.Epilogue.
Seven Years Later
The whisper of the morning takes hold of her and pulls her out of her dreams so hard that her head spins as her eyes flutter open. Sunlight falls through the checked curtains, illuminating her room – the neat writing desk, the bookshelves groaning under all of her favourite books – her beautiful, old copies of Austen's novels – Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park – all jumbled together with the works of the Brontës, Gaskell, Hugo and Collins.
There is murmuring outside her door, and then it bangs open loudly. "Happy Birthday Sylvie!" the voice of her seven-year-old sister, Audrey, screeches and then there is a weight on her legs. "Are you still asleep?"
Audrey's face appears above her own, and Sylvie wraps her arms around her little sister, pulling her down in a squeal of shock and beginning to tickle her.
"Stop it, stop it!" Audrey giggles, and Sylvie pushes herself upright. Audrey crawls into her lap.
"It's your birthday today."
"I know," Sylvie says.
"Are you happy?"
"Yes, of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"
"I don't know," Audrey shrugs. "Are you coming into the sitting room? Mummy and Papa have presents for you."
"Well, I can't get up unless you move, little imp."
Audrey slides off her, and Sylvie slowly swings her legs out of bed, taking her wrap from the back of the door and padding out into the landing. The floorboards squeak like mice scampering after cheese, and the stairs groan as they take her weight. Audrey pelts down the stairs behind her, more excited than even Sylvie is.
"Come on, come on, come on!" she babbles, running ahead of Sylvie into the sitting room, bashing the door with as much strength as her little arms can manage.
"She's coming!" Sylvie hears her say, and then the voice of her step-father, Thomas.
"Audrey Gillan, what have we said about slamming doors?"
"Sorry, Papa."
Sylvie holds back a torrent of silent laughter as Audrey begins to talk again – she really is a little bundle of energy, rather like a very young puppy. She can't keep still for a single moment; she always has to be on the move – either that, or she sits on your lap, chattering away like a brightly coloured, exotic parrot.
Composing herself, she walks through the door to see her whole family are arrayed about the room – Thomas lounging in the armchair with two-year old Henry dozing in his arms, and her elegant mother sitting perfectly upright next to Audrey – still talking – and four-year-old Jack kicking his feet boredly.
"Happy Birthday," her mother says, and Sylvie crosses the room to give her a hug. "I can't believe you're eighteen already – where have all the years gone?"
"Don't go getting nostalgic, Mama," Sylvie teases, gently pushing Audrey to one side so she can sit down. Jack climbs into her lap, and she wraps her arms around his small, warm body, resting her chin on top of his unruly mop of fair hair.
"You'll feel the same way when you have children," Kitty warns.
"Alright, alright, stop arguing." Thomas holds up a hand as if to freeze them in their tracks.
"We're not arguing, we're discussing," Sylvie points out. "No raised voices, no slamming doors."
"Unlike the rest of your teenage years," Thomas mutters good-naturedly. "Happy Birthday."
"Thank you."
"Sylvie, Sylvie, open your presents!" Audrey says.
"You'll have to fetch them for me monkey, unless Jack wants to get off my lap."
"Alright." Audrey hops off the divan and crawls towards the fireplace where the gifts are stacked up like a castle, towers and battlements of wrapping paper and ribbon, card drawbridges crossing the stone moat of the fire-guard. "This one is from me."
"Lovely," Sylvie says, exchanging a glance with her mother as Audrey puts a wonkily wrapped package into her hands. "Thank you, Audrey."
As she unwraps it with Audrey hovering nearby like a bird suspended in the air, a hopeful expression plastered across her face, she knows that the nightmares she sometimes has about being back with her old family have been completely banished, because love always chases away the darkness.
Helios with his bright light has come into her life, and she prays that he'll never leave.
Kitty sits on the picnic blanket with Elizabeth and Rosalie, watching as Flora and their various assorted husbands and children play cricket with lots of arm-waving and shouting, wildly gesticulating at Flora who is acting the part of referee. As Miles is bowled out for the second time in a row by Thomas, Elizabeth turns to Kitty.
"She's really grown up into a beautiful young woman, hasn't she?" she says.
"I know. I mentioned something about young men appearing at the street corners, and Thomas immediately said that they'd have to get past him first."
Rosalie laughs. "Nothing like an overprotective father, is there? Luckily we've got years until Ida starts becoming interested in boys."
"And us with Ruby or Annie," Elizabeth smiles, looking to where her three-year-old twins play in the soft, bright grass with Henry, completely uninterested in the ball soaring over their heads and the shrieks of the older children.
"Sylvie's promised me she's going to be sensible," Kitty sighs, leaning back and stretching her arms. "No taking after Flora with her smoking and dancing night after night."
"God forbid any of them take after Flora," Elizabeth says fondly.
"How are the preparations for your farewell performance going?" Rosalie asks Elizabeth, absently tucking a strand of flaming hair behind her ear.
"Well, yes. I'm very sad to say goodbye, of course, but the injuries are making it harder and harder, and Miles is at work and I can't keep leaving the girls all the time. They've decided it's to be Giselle, which I'm pleased about."
"It's one of your favourites, isn't it?" Kitty inquires absently, leaning over to pick daisies that smile shyly up at them from between the towering green stalks of the grass.
"Yes, it is. And then they've offered me a teaching position, so I get to scare all the little ones into turning out and pointing their toes."
"You couldn't scare anyone," Kitty scoffs. "You're too nice."
"I think you'll find I can be pretty scary when I'm angry," Elizabeth counters, lying back on the rug.
"I'll believe it when I see it."
"Alright, then."
They sit in silence for a little while, watching Sylvie and Ida run back and forth between the sticks they've set up as wickets as the fielders cheer them on. The sun shines, the birds sing, their melodies pouring over park like a golden waterfall, and the leaves whisper secrets to the wind.
Life takes you on many twists and turns, but now, Kitty knows her life is gloriously straight, a yellow brick road that's paved with happy memories and thoughts of a peaceful future.
As Thomas comes up to them, sitting down heavily next to her, she reaches out and winds her fingers through his, leaning over to kiss his cheek.
"I'm exhausted," he says. "Where do they get all their energy from?"
"You're the doctor, you tell me," Kitty tells him, and he laughs, turning his face towards hers, his blue eyes glinting like the surface of the sea on a calm day. He's the one who pulled her headlong out of the darkness, set her gently in the light, and as she tilts her head to brush her lips across his, she knows that without him, she'd be nowhere, nothing, no-one.
Because of him, she has so much.
Other people crave a life like this, and once upon a time, being loved, having friends, having a proper family was more than she'd ever believed she was worthy of. But now she knows that dreams have an uncanny habit of coming true.
Life is short, and for some, dreams are all they possess.
She doesn't need dreams, delusions, fantasies. Not now. Not when she has everything she's ever wanted right between her hands.
Some people aren't so lucky, and as Thomas' arms wind round her, she knows that she is blessed.
A/N Important! Okay, guys, I cannot believe I have just finished this. Wow! This is really exciting. I know I haven't got up to sixty reviews, but oh well - I would adore to get to above sixty on this chapter. Please? For me? Because it's finished, I'd love to hear from everyone who has been following it, to tell me what they think of the ending!
Okay, so my next project is my modern AU, which I can officially announce is called; The Siren's Call. It will start posting sometime next week, and I have a couple of oneshots that might make an appearance in between times. So, until then, goodbye! N xxxx