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“Edward, do not get too close to the water!” Benedict shouted, from where he stood farther back on the shore, his breeches rolled all the way up to his knees and his feet bare, so that his toes could sink in the cool, wet sand. “You are going to be swept out to sea, and then what will your mother say when you come back a merman?”
Edward, their two-year-old son, shrieked with laughter and darted back from the water, which, to be fair, he was still several yards away from.
But he was still too young to go in the water, and Benedict wasn’t taking any chances. Running forward, he scooped his son up in his arms and squeezed him tight, tickling him under the armpits as he did so.
Edward let out another shriek of laughter and tried to squirm away from him, but Benedict was too strong.
“You cannot escape me!” He said in a mock-scary voice, and Edward giggled.
“Mama!” Edward cried. “Save me from Papa!”
Catriona, who was further down the beach, looked up from where she was playing in a tidepool with their daughter, Eloise. Eloise, who was four, crossed her arms at the sight of her brother and father tussling in the sand.
“You two are disturbing the fishies!” she shouted, which Benedict thought rather also disrupted the fish. “Be quiet!”
“The fishies cannot hear us from here!” Benedict called back. He set Edward down on the sand, and then the two of them began to chase each other back and forth across the beach. Edward was very slow, of course, and he kept falling and having to be helped back up, but he didn’t seem to mind. He laughed wildly as he chased his father and then fell, clambering back up and starting the whole thing over again.
“I want to play, too!” Eloise cried, and then she was darting toward them across the beach, her dark hair — which her mother had tried to put up for her — already streaming behind her. Eloise’s hair never stayed up. She was as wild as the Scottish countryside itself, and she did not like being forced to wear her hair neat or to keep her dresses from becoming dirty.
Whenever they visited Scotland, she liked to run and play, swim in the ocean — which she had only recently been given permission to do, but only with one of her parents there to hold her — and play hide-and-seek in the fields with her brother.
Eloise joined them, and she and Edward began to chase one another. Benedict, now out of breath, stopped to watch, his hands on his hips and a small stitch in his side. He heard his wife approaching, and he turned to see Catriona walking through the sand, also barefoot, smiling as she watched their children dashing around the beach.
“They seem to like the beach here,” Catriona said. “We should bring them more often.”
“We should really visit your parents more often,” Benedict agreed. “They are getting old now, and I think they like to have the children around.”
“We should,” Catriona said, looping her arm with his. She looked around at the beach, a small, secret smile playing across her lips. He thought he knew what that was about.
“When do you think we will tell them the whole story?” he asked, leaning close and whispering into her ear. “How you found me half-naked on the beach and saved me, despite not knowing whether I might be a brigand?”
“I knew you were not a brigand,” she said, laughing. “I just thought you were a poor sailor.”
“Lucky you I was actually a handsome earl in disguise.”
“Disguise!”
“Oh, yes,” he laughed. “Did I never tell you? I never lost my memory at all, I just wanted to trick you into falling in love with me.”
Her laughter sounded down the beach, and both children turned to look at them.
“Stop kissing,” Eloise said, making a face.
“We are not kissing,” Benedict said. “And even if we were, I would not stop.”
“Ewwwww,” both children chorused, and their parents laughed.
“Come now, children,” Catriona said, pulling away from Benedict and walking along the beach toward them. “We ought to be getting back to the house. Aunt Harriet and Uncle Bromley are coming for dinner tonight, and we must get you both cleaned up.”
“Will Georgiana be with them?” Eloise asked hopefully, and her mother nodded. “I cannot wait to see her!” Eloise said, clapping her hands together. “It has been ages!”
It took longer to pry Edward away from the beach. He wanted to keep playing, and after a few tears, he finally agreed to come back to the house so that he could have a nice, long, hot bath. Together, the family trudged up the dirt path that led to the top of the cliff, where they all put their stockings and shoes back on before walking hand-in-hand back toward Brinewood House.
It stood as proudly and beautifully as it ever did, silhouetted against the darkening clouds of the Scottish sky. The ivy was red now that it was early autumn, making the house look as if it were on fire.
It was late afternoon already by the time they arrived back at the house, and a carriage was waiting in the drive, signaling that Bromley and Harriet had already arrived.
Inside, they found Bromley and Harriet standing in the foyer, talking to Mr. and Mrs. MacAlastair, while their daughter, Georgiana, stood between them, her golden locks up in a neat bun, her white dress as clean and perfect as if it were brand new. In contrast, Eloise and Edward looked practically wild. But as soon as the children saw one another, they ran toward each other with arms wide and began to talk so loudly that the hall was soon ringing.
“It seems our children are best friends,” Harriet said, greeting Catriona with a kiss. “Just as we are.”
“I wish they could spend more time together,” Catriona said, sighing sadly. “But we only get up here a few times a year, despite how close Liverpool is…”
“You really should come more often,” Mr. MacAlastair said, picking up little Edward and swinging him around. “It is so lonely in the house without any children…”
“But we are grateful for whatever time you can spare us,” Mrs. MacAlastair said, smiling tentatively at Catriona. Things had healed considerably between them, and Catriona smiled back.
