The Runaway

Epilogue

Olivia GoddardDecember 23, 1845

I watched Edith and Matthew as they fawned around their grandmother. She had the latest letter from their Aunty Katrina. Katrina and Henry had moved their family to Canada officially a few months earlier. Henry's family was so excited, as Katrina had relayed, to meet their grandchildren. Before they had left, she had given birth to my niece Cassandra. She demanded that Daniel and I were her God-parents.

Truthfully, being that baby-girl's God-mother helped me heal a little faster. She made me feel whole again, to fill the void that was stolen from me. It brought Daniel and I closer as a couple. He was bedridden for a month after Victor had removed the bullet. Even after Victor forced Daniel to walk, Daniel refused to return back to London right away. Part of the reason was because I wouldn't leave. Isa and the girls still needed Victor's care, and I needed Isa. Begrudgingly, we moved into the empty manor, as a way to help us heal. Isa was physically well by now, but mentally still recovering.

Katrina left us when Cassandra turned three months old. We would have thought that Lady Imogen would have been distraught, losing six members of her family for a few years. But not really. I found I was pregnant in late February of 1845, following the wedding Isa and Keegan. Isa and Keegan followed suit not long after us.

I was excited—Daniel and I were going to expand our family. We were finally free to give Edith and Matthew a brother or sister. By May, at my most irritable, Isa had received a letter from her mother. We hadn't received news about Jacob, but it was assumed that he had passed shortly after he arrived back on the plantation. The letter Isa received shocked us all. Jacob arrived back to the plantation in a pine box. According to his traveling companion, he accrued an infection from his wound. He died in port. When he arrived on the plantation, it shocked their father so badly, he had a heart attack. The bastard died two weeks after the New Year. Her mother said it had taken so long to write her daughter because she had to fight the will. Everything was Isa's.

Isa couldn't travel. Keegan wouldn't have let her, even if she wasn't pregnant. Keegan was ready to set off in August, after celebrating Matthew and Clarissa's birthdays. We hadn't talked about it since January, but Daniel wanted to free my family. All of them—my parents, my siblings, their spouses and families. I didn't think we had the money, even though he had a job and a small allowance from his father. He promised me that he'd go with Keegan, and beg the Mistress if he had to.

The last letter I heard from him was in early October, stating that they were fixing to leave Louisiana in less than a week with Isa's mother. Nothing about my family.

Abigail plopped herself beside me, rubbing her swollen belly. A little over a month until the next grandchild was born. She looked so uncomfortable. In the beginnings of her pregnancy, everything was mostly normal. It was only when she began showing, her body began slowing down. I didn't like seeing her in pain, but she assured me this was the last child she would ever bare.

"How is my little Mark?" She asked, playing with his toes. I smiled, pressing a kiss to his downy head. He had Daniel's beautiful eyes, something he missed while he was in Louisiana.

"Mark is starting to express some teeth," I murmured. "It'd be easier if Danny was home." Abby offered me a sad smile, taking my free hand.

"He'll be home soon. He said by Christmas—that's only a little under two days away."

I nodded, glancing over at her. He never broke a promise, and I had no reason to expect that now. Isa had her same concerns. We tried to manage—God knows we did. Isa and I were only a few weeks apart in our deliveries, and Lady Imogen all but forced us to move back into the manor. I was pleased about that—there were six children under five between us, on top of two new infants. I think we would have cracked under the pressure.