AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He narrowed his gaze on her. “I am going to blister your backside. What did you think you would tell me you are with child, and I would run?”
“No,” she said quietly, “But I believe you would have done the honorable thing and then resented me for forcing your hand into parson’s mousetrap. I did not want you to marry me because you felt that you must do the honorable thing,”
The words stabbed into his heart, freezing him and melting his anger. In her tone, he heard that fear. “You would have allowed our child to be born a bastard and be deprived of his rightful inheritance because of your foolishness.”
Her eyes widened. “Alexander, I—”
“We are getting married.”
Fire flashed in her eyes. “I will not marry you! You do not wish to marry, remember? You do not like attachments or—”
“That was before I met you and before I fell impossibly in love with you, woman. Did you not hear me say this even before seeing your damn belly?”
Her lovely eyes widened then she giggled, and it was the sweetest sound Alexander had ever heard. He held out his arms, and she came into his embrace without hesitation. “I love you so much, “Lucinda whispered. “So very much, Alexander. I should have found the courage and let you know right away; I should have recalled the character of the man I had fallen in love with.”
“Bloody right, you should not have run,” he said, nipping her lip sharply before kissing her, until she was totally breathless. “Will you marry me?”
“Oh, yes, I will.”
“Thank God. I would not have allowed you to say no,” he said, kissing her deeply. She responded with a wild, aching hunger he felt it to his very soul. Lucinda sobbed into his kiss, clutching his shoulders. Raw emotions tore through Alexander’s heart, and he held her to him for a long moment afterward.
“I am glad to hear it. Now take me inside and love me, Alexander.”
He swept her in his arms, walking past a stunned servant who held a pair of shears in her hands, watching them with widened eyes. Lucinda buried her face against his shoulder, laughing at her happiness.
EPILOGUE
5 months later
Alexander gripped his wife’s hand, using a warm towel to wipe the sweat from her brows as she pushed at the behest of the midwife and physician. He never released her eyes, holding her steady against the pain of this birthing day. She smiled wanly up at him as finally she managed to force out their recalcitrant babe. With a deep sigh of relief, Lucinda slumped against the pillow and a thin wail sliced through the air.
“Our babe is here. We have a baby girl,” he said gruffly.
She smiled. “Let me see her.”
The midwife tended to his wife for several minutes, cleaning her and dressing her into a clean shift with her lady maid’s assistance. The doctor placed a tiny bundle wrapped in a yellow blanket in his arms, and a lump formed in his throat. Alexander padded over to the bed, leaned down and carefully placed their babe in his wife’s arms.
Lucinda stared down at her child for what seemed like an eternity.
“Isn’t she perfect?” his wife whispered, peeking up at him with tears brimming in her eyes.
“As perfect as her beautiful mother,” Alexander said gruffly, not surprised to feel that his eyes were also damp with tears. The emotions that clutched at his chest and squeezed were the fiercest, purest of love.
Lucinda peered up at him, love and tenderness shining in her eyes. “Five more to go,” she murmured.
Alexander chuckled, dipped his head and brushed a sweet kiss over her mouth. “Whatever you wish, my love, whatever you wish.”
* * *
Dearest Theo and all the members of 48 Berkeley Square reading this letter over your shoulders,
By the time you receive this letter, I am certain you will have seen the announcement that I am now the Countess of Chisholm. Alexander convinced me to marry him, and we did so by special license a few months ago, with our families as witnesses to our nuptials. I am exceedingly happy and in love with my husband, totally assured of his love for me as well.
I never imagined I could be this happy, and we have recently welcomed our first child into the world, our daughter, Elizabeth AmeliaMoncrieff.
Thank you for daring me that day, for without the courage to act on it, I would never have met the love of my life.
To ladies who dare.
