Page 7 of Married to the Duke By Midnight

Jo gasped at his words. Did that mean that he consented to her plan? She briefly looked at Beatrice who gave her a wide-eyed look. Jo nodded and turned her focus to Lord Riddlesmarsh again. She shifted her feet. She wanted to step closer but was afraid that she might interrupt him and make him change his mind.

“I am fairly adept at managing money. Would you be agreeable to take advice from me or should I completely mind my own business?”

“I…” Jo cleared her throat. “I would listen to your advice, but I would have the final word.”

He turned the paper to read her list of demands.

“Stay a minimum of six weeks at seaside cottage each year,” he read aloud again. “With me or alone?”

Jo faltered. She had imagined staying there alone. It had never occurred to her that her future husband would want to stay as well.

“The duchess will stay a minimum of six weeks at her seaside cottage in the summer or autumn,” he read aloud as he wrote, before looking up. “I will need you in London during the season,” he explained.

Jo nodded mutely and gulped dryly again. It was happening. This stranger was agreeing to marry her. To rescue her and her seaside cottage from Ambrose’s clutches.

“The duke will follow upon request,” Lord Riddlesmarsh continued as he wrote. “However, if the duchess is expecting or her youngest child is less than six months old, she will refrain from going.”

His stony expression told her that this was non-negotiable. She had not thought of the implications of being pregnant at the seaside cottage, nor bringing an infant. In fact, she had always imagined being there alone.

“I want my children to be born at Riddlesmarsh Hall, alternatively in London, close to good physicians. Not in a seaside cottage in Hampshire,” he told her.

Jo nodded and felt her hands grow clammy. They were discussing having children.

“Speaking of children. Three are too few. I would like at least four, preferably five or six.”

“What? No, that is too many,” Jo could not help but argue. “Three should give you both an heir and a spare.”

“Perhaps. Or it could be three girls. Which I would not mind,” he added, “But you are right, I would like a couple of boys as well. And not merely to secure the order of inheritance.”

Jo frowned as she looked at him. It seemed a sincere demand on his part. She had thought three children would be an ideal number. Childbirth was dangerous and having to go through it multiple times only added to the danger. She did not want to acquiesce on this point. It was her health and perhaps even her life they were discussing, but she was well aware that refusing could mean he retracted his consent.

“Why is this important to you, Your Grace?”

“I grew up in a large family, Miss Hawkins. Two brothers and two sisters. I should like a large family of my own.”

Jo frowned and looked briefly at Beatrice. Her friend had told her that the duke did not have a brother who could inherit him, but now he was stating the opposite. If he did not need an heir, why was he even entertaining the idea of marrying her?

Beatrice shrugged and made a gesture with her hand towards the duke, which Jo interpreted as her friend’s way of saying that she should have the duke explain it.

“I gather from your confusion that you are not aware that my brothers are a stepbrother and a half-brother on my mother’s side. I think of both as my brothers though,” the duke explained seriously and something in his tone of voice gave her the impression that others had questioned whether they were his true brothers.

“Of course,” Jo mumbled.

She thought for a little while. She had grown up an only child, and she liked the idea of a large family. The image of herself surrounded by children at the beach in Lymington appeared before her inner eye. She was showing them a fossilized sea urchin and telling them that it had once been alive while Lord Riddlesmarsh was looming at the edge of the group with the youngest child on his arm. He was listening with an amused smile. The image was so vivid that she instantly wished it could become reality. And it could if she relented.

“Fine,” Jo told him. “Five children, provided that the physician says that my health will not suffer from another pregnancy.”

Something flared in the duke’s eyes which she could not determine before he turned to the paper to write again.

“I thought that was a given,” he muttered, his pencil hovering over the paper.

“You can never take anything for granted when it comes to men,” Jo said without thinking, which earned her a slight smile from him, but he did not comment.

“The couple will have five children, provided that the duchess’ health is not at risk. The duke and duchess will raise the children together and both will have a say in important decisions regarding them,” the duke continued without looking at her. “All boys will attend Eton from the age of nine,” he continued to read out loud as he wrote.

“Absolutely not,” Jo argued without thinking.

Lord Riddlesmarsh looked up and frowned.