Unchaining Alice

Epilogue

Epilogue

Four Years Later

 

Alice and Eloise both left the orphanage at five o’clock in the afternoon, the usual time now that a new matron had been hired. The young woman was seventeen years old and had run away from her home up north. Joseph, the lovely man that he was, had given young Emmeline work.

Alice and Eloise both could no longer work into the nights as they were needed at home. Eloise and her husband had adopted the boy that she had been fond of, Edward, and he was now five years old and had begun lessons in a school close to her home. He was a gorgeous young boy and he was lucky to have Eloise as a mother.

After their son, Michael, had been born, Annie and Joseph had decided to forgo trying to have another child naturally, and had instead given two of the children from the orphanage a loving home. Both Christopher and Lydia had been adopted as newborns and were now three and one year old. Amy had adjusted to not receiving all the attention quite well, and she enjoyed being an older sister.

Kitty and William still had their four children, and Alice believed that they were very happy at that number. Any more and she was sure Kitty would go insane. Both Will and Millie were in the schoolroom and were just as impatient as their mother when it came to learning. Josie and Alexander were still too young, yet one could tell that their personalities stemmed directly from Kitty. They were lovely and endearing children though, and Alice loved to have them all around.

Little J and Harrison had had two more girls after Victoria. Georgiana and Clara came quickly after Victoria. They had hired a nanny to stay with the girls while they both worked and none could judge them for that after all Little J went through to become a doctor. She was now a trusted physician and had many patients who came from all over town just to see her. It was only Little J with whom Alice entrusted her children.

Henry was still a bachelor at five and twenty. He hadn’t courted a woman and he barely had the confidence to ask one to dance at balls. Emilia had once stressed to Alice over a glass of wine or four that she feared Henry would never marry. Alice assured her that when the right woman presented herself to him that he would snap her up. Henry was more concerned with work at that moment. As he was now a solicitor after graduating from Cambridge University, he had become the estate legal representative for Ethridge and served a crucial role in running the estate alongside James and Sebastian. The three worked well together, so well that the estate was more prosperous than ever.

Alice climbed into the waiting carriage and asked the driver to take her home. She wanted to be home earlier but she never felt like she could leave the orphanage. Once her children were old enough she would bring them with her on days that they were not in the schoolroom.

The carriage ride was quick thankfully and she arrived home within twenty minutes. Just as soon as she was in the door she said her usual greeting that would in return result in the sound of young feet running to see her.

“Bonsoir, mes enfants!” she called up the stairs.

Almost immediately she heard cries of glee. Jack appeared first at the top of the stairs with a huge grin on his little face. Although his Christian name was ‘Jacques’, only Alice called him that. He was three years old and the image of his father. With a mop of unruly dark hair, his sapphire blue eyes made him look devilishly cute.

Alice quickly climbed the stairs to avoid her son having to tackle them by himself. Just as soon as she reached the landing, she scooped Jack up into her arms and kissed him repeatedly.

“Bonsoir, maman,” Jack replied happily as he wrapped his little arms around Alice’s neck. There was no greater feeling then having one’s child cling to them. Alice never knew unconditional love until she held him for the first time. She now knew what was going through her own brother’s mind when he placed her in the wooden crate. Alice would give up her own life in a heartbeat to save any one of her family members from pain.