Echoes of a War-Torn Heart – Extended Epilogue

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Four Years Later

Dear Ivy and Luke

It’s been four years, so I daresay you’re both married and moved on now, and probably don’t remember me at all. I was able to get this address from Mrs. Hutch, God rest her soul, but it never seemed to be the right time to write to you. She said to be sure that I had ‘big news’ to send when I did write, whatever that means, but never mind. 

I am Georgiana (Georgie) Havers. I delivered both of you as babies, but more recently, I attended to you all after that horrific attack all those years ago, when the cabin burned to the ground with those poor folks nearly trapped inside. It gives me the shivers to think of it. 

Mrs. Hutch passed close to three and a half years ago, and nobody dared say a word about her. That general father of Mr. Hawkins certainly rattled them all. 

Six Crow Hollow is… well, we’re vanishing. People are leaving every year, selling up their land and moving to bigger cities. Sheriff Copper’s not the sheriff anymore, there’s some young fool of an upstart in his place. Copper’s dead, too. Killed in a brawl at the saloon, and nobody was much surprised. 

The population of the town dwindles year by year. I myself am planning to leave soon, to live with my oldest daughter and her new baby. In a decade, there’ll be no evidence that the town was ever here. We started crumbling after you left, but the rot had set in long before there. 

Mrs. Hutch talked about it a lot in her final days. How fine the town had been once, how it was a beacon of hospitality, justice, and freedom. What changed? When did we change? Maybe that’s why we’re disappearing – there’s no room for us in the new world. Myself, I don’t mind. Life will carry on, but the spirit of Six Crow Hollow left a long time ago. 

It’s a pity, but we had a choice. Open our hearts or close it, and we chose the latter. Now we’re paying the price. 

I hope you’re all well. Give my love to that family, if you still live near them. I wish you the best, and I know that Mrs. Hutch did, too. 

Your Friend, 

Georgie

Ivy set the letter aside, swallowing hard. Beside her, Eli lay on his side, cocooned in blankets, half-hidden in the pillows, watching her. 

“Well,” he said after a pause, “that was a surprise.” 

Ivy nodded, squeezing her eyes closed. 

Four years. Four years had gone by. For the first few months, she thought about Six Crow Hollow almost every day. When had it stopped? 

Probably when the twins were born, she thought wryly. 

On cue, a bloodcurdling shriek came from the next room, where Ruby was probably hitting her poor brother with a pillow again. 

Eli groaned. “I’ll deal with them.”

“Okay, honey.” 

Eli disentangled himself from the blankets and rolled out of bed, yawning and stretching. Ivy watched him, a half-smile on her face. Four years and two children later, and he still made her heart beat as hard as ever. 

The farmhouse was all theirs, now. Of course, the others wandered in and out as they pleased, naturally, and when Josiah returned from his university, he’d live with them. 

Nia and Luke’s ceremony – not a wedding, legally speaking – had taken place in the kirk, a few months after Ivy and Eli’s wedding. There was an outbuilding on the outskirts of their land, which was easily converted into a livable cottage, and they had lived there ever since. 

Where had the time gone? It had slipped through her fingers like a handful of water. As if to highlight the point of how quickly time moved past, the door flew open with a bang, and the twins came rocketing in. 

Ruby and Elliot were close to three years old and were thoroughly in their ‘terrible twos’ phase of development. They came bounding across the room, crawling on the bed towards Ivy, both talking nonstop. 

As far as she could tell, the gist of the matter was that Elliot had woken up early and made a noise, waking his sister, who had then signaled her displeasure by throwing pillows at him. The situation had escalated from there. 

Eli came plodding after them, still yawning. His hair was sticking up comically, flattened on one side from where his head had rested against the pillow. 

Still as handsome as ever, in Ivy’s opinion. He crawled back into bed beside her, coming close enough to rest his head on her shoulder. 

The children were still gabbling on, accusing each other of various misdemeanors. 

“Well, you’re going to have to figure it out between yourselves,” Ivy said, when they finally stopped to take a breath. “Otherwise, you won’t be able to play with Grandfather later.”

The twins’ eyes widened. “Grandfather!” they chorused; their quarrel already forgotten. 

“Yes, Grandfather. He’ll be here soon, so why don’t you go and make sure that your room is tidy before he gets here?”

Usually, that suggestion would have been met with the contempt it deserved, but the twins were far too caught up in their excitement to worry about that. Grandfather was coming, with his pockets full of toys and sweets and good things. 

They bounced down from the bed, darting out of the room, and Ivy heard them bounding along the hall to their own room, talking all the way. She sighed, sliding lower in bed, resting her cheek against the top of Eli’s head. 

“Are you looking forward to seeing him again?” she asked, and there was no need to ask who she meant. 

Eli sighed and nodded. “I am. There’s still some awkwardness between us, but things are getting better.”

Ivy bit her lip. She’d foolishly thought that after General Hawkins had arrived so heroically in Six Crow Hollow and saved them, all would be right again between father and son. 

