Jane didn’t cower before him, knowing she had been hired by the mistress and that it was the mistress she served. “Fashion requires—”
“Be damned to fashion! I won’t have her tied up in one of those again. The woman fainted, for heaven’s sake. It’s a wonder she hasn’t done so before now.”
“It wasn’t the corset that caused it!” Jane retorted. She quickly slapped a hand over her mouth.
Nicholas’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean? What’s wrong with her?”
“Nothing’s wrong.” With Nicholas towering over her, Jane wasn’t so sure of herself as she might have been.
“If you know anything, you’d best tell me. I’ve sent for the doctor, and any secrets you’re keeping won’t be secret much longer.”
“Then he can tell you,” Jane said primly.
“Tell me what?” Nicholas roared.
“Her Grace is with child,” Jane blurted.
Nicholas stared at her, disbelieving. “She’s barren.”
“The doctor only said he didn’t think she could have another. And His Grace, the previous duke that is, never came to her bed after she lost the child.”
“Get out,” Nicholas said.
“But, Your Grace—”
“Get out before I pick you up and throw you out.”
Jane left the room, closing the door quietly behind her.
Nicholas sank down onto the bed beside Daisy. The jacket of green velvet had been peeled open along with her blouse, and the corset he had blamed for all her trouble pushed her breasts up enticingly. But his eyes were drawn inexorably down below her waist. He laid his palm on her gathered skirt, but couldn’t feel any difference in her shape. Her belly was still flat.
Our child is growing inside her.
He hadn’t imagined having another child. Hadn’t planned on it. Didn’t know what to think of it.
Unfortunately, Daisy came out of her swoon too late to keep Jane from spilling the truth and too soon for Nicholas to have come to terms with the cataclysmic news he had just been given.
Daisy raised a hand to her head and opened her eyes slowly to adjust to the light in the room. Everything came back to her, how she had dropped her riding crop and leaned over to pick it up and then fainted dead away. She decided Nicholas must have brought her to his bedroom so she could recover.
“Nicholas?”
“You lied to me.”
“What?”
“About having children. You lied to me.”
He knew. Somehow he knew about the child. Of course. That was what had caused her to faint. Dr. Fitzsimmons had warned her to tread carefully, not to try to do too much. And somehow Nicholas had figured out the truth. Or someone had told him. She had seen the doctor when she first missed her courses, and he had confirmed what she had only hoped. She had promised to take care of herself, to eat well and to get enough sleep and to moderate her activities. He had told her she could continue riding for a few more weeks. He had also warned her not to get her hopes up, that it was doubtful she could carry the child to full term in any event. So she had been afraid to let herself hope. She had made him promise not to tell Nicholas, and he had agreed.
But, under the circumstances, maybe he had been given no other choice. “Did the doctor come?” she asked.
“Not yet, but he’ll be here soon.”
“Then how—”
“Jane told me.”
“Oh. I wanted to tell you myself.”
“When were you planning to let me in on the secret?”
“In another month.”
“Why wait?”
“To be sure. I couldn’t believe it had really happened at first. Years ago the doctor said I could never have any more children.”
“It seems he was mistaken.”
Daisy smiled, but had to grit her teeth to keep her chin from quivering. “Yes, it seems so. He also said there’s a chance I could lose this child, as well.”
Nicholas hadn’t given much thought to the fact her first child had died. That this one might die, also. He was torn between feeling elation at this miracle and forcing himself not to care, in case something went wrong.
For Daisy, it was already too late. She already loved the child, though it had been growing inside her a mere two months.
“When will the child be born?” Nicholas asked.
“In the spring.”
Nicholas huffed out a breath of air. Suddenly there was a great deal more at stake in the decisions that needed to be made than there ever had been before. He couldn’t leave Daisy behind with his child. Wouldn’t leave her. If she knew that, she could easily use the child as a means of blackmail to force him to stay. Assuming the child was born alive.
He would never abandon a child of his. He knew too well what the consequences could be. He wondered for an instant if Daisy had planned this all along. It seemed too coincidental that she should become pregnant when she had told him she couldn’t have children. It was impossible to know what to believe. He intended to speak with the doctor and find out the truth.
Daisy reached out and touched Nicholas’s hand, which lay on the bed beside her. “Nicholas? Are you glad? About the baby?”
“At least this one will be legitimate.”
It wasn’t the answer she had hoped for. “I’m excited,” she said. “And a little frightened.” He would never know how much courage it took for her to admit her fear. She looked up and for a flickering instant saw terror in his eyes.
He does care, she thought. More than he’s willing to admit. And he’s as scared as I am.
“Nicholas.”
She waited for him to look at her. His expression was masked now. She had no way of seeing past the wall he had put up against her.
“What is it, Daisy?” He sounded annoyed, and she decided this wasn’t the best time to confront him about his feelings.
“Nothing. Forget it.”
“Dammit! If you’ve got something to say, say it!”
She hadn’t expected the explosion of anger. It was a sign of how just how unsettling he found the prospect of having another child.
Nicholas left the bed and paced the length of the room, tunneling his hands through his hair in agitation. “Talk to me, Daisy. Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“I’m thinking how lucky we are, Nicholas. Imagine, a child, when I believed it to be impossible.”
