Chapter 10 - The Verse of Tomorrow
One year later.
The January snow was falling hard over Beacon Hill once again, turning the Charles River into a ribbon of silver steel beyond the panoramic windows.
Inside the warm, firelit library of the mansion, the air smelled of hot cider, cedarwood, and leather books.
Matthew sat in a comfortable leather armchair near the hearth, wearing a soft gray sweater and jeans. His walking cane rested against the side of his chair, though he rarely needed it around the house now.
On his lap sat his four-month-old daughter, Clara, wrapped in a soft yellow blanket, her dark eyes looking up at him with sleepy curiosity.
The library doors opened, and Natalie walked in, carrying two mugs of spiced cider. She wore a green cashmere sweater, her hair falling in soft waves around her shoulders, radiant with the deep, permanent joy of a woman who was loved beyond measure.
She set the cider on the table, walked over to Matthew’s chair, and sat on the wide leather armrest beside him, wrapping her arm around his neck, looking down at their sleeping daughter.
"Is she quiet?" Natalie whispered softly.
"She was listening to Dickinson," Matthew smiled, holding his daughter securely against his chest.
Natalie reached into her sweater pocket, pulling out the small, worn paperback book of Emily Dickinson poems—the same book she had dropped on the floor beside his bed four years ago.
She opened the yellowed pages to the marked stanza, leaning her head against Matthew’s strong shoulder.
"Read it to me," Matthew whispered, turning his head to press a gentle kiss against her temple.
Natalie smiled, her low, warm voice filling the quiet, sunlit library:
"Hope is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -"
May you like
Matthew looked at his wife, then down at his sleeping daughter, then out at the falling snow over Boston.
He smiled—a deep, brilliant, joyful smile that lit up his entire face, warming the mansion, warming the winter, and filling his life with an everlasting, unbreakable light.
