Page 114 of Scandalous Heiress
He ran his hand up into her hair and sent her pins scattering.He’d always loved her hair, the rainbow of golds and bronze.He loved every bit of her and to think she was unwell and he’d not been here to help her.“My darling, I knew it.What is it?Have you seen a doctor?You must tell me all.I need to know.We’ll get the best advice, the best—”
She laid back in his arms and let her eyes encompass him.“I have the best advice.The best there is.”
“What is it then?”
“We must wait about seven months to know.”
“But months?Why?I—” The reality hit him like a blow to the stomach.He stared into her twinkling eyes.What a simpleton he was.“Ada, sweetheart, a baby?”
“Are you happy?”
“Happy?”He swept her up into his arms.“Open this door.”
She obeyed and he whirled her inside.He took her to their bed and sat her down, then he knelt before her.“You were not going to tell me, were you?”
She bit her lower lip.“Not if you continued to live away from me.Not if you were returning to China and not taking me with you.”Sobs wracked her and he took her shaking body in his arms.
“I was a fool to say such things, Ada.”
She pushed him away, tears streaming down her cheeks.“I would have gone with you.When I said I wouldn’t go, I was selfish.And then I grew to love you so that I needed you for breakfast and for Viv and Deirdre and for tea parties, too.”
Hot tears sprang to his own eyes.He swallowed hard but smiled through them, determined to cheer her.“And…perhaps bad poetry?”
She cried then on his shoulder, his sweet wife who loved him beyond the terrors of scandal and the emptiness of loss.Who loved him so much she’d prepared the way for his success in her own inimitable way.
He settled them to the bed, he propped against the headboard, she curled in his arms as he stroked her back.“I’ve composed a new poem for this occasion,” he said after many minutes.“Are you ready to hear it?”
She peered at him through lowered lids.“Rave on.”
“Come with me and be my love, And we shall all the measures prove, That life is short, And love is sweet, And never will I again remove, Myself.”
She grimaced but kissed him as if she’d starved for him these many weeks.“I love you, Lord Cole, but as a politician, you must become more facile with words.”
“I swear I’ll find a thousand ways to show you I love you, Lady Cole.”
“Start now, will you?”
“My pleasure.”