“A child only complicates things,” he said. “You seem to have forgotten we have a little problem.”
“What problem?”
“I won’t stay in England, and you won’t go to America. Who gets the child, Daisy? Tell me that!”
Daisy felt a moment of panic. Surely he wouldn’t take the child with him when he left! No one separated a newborn babe from its mother. Yet from the stern look on his face, anything was possible. “We have until the spring, Nicholas. That’s plenty of time to make a decision.” To come to a compromise, she thought. But she could see no compromise that would work now that a child had entered the picture.
Fortunately, the doctor arrived and their argument was cut short. Nicholas left the room and paced the hallway while Dr. Fitzsimmons examined Daisy. The doctor was an old man, and Nicholas wondered how competent he was. His only comfort came from the knowledge that the doctor had saved Daisy’s life once before under similar circumstances.
“How is she?” Nicholas asked as the doctor left the bedroom.
“Her Grace is doing fine. She needs to take better care of herself. There’s still a chance she’ll fail to carry the child for the full term.”
“Is that what happened last time?” Nicholas asked.
“Her Grace miscarried in the fifth month.”
“What went wrong?”
“That I cannot say. The child—a boy—was perfectly formed. Unfortunately, Her Grace nearly bled to death. It appeared to me that it would endanger Her Grace’s health to become enceinte again.” He scratched the salt-and-pepper whiskers on his chin. “I spoke to the duke
—Her Grace’s first husband—about the seriousness of the situation.”
“Why the hell didn’t you say something to me?”
“I thought Her Grace would have explained everything.”
“No,” Nicholas said through tight jaws. “She explained nothing.”
“The only thing to be done now is to make sure she takes very good care of herself. Plenty of sleep, a bland diet, and absolutely no exertion beyond a short walk. The rest we must leave in the hands of the Almighty.”
“Can I … can we … I don’t want to endanger her or the child.” Nicholas couldn’t stop the flush of embarrassment. He didn’t want to ask outright if he could have sexual relations with Daisy. Fortunately, the doctor divined his problem.
“If you are careful, Your Grace. Until the sixth month.”
“Thank you, Dr. Fitzsimmons.”
“Good day, Your Grace.”
Nicholas leaned back against the wall outside Daisy’s door, his legs widespread, and digested the doctor’s healthy ration of food for thought.
He was terrified. What if Daisy died giving birth to his child?
And furious. He should have been told how dangerous it was for her to couple with him.
He shoved the bedroom door open and marched across the room to confront Daisy, who was sitting up in bed with several pillows behind her. Jane had taken advantage of the opportunity to get Daisy out of her riding habit and into a nightgown.
“Leave us please, Jane,” Daisy said.
Daisy never took her eyes off Nicholas. She had some idea, from the muscle ticking in his jaw, of his anger. When the door closed behind the maid, Daisy said, “What has you upset now?”
“I’ve just spoken to the doctor. He told me how dangerous it was for you to get pregnant.”
“Dangerous? For me? You jest.”
“It’s no laughing matter, I assure you, ma’am. You didn’t tell me that you nearly bled to death when you lost the first child.”
“I was perfectly healthy until the cramps began. I was weak for a long time afterward, but I recovered completely.”
“The doctor doesn’t think so.”
“I don’t understand,” she said, confusion clouding her green eyes. “Dr. Fitzsimmons didn’t say I shouldn’t get pregnant, he said that I couldn’t.”
Nicholas shook his head. “Either you heard him wrong, or he wasn’t entirely honest with you. He just told me that he explained to Tony that you might die if you had another child.”
Daisy’s face bleached white. “I swear I didn’t know. I had no idea such a danger existed.” Now that she recalled the conversation, she realized it was Tony who had given her the doctor’s message that she could no longer have children. Tony must have told her the lie to keep her from pleading with him to try anyway, because she would have begged until he gave in to her. It would have been worth the risk. Was worth the risk. Even knowing she might die, she wasn’t sorry to be carrying the duke’s child.
If what Nicholas said was true, it occurred to her that Tony hadn’t left her bed because she couldn’t give him an heir, but because it would endanger her life if he planted his seed in her. Leaving her bed might have been as much a sacrifice for him as it was for her. It also meant that for years she had unfairly blamed him for something that wasn’t his fault. “Oh, my God,” she said. “Oh, God.”
Nicholas saw the tears brim in Daisy’s eyes, saw one spill over. He sat beside her and drew her into his arms. As soon as he did, she broke into heart-wrenching sobs. He didn’t know what to say to comfort her. She must be terrified that she would die. He was the one who had insisted upon a real marriage. He had forced her into his bed. If he had known … If she had told him …
“Please don’t cry, Daisy. I can’t bear it when you cry.”
He brushed her flyaway hair from her face and kissed the tears from her eyes. Nicholas had never given solace to a woman. The situation had simply never come up. He wasn’t sure what to do, so he kept on kissing her. Her cheeks, her chin, her forehead, her ears, until finally he found her mouth.
