OFFER: A BRAND NEW SERIES AND 2 FREEBIES FOR YOU!
Grab my new series, "Delightful Dukes and Damsels", and get 2 FREE novels as a gift! Have a look here!
“Mommy!” Jacob shouted as he reached across the small glade. “Look, mommy! Butterfly!”
“I see it, dear,” Adelaide laughed as she watched her son chase the butterfly from its place among the wildflowers. “Don’t run too far!”
“Maybe he needs to run,” Julien noted. “He’s four years old and I can’t remember a time that he was further than fifty or so yards from your side.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Is that jealousy that I hear?”
“Just an observation.”
“I am his mother,” Adelaide said rightly. “And a boy should be close with his mother.”
“What of the father?”
She scoffed. “Your time will come. From what I am told, it’s around the time they turn ten or so that they start to grow more attached to the father. Just in time for puberty.”
“Wonderful …”
Adelaide laughed as she nestled herself further between Julien’s thighs. He sat with them open, her back was to him so that his chin rested on top of her head, and his arms were wrapped around her in a way that spoke of his love for her… as well as her love for him.
Today, she and Julien had decided to take their son for a picnic, and the location they chose was that same glade they had picnicked in all those years ago. This was where Adelaide had started to understand Julien’s feelings for her, and where Julien had started to understand them as well … even if it took him a little while longer to admit them.
The glade looked the same as it did then, not a surprise, as a place this perfect had no reason to change.
Nearly five years later and nothing has changed. Not this place. Not Julien’s feelings for me, or mine for him. Perhaps change is overrated …
To say that nothing had changed was not entirely true either. While Adelaide and Julien still loved one another with all their hearts, while they were still happy and content in all the ways that mattered, and while Julien had not dared to revert to the man he used to be, these past four or so years had seen more than its fair share of changes.
Their son, Jacob, was the biggest by far. Physically, he had the same dark coloring as his father, and Adelaide suspected that would only become more apparent the older he turned. But his personality was all her, so full of life and energy, so thrilled to be able to live each day as it found him. He never stopped laughing, he was curious always, and while he was still quite young, Adelaide suspected he might have the same artistic streak as she did.
Georgiana and Daniel had also changed … or rather, they had grown. Married now, and with a daughter of their own, it was hard to picture them as they had once been, and Adelaide still found it so peculiar that there had been a time when she did not know if they would work as they did.
As for Adelaide? Putting aside her marriage, and her son, she was now so confident with herself that she had set to publishing her drawings so the world might see them. She had two books out, both were well acclaimed, and many of her grander works had been sold to local galleries and could even be found in the homes of her peers.
Of course so much has changed, and that should be a good thing. Change is what brought Julien and I together, and it should be encouraged.
“Jacob!” she called as her son waddled toward the tree line. “Do not dare.”
Jacob came to a stop and turned back. His blue eyes were wide and eager, there was a mischievous smile on his face, and was he anybody else, she might have thought that he would need more than a sharp warning to see him obey her call.
However, as this was her son, he did as she asked, laughing and hurrying back toward them.
“I wonder if I should say nothing,” she said to Julien as they watched their son come for them.
“What do you mean?” Julien asked.
“I do not want to set a precedent. I do not want him to fear me.”
“He loves you.”
“What if a time comes when he has to choose between his love for me and his own heart? Perhaps I am too strict with him.”
Julien laughed and kissed her on the forehead. “He is four, Adelaide. You are overthinking it.”
“Maybe …”
“Take it from someone who knows what emotional manipulation feels like. It is hardly so pleasant as a mother’s love. He will be fine.”
She knew Julien was correct, but that did not mean she did not worry from time to time. All Adelaide wanted to be was a good mother to her son, and she feared at times that in her efforts to be this, she was a tad too suffocating.
She also knew that all she could do was her best. So long as she showed her son love, so long as she nurtured the good and the bad in him, he would grow up to be his own man. That was what mattered.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Julien said. “A letter arrived this morning.”
“From?”
He scoffed. “None other than Lady Augusta.”
“Truly?” Adelaide shifted and turned so she could see Julien, who rolled his eyes.
“She has become desperate these last few years,” he explained. “Ever since Georgiana’s wedding.” He exhaled sharply. “The fool she made of herself. Her reputation is in tatters and she is determined to repair it.”
“What do you think?” she asked carefully as she looked at her husband. “Are you going to read it?”
“I know what it says,” he said darkly. “It will be an invitation to a luncheon or supper or some such. She thinks that she can use my name to rebuild her esteem.”
“If you wish to go …”
“I do not,” he said firmly. “In fact, when I return, I intend to throw the letter in the fire. My life without Lady Augusta in it has been a happy one, and I do not intend to change that.”
“Oh …” Adelaide grinned. “Is that why you have been so happy? Because of your stepmother and her lack of influence on you? I thought I might have had something to do with it.”
“Maybe just a little …” he laughed and kissed her on the forehead as she turned and nestled back into his chest.
Together, Adelaide and Julien cuddled as their son raced forward and leapt from his feet and crashed into them both. They laughed as they pulled him into their hug, the three of them settling in comfortably on the blanket and in the center of that serene little glade.
Adelaide saw the image as if from afar, another drawing waiting to be sketched. The man she loved. The son she adored. The family that she had never known she wanted and now knew that she would not be able to live without.
That’s what change is all about. Finding that which makes you happy, fighting for it, and then never letting it go once it is yours.
She had changed much, as had her husband, and now that they were in love and happy, she wondered what changes might come next. Whatever they were, she had not a doubt that they would be the type to see this slice of happiness grow and should thus be encouraged and looked forward to.
Life was good, it would continue to be so, and that was all which mattered in the end.
OFFER: A BRAND NEW SERIES AND 2 FREEBIES FOR YOU!
Grab my new series, "Delightful Dukes and Damsels", and get 2 FREE novels as a gift! Have a look here!
Hello, my beloved readers. I hope you had a great time reading my book and the extended epilogue. I can’t wait to read your comments! 😊
This was a very interesting book and I enjoyed it very much. I was glad the newly married couple was able to trust each other and fall in love.