“Iam theDuchess of Rutley,” she said, awestruck, shaking her head over this fact. “Who would have thought it?”
Ezra wrapped his arms around her waist. His face was tired from smiling, but he wasn’t about to stop now.
“Iwould have thought it,” he declared. “It was my very good idea to marry you, and I should like to receive credit for that, thank you very much.”
She laughed, then reached up to pull his face down to hers for a soft, lingering kiss.
“You did think it,” she murmured against his mouth, and he was struck by how perfect things were, that he could kiss this woman that he adored right here in his own foyer—intheirown foyer—for the rest of his days. “You believed when I could not, and I amso, so grateful that you did. I love you, Ezra. And I am overjoyed beyond reason to be your wife.”
He kissed her back again.
“Being your husband is the greatest honor I know,” he told her solemnly, but today was not a day for solemnity, so he let wicked glee back into his tone. “Except now I would also be very much honored if you would let me, at very long last, take you up toourbedchambers.”
Letty arched an eyebrow at him, then adopted so exaggerated an upper-crust accent that even the queen herself would consider it a bit too much.
“Oh, Iamsorry, Your Grace,” she said, putting her nose in the air. “Butproperaristocrats never share a bedchamber. You see, I am a duchess now, and I simply cannot abide?—”
Whatever else she had to say was lost in a yelp of laughter as he swept her up into his arms and began carrying her upstairs.
“As impressed as I am with your aristocratic authority, Your Grace,” he said between kisses as they approached their room, “if you think I plan to let you sleep anywhere but at my side, you have gone quite mad.”
“A husband for less than a day and already a tyrant,” she sighed, but the effect of her complaint was rather undone by the smile on her lips.
Rather than explain himself in words, Ezra decided to make his case in deeds. He lay her down on the bed with all the reverence he had in him, then crawled up the bed until he was lying at her side. They rolled, facing one another, so that they could kiss and kiss, his hand in her hair, her leg thrown over his hip.
They fit together like this. They fit perfectly.
And once he managed to get this damned dress off of her, nothing would ever come between them again.
After he had done valiant battle with stays and ties and about a thousand tiny buttons—after Letty was naked before him, all strong limbs and the occasional smattering of freckles that he planned to chart with his tongue—after he was so hard and aching at the sight of her that it was a wonder that he had not swooned like a girl?—
After all these things, she said, “Ezra, wait.”
He did, of course, but he could not say that he had a very good attitude about it. He was halfway through kicking aside his own trousers when he froze, groaning.
“Letty, my love,” he said, just a touch petulantly. “Surely there is nothing that is so important right now.”
There was a look in her eye, happy and anticipatory, but a touch nervous, too.
“Well, I don’t meanwait,” she clarified. “I just… There’s something I need to tell you first.”
“We already said the vows, love,” he said. “There’s no backing out now.”
She rolled her eyes at him fondly. “It’s not that. It’s just… I thought you might want to know that we have one more scandal ahead of us.”
Oh Lord. He could not even imagine what that might be. At the end of the day, he didn’t trulycare—Letitia was his wife, and that was not the kind of thing he would undo even if he could, and everyone else could go hang—but he still felt a strong desire to protect her from any gossip that might hurt her feelings. She had had enough hurt feelings in her life, and now that he was here to stand in the way of any minor pain, he would do so.
“What is it?” he asked cautiously, though hedidfinish ridding himself of his trousers. He wanted to be next to her. Heneededto be as close to her as possible.
When he was back at her side, their legs entwined with a form of proximity that was not nearly enough for Ezra, she smiled.
“I am afraid that we will give people reason to count the months after our wedding,” she said, biting her lip against her shy smile.
Counting the… At first, he didn’t understand. When he did, however, the knowledge hit him like a boulder. He pushed uponto his elbow so that he could look her over without untangling the places where they were touching.
“You are—” He broke off, a breath escaping him in a gust of wonder.
“Increasing,” she confirmed, touching her stomach lightly. It was stillalmostas flat as it had always been—Ezra had enjoyed becoming an expert on all things pertaining to her body these past few months while planning their wedding—but if he looked very closely, he could see a slight roundness that had not been present before. “I only just became certain, but I haven’t had my courses in ages. I do not think that we are going to be able to pass off the babe as merely an early arrival.”
