You are on page 1of 7

Ten years after Pleasure for Pleasure's Epilogue

They were all sitting around on a bed, of course. It happened to be a bed belonging to Lucius Felton, though that name was no longer appropriate, given that His Majesty had recently bestowed Lucius with the title Earl of Barnett. But the bed, naturally enough, was big enough for the king and most of his court, so the Essex sisters fit on it quite nicely. "He's in love," Annabel announced. "What?" Tess dropped her knitting and her mouth fell open. Annabel's eyes were a little shiny with tears. "It's true. I found a letter " -her voice caught- "a letter he wrote to her. To a buxom, yellow-haired hussy who does nothing but giggle." "Oh, honey," Tess said, leaning over to give her a hug. "I never thought he would love anyone but me. Ever!" "We are talking about your son Samuel, aren't we?" Josie said, looking up from Weatherby's Stud Book in which she was checking horse lineages for the Mayne stables. "There's so much quivering emotion in the room that I thought perhaps your husband's eyes were wandering." "Ewan's? I wouldn't be sitting here describing the woman; I'd be imprisoned for murder," Annabel said. "Of course, I'm talking about Samuel. Samuel Raphael, my beautiful, sweet boy, is in love! And what's more, he's growing hair." "More information than I wanted," Josie said. "Poor little Samuel. I'm glad he doesn't know his mother is blurting out the details of his personal development." "That's not what I meant," Annabel said, scowling at her youngest sister. "I have absolutely no idea whether Samuel has hair on his body and frankly, I don't wish to know. What I meant is that he's growing the hair on his head, well past his shoulders." "Well," Tess said, "Why not? Phin has taken to wearing a fringed cravat that he twists and then sticks through his button-hole. I know it's in fashion, but it looks ridiculous on a thirteen-year-old boy." "Samuel is growing his hair in hopes he will come to resemble an ancient Scotsman," Annabel said gloomily. "He wants it to flow free down to his waist. Luckily it doesn't

seem to be going much of anywhere. Your Phin, on the other hand, looks like a proper Englishman. Like Lucius, as a matter-of-fact." "What's wrong with that?" Lucius's wife enquired with just the smallest edge in her voice. "Phin is sensible," Annabel said. "He is as calm and rational as his father. I'll never forget when he was eight years old and staying with us when Samuel's cat died. You'd have thought the world had come to an end if youd been there that day. Tears, howls and some kicking of the wainscoting. Phin just gazed at him with his gorgeous solemn eyes, and said, "He's gone to heaven, Samuel. Now he won't pee on your bed anymore. He can pee on a cloud." "Logical," Tess said, grinning. "That's my son." "No one's listening to me," Annabel complained. "My point is that Samuel is engaged in an illicit correspondence with a woman." "Who's the lucky maiden?" Josie enquired. "The baker's daughter in the village." "How sweet," Tess said in a tone that indicated (correctly) that her thirteen-year-old son was unlikely to ever fall in love with a baker's daughter, buxom or otherwise. "Her name is Gladys," Annabel said. "She is at least sixteen and remarkably wellendowed for her age. I don't think she can actually read his letters, but it hardly matters; she only giggles in response to any question you put to her. Fortunately, she shows no sign of reciprocating his fascination." "That's lucky," Josie said. "Thank goodness Cecily is only ten years old and I don't have to worry about this sort of thing yet. What does Ewan say about amuel's hopeless passion?" "He thinks it's funny, so we argued," Annabel said. "It takes me forever to make that man understand sense. Hours!" Josie snorted. "Let me guess. Finally Ewan started kissing you and that was the end of the argument." "He only does that when he has lost," Annabel said primly. And then at their laughter, "He does lose quite frequently, of course. If that man had his way he would sweep me upstairs every afternoon, not to mention bedtime. Honestly, I'm a bit tired of it." Josie giggled. "A surfeit of pleasure for Annabel. Who would have thought?"

