Epilogue
Caroline rolled on the blanket and stared at the fluffy clouds in the sky. The way the moors rolled around them behind the rubber works, they could have been all alone on this Sunday afternoon.
Jack leaned over her and fed her a grape.
“A penny for your thoughts, Lady Caroline.”
She smiled. “Will you ever tire of calling me that?”
“No. I want you to meet the patent people from the United States just so I can introduce you. This is my wife, Lady Caroline Applegate.”
“It only means my brother is now an earl.” Queen Victoria had decided the romance of a lady falling in love with a millworker as she nursed him back to health far outweighed the scandal of marrying one of the lower orders just a few months after being made a widow. If she knew of the arrest of Mr. Broadhurst, she must not have considered it significant.
Besides, Jack’s rubber works and patents were starting to bring in a steady if modest income, and the queen applauded his efforts to expand the use of rubber in medical devices.
“I feel sorry for Mr. Broadhurst some days,” Caroline said. “He wanted a son so badly.” While their son was christened as a Broadhurst, no one called him by that name. The solicitor had advised them there was no reason they couldn’t change his name to Applegate now that the Broadhurst estate was settled. He would own the house and mill when he was older, but other parts of the will conflicted with the marriage settlement and were thrown out. Caroline truly was a rich woman in her own right.
Jack snorted. “The man was a murderer. He didn’t deserve a child.”
“Mmm,” said Caroline, feeling sleepy. This rare Sunday afternoon picnic was a time for both of them to relax away from their demanding manufactories.
“Don’t go too far,” Jack called to little Johnny. One had only to look at the two-year-old to guess his parentage. He looked so much like Jack, it made her smile.
“So was that shipment the last of the cotton?” Jack stretched out beside her.
Caroline hadn’t realized that the extra cotton she’d bought before the beginning of the Civil War in the Americas would turn out to be quite so valuable. She was able to resell it at triple the price, while continuing to buy new from Egypt because she’d been ahead in the game, establishing contracts with growers there.
Her gamble had paid off.
She took Jack’s hand and placed it on her flat belly. “What do you think? Will it be a girl or another boy this time?”
“Caro?” His eyes filled with wonder.
That was one way to get him to drop the “Lady” appellation. She shook her head, acknowledging her pregnancy. “I am fairly certain, although it is early days.”
Jack slid down and kissed her stomach. Johnny ran over, plopped down, and taking it for a new game, followed suit.
She threaded her fingers into Jack’s hair. “I love you.”
He put a hand on their son’s back and answered in kind. “And I will love you until the end of time.”
Johnny pointed at his mother’s stomach and said insistently, “Papa kiss.”
“That’s your new brother or sister in there,” Jack told his son.
Johnny looked puzzled and then darted off to chase a butterfly.
Caroline tapped her lips. “Papa kiss.”
Jack smiled and inched up to do her bidding. “Next time we plan a picnic, we need to leave Johnny with his nanny.”
“Better yet, his nursery maid is coming in a half hour to take him home for his afternoon nap.”
“I don’t think I can wait that long,” said Jack, tracing a finger down the side of her neck.
She slid her hand down his side. “I’m afraid you’ll have to.”
“Damn,” he said as he rolled to his feet, then chased after his son.
Caroline watched her husband trot to rescue Johnny from the big gob of dirt he was ready to stuff in his mouth. At least she hoped it was dirt, but then she was too content to worry overmuch.
Jack grabbed his son and swung him in the air as he brushed the dirt from his hand. She rather fancied a girl, but another boy would be lovely too.
But more than that, she fancied the rest of the afternoon in scandalous bliss in Jack’s arms, because there was no other place she wanted to be.