Epilogue
Only two days after the birth of Henry and Sarahʼs children, Yasmina gave birth to a boy. One month later, Henry and Sarah got officially married and, together with Paul and his family, moved to a house just outside Williamsburgh. It was a very old two storey house where a lot of renovations had to be done, but Paul and Henry worked hard to built their families a little cozy home. The house had an extra room where Yasmina and Sarah could go after their tailorʼs work, and a nice little garden with enough space for Renana and Ephraim to play with their new dog that Paul had got them.
One year later, Reginald Kavanagh promoted Henry from his position as an assistant to the supervisor of the warehouse to the assistant of Harold Burton, the sales manager of Kavanaghʼs shop. During the time he worked with Harold, Henry demonstrated yet again that he was well able to fulfill the tasks that he was given although he had never worked in that field before. When Burton eventually retired, Kavanagh offered Henry to become the new sales manager; a proposal that Henry was more than willing to accept. And with thousands of new immigrants coming into the country, Henry always had his hands full with work and became a busy and wealthy man. He never missed his work as a teacher.
* * *
In the meantime, a well-known stage director who had seen Henryʼs brother Paul perform in ʻSodom and Gomorrahʼ approached Paul and offered to put him under contract. This marked the beginning of a thriving acting career, with Paul taking part in numerous stage plays throughout New York and the neighboring states, next to the most famous actors of the time.
* * *
Jeremy eventually got involved with a young woman named Clarissa who worked as a dancer and singer in a tavern. The two deeply fell in love with each other, got married, moved to Boston, and had three children.
* * *
Lord Partridge was extremely distressed by the turn the events had taken. He felt let down by both Sarah and Damian but blamed himself for the failure of his plans. To distract himself, he fully engaged in his company. But as he was a greedy and ruthless man, he never cared about the well-being of his employees. And as he wouldnʼt listen to their consistent pleas to do something in order to improve the harsh conditions they had to work under, he found his factory up in flames one day. It turnded out that one of his upset workers had secretly set a fire. The factory burnt down to the ground. When shortly after that, Lord Partridgeʼs son Adrian got involved with a girl from a nunʼs school and had her accidentally pregnant, Lord Partridge died because of a heart attack.
* * *
Lady Partridge dealt surprisingly well with the death of her husband. The first thing she did after the burial was to fire Emily. Then she began to see Baron Copperwood on a very regular basis. The latter proved to be a shoulder to cry on because he gave her the reassurance that he knew what she was going through; after all, his wife had died due to food poisoning only a couple of months ago after having eaten a portion of bad German lumpfish roe. Malicious gossip claimed that Baron Copperwood had helped a little bit along. Irrespective of these rumors, Lady Partridge sold Partridge Mansion, married Baron Copperwood, and moved out onto his large estate in the outskirts of London. Sarahʼs horses Orion and Silver were sold to a reputable stable where they led a happy life under the care of the stable ownerʼs daughter Melinda, who was a true horse lover and treated Silver and Orion well despite Orionʼs persistent flatulence problems.
* * *
Housemaid Thelma went back to Ireland and was happy to reunite with her family. Roderick, Heather and Ada found employment elsewhere in Oxford, just like Emily who began to work as a chambermaid for another reputable family and who didnʼt hesitate to immediately seduce both the lord of the house and his two sons.
* * *
Holly Witherspoon managed to sell Oscarʼs house for very good money. In return, Oscar allowed her to keep a very generous part of the sum as well as some of the furniture, just as he had promised. Holly knew by now that he had taken his niece with him, and because she cherished him and didnʼt question his decisions, she never gave his location away.
* * *
Mrs. Potter, the owner of the guesthouse in London, kept serving stale sandwiches to her guests and boasted in front of everyone that she had once accommodated the ʻtwo infamous and gruesome villains who kidnapped the young Lady Partridge.ʼ
* * *
Still recalling his glamorous performance at Mount Merrion Hotel, Waffle-Wally decided to go to one of the local theatres and applied for the position of a supernumerary. To his utter surprise, the stage director liked him and he was given a part. He played a beggar.
* * *
Arthur, the monocle-man, wrote a book about icebergs which—much to his regret—turned out to be a shelf warmer.
* * *
Partridge Mansion still exists today. And if you happen to stay there for a night or two, open the window of your room and try to be very quiet, because then you might be able to hear the little owl which is sitting on the branch of a nearby tree, telling the story of Sarah and Henry to everyone who wants to hear it.
THE END