Page 20 of Into the Sky With You (The Ladies Alpine Society #4)
“W hat about this route?” Tristan pointed over her shoulder.
Ophelia swatted his hand. “Don’t touch my maps with your dirty fingers.”
“My fingers aren’t dirty,” Tristan protested.
“Are you not changing the nappies as you ought?” Justine teased him from across the room.
“I could,” Tristan said. “But I’m rather bad at it, so I don’t.”
Justine rolled her eyes.
“Then do better,” Ophelia said. “Learn.”
“I’d rather he not,” Eleanor said from the corner. She held the babe in question, little Prudence, who was sleeping contentedly. “I have a system.”
Tristan raised his eyebrows. “Not my fault.”
“If only there were decent topographical maps,” Julian said.
“I thought—” Karl said.
“I’m being facetious,” Julian said.
“After all, the Royal Geographical Society is paying for the excursion,” Tristan said with exaggerated snobbishness.
“Not exactly,” Ophelia said, finally lifting her gaze from her maps. “It is being paid for by Lord Fairport.”
Karl choked on a currant. “The man you were once going to marry?”
“That’s the one,” Julian chirped.
“His wife, the American, has developed a keen interest in mountaineering and wants to have an outfit she designed tested in real conditions,” Ophelia said.
In the background, baby Prudence gurgled.
“Probably because you’ve been publishing all of your fascinating articles,” Justine said. Even Ophelia could hear the pride in her voice. If she were among anyone but her good friends, she might blush.
The butler, a young man who was still training, Nicholas Michaels, appeared in the doorway. “Mr. and Mrs. Moon,” he announced, trying very hard to sound official.
“Prudence!” Justine tried to jump up, but her overripe belly kept her from moving quickly. She hugged the taller woman as best she could, which only made Ophelia laugh. She laughed so much these days.
“Nicholas, can you please fetch young Arthur from the nursery? He’s going to want to see his auntie and uncle,” Tristan said.
“And the nurse can take little Prudence to nap afterwards,” Eleanor said, getting to her feet smoothly.
Ophelia didn’t say anything, rather just stepped into Prudence’s waiting arms. The four of them were together again, The Ladies’ Alpine Society, complete as they were. They would grow next year when Justine’s first was born, and perhaps Prudence would have children.
She and Julian had discussed growing a family, but instead they opted for adventure. A lifetime of exploration, surveying, mapping, and writing. There was so much to innovate in their world—clothing, gear, ropes, tents. And with Tristan’s outfitters’ shop, Ophelia’s articles, and Julian’s maps, they were a nexus on the forefront of Alpinism.
The only part of her life that stung was that her father had not lived long enough to see it. But Ophelia counted herself lucky that she’d had a father as supportive as hers. That she lived a life able to climb, able to find a freedom that so many women didn’t. But, as Julian said, by cutting the trail, other women could follow behind her, and have an easier path.
Other people were better suited for charity work and motherhood. Others were better at campaigning for women’s suffrage and more freedom under the laws. But what Ophelia could do was prove what women could be . That there was not only a mind and a body, but a will and a strength that could not be defeated. And that inside every person beat that same pulse, man or woman.
For, as Julian liked to say, “Climbing a mountain is an exercise in suffering.” And as Ophelia always countered, “But reaching the summit is an exercise in triumph.”
The End.