The attack on that nice Mr and Mrs Bembridge by a man who had been declared dead the year before was the talk of the county. It provided a welcome relief from war news for one thing, and for another hadn’t Mr and Mrs Bembridge and their daughter been saved by the valet who was seventy if he was a day, but that hadn’t stopped him putting an end to the scoundrel. He was a hero, that’s what he was. And all was well that ended well, except for the attacker of course but he’d got his just deserts, everyone agreed on that. And the daughter, that little slip of a thing, she was a heroine too for hadn’t the doctors said that but for her quick thinking the valet would have bled to death then and there on the road? As it was he was making a good recovery, bless him. Aw, it was nice when there was a happy ending, you didn’t get a lot of them these days, but you had to live in hope, didn’t you, and sunny days would come again. They always did.

Epilogue

They were calling it the ‘Great War’. It had been over for six weeks and certainly there had never been anything like it in history before. More countries had been involved, and more people had perished, than in any previous single conflict. No class of society was immune from the war’s impact. Casualties amongst junior officers were about three times higher than among ordinary soldiers, and they included the eldest son of Herbert Asquith, the former prime minister. The human cost of the war was over ten million dead and many more millions maimed for life, but one thing was certain, folk said. It had been a harsh lesson for the future, and such a thing would never happen again. That, at least, was something positive to come out of all the bloodshed and heartache and loss.

But for this first Christmas Eve in peacetime for four years, all Rose and Alexander could think about was each other. They were strolling arm in arm in the snowy grounds of Highfield. Betsy and the twins were running ahead of them, Jinny having gone home for Christmas stocked up with all sorts of goodies for her family from Rose. Betsy was leaving them in the New Year to begin her nurse’s training and Rose was going to miss her, but now that Highfield was a convalescence home she knew she would be too busy to brood over her first chick leaving the nest. William and Arabella had decided to make the estate over to Alexander, after which they had retired to their London residence, although they visited frequently.