"You're too young to understand," Annabel said. "It's not that I don't adore making love with my husband, but sometimes I just want to finish whatever task I'm working on." "It seems like just only a year ago that Samuel was a tiny baby," Tess said a bit dreamily. "And then my Phin came along. Do you remember how many letters we wrote each other, Annabel? I used to write you a frantic letter every time Phin cried for more than two minutes." "Back then Samuel used to tuck into the crook of my arm. You're exactly right: it feels like a year ago." "Thirteen years ago," Josie said. "Feeling the creeping chill of age, are you? It seems to me that you're veering close to a very very very big birthd-" She let out a hoot of laughter and ducked out of the way of the pillow that flew past her head. "I'm closer than Annabel to that big birthday," Tess said. "And I can't say that I feel the least bit of dismay." "Why would you? Lucius adores the ground you walk on, and you look more beautiful all the time." Three sisters stared at Tess for a moment. "I think it's because she has such a classical face," Imogen offered. "She's going to be one of those gorgeous old ladies who keeps her cheekbones and puts all the rest of us to shame." "I am going to be a roly-poly old lady," Annabel said. "You always told me that it was good to be curvy," Josie said, frowning at her. "You are gorgeously curvy, Annabel, and don't you dare tell me that Ewan has started hankering after slender figures." The smile playing around Annabel's lips told the answer to that question. "Luckily, my husband doesn't seem to have noticed we're getting older." "Mine either," Imogen said, grinning. "We went for a ride a few days ago and ended up in a field of buttercups." "Remember when we first arrived from Scotland and Rafe was the roly-poly one?" Annabel asked. "Not to mention his eau-de-brandy," Imogen said. "Thank goodness, we're long past those days."

"Rafe looks marvelous now," Annabel said, with the grin of a woman who enjoys assessing a man's attributes. "Taut and muscled in a way that I never could have imagined." "It's the horses," Josie said. "I decided that's why Mayne stays so slim though he and I eat precisely the same food." "Do you always call your husband Mayne?" Imogen asked. "And are you saying that Mayne hasn't managed to get you on a horse yet? I thought he swore last Christmas that his New Year's resolution was to have you galloping." "Men," Josie said. "They make so many foolish promises. And no, I don't call him Mayne. In intimate situations, I call him Garret." "And riding?" Annabel asked. "What about that, Josie?" Josie smiled, a little secret smile. "I'm too old." "Old?" Imogen squealed. "You're barely thirty years old." Josie looked around the bed and felt her heart swell with love for her sisters, for calm, beautiful Tess, who had always looked out for others until Lucius made it his life's work to take care of her every wish; for delicious Annabel, whose sarcastic joyful comments only grew more funny when Ewan jousted with her; for fiery, emotional Imogen, who had rescued Rafe from a barrel of whiskey and turned him into a man who laughed for the pure joy of it. "I'm having a baby," she said, her hands cradling her tummy. There was a moment of silence and then: "A baby! We're done with babies!" Imogen blurted out. "You're done with babies," Josie said. "You each have two or three, may I point out, and I only have one. Cecily is ten years old, and we thought she might like a sister or brother." "Oh my goodness," Tess said. "That's wonderful, Josie! A little one. We get to have another baby to hold. By Christmas time?" "Approximately," Josie said. "The girls will be so excited," Annabel said. "Clementina loves children." "And Elspeth?" Josie asked.

"If you were planning to give birth to a horse she would be very excited," Annabel admitted. "I don't know why, but my children seem to be extremely wild. The other day Elspeth assisted in the birth of a foal, and the stable master said she was as good as any of the men." "I like Elspeth," Josie said. "I mean, I love all my nieces and nephews, of course. But Elspeth is a special soul." "I can't rein her in at all. Sometimes I think- " Annabel hesitated. "Sometimes I think she's so uncontrollable because her twin didn't live." Tess scooted over and wrapped an arm around Annabel's shoulder. "Now that doesn't make a bit of sense, sweetheart. Elspeth is a gorgeous, spirited little person because that's who she is, not because darling Bethany couldn't be there with her." Annabel swallowed. "I still think of her, you know? Elspeth is nine years old, and I still think of Bethany every day." Imogen and Josie were there in a moment, a tangle of sisters' arms and kisses in the middle of the bed. "I know, darling," Tess crooned. "We all think of her." "I feel as if I shouldn't," Annabel said on a sob. "I'm so lucky that Samuel and Clementina and Elspeth are so healthy." "That isn't the point," Imogen said quietly. "We always miss people we loved when they're gone. You don't stop loving just because death comes between you." Josie's arm tightened around Imogen, who had lost her reckless young husband after only a few weeks of marriage. "I'm sorry," Annabel said hiccupping. "It's just that it would be her birthday next week." "We know," Tess said, and her eyes were shining with tears too. "We all remember, darling." Annabel smiled in a watery kind of way and fished out a handkerchief. "Ewan says she's in heaven waiting for us. Sometimes it's so nice to have a husband with such a fierce certitude about these things." "He's right," Imogen said. "Ewan is absolutely right."

