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Donald shook his head. “Ridge has gone south,” he said.

“That is something else I came to tell ye. Ridge has asked to be released from his oath to Alexander and, after everything that happened with Nicholas and Blackbank, Alexander released the man. Evidently, he is making his fortune now in the tournament circuit and doing very well from what I’ve heard.

He took some of the king’s inner circle with him, knights who worked closely with him.

I suspect he’ll be dropping by to visit ye one of these days. ”

It was surprising news about Ridge but, in a sense, not so surprising. Ridge de Reyne was destined for greater things than a mere king’s bodyguard. Both Andrew and Josephine felt that way.

“I hope he does,” Andrew said. “If he grows bored of the tournament circuit, then I know a mercenary army that could use his sword.”

Donald grinned. “That has become Thane’s domain,” he said. “How is the man coming along, by the way?”

“He is doing very well,” he said. “He maintains The Red Fury name and reputation. That has not changed, and he has more work than he can handle. But he says men find it strange that a big, blond knight bears the name of The Red Fury. They do not understand it, except for those men who worked with me in the past and knew of me. But that is a part of my life that no longer exists. The Red Fury that I was has passed into legend.”

Donald watched the man’s expression, seeing absolutely no remorse in that statement.

The Andrew d’Vant he’d known for the past several months was a man of contentment, skill, and wisdom, as he’d proven in bringing Haldane Castle back from the brink of death.

Once known as The Red Fury, that was a name that Thane now used, carrying on the fearsome mercenary tradition.

“It does not matter,” Donald said quietly, his eyes glimmering warmly. “Ye’ll always be The Red Fury to me, no matter who assumes the name.”

Andrew gave him a lopsided grin. “Mayhap,” he said. “But I am quite content being the Earl of Annan and Blackbank, as my father had wanted. I have a very big task restoring the castle and my family name. That is the greatest legacy I could want.”

Donald understood somewhat. He started to reply but a small figure caught his attention, entering through the main hall entry. Lady Elaine shuffled into the room, some flowers in her arms from the newly-restored castle garden that she and Josephine had tried so hard to coax back to life.

Dressed in fine clothing, Elaine looked like a completely different person.

The woman still walked hunched over as a result of all of those years in a low-ceilinged vault, but she had filled out and regained her health for the most part.

She was sweet and thoughtful, and Josephine was absolutely in love with the woman.

Having lost her mother so early in her life, Elaine filled a void that Josephine never really knew she had.

Therefore, when the woman entered the room, Josephine stood up in spite of her husband’s protests, and made her way over to Elaine and her flowers.

“Look, Josephine,” Elaine said proudly. “The foxgloves have bloomed.”

Josephine smiled at the woman’s excitement. “There are many of them, too. This whole castle will be filled with flowers soon enough.”

Elaine handed a couple of stalks to her, with very pretty deep-pink flower bells.

“They are very old plants,” she said. “Andrew’s father’s mother said they had been planted a hundred years ago.

I do not know if that is true, but they certainly make beautiful blooms. It is good to see them alive again. ”

Living life through Elaine’s eyes over the past few months had been a wondrous experience for Josephine.

For a woman who hadn’t seen the world in so many years, everything around her was full of excitement and joy.

Josephine often thought that was how people needed to always live their lives– with joy and excitement.

Since marrying Andrew, that was exactly what Josephine had tried to do.

The world was wonderful again and she was happy.

She never knew such happiness existed.

It was something she has stressed to Andrew, too. Given the hell they’d both been through, it was very important to make every moment count now that they’d finally found happiness.

As Josephine accompanied Elaine and her flowers from the hall, and Andrew and Donald continued their conversation over good wine and bread, it was moments like this that meant the most to Josephine– moments of normalcy and of family and friendship.

It had been far too long in coming but now that it was here, Josephine intended to relish every single second that passed.

Before she left the hall, however, Josephine passed a final glance at her husband, sitting at the feasting table and laughing at something Donald had said.

It made her heart swell simply to look upon the man.

She told him once that he was her sun and her moon, and that statement had only grown more true and powerful as time went on.

She adored him more than words could express, this man who had reinvented himself not once, but twice– once as a powerful mercenary, and now as a benevolent lord.

She knew that there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do if he set his mind to it.

Except one thing.

He couldn’t change the sex of the baby Josephine gave birth to two months later into a boy.

After a very fast and easy delivery on a rainy night in July, Josephine found herself looking at a big, healthy girl delivered by Oletha, the healer that traveled with Andrew’s former mercenary army.

Andrew had requested the woman be present for the birth of his son, and she was.

But no amount of checking the baby’s body would indicate that the initial diagnosis that it was a girl was, in fact, a mistake, and Josephine was genuinely concerned that Andrew might be upset about it.

But once the new father was brought in to see his wife and child, and handed the mewling infant, the fact that it wasn’t a boy didn’t seem to upset Andrew in the least. He was utterly, deeply in love with the infant as only a new father could be, but he had insisted on naming the child just the same.

He’d had the same name picked out whether it had been a boy or a girl, and Josephine had tears in her eyes when he told her his choice.

Joey Elaine Nicola d’Vant .

For The Red Fury, for Josephine, and for those so deeply intertwined in their lives, it seemed that life had come full circle, indeed.

* THE END *