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“What tosh!” Edward said, still with his arms around Alice. “You do talk drivel, Simon. Eloise could not bear the shame of what I had become. A shell of a man, animated only by…by…by the opium that had become my reason for living.”
He looked around the three faces before him. All looked thunderstruck. He sighed.
“After the war, I was plagued by nightmares. Waking and sleeping. It haunted me. I began using opium to drown out the…the screams and the…horrors of it all. It took over, became my only reason for living. And poor Eloise could not bear to see it. I promised her that I had ended it so many times. Betrayed her so many times. She could not take any more. And after her death, neither could I.”
“You came here to escape,” Alice said.
Edward nodded. “I signed a contract agreeing to fund the Ty Gwyn hospital for the rest of my life in return for complete secrecy. And renouncing the title of Viscount.”
Simon was staggering, as though Edward’s words were all physical blows.
“All these years, I hated Redwood. Thought him the chief architect of all my ills. And all this time, I was not even the true Viscount.”
“Oh, you are Viscount, Simon. I do not want it. I want nothing more than to remain here as I have been.”
“But you are Viscount,” Simon insisted.
“No,” Edward said fiercely. “I will die before I assume that mantle again. It is my right to relinquish the title.”
“But Edward, now that I’ve found you again, I can’t possibly lose you,” Alice said, looking up at her brother with tear-filled eyes. “This has been the greatest miracle I could have asked for. It is beyond my wildest dreams. Please, you must come back with us.”
In the distance, Director Hendell had emerged from the house and was hurrying across the lawn towards them.
“Ah, the good Director has been looking for me, no doubt. To give me the news of your arrival. How fortunate that I had taken a constitutional at this time in particular.”
“Will you consider what your sister has asked, Edward?” Harold said. “And for my part, to rediscover an old friend again after all this time. One of my few, true friends…I would not have you vanish again.”
“I would not return into a war between families. I wish for nothing but peace,” Edward said.
“You shall have it,” Simon replied.
He turned to Harold and took a deep breath.
“Your Grace. I humbly beg for your forgiveness. I have already given you my blessing in your engagement to my sister. I give it again, wholeheartedly. I was wrong and I can admit that. There must be no further division between Redwood and Lindley. I offer the hand of brotherhood.”
He put out a hand to Harold who considered it for a moment, then clasped it.
“You are forgiven and I ask the same of you. I have acted out of spite towards you. I accept you as my brother. If you will accept me as such.”
Simon nodded and impulsively embraced Harold. Alice looked up at Edward, her long-lost brother, believed dead.
“You see? We will all be happy together. You can live at Lindley with Simon or Redwood with Harold and I. Ruth is also married. It doesn’t matter so long as you are part of us again. So long as our family is whole.”
“What do you say, Edward?” Harold asked.
Edward looked from his brother to his sister, then to his old comrade. He nodded. Alice buried her face in his chest, weeping for joy. Then, driven by a need she could not deny, she tore himself from his embrace and ran to Harold. He held her tightly as she beamed up at him.
“Our first adventure is over,” she whispered.
“And there will be many more,” Harold replied.
