Healing Her Aching Heart – Extended Epilogue

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One Year Later

The carriage bumped along the old dirt road, pushing Gertie further into her husband’s side no matter how she sat. A group of young men had thought it would be funny to till random streets throughout town as a prank and everyone had been paying the consequence since, though Gertie secretly found it rather funny. 

She didn’t mind so much as she was being forced closer to Hal’s side, after all. 

Hal sat looking out at the road, shaking his head with his own amused smile plastered to his lips as Deverson, their driver, navigated the bumpy road. 

“I don’t think those boys are ever going to be allowed out of Sheriff Branson’s sight again,” Hal muttered as they narrowly avoided another bump in the road. “Did you hear he was making them do all of the repairs under the deputy’s supervision? I don’t see how he thinks that’s going to get accomplished very quickly, what are they fourteen or fifteen at most?” 

Gertie laughed, leaning into him to look out at the ground herself. “Oh, they’re sixteen, I think. Plenty old enough to be doing road repair when they destroyed it. Do you know what it was in protest of, though? There were so many different rumors…” 

“Apparently, it was something to do with them shortening the length of their next vacation? I don’t know, Ma knows more about all of that but don’t get her started on it when we get to Timbleton Manor,” Hal warned, a plea in his words. “If she starts talking about this it’ll drag the entirety of the luncheon and we don’t need to have to listen to all of that.” 

Gertie felt her heart skip a beat, loving how he still called it Timbleton Manor despite the fact that they had been married for a year now and it was his home as well. 

A year. 

It still felt almost as if it were a dream, everything that had happened in the last twelve or so odd months. 

She and Hal had been married before the renovations and repairs were completed at the manor, choosing to live with his parents still in the meantime, a date that had stretched further out than Gertie had anticipated. 

But she’d been so occupied with getting the school and library running, both that were under construction currently and nearing completion, and arranging to take over all the functions her mother had run for charity, that fixing Timbleton, while still important, just hadn’t taken precedence. 

The fact that she’d added renovations to the repairs had stretched it out even further. 

She and Hal had only just moved in the night before, spending their first night fully on their own and reveling in their shared memories of the place as they had walked room to room… and back through the new garden, modeled after a cross between her mother’s and his, at sunset. 

Now they were celebrating the completion of it, inviting their closest friends and family to the manor for a luncheon that Daisy had suggested, after only just having gone to check on the library’s construction moments before. 

“You’re awfully quiet,” Hal prodded, leaning into her shoulder that time and looking down at her in concern. 

Gertie grinned back up at him, shaking her head. “I was just thinking,” she answered, shrugging slightly. 

“Not about tempting my mother to go off on a tangent, I hope.” Hal sighed, reminding her of the conversation they had been having before she’d become distracted. 

“No.” She laughed. “I was thinking about how much we’ve gotten done in this last year though, and about how we’ve been married for nearly twelve months on the day, the same day we get to spend as our first back in our own home…” 

“So all good things,” Hal teased, leaning down to kiss her temple as the carriage turned into their drive and began the much smoother drive up to the manor itself. 

“All good things,” she agreed, feeling her stomach jolt at the sudden change in pace and movement. Oh, but she didn’t like that. Her hand almost drifted to her stomach, stopping at the last moment as she caught Hal staring at her. 

“We should have told Daisy the luncheon could wait,” he complained as he got down from the door of the carriage, reaching out to take her hand and help her out as well. “We’ve been going so much lately it would have been nice to have some time to ourselves…”

“We’ll have plenty of that after this,” Gertie chastised him lightly. At least, they would for a short spell. “This way it’s better. We’re celebrating the house being done, our anniversary, and everything else all at once, without having to worry about Daisy wanting to break it up into multiple different occasions!” 

Hal chuckled, shaking his head as they approached the doors, being opened for them the moment they did. “That’s true,” he mused. “I wouldn’t put it past her to try and arrange several parties for each thing. Do you know why she’s been so focused on social events lately? It really is throwing me…” 

Gertie hid a smile, biting her lip as she shook her head. “I don’t reckon that’s my place to tell you,” she teased as they entered the bustle of the servants and the few friends that had arrived early helping set up the dining room already. 

