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Emma tossed her head from side to side on the pillow. Her hair was matted to her forehead with sweat.
“Remind me again why I wanted a child so much,” she said to Olivia, gripping her hand tightly, “because at the moment I think I am the most foolish woman in the world.”
Olivia pressed a damp washcloth against her forehead. “Hush,” she said, in a loving voice. “You are overcome.”
At that moment, a fierce contraction gripped her friend. Emma reared up, pushing with all her might, crying out in her effort.
“Not much longer,” said the midwife, nodding encouragingly. “Just one or two more pushes!”
Olivia’s heart twisted. She did not know how Emma had the strength any longer. But then, her friend pushed again. The next moment, there was the startled cry of a baby.
Olivia started crying. “Oh, my dearest! Do you hear that? Your baby is born!”
The midwife declared the baby a girl, then swaddled the infant, handing her to Emma. The moment was so perfect that tears kept trickling down Olivia’s face as she watched her friend greet her child for the very first time.
“Hello,” cooed Emma, smiling beatifically into the tiny face. “Welcome to the world, little Sophia.”
“Is that her name?” whispered Olivia, overcome with emotion.
Emma nodded. She looked weary but elated. “Go and tell Harold he has a daughter, dearest. He will be so thrilled.”
Olivia rushed out of the room, leaning over the balustrade of the staircase.
“The babe has arrived!” she cried.
The next minute, the two men were at the bottom of the staircase. Harold’s face was alight with joy as he leapt up the stairs like a gazelle, rushing to his wife and newborn child. Olivia sagged, suddenly overwhelmed with weariness, gazing at her own husband.
Alexander knew exactly what she was feeling. The complex bundle of emotions. She could see it in his face. She felt a rush of love for him, the love that had been so thorny and difficult at the start but had blossomed and become the central part of their lives. He reached up a hand towards her.
“Come to me,” he said, in a soft voice. “Let us go home.”
***
At Essington Manor, after they had told her grandfather and mother the happy news, they took a long walk together through the grounds. Alexander took her hand. They strolled in companionable silence for a long time, looking at the flowers and the red and gold leaves falling from the trees.
She was home, at long last. The only home she would ever want. Someday, after Grandpapa was gone, it would belong to them entirely. And Alexander had made his peace with becoming an earl. He would never be a gentleman like the others, but she would not want him to be. That was the reason she loved him.
Her heart clenched. But would this home ever hear the sound of their children, rushing around, laughing as they played? Were they destined to be childless forever?
“It will happen,” said Alexander, in a quiet but firm voice, seeming to read her mind as always. “You are overcome because Emma has a baby now, thinking that it will never happen for us, but I believe when the time is right our children will come into this world.”
She leaned against him. She could barely speak the deepest fear in her heart. “But what if they never come?”
“Then it will be just the two of us,” he said, grinning. “Is that so bad? You have had no complaints so far.”
She hit him lightly on the arm. He was teasing her as always. But he had made her feel a little better. It was true. It would not be a terrible life just being with him. The two of them together forever.
“Come with me,” he whispered, his breath warm against her ear.
He dragged her off the path, where there were several tall trees, their branches intertwined above to form a canopy. There was solitude here. He pushed her against a tree, nibbling her neck. She sighed with delight, surrendering to him and their love. It was always so beautiful, fierce but tender.
His hands pulled up her gown, exposing her bare legs. Olivia shivered with cold as well as desire. She was so ready for him. She always was. She pressed herself against him, her body telling him that this time there was no need for finesse. She needed him to take her, swiftly and soundly. She needed him to blot out the pain in her heart, wipe her mind clean.
Her legs interlaced around him as he drove into her against the tree. She could feel it rushing towards them. He was making her his own once again and this was all she wanted now. Him, and his love, pouring into her like honey. She stifled a scream as her own climax roared through her body, so primal and powerful that she felt shaken to the very core.
When it was over, they clung together, panting. His lips grazed her cheek.
She stared at him, feeling a shiver go down her spine. How she loved him. How she would always love him.
He had reassured her. If it was only the two of them, then how could she complain? She was the luckiest woman in the world. They had found their love after walking such a difficult path, and that was all that mattered. Now and forever.
THE END
