They came back with a beautiful, carved wood box.
So, when Tempie and Hamish showed for the weekend, I invited Ravenna over, and everyone went into the ballroom (oh yes, the girls told their men everything).
In there, Battle, Hamish and Christian (this was before the François revelation) carefully disassembled a square of parquetry.
The girls and I put Charlie’s letters, Harmony’s letters and journals, and Marie’s and Aileen’s journals, with Aileen’s clippings into the box.
I also put the engagement ring Charlie gave Harmony in that box.
Battle and I rested it under the floorboards.
On top of it, Prue put a picture she drew of them, Great-Granddad in his uniform, Harmony in a pretty summer dress, walking together out in the gardens of The Downs.
Chassie placed one of her bouquets on top of that. The bouquet had white lilies (which she shared denoted purity) and red roses (obviously those symbolized love).
On top of the flowers, Ravenna placed a polished rose quartz shaped in a heart with the two-snakes-entwined symbol carved on it that she told us represented two interwoven spirits.
So yeah.
That worked.
Once all of that was laid to rest, the men carefully replaced the parquet square.
And then we all went to the plum parlor for a drink.
We did this leaving Charlie and Harmony in the place where they met, the place where they fell in love…
Resting together for (maybe) eternity.
How did I handle this in my book?
Obviously, I had to get mystical about it.
I left in the happy but sad ending.
I left out the homicide.
I wasn’t sure how my editor would take the hints of magic in it, but she loved it.
It sold huge (maybe because word got out I’d fallen in love with the current duke while writing it, not hard since I was wearing his ring and living with him, but I preferred to think it was because the book was good, and Charlie and Harmony’s story was compelling).
I sold the option for that too, a single season for streaming.
And at the premiere, I wore another fantastic dress.
But as was Battle’s magic, as ever, the photographers went away with essentially nothing.
Battle did not get into Harry and Scotty’s shit for not doing what it would be impossible for them to do: somehow intuit danger on a several hundred-acre estate and move to handle it.
He already knew there were vulnerabilities in their security. Namely if someone wanted to take the long trek sidling through the property of one of the attached farms owned by the duchy that didn’t have tall fences protecting them from access to the parkland, outbuildings and the big house.
This being what Chelsea’s hired stalker did.
What Battle did do was augment the security so there were more cameras monitored by the company he contracted with for the front gate.
He boosted this by getting me my own dog who he left with me at The Downs, and who just stayed at The Downs even if I wasn’t there, in order for that pooch to keep alert for whoever Battle loved who was there.
It was an Old English Sheepdog. I allowed Prue to name him.