“You don’t—” Hal started to question, being cut off as Daisy ran up out of nowhere and grabbed Gertie’s arm. 

“Oh, good, you’re here!” she called gaily, gesturing to the other room before she even started in on her next sentence. “Hal, Pa is trying to move that wide table into here to put the drinks on, do you think you could help him? I tried telling him to wait, but you know him…” 

“Does not want to admit that he’s getting older,” Hal groused, pushing his sleeves up and casting one last look at Gertie as he went to go and do just as Daisy has suggested. 

Daisy barely waited for him to disappear before rounding on Gertie with narrowed eyes that didn’t match the grin on her face. “I reckon, by his lack of crying, that you haven’t told him yet?” she demanded. 

“I’m going to.” Gertie laughed, waving her sister-in-law away playfully. “I want to announce it all at once in my speech, calm down. Really, he was too busy asking me about your sudden interest in social gatherings for me to even try,” she teased. 

Daisy went bright red, her eyes widening as her gaze immediately flipped to look off in the direction of Jason Brooks, the miller boy helping hang a banner at the other end of the room. 

Gertie couldn’t stop her giggle at Daisy’s reaction. 

“You didn’t tell him, did you?” she whined, the real worry in her voice quieting Gertie’s laughter. 

“No, I didn’t tell him. My husband, while not scarred like I am, can sometimes be more blind than I am.” Gertie chuckled. “I don’t know how he hasn’t seen it by now. You pine after Jason so obviously! And he’s always looking at you any time you aren’t staring at him.” 

“He isn’t,” Daisy whispered furiously, her face reddening further. “And you can’t use your injuries as an excuse for your blindness, you know. You spent years missing Hal mooning after you,” she pointed out, seeming satisfied as Gertie shook her head. 

She was long over blushing about such things, now the accusation just brought a smile to her face. “I did, didn’t I?” she mused, watching as her husband and father-in-law carried the table in only for it to immediately start being filled with pitchers and bowls.  

“You did,” Daisy sniffed. 

“Who did what?” Mrs. Williams asked as she came upon the two of them, putting one arm around Daisy and the other around Gertie as she hugged them into her sides. 

“Gertie missed Hal mooning after her,” Daisy supplied matter-of-factly, her smug smile stretching from ear to ear. 

“Oh, she did.” Mrs. Williams laughed. “It’s almost as bad as how you miss that Brooks boy doing the same after you.” 

“Ma!” Daisy cried as Gertie fell into a fit of giggles over the perfect timing of it all. 

“I see I’m interrupting something,” a voice cut in, sounding both gruff and amused in the same breath. Doctor Carroll eyed the three giggling women with caution, glancing between them as if he were waiting for one of them to fall over. “I can come back at a different time…” 

“Oh, please don’t!” Daisy cried, extracting herself from her mother’s hold and shooting a glare with no real venom at both Mrs. Williams and Gertie as she backed away. “I was just going to get glasses ready for the toast that Gertie is going to be doing here in a moment,” she muttered, excusing herself and flashing a victorious smile back at Gertie. 

“You’re doing a toast?” Mrs. Williams asked interestedly, her eyebrows raising. 

“Well, I was hoping to,” Gertie explained awkwardly, pulling her lips slightly. “I was going to wait until everyone was here and I had needed to talk to Doc first…” 

“I’ll help Daisy get everyone glasses then,” Mrs. Williams offered warmly, kissing Gertie’s cheek and backing away. “Everyone else is already here, that’ll give you a chance to do that, and then hopefully we can eat! I saw Mrs. Carroll made her ambrosia salad and I’ve been dying for some here lately.” 

Gertie’s stomach growled loudly at the mention and Mrs. Williams chuckled. “I see you have too,” she teased, excusing herself with a bow of her head and backing off. 

Doctor Carrol shook his head, no doubt bemused by all the excitement around him, and raised one bushy brow in Gertie’s direction. “Is this speech over the news that I think it is?” he asked. 