"I didn't mean to detract from your news," Annabel said, giving Josie another hug. "I really didn't. It's just that it's sometimes hard to hear about babies, which is so stupid." "Not stupid," Tess said patiently, rocking her sister a little in her arms. "It's not stupid at all." "We're all lucky," Josie said. "I wish Bethany could be here, but even in her two days of life, she felt loved, Annabel. Deeply loved." "We never put her down," Annabel said. "Never. They said she was too small and so we just " She stopped. "She was loved," Josie said firmly. "She knew you were there, and she loved you back, with every inch of her tiny little body. And that love is waiting for you, just the way Bethany will be waiting for you to pick her up again." Tess smiled at her little sister. "Just when did you grow so wise? I keep forgetting that you're grown up at all. I expect you to dance into the room complaining about the dancing master or your governess." "I was always wiser than the three of you," Josie said. "It's just taken you thirty years to realize the truth." "Oh, be still," Imogen said, leaning back against the bedpost. "Remember all those schemes you had to catch a husband?" "They worked," Josie said smugly. "I was right in my assessments. All three of you had married in less than regular manner, and so I merely followed suit. I have so many friends whose marriages are not loving: I would say that the Essex sister way of finding a husband is an awfully good one. I couldn't have done better." They each sat for a moment, Tess thinking of her beloved, solemn Lucius; Annabel of her adoring, steadfast Ewan; Imogen of laughing, steady Rafe; and Josie of gorgeous, passionate Garret, known to the world as the Earl of Mayne. "I think about what could have happened last month and I feel ill with the fear of it," Imogen said, shivering a little. "When Rafe got caught in a burning barn?" Annabel asked. "Please tell me how that happened! I got your letter, of course, but it wasn't very detailed." "It was Luke's nanny," Imogen said. "At four, he was getting a bit old for his nursemaid, and so I found a lively young nanny. As it turned out, she was too

lively. Rafe had a beautiful new barn constructed for the horses, but the old one was being used for grain storage. Apparently, our nanny discovered that it was a good trysting spot. Until she turned over a lantern in a bundle of hay." "I expect it went up in a second," Josie said. "Yes. She was in the loft, waiting for her friend," Imogen said, with a little wrinkle of her nose. "She started screaming. Luckily enough, we were actually in the courtyard. Rafe and I love to ride at night, and the stablemaster had just brought our mounts when we heard the noise." "That must have been so frightening," Josie said. "Did she appear at the upper loft window, her long flaxen hair flowing in the wind?" "Don't make fun," Imogen said. "It wasn't like a novel. All of a sudden there were agonizing screams, and while I was still trying to figure out what has happening -and the stablemaster was as slow as I was- Rafe ran straight into the building." "That must have been very difficult for you," Tess said, leaning forward to pat her sister's slippers. "Awful!" Imogen said. "It's not that I ever miss Draven really, because I don't. But I know in the back of my mind that I might lose Rafe because I lost Draven, and-" "You didn't lose Rafe," Tess said. "He's fine, Imogen." Imogen took a deep breath. "Yes, he tossed the girl out the loft window and the stable boys caught her. And then he jumped down himself and fortunately didn't break anything. A few minutes later the structure crashed to the ground. We were so lucky." "Sometimes I think that for me, the most lucky thing of all was having the three of you as sisters," Josie said, looking from Annabel to Tess and Imogen. "Because I never knew Mama, and while Papa loved us, he wasn't terribly good at showing it. But I always, always felt loved because of the three of you." "Oh, Josie," Annabel cried. "You're going to make me cry all over again!" But they ended up laughing.

You might also like