Tanya and Guy's case concluded without further involvement by Lynley and Havers. In the morning, the Coast Guard found Tanya's body washed ashore. Guy was found a little later. The storm had not spared him either.
After Barbara and Tommy were taken to London, it never occurred to them to part. Having gone through all the formalities necessary in such cases, by tacit mutual consent they went first to Barbara's house (where she took all the things she needed) and then to Linley's, where they finally had a meal, ordered from a restaurant, and then a good night's sleep.
Sitting on his big bed, with his back comfortably against a mountain of pillows, Tommy felt more rested, relaxed, and perfectly happy than ever. He looked the part.
- You still haven't told me …
- What?
Barbara broke away from her pensive contemplation of the landscape outside the window and turned her gaze to Tommy, who had risen from the bed and was heading toward her.
- 'You can start by saying that you find me absolutely irresistible.
A cheeky, boyish smile lit up his face.
Barbara tried to step around him, but Tommy blocked her way, thus demonstrating his masculine superiority.
- I'm not very good at this," she muttered a little irritably under her breath.
She still had to get used to her new role so she wouldn't be embarrassed in front of him.
- You're good at absolutely everything, Barbara. You should realise that.
- You seem to me to be too intemperate and promiscuous for an earl, - she concluded after another long kiss.
- Is there a code for that? - he asked. - Your vocabulary is too refined for a sergeant from Exton. It's more suited to a lady. Lady Asherton. Are you willing to be a lady, Barbara?
Tommy looked into her eyes.
This time she didn't stir at all and she didn't look away.
- I'll be what you need.
After a couple of months, it became abundantly clear that the Earl of Asherton needed a wife and his estate a new young mistress. These roles, much to Tommy's surprise, Barbara was prepared to take on.
But she felt great awkwardness and even greater excitement before she crossed the threshold of Heavenstone, not as Inspector Lynley's sergeant or friend, but as Lord Esherton's chosen lady. And no matter how hard Tommy tried to cheer her up all the way from London, assuring her that his mother had been overjoyed to hear the news from him on the telephone, Barbara could not overcome her inner uneasiness and awkwardness.
She preferred not to delay the conversation with her future mother-in-law. It took place almost as soon as they arrived, when Tommy had carried the bags upstairs and she and Daisy were alone in the living room by the portrait of Tommy's great-grandfather.
- I know I'm not quite the woman you pictured next to your son...
- Barbara began the conversation, choosing her words carefully, not knowing where it would lead them, but feeling desperately needed.
Daisy's hand rested gently on her shoulder, silencing her.
- Barbara, I think your usual discernment has been impaired by excitement, otherwise you would have realised long ago that my son's happiness is more important to me than any class prejudice. I've never seen Tommy so calm and happy. Except in his early childhood. It's obvious you made him that way. You know him better than anyone else. I've seen your devotion to him more than once. What more could a mother want for her son? Welcome to the family, Barbara! Daisy opened her arms to her.
Lady Asherton wasn't lying. She wholeheartedly approved of her son's choice. She could see that Barbara was intelligent, sensible, perceptive and devoted to Tommy without reservation. She was never afraid to argue with him, never afraid to speak her mind when she thought he was wrong. At the same time she had the flexibility to remain silent or give in when it was really necessary. But the most important thing was that Barbara was ready to fight on her son's side against the rest of the world, no matter how right he was.
The Countess of Asherton had always believed that the key to success in any business was intelligence and endeavour, and her son's new sweetheart was not lacking in that. With the same eagerness with which Barbara caught criminals, she took to her new role as a lady-to-be, displaying her usual diligence and intelligence. Barbara had learnt theory from Daisy and had never once got the technical part wrong. Yet there was a special and sincere originality in everything she did.
Daisy organised several dinner parties and, as she put it, "got the local community used to Barbara". Not to say that they welcomed her with open arms, but they were quite tolerant of her as the new, inevitable appendage of the Earl of Esherton.
- Take away all your prejudices, and God knows there will be nothing left of you! - Tommy had thrown her one day in his heart.
