Page 61 of An Accidental Elopement

He could feel her shake her head.

“I just need you,” she breathed against his ear.

Archie held back a groan at her response as he once again slid into her.

“Wait, this is Archie’s cravat, is it not?” Rosie’s voice cut through the haze in his mind.

Archie stilled his motions, even though if Rosie and Gregory opened the secret door, it would hardly matter whether he was moving or not.

“Yes,” Gregory asked. “Perhaps, they have not retired as we suspected...”

“Where could they be then? Surely, they are not hiding in here...” Rosie asked in a voice as if she was going to inspect the room.

“Come along, Rosie, let’s leave them alone,” Gregory said.

“But where are they?” Rosie demanded.

“I’ll tell you if you follow me.”

Cecilia moved her hips against his and Archie was reminded of exactly what was happening between them. Satisfied that Gregory would not let Rosie burst into the hidden corridor, he started his motions between her thighs again.

“Who would have thought that such a wanton woman was hidden behind your proper exterior?” he moaned.

“I suppose you had an inkling,” Cecilia breathed. “When we get home...” She paused to gasp, but it was not her tone of voice that had him pound faster, but the fact that they were going home together. “When we get home, you have to give Mrs. Jenkins a day off...” She gasped.

“A day off?” Archie asked his tone of voice as strained as hers.

“To take me in the linen closet,” Cecilia panted.

The idea that she had fantasized about the two of them together there sent him over the edge. He did not even have time to make sure that Cecilia was with him as well. He felt her squeeze a hand in between them, rubbing herself a few times before she moaned softly, and he could feel her body clench and tighten with her climax.

“Heavens, you are perfect,” he mumbled against her sweaty temple.

Epilogue

Five months later

The cry from above sent Archie to his feet. He had been half asleep in one of the chairs by the low burning fire in the small cottage that he had rented for Lavinia and Cecilia’s aunt. The cry was so very different from the pants and swearing that he had been hearing for the past hours. His child had been born.

He began to pace the carpet once again, waiting for news. What was taking so long? If the child was crying, then surely everything had gone according to plan.

He wished he had taken Gregory up on his offer to accompany him. It would have been pleasant to have him keep him company instead of having spent many hours alone in the parlor. But when Gregory had made his suggestion, Archie had not considered that Cecilia would of course be helping her aunt and the midwife who was tending to Lavinia. When Cecilia would give birth, he would gladly take up Gregory’s offer of companionship.

Or if, he should probably say. They had been married six months now, and it was not for a lack of vigorous trying that Cecilia had not yet conceived. She was excited about her new ward though and did not seem too preoccupied with the fact that she had not become with child yet. He had been a bit concerned when Hester had officially announced that she was expected in January. But Cecilia had only seemed happy for Hester and Flint.

Archie looked at the gray April day outside of the window. His child had not chosen a particularly sunny or beautiful day to be born. His child. His child that he would raise with Cecilia. His heart swelled with equal parts gratitude and love as he thought of how she would raise his child alongside him. How she seemed to be looking forward to meeting the child just as much as he did.

***

“Are you certain you do not want to hold him, Lavinia?” Cecilia asked.

The warm newborn was bundled in her arms, and it hurt her a little to offer it to the other woman, even though she was the one who had just given birth to it.

“No,” Lavinia told her and turned her head. Her dark hair, the same hair that Cecilia’s newborn child had, was soaked through with sweat as was the nightgown she was wearing. Her face was red, and her eyes rimmed with dark circles.

Both the midwife and Cecilia’s aunt had assured them that it was perfectly normal that it took more than a day and a night to give birth to the first child. Lavinia had been exhausted at the end and Cecilia had felt for the poor woman, who had to labor only to give her child away. More than once she had had to remind herself that it had been Lavinia’s wish.

“Leave her alone for a moment, Cecilia, Darling. She is weary,” Cecilia’s aunt told her gently.