Page 46 of The Earl Takes All
“I think you’re going to want to push the next time the pains start up, m’lady,” Mrs.Bedell said.
“Yes, all right.”
The pounding of footsteps on the stairs caught her attention, and suddenly Dr.Warren was rushing into the room. “Apologies for the delay,” he announced. “Weather’s atrocious. Let’s see what we have here.”
The servants scurried back. She couldn’t have been more grateful that Albert stayed as he was, serving as her sentinel. Dr.Warren began to lift the hem of her nightdress. “You should leave, my lord.”
Albert sighed deeply, irritation shimmering off him. “I’ve already been through this with the servants. I’m not leaving.”
“It’s best if some things between a husband and wife remain a mystery.”
“And it’s best if a man I can flatten with one punch concentrates his attention on my wife and child.”
“Yes, of course. M’lady, you’re going to need to push—”
He didn’t have to tell her. Her body was doing a marvelous job of that. Mrs.Bedell and Albert both lifted her shoulders so she’d have better leverage as the pain made its way through her. She couldn’t stop herself from crying out but at least she didn’t scream at the top of her lungs, even though she dearly wanted to.
“My brave, brave girl,” Albert cooed near her ear, standing, still holding her hand.
“We’re almost there,” Dr.Warren said. “Next one should push the shoulders out and we’ll be done.”
Setting her jaw, grunting a little louder, squeezing her husband’s hand, she pushed as hard as she could.
“That’s it,” Dr.Warren encouraged. “She’s here.”
Dropping back down, breathing heavily, Julia asked, “She?”
“You have a daughter.”
A daughter? But she was supposed to be a boy, the heir to Greyling. And yet strangely, she experienced no disappointment, no regret. She looked at Albert, certain she’d never seen more love reflected in his eyes. “He’s a girl.”
“So he is.”
“Can you see her?”
“Right now all I see is you. You’re so beautiful, Jules.”
She didn’t see how she could be. “Why isn’t she crying?” she demanded of Albert, as though he were the one in charge of life and death. “She should be crying.”
Then the wailing started, and Julia had never heard a more beautiful sound in her entire life. She began laughing and weeping with joy and gratitude and love. This tiny creature was making a powerful statement. “I want to see her.”
“Here she is,” Mrs.Bedell said, placing the child, wrapped in swaddling, in Albert’s arms.
He leaned over so she could see her daughter, her child screaming her lungs out. She met Albert’s gaze. “I’m sorry I didn’t give you your heir.”
A veil of tears glistened in his eyes as he touched the babe’s fist. Their daughter unfurled her hand and took hold of his finger. “I promise you, Julia, your husband could not be more pleased. She looks just like you. What father would find fault with that?”
Agirl.His brother’s wife had given birth to a daughter. Not a son. Not an heir. Which meant the title came to Edward. The role he’d been playing for weeks now was no role at all, but was the unvarnished truth, his reality. He was and would remain the Earl of Greyling.
Grabbing a bottle of scotch, not bothering with a coat, hat, or muffler, he strode out through the library terrace door into the snow, wind, and sleet. Into the blistering cold. But he barely noticed the frigid ice pattering his skin or the flakes gathering on his lashes.
He was the earl. It was not what he wanted, not what he’d ever wanted.
Yet how could he resent his newfound position when that delicate bundle of new life had wrapped her tiny hand around his finger? With her black hair, her chubby cheeks, and her face scrunched up as she squalled? How could a creature so tiny, so innocent, capture his heart with such ease?
Trudging through the blanket of snow, he took a swig of the scotch, welcoming its warmth spreading through his chest, a warmth that paled when compared with what he’d felt as he held his brother’s daughter in his arms. Julia’s daughter.
He hadn’t bothered with a lamp, but nearly three-quarters of a moon was brightening the sky. In spite of it being near midnight, the snow reflected the light and illuminated his path. It could almost be day for how well he was able to see. The howling wind pushed against him, but he pushed back. Nothing was going to prevent him from reaching his destination. Julia and the babe were both sleeping. They needed their rest, while he needed to be elsewhere.
