Page 32 of The Earl’s Second Chance

“Richard.”

Understanding emptied his face. He sat on the floor beside her.

“A child?”

“I believe so.”

He placed one trembling hand against her still-flat abdomen.

War had not frightened him as this hope did.

“You must send for the physician.”

“I have already sent for the midwife.”

“You rode yesterday.”

“Women with child are not made of spun sugar.”

“No more jumping fences.”

“We shall negotiate.”

He kissed her with such reverence that tears entered her eyes.

The pregnancy was announced after the first months. Lord Herfershire read the letter twice and then walked alone to the portrait gallery.

His eldest grandson would inherit the title, but when he returned to his wife his first words were not of succession.

“Elizabeth is well?”

“Very well.”

“And happy?”

Fanny smiled. “Indecently.”

Their son was born in April after a long night that stripped Richard of every illusion of courage. He paced until Elizabeth ordered him to sit, held her hand until she nearly broke two fingers, and wept without shame when the infant cried.

They named him Thomas Algernon Fitzwilliam.

The baby had Elizabeth’s dark hair, Richard’s grey eyes, and a furious objection to being washed. As the eldest grandson of Lord Herfershire through his eldest married daughter, he became heir presumptive to the earldom under the special remainder.

Mr. Collins wrote a letter of six pages congratulating “the infant who has displaced expectations I never claimed.”

Lord Herfershire framed the sentence.

Jane and Hartley became godparents. Kitty painted Thomas asleep in his father’s arms. Mary composed a lullaby. Lydia, now seventeen and returned permanently from Miss Templeton’s, proved unexpectedly patient with him.

“He does not care if I am accomplished,” she said as he gripped her finger.

“He will care whether you are kind,” Elizabeth replied.

Lydia looked down at the child. “Then I shall practise.”

Lord Herfershire held his grandson at the christening and felt the weight of more than inheritance. He would teach this boy that rank was duty before privilege, affection before possession, and family an obligation chosen daily.

“You are staring,” Fanny whispered.