Not a cloud covered the sky this lovely morning in Canterbury. The sun shined brightly down on the front courtyard, where the servants loaded the carriage with the young man's luggage.
Daniel fixed his cravat and straightened his waistcoat a bit, his nerves becoming awfully vexing. He grabbed his suitcase and carried it into the seating area of the carriage. His parents stood on the front porch step, keeping watch over the scene. As the last bags finally were ready and loaded, John walked up to his son and grabbed his shoulder.
Daniel turned around to look at his father, confusion evident in those bright green eyes he had acquired from his mother. John took his hand and made it face upwards, then dug into his pocket, finally picking a bunch of bills and putting them into Daniel's hand. Daniel frowned and looked at John. "Don't worry about it," John said, closing Daniel's hand round the money. "It's just a little help to get you going in the big city. Aren't you bringing Pride?"
Daniel averted his gaze and shook his head. "No. I want you to sell him back to Mr. Philips."
"Daniel…"
"Tell him to turn him into a stakes winner. He can make it to the Ascot, I know it. And the money should go to Hazel's treatment."
John sighed heavily, shaking his head in a resigned fashion. "Daniel, he was a gift."
"Do you understand, Father?" Daniel said, putting emphasis on his words. He gave John a stern look.
His father seemed reluctant but nodded at last, once again placing a hand on his son's shoulder. "All right. You decide," he said, "Good luck, son. I hope you get your education and become an archaeologist. You sure have the bloody head to accomplish it."
The two men gave each other a last awkward hug. Daniel wanted to smile, but he couldn't. He just pursed his lips and said, "Thank you, Father."
He turned his head and glanced at Henrietta. The woman stood as straight and poised as always, her hands folded before her. She merely nodded once at the young man, and he gave her a single nod back. Then he turned around and climbed into the carriage. The coachman closed the door behind him and went to his seat at the front, getting ready to drive off.
Daniel looked out the window at his parents. They looked back at him, their eyes saying more than words ever could. Then the carriage began to move. He glanced at the passing landscape of the beautiful, blossoming Canterbury. He strolled past the fields, the Great River Stour, the Blean, the mill and finally the great white mansion that was now empty, before the carriage made a turn for the Great Dover Road.
And at last he strolled past the hill with the lone ash tree on top of it and the tombstone that rested underneath. Daniel waved. The ash tree swayed a bit in the wind.
With that last farewell, he left Canterbury behind, heading towards his future.
A/N: And finally, here we are the end of the long road! I apologise for the long delay with this chapter - I didn't at all expect it to take me two months to post the epilogue - but I've been caught up in a lot of school work lately, with my senior year coming to an end and all. Anyway, I'm so proud to finally post the last chapter of this long project, which I've been working on for three years (gasp!), and I sincerely hope you all enjoyed every bit of it as much as I did writing it! And this isn't the end; I'm working on a sequel, and although it will probably take me another year or so before I'll start uploading chapters, I want you all to know that you can keep updated with me on my tumblr (link should be on my profile page), where I'll post artwork and WIPs related to my story, and possibly even share some behind the scenes stuff and teasers of the sequel if you're all interested in that :D
Thank you so much to all readers and reviewers out there, all your kind words have been an amazing privilege and kept me motivated! Please do keep leaving reviews and let me know what you thought overall of the story or if it ended up anything like you expected; any feedback received on this story will be an immense help while I'm writing the next one! All that's left to do is to say bye for now, and hopefully I'll see you all again once I'm back with a new story. In the meantime, I'll leave this here for new readers to enjoy and old readers to reread :D Take care!