Page 74 of Tempting the Marquess

Then he turned on his heel and strode away. Inexplicably she felt bereft, which was ridiculous. For heaven’s sake, David Underwood was old enough to be her grandfather. If anyone knew how safe she had felt with his arm around her, how she’d actually been tempted to cuddle closer against him, she would be laughed out of London.

Shuddering, Samantha shook her head to remove the ludicrous thoughts, and immediately regretted it when her stomach turned upsidedown.

“Lady Samantha? Are you all right? You look...green.”

“No,” she mumbled, pressing a fist to her mouth. “Please get me outside, Alexander. Hurry.”

His eyes widened and he half-led, half-carried her to the double doors leading toward the garden, barreling his way through the throng of bodies as only a duke could. As soon as they got outside, she wrenched away from him and sprinted behind a large clump of bushes where she was horribly, ingloriouslyill.

“All right?” Alexander asked sympathetically as he crouched down and handed her the cup of lemonade she’d been holding before her mad dash for privacy. “I remember the first time I overindulged, it wasn’t a pretty sight. One of the main reasons I refrain from drinking too much nowadays.”

Samantha sighed and took a tentative sip. “It’s not that. I haven’t touched a drop of champagne tonight.”

“You must have eaten something badthen.”

Smiling ruefully, she allowed him to help her over to a wooden bench beside a small stone fountain. “No. I’m...I’m going to have a baby, Alexander.”

He stared at her like she’d started speaking in an unknown foreign tongue. “What?”

“I’m with child. In an interesting condition. Enceinte, as they say,” she replied, almost grinning at his dumbfounded expression.

“Pregnant? You mean Will...” he coughed and cleared his throat, “...iam’s going to be a father?”

“Indeed.”

“What marvelous news. I’m so pleased. So very, very pleased,” he announced gruffly, pulling her into an awkwardhug.

“Careful,” she admonished with a laugh, “Your rocking is making me seasick!”

“Sorry. But what an evening. William coming home, and a baby. I’ll expect a wedding invitation post-haste. And to be godfather, of course.”

“I don’t know,” Samantha said teasingly, “Only the very best of candidates need apply for such a lofty position.”

“Naturally. I can provide better references than Stephen, though. Would the king do? Or maybe you and William would prefer a political-leaning recommendation and accept the word of the Prime Minister?”

Rolling her eyes, Samantha laughed. Yet it was tinged with sadness. It shouldn’t be Alexander, but William sitting here, smiling, teasing, and hugging her. Never had she missed him more than right at this moment.

He might be home in a few days, but they would be the longest days of herlife.

* * *

He had thoughthe’d known pain and could process it. That after his parents’ murder, the deaths of Uncle Andrew and Gregory, even being shot in France possibly because of Samantha, nothing could make him flinch or miss a step again.

He was wrong.

“I’m with child. In an interesting condition. Enceinte, as theysay.”

“Pregnant? You mean I’m going to be a father?”

“Indeed.”

“Well. What marvelous news. I’m so pleased. So very, very pleased.”

The words tore through William’s body like a poisoned spear, slashing and maiming without mercy. Alongside the sight etched into his brain of Samantha in Alexander’s arms. Joyfully celebrating the news of their impending child.

It had taken every fiber of his being to remain concealed and silent behind the pillar. To not bellow a denial and cut a swathe of destruction through Aunt Jane’s garden at their shocking betrayal, the woman he’d cared for most and the man who had supposedly been his best friend. The man whose brother he had gone to France to rescue. But once they’d begun to embrace, he’d been unable to stomach a second more and left the place.

The Marquess of Standish, prize idiot. So many had told him about Alexander and Samantha. Some maliciously, like the French assassin. Some matter of fact, like White. Bloody hell, even the couple themselves had openly demonstrated their affection for one another. Alexander with his cold-eyed silent warnings and deliberate touches. Samantha with her fond smiles and veiled references to Alexander’s high-level duties. He’s a busy man with a great many responsibilities.