Succession | Herophine

Epilogue - The Three Blessings

Hero

He'd promised her that she'd never again suffer, but he could hear her cries of anguish, despite the fact that he knew she was fighting desperately not to be heard. Would her agony never end?

"Will you stop pacing, for God's sake? You're making me dizzy."

Hero glared at Felix sitting on a bench in the hallway outside the duke's bedchamber door. Every heir to Gloucester had been born in the duke's own bed. It had been near midnight when Josephine had awakened Hero and informed him that she needed to be moved to his bed. He'd gotten into the habit of sleeping in her bedchamber. He preferred it over his own. After all, it was where he could always find her, hold her near, and hear her gentle breathing during the night. It was where they made love, whispered secrets, shared dreams. It was where he drifted off to sleep, loving her more each day.

"It's been over eighteen hours."

"Relax, it's not as bad as it sounds."

"Easy enough for you to say. Eleanor's only done this once. Josephine has done it twice already today and it's not getting any easier!"

Hero regretted his words as soon as he caught a good look at Felix's face.

"I'm sorry, Felix."

"It seems you are to have an embarrassment of riches, my friend, all delivered within the span of a single day. Enjoy them. Eleanor desperately wants another child. Perhaps you can give us one of yours."

"I don't think so, and I apologise for my harsh words. It's just that—"

Josephine went silent, but there were other sounds.

Then the door opened and Eleanor looked out.

"It's over."

Hero released a great sigh of relief. "So there were just two then?"

"No, there were three."

"Three?"

She nodded, an impish smile on her face. "We'll have them all ready in a bit to meet their father."

"What about Josephine? When can I see her?"

"In a bit. She needs to be readied as well."

"Is she all right?"

"She's doing remarkably well, considering."

"Considering what?"

She laughed. "Considering that she just delivered three babies. Felix, tell him to relax and not worry."

"I've tried, princess, he won't listen to me."

Eleanor shut the door in Hero's face. Hero leaned against the wall, his legs barely able to support him any longer. "Three," he repeated.

It seemed to take forever before the physician made his exit and Eleanor motioned for Hero to come into the bedchamber.

Josephine was lying on the bed, three small bundles nestled against her side, her arm somehow around all of them. Hero knelt beside the bed.

"Oh, Hero, look how tiny they are."

"There's three of them," he said, awed by their presence and their remarkable beauty. Even with their tiny pinched faces and their pink skin, they were beautiful. He'd long ago stopped counting all the things his brother's deception had denied him. Rather he'd begun to be thankful for all the things it had brought him: Josephine and now three daughters.

"Yes."

"All I can say is, thank God they're daughters. Not a single heir among them."

He had no desire for his firstborn son to have a twin. He never wanted his heir to endure what he had. He never wanted a second son to lose his way as Eros had. Hero continued to visit with him once a week, but it was always difficult and disappointing, because Eros was still convinced that he was the rightful heir, that Josephine belonged to him. Hero hadn't a clue how to reach him, how to help him.

Strangely, Josephine's sister had taken to visiting with Eros as well.

"He fascinates me," Katherine had said on one occasion. "He's never quite the same man."

She had patience with him that others didn't, and Hero couldn't help but wonder if perhaps she would be the key to his salvation, because his dearest wish was that the brother he'd known as a boy would return.

"I'll correct that mishap next time around," Josephine assured him.

He leaned up and kissed her briefly. "Thank you for having daughters this go round."

"I didn't think dukes were supposed to be happy with daughters unless they already had sons."

"I'm happy with anything that you give me."

"I will give you a son next time."

"If not, we'll keep trying until we get it right."

She laughed. "Even when we get it right, you'd best keep trying."

"I will do that, I promise."

And he knew it was one promise he would definitely be able to keep.

In the years that followed...

It was said of Hero Fiennes Tiffin, the Duke of Gloucester, that no man fought more diligently and with more purpose for the rights of prisoners and prison reform than he.

It was also said of the duke that no man loved his wife or his children more.

The End.