Page 46 of Her Daring Earl
“Sometimes?” Eliza snorted. “All the time.”
“Do you wish to go for a walk?” Siena asked suddenly, rising from the bed.
“A walk?”
“I find that fresh air clears both my head and stomach,” Siena said with a small smile. “If you are truly with child, then it will be some time before you are feeling any better.”
Eliza groaned and threw herself back on the bed as Siena laughed and crossed over to Eliza’s wardrobe to find her a gown that she could wear outdoors.
The only way Eliza’s situation could improve was for this all to come to naught – but at least Siena was here.
She was sure she could get through this.
She just had to figure out how.
Fitz hadn’t beenable to stay in the same house as Eliza for another moment. He didn’t even wait to see if she was coming for breakfast that morning. Instead, he had gone for a ride to clear his head so that he could see through to the truth of the matter and determine just what he was supposed to do.
A child. Someday, he would likely be a father, but he had never taken the time to consider just what that would actually mean. And with Eliza. She was such a bright light, but was shetoobright?
He closed his eyes as he tried to imagine a life with her. It would be fun, that was for certain. But he could only imagine the talk if he disappeared from London and returned with a wife and child on the way just a few months later. No one would take him seriously. But what other choice did he have?
Fitz reached the long, open field where he liked to allow the horse to have his fill stretching his legs when he noted motion beside him. He turned quickly, prepared to defend himself, but instead, a wide grin stretched across his face and the tension within him eased when he saw who was there.
“Levi!”
He pulled up on his horse as his friend did the same. “What are you doing here?”
He was so relieved that when he dismounted, he nearly wrapped his friend in a hug, but of course, that would never do between the two of them.
“My wife told me she needed to come to see Eliza,” Levi said, never one to waste any words.
“So, you came as well?”
“I have no wish to leave her side anytime soon.”
“Of course,” Fitz said, recalling all Levi and his wife had been through. He could understand Levi’s wish to stay close to ensure that Siena remained safe. “And you wanted to see me, of course.”
Levi snorted and shook his head, but Fitz saw the spark in his eye that told him he wasn’t far off the mark. He and Levi had been friends for ages, as much as Levi always refused to acknowledge what they meant to one another. No matter. Fitz was always there to remind him.
“I hear you’ve been in some danger,” Levi said as they began to walk their horses side by side.
“Potentially,” Fitz said before relaying the story. “I am beginning to believe that it was all in my imagination.”
“Will you return to London to see if anything comes of it?”
“I have been contemplating it,” Fitz said, knowing that he likely would have done so far sooner had it not been for Eliza. “I cannot hide here forever. I would ask my mother and sisters to stay in the country until I have an answer one way or another. I do not suppose that would go over well, but I’m not sure what else I am supposed to do.”
He looked down at his hands and fisted them around the reins, wondering how much he should tell Levi, but then realized that Eliza would definitely not be holding any information back from Siena.
“There is another matter. One much more… sensitive.”
He told Levi of all that had occurred with Eliza, including the news she had imparted the night before.
“You didn’t realize that could happen?” Levi said, no change in his expression, and Fitz would have stomped his foot on the ground if he hadn’t been mounted.
“Of course I did! I just hoped… that it wouldn’t. Besides,” he said, shrugging his shoulders, “I am not certain that she actually is with child. Or that the baby is mine.”
“Why would you say that?” Levi asked without judgment, and Fitz recounted his suspicions.
