Mira nodded. “That is true,” she said. “Sometimes—only sometimes, mind you—I swear I hear Lady Isabel in our Isabel’s tone and manner. Don’t you?”
“I do,” Douglas said. “We’ve raised a strong young woman, Mira. She is kind and thoughtful, but she also knows her own mind. Marcus is fortunate to have her.”
Mira was watching the entry down below as her children filtered out, heading for the kitchens and the hall. “This is a good match,” she said. “When we named our daughter after Lady Isabel, I always hoped that our Isabel would know a happy marriage, something Lady Isabel never had. I’d like to think that somehow, someway, Izzy’s match would fulfill Lady Isabel, wherever she is. For her to know that her namesake is happy with the man she loves.”
Douglas looked at her. “I’ve been thinking of Lady Isabel lately because of Izzy’s impending nuptials,” he said. “It’s because of Lady Isabel that everything for us is possible. I’vealways been grateful to her, but more so as of late, and I’m not sure why.”
Mira laid her head against his bicep affectionately. “Because you see in our Izzy what Lady Isabel had hoped for,” Mira said. “Life and love. There is nothing else that matters, Douglas. Our life and our love. Nothing is greater.”
“True,” he said, giving her another sweet kiss. “I would not have missed it for the world.”
“Nor I.”
Douglas gave her a big hug before leading her down to the entry, where Mira greeted Marcus with joy. The young man would make a fine addition to the family and Marcus knew he could not have picked a finer man for his daughter.
A daughter named after one of the finest women he’d ever known.
Isabel de Lohr and Marcus d’Vant were married the next morning and the wedding feast went all day and all night. Two of Douglas’ brothers—Myles and Westley—joined the festivities and spoke of their parents, who had been so sorely missed over the years on occasions such as this. Even Jonathan had managed to make it down from Wolverhampton—still big and burly, but mellowed over the years. He and Douglas sat together, talking over old times, about Davyss, who had gone on to become a great knight, and about the Executioner Knights and how their lives and children had evolved. Axminster’s great hall, on this night, was once again full of life and love, as Mira had put it, rising to meet the hope and happiness of a new generation.
Eventually, Douglas left Jonathan and returned to Mira, sitting at the dais with Marcus’ parents, Dennis and Ryan. Their conversation drifted to the pride that they, as parents, had for their children and the wish that they should lead happy and productive lives. Douglas found himself wishing his father could have been there to see his granddaughter married, but he knewthe man was there in spirit. Whenever anything major happened with the sons of Christopher de Lohr, he was always there in spirit. They could feel him.
And on this night, they could feel Lady Isabel, too.
Douglas and Mira knew how happy she would have been to see the legacy she’d left behind. Axminster was stronger than ever, Douglas and Mira had continued to make it a place of prestige and power, and it was everything Lady Isabel had hoped for. Perhaps she had left the world too soon, but she had left it a better place, something for Douglas and Mira to build on.
And build they had.
On a cold winter’s night nine months later, Douglas and Mira were on hand for the birth of their first grandchild at St. Austell Castle in Cornwall. A fat, healthy boy with a crown of white hair, as sweet and docile as his father, but as loving and bright as his mother, entered the world. His mother, knowing for whom she had been named and the story behind it, had one final bit of honor for the lady who had made all things possible for her family.
She and Marcus named their son Eric.
When Douglas heard the news, he wept.
Make me proud, Douglas.
He had.
*THE END*
