Page 95 of Wedded to the Beastly Duke
Smiling, Emmeline shook her head and pulled herself into a sitting position. “It might… it might be a girl.”
“Why do you say that as though it might be a problem?” He walked over to her and caught her face in his hands, kissing her enthusiastically. “If she is a girl, then she will take after you, and I cannot be disappointed with that.”
“And if we never have a boy? After all, I am one of two girls.”
“Then we will have two beautiful daughters.” He cupped her face, and she could see the emotions swirling in his blue eyes. “Believe me, my love, this is everything I could have hoped for. With child! Oh, my darling.”
Laughing, she accepted his embrace. “I love you,” she said.
“I love you too. More than I could ever have conceived loving something.” He bent to kiss her stomach, which was still perfectly flat. “And I shall love our child even more.”
* * *
Adam watched from the bed as Emmeline stood before the mirror in their room, her hands on her stomach. Her body was beginning to change slightly. There was a tiny curve at the base of her stomach, and her breasts were larger now, heavier, although he wasn’t entirely sure if she had so much as noticed.
These changes were evident to him, but only because he spent so much time looking at her, tracing her skin with his fingers, learning every part of her.
She would be beautiful to him even in the later stages of pregnancy, when her belly was large and distended. Even when she was old and gray and her childbearing days were long behind her.
He climbed out of bed and padded across to her, sliding his hands around her waist. She glanced up and met his gaze in the mirror.
“I know it’s a natural thing,” she said, trailing her nails across the back of his hands, “but I wonder sometimes if my body will ever go back to the way it is now.”
“Does it matter if it doesn’t?”
“It matters to me. It’s my body. The thought of it changing… scares me.”
He paused, thinking about the best way to approach this. If he could have his way, he would wrap her up and ensure nothing ever happened to her. He would lock her in this room and protect her from everything in this world that could harm her, and let her focus all her energy on all the changes that were happening to her body.
But as he couldn’t do that, he did the next best thing—reassured her to the best of his ability.
“If it changes, it will because it’s done a beautiful thing,” he said, kissing her neck. “And should you not carry the physical marks of that wondrous thing?”
“And if I never look like this again?”
“Then I will love the way you look, and I hope you will grow to love it as well. Consider what you are asking of your body, and what it is providing. There is a baby in here. Our baby. Our child.” He placed his hands on her stomach, fingers splayed wide. “And yes, the prospect of having a child scares me, too. I don’t want to lose you. But I’m not worried about the way your body will change.”
“Easy for you to say,” she said wryly, turning in his arms and wrapping them around his neck. “It’s not your body.”
“You’re my wife. In the eyes of the law, it is my body.”
“Say that again, and you soon won’t have any property to speak of.”
He laughed and kissed her. After a moment’s hesitation, she kissed him back.
“I don’t wantthisto change,” she said against his mouth.
“It won’t, my love.” He nipped her lip. “After all, I want far more than just one child.”
Epilogue
If Emmeline had known how much Adam would fuss over her, she may well never have told him that she was pregnant.
Although he was, for the most part, extremely sympathetic and encouraging, he wasalsovastly overprotective.
For a start, although she only felt mildly ill when sickness struck, he insisted that she lie down at the merest hit of nausea. In his defense, he also kept by her side, both keeping her company and irritating her by degrees.
“No tea,” he said when the tea she had ordered arrived. “Hot drinks may irritate your stomach.”
