Then she simply closed her eyes. She was unconscious, that or asleep. He touched his forehead to hers, not moving.
“The bleeding has nearly stopped, Reverend Sherbrooke. Your wife will be all right. You did well.”
Tysen realized he was praying again, and it was a prayer filled with hope and endless gratitude, a prayer of promise and soul-deep joy.
Tysen stepped to his pulpit. Brilliant sunlight poured through the stained-glass windows. He felt the warmth of it on his face. He paused a moment, looking out over the many faces he’d known for eight years, all of them focused now on him, wondering at his silence, starting to get nervous because they didn’t understand.
Tysen looked at his brothers and their families, then at his own family—his boys, Meggie, and Mary Rose, who was still too pale, too thin, but she’d insisted she was well enough to come. And she was smiling at him, the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen in his life.
He felt a smile tugging at his own mouth. He wondered if he would ever stop smiling. He leaned forward, clasped his hands atop the pulpit, and said, “I have been here for eight years. I was a very young man when I came to Glenclose-on-Rowan, given this living by my brother, the earl of Northcliffe. You have, all of you, seen me grow to my full manhood amongst you. You have held me and my children close to you. I know each of you and I cherish what you are, what you doubtless will come to be.
“As you all know, I am now Lord Barthwick of Kildrummy Castle in Scotland. I went there solely out of duty, but God must have been directing my steps, for what I found was a very special woman who has shown me the absolute wonder of life, the glory of being a man who is beloved not only by God, but by a woman that He fashioned just for me.
“Through her, my dearest wife, Mary Rose Sherbrooke, I finally realized how very lucky I am. I finally saw what was right in front of me. I finally saw my children as the precious beings they are. I found that life could be filled with joy—endless joy. All I had to do was embrace it. I did.
“Now, however, I see that many of you wish that I would return to being that very devout and sober man you were used to, that very serious young man you had nurtured and watched grow in his faith and his self-belief. Since you had never seen him as a man filled with contentment and laughter and so much love he threatened to burst with it, you did not know that person, and thus he made you uncomfortable, and thus you did not want him.
“He was a stranger to you. He made you uncertain because where he once was stern in his admonishments to you as God’s creatures, once told you in no uncertain terms that a sin would blight your soul, he now wanted you to see the simple pleasure of just being alive, to feel the sun on your face and to smile under its warmth, to hear the sound of your children’s voices, knowing that they are yours and you will love them into eternity. This man now wants you to believe with all your hearts that God loves you, wishes you to be devout and loyal and honest, to worship Him with all the joy in your hearts, to be grateful to Him and to each other for the happiness we find here, on His magnificent earth.
“Our Lord created us, all the men and women who are sitting here today. And what he gave us, what he placed deep within each of us, is the capacity to love and honor and know in our hearts that there is meaning in our lives, meaning that allows for us to come together and give each other boundless happiness.
“I stand before you this morning a man who has been given one of our dear God’s greatest gifts. God has blessed me, opened my heart to know more pleasure than a simple man deserves.
“All of you know that I returned from Scotland with a wife. Her name, as you well know now, is Mary Rose Sherbrooke. She and I and our three children are a family, and we will remain a family who loves God and each other, a family that rejoices that we are together, that we care endlessly for each other.
“This will be my last service as your vicar. Mr. Samuel Pritchert, a man you all admire and respect, will be here to advise you and assist you in any spiritual matters. I do not know who will come to Glenclose-on-Rowan as your vicar, but I know that the earl of Northcliffe will give it serious and careful thought.
“I thank you again for my eight years as your vicar. I will think well of all of you for the rest of my days.”
And he smiled again, at everyone, and stepped back from the pulpit.
The silence was deafening.
Meggie said, her voice delighted and spontaneous, reaching to every pew in the church, “Oh, my, Mary Rose, just imagine. We’re all together. You can have babies and I can teach them what’s what, just as I have Max and Leo.”
“I will teach them how to tell ghost stories,” Grayson Sherbrooke said.
Ryder Sherbrooke shouted with laughter.
