Page 121 of Exile's Return

Wiping snow from her eyes, Agnes looked up at Daniel and grinned. ‘Very well,’ she said, whirling on the children. ‘This is war. Who is with me?’

With whoops of delight, the children joined in, pelting Daniel with hastily constructed missiles. Flakes of snow clung to his hair as he hastened to retaliate. Tom Ashley joined his force and with their small armies in tow, Daniel and Agnes pursued each other around the garden until they subsided, cold, damp, and exhausted, on the stone bench under the bower.

Daniel waved his hand at the youngsters. ‘You win,’ he said.

Tom Ashley grinned and winked. ‘Let’s build a snow king,’ he said to the children, and they turned to follow him to a patch of snow untouched by human hand.

Daniel slid his arm behind Agnes, drawing her closer. She rested her head on his shoulder.

‘You’re wet,’ he complained.

‘So are you,’ she retaliated.

He drew in a deep breath, letting it out and watching it fog in the cold air. ‘Christmas Day. Do you remember the Christmas of our childhood, Agnes?’

‘I can’t answer for your childhood, Daniel, but mine was a huge log in the Great Hall, spiced wine, wassailing, and carols.’

‘Fifteen years of no Christmas,’ Daniel said. ‘When we rebuild Eveleigh, we will have Christmas with all the tenants invited to a feast. A roast ox, I think.’

‘And plum pudding,’ Agnes mused. ‘And gifts.’

Daniel straightened. ‘Which reminds me, I bring a Christmas present from the King,’ he said, producing a paper from deep inside his jacket. He handed it to her and she scanned the contents. He smiled as her face lit up.

‘It is official then?’ she asked.

‘It is. I am now the legal guardian of Henry and Elizabeth,’ he said. ‘I asked for it to be both of us, but Hyde was insistent a woman could not be made a legal guardian.’

Agnes sighed. ‘It is enough,’ she said. ‘It means we can make Charvaley our home until Henry is of age, and we can rebuild Eveleigh, and…’ She clutched the paper to her chest. ‘I can think of no better Christmas present.’

Daniel glanced up at the terrace, at Jonathan and Kate, Kit and Thamsine, and Giles and Nell. To see them all together, content in each other’s company, one could almost forget what each one had endured over the past twenty years. The deaths they had seen, the imprisonment, the loneliness, and the fear were now all lost in the past. He let his hand rest on the bump of his unborn child. God willing, this child would never see civil war or its like.

Shrieks of laughter diverted his attention to the gaggle of youngsters clustered around Tom Ashley’s snow king, who wore a crown of ivy twirled around his head.

The King sat once more upon the throne of England. Time would tell if he would be a good king, but for now, it was enough that he had returned to a country tired of war and anxious for peace.

The exiles had truly returned to England, and a new age was coming.