“You are so busy with the estate you can barely escape Liverpool to come to Scotland,” Bromley said as he shook Benedict’s hand, a twinkle in his eye. “I suppose all your dreams of traveling the world are even further away, then?”
“My dreams of traveling the world?” Benedict laughed and shook his head. “I can hardly remember when I cared about such frivolous things! I could never imagine leaving Catriona and the children for more than a few days now.”
He grinned at his wife, and she blushed and smiled back.
“It is true,” she said. “You have become quite the homebody. It is hard to recall that you were such an adventurer once.”
“I hope that does not make you too melancholy,” Bromley said, eyeing him, and Benedict shook his head.
“Not at all. I have finally found the peace that I was always seeking. I thought I had to go halfway around the world to find it, but it turns out, it was waiting for me here at Brinewood all along.”
They were just taking the children up the stairs to get them bathed and changed when the butler entered the hall holding a silver tray, a letter on it.
“For you, Lady Chester,” he said, bowing as he offered up the silvery tray.
Catriona, her eyebrows raised, took the letter. Mr. and Mrs. MacAlastair, who were halfway up the stairs with the children, turned to look at her curiously.
“Who would be writing to you here?” Mr. MacAlastair asked, as his daughter slitted open the letter.
Catriona’s eyebrows shot up as she perused the letter, and she blinked several times, as if in surprise. Everyone waited. The hall suddenly felt very quiet.
“Who is it, Mama?” Eloise asked.
At last, Catriona looked up, her eyes finding Benedict’s.
“It is from Alexandra,” she said.
The tension in the hall became more taut as everyone waited to hear what she had to say.
“She writes that she is married now,” she said, looking around at all of them. Bromley and Harriet were still standing at the bottom of the stairs, and they both looked skeptical. Catriona shook her head. “Apparently, she met a nice gentleman in Ireland. He is not titled, but he is ‘young and handsome and loves me very much, despite knowing the terrible things I have done in my life.’”
“What terrible things?” Eloise asked, and everyone looked at one another. Catriona looked as if she was going to laugh.
“I will tell you when you are older,” she said, smiling at her daughter. “Now, you go upstairs with your grandparents and get ready for dinner.”
It was only once the children were gone — and the Bromleys had gone into the parlor to give them privacy — that Catriona showed the letter to Benedict.
“She is asking for forgiveness,” she said, pointing to the paragraph where her sister apologized for everything she had done. “She says that she was always jealous of me and hated herself, that she had been so miserable and trapped in her first marriage, it made her into a monster even she did not recognize.”
“Well, she was certainly a monster,” Benedict said, staring down at the letter. It was hard not to feel angry at the mere mention of Alexandra’s name, but he knew that the choice whether or not to forgive her was not his own. He looked up at his wife. “What do you think? Do you feel that you can forgive her?”
Catriona bit her lip, her expression pensive. “I do believe she is sorry,” she said at last. “It has been so long, and there seem to be no designs upon us or our family. She is wed now…”
“And we are safe from her,” Benedict assured her. “I have protection officers who will inform me if she returns to England. And of course, Lord Oban is still in prison.”
“I am not afraid of her,” Catriona assured him. “And I do want to forgive her. But…” She looked up at him. “I would prefer if she were not in our lives. And I do not want her near the children.”
“Of course not,” Benedict said at once. He put a bracing hand on her shoulder. “You can forgive her without having her in her life. Write back to her if you want, or have your mother write on your behalf. But it does not mean you have to speak to her again. Forgiveness can be for yourself, so that you can let go of whatever anger still haunts you.”
“Yes,” Catriona said, smiling up at him. “But I am not haunted by it anymore. I have everything my heart has ever desired. I am happy. More happy than I ever could have dreamed possible.” She leaned closer and wrapped her arms around him, her lips coming to his, and he felt a warm happiness spread through him as he hugged her back. “With a life as perfect as ours,” she murmured, “I could never be angry about anything.”
He had never heard a truer sentence in all his days. His life had taken him all over the world, to many exotic locations and adventures that were past belief. But this, building his life with her, was the greatest adventure of all. And he would never let anyone take that away ever again.
OFFER: A BRAND NEW SERIES AND 5 FREEBIES FOR YOU!
Grab my new series, "Noble Gentlemen of the Ton", and get 5 FREE novels as a gift! Have a look here!
Dear readers, I hope this ending stayed with you long after the final page. Which scene captured your heart the most? I am so excited to hear your thoughts. Thank you, always! ♥️
I recommend this book to everyone as it so exciting. I enjoyed the extended epilogue were teywere stableized in their lives”
Thank you! That truly means a lot to me.
This was a very interesting and exciting book. I love the mystery and romance both. Another great book by Bridget!
Thank you so much! I’m really glad you enjoyed the story.
I enjoyed the book though I would have liked it better had he at least sent a note to his father he was alive. Plus you had the McCallisters writing a note to the Earl so he should have found out that wat. I kept expecting him to show up in Scotland.
Thank you, my dear Lynn! Well, you know what they say…hindsight is always 20/20 (for writers too).