Hunger. It overrode any other thought as his mouth captured hers. His tongue delved deep. She clung to him, with her mouth and hands and body. He felt her need, urgent and demanding. Her body caught fire and ignited his passion.
He ripped her nightgown, popping buttons that clattered to the wooden floor, and found her naked breasts with his callused hands. They were fuller, he realized suddenly. When she moaned, he realized they must also be more sensitive.
“Daisy, Daisy, I need you,” he murmured in her ear. “The doctor said it’s safe. I want you.”
Daisy felt a tightness in her chest. She wondered if another man would have asked. “I want you, too, Nicholas.”
She curled her hand around his nape and drew him down for her kiss. She arched her body against his, and he groaned as she brushed against his engorged shaft.
“Nicholas.”
“What?”
She laughed, a purring sound. “Sweetheart. You need to take off your clothes.”
Nicholas frowned in consternation. He ripped off his clothes and threw them helter skelter around the room until he was naked.
By then Daisy was grinning.
“Are you satisfied?”
“Not yet. But I will be soon.” She held out her arms, and he came to her.
Nicholas had never been more aware of how much larger he was than Daisy, or how much stronger. Be gentle. Be careful. He had to protect Daisy. And their child.
So he moved slowly, his hands caressing her until she writhed in ecstasy beneath him. His palm brushed her nipples until they stood in achingly stiff peaks.
Daisy found herself in the arms of a gentle lover. Where was her barbarian? His face was tense with the effort it took to leash his passion. Daisy didn’t want her savage to be civilized. She needed the wild and wanton lover she had come to know and love over the past three months.
So she nipped his shoulder.
He groaned deep in his throat and clenched her hip with his hand.
And bit the lobe of his ear.
He grunted, and his mouth latched onto her throat to suckle and send shivers of desire shuddering through her body.
Her hands slid down and cupped him.
He hissed in a breath and stilled, waiting to see what she would do. She circled him with her hand.
“Daisy.” The word came out as a guttural moan.
She spread her hand and encompassed the sac below.
“Good God.” He pressed her hand against him. “I can’t … You can’t …”
She circled the tip of his shaft with her thumb, and he nearly came off the bed.
“What are you doing, Daisy?”
“I want to please you,” she said, a bit breathless herself.
“You do. You are. I can’t … I have to be careful.”
“I’ll let you know if you get too rough, Nicholas. Love me. Please, love me. And let me love you.”
He took away his hand and lay still for her. While she drove him to distraction. Until he couldn’t bear the pleasure any more and had to be inside her.
Only he didn’t enter her right away. He slid a finger inside to see if the passage was wet enough to accommodate him. She wanted him, it seemed, every bit as much as he wanted her.
He sheathed himself slowly, more slowly than he ever had, and enjoyed the wondrous look on Daisy’s face as he seated himself to the hilt.
“You feel exquisite,” Nicholas said. “Tight and warm and wet. Shall I move, Daisy?”
“Not yet, Nicholas. Not yet.”
It was harder than he thought it would be to lie still within her. He could feel the blood pound in his shaft, feel her muscles contract around him.
“Daisy,” he pleaded.
Her lips curled in a catlike smile of satisfaction. “All right, Nicholas. You can move.”
He levered himself away from her and slowly returned. Again and again. Until his brow was covered with sweat and beads o
f perspiration had formed above her lip. Her hands were clasped on his arms. Her legs were banded about his hips. Her eyes were heavy-lidded, and her mouth was open to gasp for air.
She arched up as he lowered himself into her. “How long … how long …?”
“All day. All night,” he said. “I could love you endlessly and never be satisfied.”
She groaned. “I can’t … I need …”
Nicholas slid his hand between them to touch her and felt her immediately convulse around him. Her climax triggered his own, and he arched his body into hers, his face a mask of agony and ecstasy.
He lay atop her for only a moment before he realized what he was doing. “I’m too heavy for you. With the baby, I mean.”
Daisy wanted to feel him atop her now, while her belly was still flat enough for that pleasure. But she sighed happily when Nicholas dragged her into his arms and laid his thigh over hers to hold her close.
But when she looked up at him, he was frowning. “Nicholas? What’s the matter?”
At first she thought he wasn’t going to answer her. When he did, she wished he hadn’t.
“I won’t let you keep the child in England.”
Daisy stiffened. “I won’t allow you to take my child away from me.”
“Then you’ll have to come to America.”
“The heir to Severn deserves to be raised here, where his heritage and patrimony lie.”
“It might be a she, Daisy, had you thought of that? But even if you give me a son, he won’t be a Windermere, because I’m not. Don’t you see that, Daisy?”
“You don’t know anything for sure,” Daisy argued stubbornly. “You haven’t spoken to Estleman yet.”
“Estleman!” Nicholas snorted the word. “You’ve got a lot of hopes pinned on someone who may know nothing.”
“Maybe I have. But I see no reason to discuss this matter until you’ve had a chance to speak to the man. Estleman may be able to prove you are your father’s son.” She paused, took a deep breath and said, “And the baby may not live to be born.”
They both lay silent. There was no way they could make any plans until spring. They would have to wait. And try not to love each other any more than they already did.
The Inheritance Page 29