Gertie flushed lightly, the pink in her cheeks heating them as she shrugged. “Among other things,” she acknowledged, glancing to find where Hal was in the room. “I wrote it out, to be sure I covered everything… but…” 

“But you were hoping that you’d be able to read it on your own,” Doctor Carroll supplied matter-of-factly, nodding as if it made all the sense in the world. “You are in luck then. I had meant to give you these before leaving, but now seems a good a time as any.” He fished around in his pocket, pulling out a small, slender case and handing it over. “They are the same lenses we used to make sure they got the right power to them, so there should be no question of them working.” 

Gertie took the case gratefully, tucking it into a pocket to the side of her skirts and smiling. “Good, that will help so much. I can’t tell you how relieved I am. Between these and the therapies we’ve been doing for my hands…” 

“I told you, all things are treatable, if not in the way you expect,” Doctor Carroll said gruffly, but not unkindly. “A year ago, you didn’t have near the mobility in your hands that you do now. And your scarring, while still visible, has faded to a much lighter coloring than I would have guessed it to.” He stated it matter-of-factly, looking her over clinically, and Gertie smiled despite it all. 

“I forget that they’re there sometimes, you know,” she admitted softly. “And then I see them when the light catches them or I feel them when I touch them, and I’m reminded of just how horrible I thought they would be at first…” 

“Everything fades,” Doctor Carroll said sagely, nodding. “Well, all the things we think won’t, anyways,” he amended, looking behind her and almost smiling. “Your husband is coming this way now with drinks in hand. I think I’ll find my wife before you begin your announcement, I know how emotional she gets over such things.” 

Gertie laughed, “Doc? Thank you,” she called out as he left, watching him wave it off gruffly as he always did. ‘Just doing his job,’ he’d say, but she knew how much extra he put into doing it these days. 

“Why is my sister insisting I bring you a glass of grape juice?” Hal asked as he came to her side, handing the glass off and furrowing his brows as he took his own glass of champagne quizzically. 

Gertie was saved having to answer by the woman in question across the room whistling so shrilly that all conversation around the room was immediately cut off, an awed silence following. Hal, at Gertie’s side, winced, lifting his free hand to press into the side of his head as he stared aghast at Daisy. 

“I know you were all promised food!” she called out jokingly, earning a few chuckles. “But our hostess has a few words she’d like to say first, so if you could all kindly refrain from drinking your champagne or juice before she’s done, we’d all appreciate it mightily.” Daisy waved over to Gertie, stepping down from the chair with a flourish. 

And suddenly, all eyes were on her. 

Gertie smiled nervously, ignoring Hal’s confusion to her side as she looked around the room full of her family and friends and felt a rush of nerves. Nerves that were immediately quieted as Hal reached out to put his hand comfortingly on the small of her back, her stomach doing a little flip again as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. 

Awkwardly, she withdrew the case that Doctor Carroll had given her, taking out the small glasses contained within and perching them on her nose carefully as her vision swam… and swam again, her blinking finally bringing everything into focus and making the crowd disappear all at once. 

The small paper that she withdrew from her pocket as well, though, was clearly in focus. Not with an extra, hazy layer over it and not with the words spinning and tumbling out of focus. The words were all on the page, in one layer, clear enough for her to read, and her eyes swam with tears of relief momentarily. 

She sniffed, clearing her throat and focusing on the words she wanted to read rather than the grateful warmth filling her chest.

“This is the first event we’re having at Timbleton Manor since the accident,” she began nervously. “I worried over it, over hosting anything here again really, but I reckon my mother would turn over in her grave if we didn’t continue showing off all her hard design work,” she joked. “And we have so much to celebrate… I, especially, have so much to celebrate. We’re celebrating the house being done! We’re celebrating the school and the library’s construction, both dates we were given today of being completed within the next month. I’m celebrating a year of marriage to the most faithful man I’ve ever known!” 

Gertie glanced to her side where Hal stood, backing her up and looking suitably awed and grateful as she spoke, and then to her father-in-law, beaming across from them. 