He was wrong. There is! The prejudice had come off her like the husk of a seed, but the foundation remained. Barbara was now, in some unfathomable way, a brilliantly trained lady (on the rare days of receptions and other social gatherings) and the same suburban girl in comfortable jeans (on all other days). Except now the tag on her trousers read Burberry instead of Marks & Spencer.
As much as Barbara had previously ridiculed the aristocracy and its traditions, she was now as zealous to uphold them. The couple were married in the family chapel of the Eshertens at Barbara's own insistence, and she wore the most classic, bordering on prim, wedding dress, which suited her incredibly well. Barbara had trusted Daisy and Julia's taste in the choice of dress (as in many other things) and she had not been wrong. The local society appreciated the old-fashioned restraint of the Earl's new wife and her tribute to tradition.
This arrangement was more than satisfactory for the whole family. Daisy, freed from her obligations as mistress of the estate, which had long since become a burden to her, bought a ticket for the longest cruise ever, but not so long as to miss the birth of Tommy's first-born son, which, judging by the size of Barbara's belly, was not far off.
Remembering Tommy's ambivalent reaction to Helen's pregnancy, Barbara had been nervous when she told her husband the news of their future child, but she had never seen a happier face. Barbara didn't realise what had changed Tommy's mind about this mortal world in general and about himself as a father in particular.
Seeing Daisy off at the airport, Barbara feared that on her return the Countess's suitcases would be bursting with children's things. Daisy was looking forward to the birth of her first grandchild. Barbara herself was anxious to have a little copy of Tommy as soon as possible. She could spend hours in the library, looking at the many old albums of Tommy's childhood photographs, trying to imagine what their son would look like.
Barbara hadn't hesitated to leave the police force as soon as she found out she was pregnant.
- It would be wise, - she concluded.
Tommy did the same, which surprised his wife. He explained his decision by his long-standing desire to rebuild the estate. It required a lot of time, attention and effort on his part.
It was time to return. It was time to put things in their proper place. Heavenstone had found its master again. At last he had done his duty, done what was expected of him - stood at the head of the family.
For too long he had run from his obligations, cowardly hiding far away, unwilling to return to his ancestral home that held so many sorrowful memories for him. But now a new history was being written in that house. Barbara had brought to it a special warmth, light and relaxed atmosphere. It was as if the house had become a special place of attraction for his family; no one had to be lured here with a harness, as it had been in the past. Peter and his new girlfriend, who was getting wise, came to visit often, and Judith and her husband came even more often. The once almost empty house came to life again, breathed again. It got better day by day, and so did Tommy. Barbara filled his house with warmth, his life with meaning, his soul with joy and light, and his heart with boundless love. There was no emptiness or coldness left.
Barbara was changing too. Tommy had replaced all her previous notions of happiness, erased them as if with an eraser. He filled her life with meaning. Real, ancient as life itself, right and simple - to be a woman, to be a mother. There was no other way to be a woman.
Now she was not burdened by rural life.
- It's so quiet here, it gives me a headache," she had complained once in Yorkshire.
It was as if she had tried to drown out her own thoughts with the noise and bustle of the city. Anything to avoid hearing and thinking. Now she was genuinely enjoying the quietness of the countryside.
A sense of calm... It was what she'd felt that first day, or rather night, next to Tommy in his car on their way to Yorkshire to investigate their first case together. He'd been silent most of the way there, staring intently at the motorway, only occasionally casting her a slanted, appraising glance. And despite the fact that she'd felt alone against the world then, expecting a catch from everyone, including Lynley, at some point that night a wonderful, almost magical sense of calm had descended on her and enveloped her in warmth. At the time, she'd written it off as a rare opportunity to escape, for good reason, from her personal hell of a house with a father dying of cancer and an insane mother.
Now that blissful sense of calm accompanied every day of her new life.
And contrary to Barbara's fears, nothing had changed in their relationship with the disappearance of what she thought was the main link in their lives - work. There were hundreds of other things to talk about every day, and they were still interested and happy together.
The endless, exhausting chase after something incomprehensible, barely perceptible was over. Both of them had finally realised what they were looking for and both of them had found it. Now, to see the meaning of life they did not have to go to work every day, denying themselves a rest. They saw this meaning in front of them in bed every day when they woke up in the morning.