It had been more complicated than that. For all he was changing, General Hawkins had supported a vile arrangement and fought to defend it. They’d grown apart, and it wasn’t to be mended overnight. 

But things were getting better. Better and better, with each visit and each exchanged letter. 

On cue, Ivy heard the rattle of hoofbeats further down the path, and knew that their guests were coming. She rolled out of bed, shrugging on a robe, and peered out of the window. 

Their house afforded a fantastic view of the surrounding fields, including an uninterrupted view of the path leading to their home, for about a mile. Ivy spotted a cart heading towards them, driven by a familiar man, one who looked like an older version of Eli. A sturdy woman sat beside him, who Ivy recognized as Hattie, and Maia lounged in the cart behind, with the luggage. 

Ivy leaned against the window frame for a moment, collecting her thoughts. 

How did life change so quickly, in the blink of an eye? Her parents were gone, but her family was still here. It had just changed a little. 

She felt the warmth of a body behind her before she registered Eli’s presence, before his strong arms snaked around her waist. He propped his chin on her shoulder, and she closed her eyes, leaning back against him. 

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice hushed. 

Ivy smiled. “You can read my moods like a book, can’t you?”

“I’ve had four years to study.”

“I just…” Ivy trailed off, biting her lip. “Today is the day that Mama died.”

He sucked in a breath. “Oh, Ivy, I’m so sorry. I should have remembered.”

She shook her head. “No, it’s not that. Mama was such a happy person. She’d have wanted us to celebrate together on the day, not mope around, miserable. I just still miss them, you know. Even Pa… I said goodbye to him, of course I did, but I feel like I never really said goodbye. Do you know what I mean?”

“Yeah, I do. Luke gets sad about them sometimes, too. I know it’s not the same, but I miss my ma, too. It’s an odd sort of pain, because the memories are happy, too. Do you think about your old hometown?”

Ivy winced. “Yeah, but those memories are more… more mixed, I’d say. Georgie’s letter brought it all back, though.”

“I can imagine. Will you write back to her?”

Ivy nodded, flexing her hand thoughtfully. She knew fine well that if Georgie hadn’t been there to see to her hands and Luke’s lungs, things might have ended worse than they did. As it was, Luke got breathless in the cold weather and if he ran too far and too fast, and Ivy’s hands stung and stiffened when it rained. She’d stuck dutifully to the exercises Georgie had prescribed, so she hadn’t lost any mobility in her fingers. 

“Hey, looks like Luke and Nia are coming along, too, with the baby.” Eli remarked, lifting a hand to wave. 

Luke and Nia were plodding across the fields, hand in hand, with the swaddled, sleeping baby Marcus cradled in the crook of Luke’s arm. As he grew, little Marcus would face a world with singular challenges. There were plenty of locals – even the ones who claimed they were broadminded – who tossed their heads when Luke and Nia passed by. There were stores and tea shops that wouldn’t allow Nia and Marcus to go over their thresholds, and that always left a nasty taste in everyone’s mouth. 

It wasn’t over. Not by a long shot, and sometimes Ivy’s heart sank when she thought of how far they had to go. Sometimes she saw a familiar, sad look on Luke’s face, and a grim, tight-lipped expression on Nia’s, and she knew that some new obstacle had been thrown up in their way, and it was a difficult one. Even the pastor’s stern, sad-eyed sermons about tolerance, love, and the impartiality of God seemed to go mostly ignored by the worst offenders. 

Still, this was the North, and it was a far cry from the hatred of Six Crow Hollow. 

As she watched, Luke and Nia’s path crossed with General Hawkins and the cart. The cart rolled to a halt, and they exchanged a few unheard sentences. Then Luke and Nia climbed nimbly up into the back of the cart with Maia, and they began to talk amongst themselves, for all the world as if they’d been best friends all their lives. 

Ivy smiled to herself. Family was important, after all. 

Then it struck her that their guests were very nearly at the house, while she and Eli were still in their night-things. What was more, the noise coming from the twins’ room was becoming louder and more… aggressive, and she couldn’t help but think that whatever they were doing in there, it was not tidying. 

“I haven’t even gotten the breakfast on!” Ivy gasped, panic clawing up her throat. Eli chuckled, unperturbed. 

“I got up before you were awake and put a pot of porridge on to simmer. The coffee should be just about brewed now, so all we need to do is throw on some clothes and go down to greet our guests. What do you say?”

She turned to face him, grinning. 

“Well, now, w-what would I do without you, Eli Hawkins?”

He grinned back, arms still loosely wrapped around her waist. “You’d sleep a lot later, for sure.”

She gave a gasp of mock outrage, and stood up on her tiptoes to kiss him, sliding her arm around his neck. 

“Now, we really must go down,” she said, reluctantly disentangling herself. “Come on, Mr. Hawkins, let’s get a move on, shall we?”

“After you, sweetheart.”

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