EPILOGUE
ONE MONTH LATER…
“Ijust cannot believe how much he has grown,” Honoria said as she watched James crawl about the morning room. “How old is he again?”
“Fourteen months,” Lucy said.
“At what age do we stop referring to their age in months?” Marcus sighed. “Will he be five years old but we’re telling everyone that he is just sixty months to the day?”
Lucy rolled her eyes. “Do not be ridiculous.”
“It is a fair question!”
While Lucy and Honoria sat on the couch, Marcus was on the floor. This was common now, as Marcus liked to be as close to James as possible when they were together. He was always the first to see him in the morning too, and the last to leave the room at night.
I might think that he is still trying to prove something to me… was it not beyond that point by now. In truth, he has simply taken to being a father beyond what either of us could have ever imagined. And I love him all the more for it.
“At what age do they start to walk?” Honoria asked.
“It should be any time now,” Lucy said. “He crawls well enough but whenever he tries to push himself to his feet he gives up.”
“He just enjoys the floor,” Marcus said as he lay himself down on his belly. “Plus, he knows that once he starts to walk, he’s going to have to make his own way. Get himself a job. Start contributing. He’s smart…” He looked back at Lucy and Honoria and winked. “If I were him, I might never walk.”
“You spend enough time on the floor that you might just forget,” Lucy pointed out.
“What of talking?” Honoria followed up. “Surely, that should be soon?”
“What is with all the questions?” Marcus snapped. “Let him go at his own pace.”
“Again, any time now,” Lucy sighed. “I feel that he is so close but whenever I think he might say something, he just giggles.”
“Dadda,” Marcus said to James as he crawled across the floor to their son. “Can you say dadda?”
Lucy rolled her eyes. “He does that for at least an hour every day.”
“That is manipulation,” Honoria said rightly. “If he is as smart as you say, he will not fall for it.”
Lucy had done a lot of research this past month on such things as walking and talking. She spoke to Helga often, quizzing her on all the specifics. In truth, there was a small part of Lucy that worried that James might never speak or walk, that something might be wrong with him.
Helga was sure to put those worries to bed. As she said, all children developed at a different age, and there was no single answer or right way to go about things.
“He will talk when he is ready,” Lucy said as she watched Marcus scoop James into his arms. Then he rolled onto his back and held James in the air, and James giggled and kicked his legs.
Lucy smiled as she watched the scene before her.
This last month had been special, and perfect in every way that mattered. As she knew would be the case, Marcus had been a man of his word, and not once had she worried that he might revert to his old self. In fact, he had grown into being a father with such passion that one might think it was always a dream of his to be this way.
Lucy, however, knew the real reason. He loved her, he wanted her to be happy, and with the family that they now were, that’s exactly what she was.
As he is happy too. Gone is the sullen, emotionless man whom I married. Why, I can hardly believe that he was ever so cold and distant that I used to be scared of him.
She did wonder about James, though. What he might be like as a young man. Who he would take after. These were the worries of a mother, and that’s exactly what Lucy was.
Maybe James was not hers through birth. Maybe he was adopted. But that mattered not. As far as she was concerned, he was her son, and she would love him until the day that he died.
“Come on…” She stood from the couch and made for James and Marcus. “You’re going to tire him out. He just woke from a nap.”
“Are you speaking of Marcus or James?” Honoria joked.
