” What’s that, Simon?”
” He ought to be mine,” said Simon.
That was a proposal of marriage, and it was for this reason that as I lay there with the child I experienced the happiest moment of my life which I had known up to that time.
All that spring and summer we made our plans. Because my son Gabriel would one day be master of Kirkland Revels, he should be brought up between the Revels and Kelly Grange, and this would mean that to some extent the two estates would be as one.
Uncle Dick came home and it was wonderful to accept the close relationship between us. He gave me away when, the following Christmas, I married Simon. And as we came down the aisle together I thought: And that is the end of the beginning.
Then I wondered what the future would hold for us and if in the years ahead we should weather the storms which must surely beset two such personalities as ours. Life perhaps would not be always calm between us. We both were head strong, and neither of us meek.
But as we came out into the Christmas sunshine, my spirits were lifted.
I knew there was nothing to fear, for there was love between us, and it is love which casts out fear.