Epilogue
Bleaker’s Bluff
Kildrummy Castle
September 15, 1816
THE SUN WAS a ball of fire, warming the land as it slowly rose to fill the sky and turn the sea red.
“It is the most beautiful sight in the world,” Mary Rose said as she leaned closer to her husband. She was sitting against him, cradled between his arms and legs, and he tightened his arms around her, pulling his cloak closer around her, just in case, since it was still early morning.
“It is one of them,” he said, and kissed her ear. His fingers splayed over her swollen belly. “Our babe does well this morning? He is not kicking you?”
“He is fine. Mayhap he is resting after performing Leo’s acrobatics all night.”
“We must leave next week, love. I don’t wish to, but I don’t want you too far along in your pregnancy before we go back to Glenclose-on-Rowan. Also, Dr. Clowder has threatened me to ask that you be there for him to deliver our child.”
“Dr. Clowder told me that since Max and Leo and Meggie are such marvelous children, if we don’t want this one, he will be delighted to adopt him or her.”
Tysen laughed, then said more soberly, “Well, the poor man had two sons, both of them rotters. One got sent to Botany Bay for beating two men and stealing their purses; the other was killed in a duel for sleeping with a man’s wife.”
“We can give him very liberal visitation rights,” Mary Rose said.
“Did you enjoy your mother’s birthday last evening?”
“Oh, yes, everyone was in such high spirits. Isn’t it grand, Tysen? She’s so very happy with Miles. All those years playing a madwoman, and now all she does is sing and laugh, just like we do.”
Tysen wasn’t sure what he felt about Mary Rose’s mother. He supposed he wished her well now. He was kissing Mary Rose’s ear when she said, “Isn’t it odd that Donnatella was married to Erickson for three months and his mother just up and died so suddenly, in her sleep? At least that’s what my mother told me.”
Tysen thought of Donnatella. It didn’t take long for him to say, “No. I don’t find that particularly odd. Donnatella, I think, was born knowing how to land on her feet.”
“You don’t really think that she—”
“I think it best not to visit that notion. Oh, yes, love, I got a letter from Samuel Pritchert.”
“Oh, my, I don’t like the way you said that. All right, Tysen. I’m ready. What did Samuel write to you?”
“Actually, he’s pleading with me to come home. He said that Mr. Gaither, as the congregation’s representative, came to see him. It seems that everyone is despondent, nearly miserable. We have been gone for three months, much too long a time, it seems. A great cloud of melancholia has descended over the town, and all because they were so used to leaving the church smiling, perhaps even grinning a bit at something the vicar had said during his sermon, feeling warm that the vicar told them they were worthy of God’s love. Yes, they were used to discussing their problems and their neighbors’ problems with a vicar who made them see that silver linings abounded, and not just misery and bad feelings. He wrote that they want me back so I may bring optimism into their lives again.”
“Was Samuel truly pathetic?”
“Very.”
>
“Well, then. Perhaps after we spend some time with Sinjun and Colin at Vere Castle, we can return. At the first frost?”
“Probably before that. I believe that Oliver can’t wait to see the back of me. Bless his heart, he finds himself in a bind. He loves the children so much, they follow him everywhere, and yet he much enjoys being the master here. If he could get away with it, he’d have me go back to England and keep the rest of you here.”
She turned a bit in his arms to look up at him. “I’m glad that Douglas and Alex were here so they could see how very well Oliver is doing. I’ve never seen such a proud man as your brother, striding along beside while Oliver showed him everything.” She snuggled against him, breathing in the scent of him, and then his fingers moved lightly over her belly, and she knew such a burst of love, such overflowing gratitude, that she wanted to shout with it. Instead, she said, “It was just a year ago that I met you. Remember, Tysen? I was stuck in one of those dratted sheep killers and you hauled me out.”
“The luckiest day of my life,” he said.
She was silent a moment, the sun filling the sky now, the warmth on her face. She closed her eyes for a moment, her head on his shoulder, and said against his throat, “And mine as well.”
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