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Epilogue
Christmas Eve. Four years later…
“Mama!” little George shouted gleefully from the living room.
“I’m coming, sweetheart!” Isabella placed the movie script onto her desk. She had promised Liam she wouldn’t be working on it today, but she just had the most wonderful idea that she had to make a note of before it slipped from her mind again.
It was about last year when Liam’s manager introduced her to his wife, a movie producer. Several movies later, Isabella’s name was the first to cross any producer’s mind if they were working on a period movie and needed to be historically accurate. She loved working. It was another perk of the twenty-first century, considering that where she came from it was highly frowned upon for women of society to be employed.
Isabella left her home office and turned into the hallway when Liam pulled her aside and wrapped his arms around her. He was wearing his manly apron with a kitchen towel over his shoulder.
“I’m jealous of these movie scripts. They’re getting so much of your attention,” he smiled before he lowered his lips onto hers, kissing her softly.
“Sounds like somebody would rather live in 1881 where men can do with their women whatever they want,” she grinned seductively.
Liam kissed her again. “That sounds amazing! But then, I would probably have to eat your cooking…” She pulled away with loud laughter, playfully hitting his shoulders.
“Maaaamaaaaa!!!!” George’s voice wailed from across the hallway again.
“Impatient. Just like his father.” She rolled her eyes.
“He knows what he wants you mean,” Liam joked, giving her a love slap onto her butt cheeks with the kitchen towel before she could make it out of reach.
The living room was decorated most beautifully. A huge Christmas tree covered in shiny, colorful ornaments stood proudly in the corner next to the fireplace that had stockings hanging above a flickering wood fire. After Liam had turned his business around and Isabella was paid out a very large inheritance from the current Duke of Aberdeen, just as it was instructed in George’s will to release the estate for good, their new Victorian four-bedroom villa in the outskirts of Philly was way below what they could afford.
“Mama!” Little George shrieked as he came running toward her.
“Look what auntie Dan got me!” He held a little toy car into the air for his mother to see. Isabella smiled as she grabbed little George and carried him back over to where Dan was sitting on a couch. Mama was sitting next to her. Eva and Henry on the other hand were in the other corner of the room, deeply engaged in a heated conversation about time travel and the science behind it. Isabella leaned forward to kiss George on his cheek before gently placing him down.
“Wow, look at that. Is that auntie Dan’s third Christmas giftbeforethe actual gift exchange?” she said in a sweet voice, looking right above George’s head and straight at Dan.
“It’s just another little pre-Christmas gift.” Dan crossed her arms to fight off any possible accusations of spoiling him. Dan and George had become inseparable, so much so that Liam and Isabella even had a room for her right next to George’s, which was for her to come and go as she pleased.
“I don’t mind, Mama,” George grinned at her, skipping back onto Dan’s lap.
“He doesn’t mind, you hear?” Dan pulled him closer, rocking slowly back and forth with him. Isabella’s heart skipped with joy seeing all these people she loved so happy.
“Isabella,” Henry said walking up to her, “I have a little pre-gift for you too.” He handed her an envelope. Her eyes widened as her mouth flopped open. “Impossible!” She tore the envelope open to reveal a British passport. “Never thought I would hear the word impossible from a person who literally time traveled from 1881,” he jested, watching her excitement with satisfaction.
“So, they really just gave this to you?” She flipped through the pages like a little kid through a new coloring book.
“Notjust… It took the best lawyer of London and an invitation to the Queen’s annual hunting party mailed directly to the head of immigration. And voila.” She squeezed Henry as a big thank you. “You are the best!”
“Would you all stop exchanging gifts? Otherwise I will have to get mine too now and the goose won’t be ready for another twenty minutes,” Liam said, joining them from the kitchen, wiping his hands with a kitchen towel. All of a sudden, Mama, who accepted every one of their invitations and was usually just watching people quietly from a corner, sat up and closed her eyes, slowly lifting both hands in the air, and spoke with her deep growling voice which they hadn’t heard for quite a while now. “I see the goose in flames.”
Henry rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to make a joke, when suddenly, the smoke detector went off, followed by smoke creeping into the living room. Liam turned around on the spot, storming away in an attempt to save his goose. He coughed desperately from the kitchen. “God darn it, Mama! Next time please tell me this in advance!” Little George crossed his arms in defense over Mama. “She just did, daddy,” his little cute voice giggled through the living room into the kitchen, followed by the loud laughter of the people who could not be more different but had come together as one—a family.