“We are celebrating my father’s business! Today, I signed the paperwork to make Hal the owner and proprietor of it, with me taking on the role of his advisor, so that I can focus on the things that mean the most to me, and so that I can take it easy like my doctor has suggested.”

She could just briefly hear Doctor Carroll’s grunt from within the crowd, making her lips twitch as she glanced again at Hal to find him staring at her in shock. It was a shock she hoped to build upon. 

“You see, I’ve been keeping something from you all here. Not out of spite or shame, but out of fear that it was too soon to share, and out of uncertainty that it was even happening at all..” Again she slid her eyes to Hal, her heart in her throat as the paper crumpled in her hands instead, her fist going to rest over the slight swell to her belly that she’d been hiding with her dresses and skirts.

“Doctor Carroll has announced that we’ll be having twins in the coming six months,” she breathed, only just raising her voice enough to be heard over the sudden shouts and clapping around them. 

Just like her wedding day, though she found she only had eyes for one person receiving the news, her heart in her throat as she watched Hal’s eyes widen and his face go ashen. “We’re having twins,” she repeated, her voice warbling slightly as Hal stood stockstill, saying nothing, and just staring at her. 

She’d expected the shock.

But she’d expected, like when she’d heard the news, for him to also be happy. Scared, maybe, because one baby was frightening enough but the thought of two at the same time was even more so… But, still happy. 

Hal just seemed frozen though, saying nothing and taking a half step forward, and then another. “Twins?” he repeated, his voice sounding far away as he moved his eyes from her face down to where her hand rested on her very small bump. 

“Twins,” Gertie repeated hesitantly, uncertainty crowding the back of her throat. “I know I should have probably told you in p—” But her words were cut off as Hal came to life, suddenly wrapping her in his arms and sweeping her off of her feet. 

“Twins!” he crowed, his voice full of all the jubilation she was afraid he wouldn’t feel. “We’re having twins!” He peppered Gertie’s face with kisses as he swung them about until her laughter turned into her squeezing his forearms to get him to stop from the dizziness and the way it made her stomach bottom out. 

“Twins.” She laughed softly, the word still sounding somehow fake as she put her hand back to her belly and winced. “Two babies,” she repeated, looking up at him fondly. 

“Oh… Oh, twins,” Hal muttered, stopping suddenly and concern marring his brow. 

Gertie raised a brow, unsure why he suddenly seemed to freeze. “…Hal?” 

“Do you think we need to stop reading the book we’ve been reading at night?” he asked suddenly, his eyes widening. “There’s a lot of content in there that I’m not sure they should be hearing at night! Maybe we should switch to more kid-friendly books…” 

“Are you planning on us still being stuck on that same book by the time they get here?” Gertie laughed, her confusion evident as she reached up and tried to smooth the frown lines from his face. 

“Well, no,” he breathed, his hands framing her belly as he stared down at it in awe. “But what if they can hear us now?” 

Gertie’s heart exploded, her hands lifting his face to bring it to hers so that she could kiss him, her laughter stifled. “I love you, Hal Williams,” she whispered as she pulled back. 

“I love you, Gertrude Williams,” he repeated, still framing her belly with his hands and rubbing it in awe amid all the celebrating going on around them. “But the book…”

“We’ll finish it.” She laughed. “And then you can read us more kid-friendly books every night until they get here, and then once they are… our nightly reading ritual will turn into you reading for all four of us,” she teased. 

“You don’t need me to read to you every night,” Hal pointed out, his voice sounding somewhat sad. “Now that you’ve got those glasses…”

“I’ll need you to read to me every night,” Gertie argued, her lips brushing against the point of his chin. “From now until forever. I should have made you put it in your vows.” 

“From now until forever,” Hal promised, capturing her lips sweetly once more with his own. 

It was the kind of promise Gertie could get wrapped up in. 

Forever sounded like a wonderful thing, especially with being married to the man who made it all possible in the first place.

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Grab my new series, "Brave Hearts of the Frontier", and get 5 FREE novels as a gift! Have a look here!

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