Hidden Away

Okay, I put this together just the other night and didn't have as much time to go over it to smooth out wording and such. It's also a little shorter than I wanted it to be, but if I don't stop it here, I'll just start into my next book in this chapter...which can't be done.

Let me know if you catch anything that needs 'smoothing out'. I'll start work on my 'Margaret and Lancey' book soon, once I get council on the sorta-plot I have put together so far. It won't be too long, I hope. ^_^ Until then, enjoy the epilogue.

Epilogue
The Meddler


The following week was a jumble of activity which consisted almost entirely of wedding plans. Jake had his nose in the middle of everything from flowers to guests.

Naomi took it all in stride, knowing that Jake had been waiting for the moment that he could not only see his son married, but have a baby on the way at the same time. She had been to see a midwife in the span of the last few days to find out that she was indeed in the early stages of pregnancy.

The morning of the nuptials dawned with warmth and saw Minna frantically gathering the items Naomi would be wearing for that afternoon; her comfort was everything. Naomi was wearing the bone-colored gown that was given to her on her first day at the house. Minna giggled like a little girl when she was brushing Naomi’s beautiful hair out around her shoulders.

Once she finished brushing it, Minna loosely gathered some of it in ringlets on top of Naomi’s head and left some tendrils to curl around her face. As Minna finished up with Naomi’s hair, Margaret came in wearing her blue silk gown with matching peach shawl. A gasp from her announced her presence.

“Naomi, dear, you look fabulous!!” Margaret praised happily, “Oh, you’ll outshine every flower in the parlor! And the florists really tried to outdo themselves, too,” she snickered, “And just wait until you see the cake that Minna made for you last night!” she stopped to take a hasty breath, “Breagan is almost as bad as Daddy about the decorations and everything, but I say it all looks fabulous…”

Naomi looked up from her lap to see her soon to be sister-in-law gushing over how beautiful it looked downstairs for the ceremony. She couldn’t help the full smile that played across her face. Margaret really was very energetic and incredibly hyper. Hopefully, the sugar from said cake wouldn’t make her fly off on a high. Lancey would have a field day with that, came Naomi’s amused thought. With a quick look up at Minna, she could see the sparkle in her eye that said she was thinking along the same lines. Minna was obviously putting her matchmaking plans into action for the elder Tyler child now that the younger was finally spoken for.

Margaret is in for it, now…, Naomi narrowly avoided the traitorous giggles at the amusing show this would make.


Jake was standing in front of the refreshments table shaking his head.

“Is it so hard to adhere to an order sheet?” He mumbled to himself irately. The delicatessen that he chose to cater was doing a decent job of it, if only they had brought enough food for everyone.

He sighed. None of this mattered, he supposed. As long as Breagan and Naomi got married this day, everything else meant little. Things were definitely looking up, so he could overlook little problems like this.

At a choked cough coming from his left, Jake turned his head to see a stunned Lancey in the corner of the parlor, a cup of warm tea halfway to his lips. Jake frowned at this and turned his head to see what had captured his adult ward’s attention. When he saw his daughter, looking lovely, he added with pride, moving in synch with Lancey’s line of sight, he was hard pressed to stop the slow, devious grin from showing itself on his face. ‘Well, now…interesting…’ Maybe this would be a matter he needed to investigate…

“Daddy? Are you okay? Hello!” Margaret was waving a delicate hand in front of his face when Jake came to from the depths of his meddlesome thoughts.

“I’m sorry, dear, my mind must have gone off for a minute,” he covered for himself. No need for his daughter to get suspicious of his newly forming plans…

Margaret narrowed a look at her father for a minute, “The judge has arrived, father, if you are ready to greet him?” she inquired, stealing a cube of cheese from the table next to her and popping it into her mouth.

“Yes, of course, dear. I’ll only be a minute. Why don’t you stay in here for me and keep Lancey company while I’m gone?” he asked, oh so innocently.

Margaret gave an un-ladylike snort, “Uh, huh. I’m going to go check on the cake,” she said, turning her nose up at the man in question on her way out of the room.

Jake shrugged in an ‘I tried’ manner at Lancey, who gave him a conspiratory grin. On Jake’s way out of the room, the door knocked loudly again, signaling yet another arrival to the small wedding.

Well, it was meant to be small, but word apparently traveled fast, so well-wishers showed up with gifts and were therefore invited to attend by the proud father of the groom.

Lancey responded to the silent look given to him by Jake and stood to answer the door. As he opened it, he saw that it was the son of Margaret’s employer, Nathanial Seabrooke. In his finely manicured hands he held a carefully wrapped gift for the couple to be married. Lancey nearly rolled his eyes; he knew this guy would also be invited to join the wedding. He had a thing for Margaret, Lancey was sure of it. Maybe he could get him out of the house fast enough to avoid getting him invited…he thought as he prepared to say his thank you and send the man on his way.

“Mr. Seabrooke! How good of you to show on this glorious occasion,” Jake exclaimed from the hallway leading back to the kitchens and causing Lancey to groan in disappointment, “If you would like to join the festivities, you are more than welcome. Lancey, invite the man in,” he instructed him as he swooped in for a quick handshake, “We’ll be starting up soon, so if you would like, there are some refreshments in the parlor while you wait,” he finished. If Lancey didn’t know his surrogate father any better, he’d explain his mood as ‘giddy’.


