One year later…

The year was now 1862, the month April. It had been exactly one year since the day Ash gave birth to his and Andy’s twin sons, Keegan and Kelly, and all were doing well. Chris had passed on shortly after New Year’s from a fever that he never recovered from, leaving Andy as man of the house. Amy was still grieving her husband’s passing, but was doing pretty well, all things considered.

Despite her grief, she and Daisy were an invaluable help with the boys, seeing as the now sixteen-year-old boy couldn’t be in two places at once. He was run ragged by his boys, but he still loved them with all his heart, especially since they were such a blessing to him. He did all he could for them, sometimes sleeping for two days straight because he was up with them so much, especially when they caught their first cold. Thankfully, both boys were strong and managed to recover with no lingering health effects.

When Ash woke up on the morning of their first birthday ill for the third morning in a row, he began to catch on to what was happening to him. They were almost the exact same symptoms he’d had at the beginning of his first pregnancy, and despite his misery, he smiled at his realization.

Of course Andy was highly concerned about his young bride, finally deciding that he needed to wake his mother from her slumber to check on him. He took Keegan and Kelly downstairs for breakfast with Daisy’s help while she examined him, not wanting to be in the room for such intimate goings-on. The young boy wasn’t the least bit surprised when his mother-in-law told him that he was, indeed, with child again. He merely smiled at her and said that he’d figured that was the cause of his illness, but begged her not to tell his husband. He wanted to do so himself when he returned with their thriving sons.

“What did Mother find out?” Andy asked, setting the boys down in the floor by their old reading nook. It was mostly a play area for them now so they’d be close at hand.

“That I am with child again, just as I suspected,” he answered, grinning at him.

“You knew?” the young man asked, somewhat surprised.

“Well, I missed the monthly that has been coming since about two months after the boys were born.” He shrugged. “When I took ill, that was my first thought, but I wanted to be sure before I said anything to so much as Mother.”

“Ah, I see.” His husband gently embraced him from where he lay on their bed, too ill and tired to want to move. “Do you want to keep the boys in here today since I am going to be having students, or would you like Mother and Mama to take them?”

“Leave them with Mama for now,” Ash answered, releasing a soft, distressed burp. “I feel too unwell to manage them both right now.”

“All right. I will have Mother come check on you in a little while,” the young man promised, gently capturing his lips with his own. “I love you more than I can ever scream, Ashes.”

“I love you just as much, Andy,” he answered, smiling at him. “Forever and always.”

“Always and forever.”

Andy picked the boys up from where they were playing in the floor with strings of wooden spools and rattles made from gourds. They both protested slightly until he let them grab their toys since he had no free hands, and he turned a gentle smile on his young bride as he left their bedchamber.

The young boy, who was slowly maturing into a young man, settled down in their bed to try and get some more rest. He gently caressed his belly over where yet another child grew, knowing things were going to get harder for them once it was born. He wasn’t going to try to say whether he would birth one child or more, seeing as he’d thought he was having only one the last time and ended up with twins, but he got the feeling that if he was carrying more than one again, at least one of them would be a boy.

He reflected on nearly the last two years of his life, of how he’d been scared out of his wits when his parents told him they were marrying him off. Now that he knew that’d been purely Logan’s choice, that Daisy’d had no say in the matter, he hated his father more, but also thanked him. Were it not for him making such a choice, he wouldn’t be married to the love of his life, the mother of two, and expecting his third, maybe even fourth, child.

Sure, he’d had quite a few changes to adjust to one right on top of the other for the past couple years, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. If he did, that meant that Ash might not be who he was, or where he was in life, and he couldn’t even think about the endless possibilities he might’ve ended up with. He was just happy that he wound up with such a loving, caring, considerate husband, a mother who did her best to right her wrongs, a mother-in-law who doted on him as much as his husband, and two thriving boys who ran him ragged to carry on their legacy. Life was perfect, and only going to get better.

Notes

And that's a wrap for this story, my little Cynners. Before you ask or any demands are made, yes, there is a sequel in the works! You'll just have to stay tuned for its beginning since I dunno when it'll get posted. Fare well and au revoir, mio angeli caduti!
~Cyn