Page 21 of Sweet Siren
Killian arched a brow at him. "You'll be fine. Everyone is. One grows into fatherhood. But I must say, I’m surprised Lily only just realized her condition once she heard Marianne speak ofhers."
"I agree. Lily is so knowledgeable about physical conditions and maladies. You'd think she'd be constantly aware of how she feels. But what can I say? I know my tenants benefit from her care." He paused to stare at Killian. "I suppose not all women have sickness in the morning. Lily hasn't. Though she has complained lately offatigue."
"You won't let her overdo herself now, Ihope."
Julian shook his head. "She'll stay in bed, if that's what suits her. I don't want her traipsing about the tenants' cottages, either. I'll get Lily to hire a proper nurse for the estate. Lily can train her to her satisfaction. We'll pay her well and she can go down and treatthem."
"A fine idea," Killiansaid.
"Lily's, really. When she was so tired last week, she suggested it. I liked the idea then. I love it now." He picked up his coffee cup and drank. "I hope you don't mind if we stay a fewdays."
"Absolutely not. Remain as long as youlike."
"Good. The train was fine, but she wasn't keen on the speed. Looked a little green, actually. I should have thought of all thisthen."
"Don't criticize yourself, Julian. We men don't tend to think of our wives getting pregnant, until they are and then we fall all over ourselves ensuring their safety and theircomfort."
"I'm going to insist she do less," Juliansaid.
"A good idea." Killian had loved pampering his Aileen when she'd been with child. Four times she'd blossomed, queasy only in the first few months. Never a problem delivering until that last one in 'sixty-five when she and the baby died of a prolonged and agonizing labor. After she'd gone, he scoured his memory for any little comfort he might have missed giving her. His grief was a ravenous animal that had eaten him alive for more years than he cared to count. No woman had meant as much to him since her passing. Lust was a shallow thrill, minutes long. Desire, though, was an emotion he'd long forgotten. Olivia Bereston awakened it in him. He welcomed the joy in it, even if he was shocked that at his age he might feel the buoyancy. Infatuation was more the word for her lure forhim.
"What do you think?Killian?"
He faced his son-in-law. He had Liv on his brain. "I'm sorry. What did youask?"
"What to do for a woman who is carrying a child? What do you recommend? I'd ask my mother but you know that relationship was never worth afarthing."
"Ah. Yes. Well. Lots of rest. She should eat whatever she wishes. No riding a horse. Any idea how far along her pregnancy mightbe?"
"Dear god." Julian stared at him with a wrinkled brow. "I didn't ask her what she estimates. She wasn't in the mood to talk at all last night. She's still surprised. So I can't say what a date would be. I mean, well...hmmm...she might have conceived right after we were married in June, but then that would makeher..."
"Four months along," Pierce strolled in and grinned at Julian. "She wouldn't still be nauseous. Or would she?" He glanced at hisfather.
"I don't think so. Women react differently during their term. My wife was a shrew for the first child, sick as a puppy for the first months of the second, and fit as one of my Baltimore dock hands during the third. But you're the best judge of timing,Julian."
"Quite so," he said, lost inthought.
"There was that journey Lily took to Ireland in August," Pierce reminded them as he picked up tongs to select his breakfast sausage. His tone was all too casual, as the family did not speak of that period when Lily had left her husband. "So?"
"Yes," said Julian slowly. "Ireland."
How long had Lily been away from her new husband?Killian still had no idea and didn't wish to embarrass his son-in-law by bringing up what was a delicate subject. His daughter had left her new husband two months after their wedding and without notice, traveled to Ireland. Killian had not asked all the details. Many of them were none of his business and while he could be a demanding bugger, he would not meddle in his children's marriages. Or anyone's. That led tocatastrophe.
Julian frowned at his plate. "She might be three months along...or more thanone."
"Ask her later today when she feels up to talking. She should be able to count the months shemissed."
"Oh, right. Of course." Julian went back to hisbreakfast.
Pierce took a seat next to his father, but focused on Julian. "How isElanna?"
Killian inhaled. He didn't care for Pierce's continued interest in Julian's sister. The twenty-year-old young woman had married a much older man, the earl of Carbury, three weeks after Lily and Julian had wed. A beauty with rosewood brown hair and hazel eyes, she was a spitfire too, who had turned like day to night upon the occasion of her betrothal. At the same time, Carbury, too, had become more taciturn and more sinister. When Julian's father, the previous duke of Seton, had suffered a stroke during the wedding breakfast and died in the parlor, Elanna and Carbury had left immediately after the burial. Carbury, demanding and secretive, had insisted that he take his bride on a wedding journey. She had not argued, but in fact, sneered at her mother, the dowager duchess, and happily made a path to the front door and the Carbury carriage. Elanna had raged like a child at her fate. And for some unfathomable reason, Pierce was attracted toher.
Killian had always been proud of the fact that his son was wise in the matter of women. Pierce was twenty-six, a shrewd businessman, two inches taller than Killian, fit, handsome as hell with raven hair and tender dove grey eyes. He had no mistress. Never had. If he'd taken women for a night or more, he didn't keep them longer. Wise in that, he was also selective in the young women he paid any court to. None at home in Baltimore, New York or Boston had caught his eye. He never spoke of any of them, never sought any information about them. Not as he did Julian'ssister.
That worried Killian. Greatly. Elanna was a gently reared lady, daughter of a duke, now sister to one. Worthy, or so would say the aristocrats, to marry an earl. And she had. Everyone knew she'd married because the duchy was nigh unto bankrupt. All the Hannifords knew this because the marriage negotiations for Lily's dowry and annual income had been a nasty battle. But after her betrothal, Elanna had turned bitter. Resentful that she'd been turned out, forced to marry a man she disliked. And that put it mildly. She'd come to hate her status so much and begun to hate her husband so intently, that she was lost to herself. Resentful, angry and outrageously self-centered, she'd become a harpy. Few wanted to be near her. She sequestered herself at home in the countryside. There, according to letters Lily wrote to him, Elanna spent lavish sums on new gowns, furniture and a massive glass hot house conservatory. She also drank to excess and smokedtobacco.
Julian looked morose. "She's not well. Still belligerent to me. Does not receive my mother. But then, I don't either, so that's no problem there for me. I have received Carbury once. Lastweek."