Naomi was more than ready to marry the gorgeousness that awaited her beyond the stairs, but couldn’t help the nervousness that plagued her as she stood.

When the time had come, Jake had retrieved her with tears in his eyes since he was going to be the one to walk her down the aisle where his son stood waiting. Before leaving the room, Jake presented her with a silver and ruby pendant on a matching chain that far outshined the necklace she currently wore. She turned her gaze up at him in shock.

“This has been handed down through the ladies of this family for some time, and I only brought it from its spot this morning. It hasn’t seen light since Colette passed, and now it belongs to you. I would be honored if you would wear this for the family,” Naomi nearly choked with tears as he stumbled his heartfelt words past his late wife’s name. As her answer, for fear that she would loosen the flood gates, she turned and moved her hair aside to allow him to change out the jewelry.

She felt the weight on her chest change over to that of the family pendant and turned when he had finished. He offered his arm while he wiped a few rebellious tears from his eye with the other. Naomi leaned up on tip-toes to give her future father-in-law a kiss on the cheek before accepting his arm, “Let’s go see Breagan, now.”
This led her to where she now stood, perched at the top of the stairs awaiting the cue to descend with Jake and make her way to Breagan. Once she was standing next to him, everything would be easier on her, she was sure.

Margaret was in her seat in the front row of matching seats awaiting Naomi to appear around the doorway with her father when her hand was instantly captured by someone, startling her. She turned to find herself looking at Mr. Seabrooke, her elderly employer’s son.

He grinned dashingly at her, “Ms. Tyler, I’m delighted that I’ve found you. Would you mind terribly if I sat next to you during the ceremony?”

Margaret blinked owlishly several times before realizing her rudeness and answered kindly, “Of course not, Mr. Seabrooke, the seat is not taken. Please,” she indicated that he sit and quickly turned her attention back to the doorway when ‘ooh’s and ah’s’ signaled Naomi and Jake’s arrival to the room. She didn’t notice Lancey’s glower angled at the man now sitting next to her.

Naomi turned the corner and saw that there were quite a few more people than she had been told were attending. Every chair was taken and there were some people standing along the walls to witness a Tyler’s marriage. If one looked close enough, they could see the tears of defeat in more than one eligible lady at the loss of Breagan’s availability. A few others were staring daggers at Naomi. She gripped Jake’s arm more firmly as they walked further into the room filled with onlookers. She’d never seen any of them before.

Jake winced painfully at the death grip Naomi had on his arm. He didn’t complain; he knew she was nervous about the amount of people lining the room, and noted that she knew none of them. Jake used the arm that wasn’t being choked to squeeze Naomi’s trembling arm reassuringly, relaxing her a little.

After what seemed like forever, Naomi was finally standing next to her Breagan. When she’d first seen him standing there in his formal wear, she was reminded of the time she’d first seen him the night her life had changed. She decided that he looked even better than he did then, if that were even possible.

Breagan watched his fiancé and mother of his future children marching her way to him, slowly, he thought, and he swallowed convulsively. She wasn’t far enough along in her pregnancy to see many changes aside from her increase in bust line, and that dress hugged her lovingly. When she reached him, he reigned in the urge to kiss her silly. That would come shortly…


The following night lasted long with people trickling out of the house when they’d had enough festivities. Mr. Seabrooke from downtown only left a couple of hours ago, and Lancey simply disappeared shortly after that. Margaret had retired half and hour ago when Jake insisted she sleep off the wine she’d obviously had too much of. She was currently in a guest room since she wouldn’t possibly make it back home tonight.

The only people that remained at the late hour were Breagan and his new wife, who steered clear of the wine for obvious reasons, Jake, and Minna.

“Am I the only one who noticed that Lancey doesn’t like that Seabrooke fellow?” Naomi asked, genuinely curious, “He seemed nice enough to me.” She hadn’t noticed his favored attentions to Margaret that day, or she would have seen why…

Minna enlightened her, “Well, Nathanial Seabrooke be th’ son o’ Margaret’s employer, Gladys Seabrooke. He’s shown some interest in courtin’ Margaret, but she either dinna notice, or simply dinna care,” she said, “I ‘ope it be th’ latter. ‘e don’t ‘ave th’ spine ta take care ‘o her like she needs.”

Jake nodded, “I agree fully. Yes, he’s nice enough and has the means to provide, but he simply isn’t a proper match if you ask me,” he added with accusation.

“Well, I’m pretty satisfied that I found mine,” Breagan inputted proudly with a kiss to Naomi’s forehead.
Jake simply stood there staring at the cabinets of the kitchen, not noticing as the small group went off on a new tangent of conversation. He put his finger to his chin and rubbed slowly in contemplation. Indeed…Margaret needs someone who matches her wit, and can handle her temper…an eyebrow went up and a slow smile crept curls into his lips, not unlike the Grinch, as his thoughts settled on the one man that described.

The room grew quiet once more as the other occupants saw the wicked gleam in Jake’s eyes as he smiled, thinking of his new targets.


His new grandchild would need a playmate after all, wouldn’t he?