken Arabella in as her charge, it had become hard to think of Arabella not as her daughter. The two of them were as close as mother and daughter, and she loved her as equally as she loved her two other children. 

Still, it was important that she did not erase Arabella’s history. It was important that Arabella remember her parents and honor them as the people who had raised her for six years. The late duke and his wife had been excellent parents and loved her fiercely, and Catriona did not want her to forget them. In fact, she sometimes worried that she might. Arabella was ten years old now, and while she still spoke of her parents sometimes, her memories of those early years of her life were beginning to fade. 

Catriona walked across the lawn, then up the steps of the house to the large front doors. Inside, she hesitated, then she turned right and made her way to the library. She knew this was where the girls would be. It had become Arabella’s favorite place in the house. 

At the library, she pushed the door open quietly. From inside, she heard a soft voice reading aloud. Pushing the door open a little bit more, she took in the beautiful sight before her: Arabella was stretched out on the carpet, reading aloud from a book, while Lily, Catriona and Sebastian’s two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, sat next to her, listening with rapt attention. 

It was an impressive sight. Lily was already as boisterous and adventurous as her mother had been at her age, and it was not many people who could get her to sit still for long. Only Arabella seemed capable of it, when she read aloud to her from the books of fairy tales that Lily liked the best. 

Now, Catriona came slowly into the room and sank down into a nearby armchair, watching the two of them together. 

Arabella paused then and looked up at Lily. “Do you like the story?” she asked. Her voice, which had once been so quiet, had grown strong and self-assured, and Catriona marveled at how grown-up she sounded. Already ten years old…she would be a young lady soon. 

“I like it!” Lily said, clapping her hands together. “More!”

Arabella laughed, but before she could continue, Catriona intervened. 

“I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings,” she said, standing up, “but there cannot be more for now. You are both wanted outside. Our guests are all here.”

Arabella and Lily both started and looked around, and then Arabella smiled sheepishly. 

“I am sorry, Catriona,” she said, closing the book and pushing herself up to a seated position. “I was so engrossed in the story I completely forgot about the guests. Is everyone terribly annoyed at me for being late?”

“Not at all.” Catriona laughed. “They just want to see you. Your grandmother is particularly eager to hear about your dancing lessons. She has heard you are an excellent dancer.”

Arabella made a face. “I am still quite bad,” she said, but Catriona shook her head. 

“You are enthusiastic,” she said. “And that is what matters.” 

“Mama!” Lily cried, holding out her arms, and Catriona bent down and scooped her daughter into her arms. 

“I missed you, Lily dearest,” she said, snuggling her nose against her daughter’s cheek. 

“I miss you!” Lily giggled. 

“Shall we go outside?” Catriona asked, and Arabella nodded. 

Outside, Arabella was quickly absorbed by her grandmother, who wanted to ask her all about her lessons. Catriona, meanwhile, looked around. She could not see Sebastian anywhere. 

But she knew where he was. 

After checking to make sure that Alistair was still asleep, she carried Lily away from the garden and around the side of the house. There was a grove of pine trees on the far side of the house, not far from where she had once watched out the window as Sebastian spoke with Nathaniel and Crispin about his marriage, and she had thought he looked very handsome. She hadn’t known at the time what lay behind that pine grove, but now she did, and she knew, in the excitement of having the whole family together, why it would draw Sebastian there. 

Sure enough, as she entered the pine grove, she saw him standing in front of the largest of the trees. Two tombstones were planted in the grass there. They marked the graves of Gregory and his wife, Marianne. Sebastian was standing over them, his hands clasped behind his back, his head bowed. 

Catriona approached slowly, and he turned at the sound of her feet padding over the grass. 

As he took in his wife and daughter, his face split into a wide smile. 

“My two favorite girls in the world,” he said, holding out his arms for his daughter, and Catriona placed Lily in them. 

“Papa!” Lily cried, throwing her arms around her father. 

“Lily dearest,” he said, kissing her on the nose. “Were you reading again with Arabella?”

Lily giggled. “Yes. Mama caught us.”

“Arabella has rejoined the rest of our guests now,” Catriona said, coming up to her husband and putting an arm around his waist. She looked up at him. “We should probably rejoin them soon as well.”

“You are right,” Sebastian said, looking down once more at the gravestones. “I just realized I had not visited them yet since we arrived here. And seeing the family all together…It made me miss them.”

Catriona nodded. “Not all your family,” she said heavily, and Sebastian sighed. 

“Crispin has been sent to Australia,” he said. “I got the news this morning. He will serve out the rest of his sentence in a penal colony there. We are safe from him.”

“Good,” Catriona said. She did not often like to think of him, but being at Wycliffe Manor reminded her of him and those early days of her marriage. “I have also heard that Honoria has married a baron and settled far away from London. She will never harm us again.”

“We are safe,” Sebastian agreed. He was still gazing down at the tombstones. “And more than that, we are happy. I feel, ever since my dream of Gregory, that he is watching over me. That he approves of how I am running the dukedom. That he does not begrudge me this life.”

Catriona tightened her arm around his waist. “I know your brother loved you,” she murmured, “and wanted only the best for you. And I am sure that he is proud of you. As proud as I am of you.”

Sebastian smiled at her, kissed the top of her head, and then together, with their daughter, they turned and began to walk back across the clearing toward the house, where their family waited. 

THE END