by Laura Landon
He didn’t move. He didn’t want to chance that she’d see him. He simply wanted to watch her, to drink in his fill of her before she saw him. It had been months since he’d last seen her and he wanted to gather everything about her to cherish it forever.
He watched her stand erect and use her hoe as a staff to lean against. She rubbed the small of her back as if to ease the pain from bending too long, then she turned sideways and rubbed her hand over her bulging stomach.
Gideon’s heart dropped to his feet, then burst into flight.
. . .
The babe was barely seven months along, and her stomach was as big as most women she’d seen when they were about to deliver. Eve knew it was a boy. What else would Gideon give her but a strapping son as magnificent as he was?
She rubbed her hand over the restless babe inside her and wondered for the thousandth time what she should do. She was carrying the Townsend heir. She didn’t doubt it, and time was running short. She needed to make a decision soon or it would be too late. Her son would be born a bastard. Yet, how could she force Gideon to give the child a name when she knew marrying her was the last thing he should do?
Tears filled her eyes and she brushed them from her cheeks before they fell to the ground. She’d thought she could live with her decision to walk away from him, but every day the consequences became more evident. She loved him too much. He was too large a part of her life, and the babe made him an even bigger part.
She brushed another tear from her cheek, then turned. And stood face to face with the man who possessed her heart.
For several long agonizing minutes they simply stared at each other, as if the time they’d been separated had been years instead of months. Or perhaps it had only been hours. He was as familiar to her as if he’d been gone for mere minutes. Yet she’d missed him as if he’d been gone a lifetime.
She took in a shuddering breath and bit her lower lip to keep it from quivering.
He didn’t speak, but took one step toward her, then stopped and opened his arms.
Eve gave a small cry, before she took one step toward him, then ran the rest of the distance.
When she reached him, he gathered her to him and held her close. Then he kissed her with the passion and desire she’d prayed he still felt for her.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he whispered, then kissed her again.
“I was going to. There’s a letter inside that I was going to post, but…”
She reached to kiss him again and he crushed his lips against hers.
“I love you, Eve. You have no idea how much I’ve missed you. I couldn’t wait to return. I can’t live without you.”
“Are you sure, Gideon? Because I’m afraid I’m not giving you much choice.”
“I don’t want to be given a choice. I want to marry you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
He lowered his head and kissed her again. Eve answered his kisses with all the love she felt for him.
“I don’t know whether to shout for joy, or yell with anger,” he said holding her tight.
“I’d rather you shouted for joy. I wouldn’t want you to frighten your son. You’ve only just met him, after all.”
“Oh, Eve. If only you would have let me know you needed me.”
“I’ve always needed you, Gideon. I just never thought I could have you.”
He smiled down at her. “Just try to get rid of me, sweetheart. I’m yours for the rest of our lives. And you’re mine. This is where we’ll always be. Together. In each other’s arms.”
EPILOGUE
Gideon paced the floor of his father’s study. The Duke of Townsend was with him, as well as his brother, Benjamin, and his sisters, Anne and Winnie. No one wanted to miss the birth of the next Townsend heir.
Everyone knew the babe would be a boy. Eve had insisted that it would from the beginning and no one doubted her. She was the mother, after all.
“How long does it take?” Gideon asked as he made another round of the room.
“Oh, sometimes days,” his brother answered, grimly shaking his head.
There was a slight smirk on Ben’s face that told Gideon that his brother was teasing. At least he hoped he was.
“Oh, how would you know?” he countered as he stopped to listen at the doorway. Surely he’d be able to hear the cry of a healthy babe when it was delivered.
“Yes,” the Duke of Townsend said, with a narrowing of his eyes as he focused on his younger son. “How would you know?”
“I… uh, I…” Ben looked uncomfortable. “I must have heard that fact somewhere.”
“That had better be where you gained such information,” His Grace said with an unmistakable warning in his voice.
Gideon continued to pace the room while he listened again for any sign that the babe had arrived. But all he heard was Eve’s muffled cries as she struggled to birth their babe. He’d give anything to bear some of the pain for her, but that wasn’t possible. So, he did what every husband had done from the beginning of time: he paced the room and tried to ignore the pangs of guilt because Eve was suffering while he waited.
“Should Anne and I go up to see how things are progressing?” Winnie asked. There was a hopeful expression on her face.
“Yes,” Gideon answered.
“No,” the duke said in a more commanding voice. “You and Anne have no business anywhere near a birthing room until everything is over. Lady Eve has her father with her, as well as Mrs. Diggins. She’s delivered every babe around for the last forty years. I doubt either she or Dr. Cornwell can benefit from your inexperience.”
“That’s so old fashioned, Father,” Anne argued. “Just because we aren’t married—”
“That’s precisely why you aren’t allowed to go up. Because you aren’t married.”
Anne and Winnie returned to the sofa to wait, but Gideon found sitting impossible. He paced the room again, stopping to listen when he reached the door. When he heard nothing, he went to the sidebar and filled a glass with one swallow of brandy. He wanted to empty the decanter, but the thought of not remembering one moment of the birth of his first child was unimaginable.
He lifted his glass to his mouth and stopped.
He heard a cry. A loud, angry cry. The most wonderful sound imaginable. The cry of a healthy babe announcing his entrance into the world. It was the most amazing sound he’d ever heard.
He turned to face his family. “Did you hear that?”
The Duke of Townsend was on his feet. The smile on his face couldn’t have been broader. “From the volume of the babe’s cry, I’d say your wife was correct in her prediction that she would have a son.”
“Yes,” Gideon said, struggling to form even that one word through the emotion that consumed him.
“Congratulations, Lord Sheffield,” Benjamin said, clasping him on the shoulder. “This is indeed a magnificent day.”
“Yes,” Anne and Winnie said, swiping the tears from their cheeks.
Gideon couldn’t wait any longer. He turned from his family and raced up the stairs. He needed to see her. Needed to make sure she was all right. When he reached Eve’s room, he reached for the knob, then opened the door.
He wasn’t sure what he expected, no doubt he thought to find his wife sitting in bed holding their child, the serene scene of motherhood a memory he could cherish his entire life. Instead, what he saw wrenched his heart from his chest.
Something was wrong. Eve was still in pain. A great deal of pain.
Dr. Cornwell issued orders as if the birth of their child had just begun instead of being over. Mrs. Diggins moved across the room to gather more cloths and blankets, then went back to the bed.
Gideon rushed across the room. A terror unlike any he’d ever experienced gripped his heart and wrenched it from his chest. “Eve,” he uttered in a voice he prayed didn’t contain his fear.
Eve managed to say a part of his name, then stopped when she was gripped with another bout of pain. She wailed an agon
izing moan that tore at him.
Gideon reached for her hand. Her body heaved in an ungainly manner, her face wrenched in ghastly contortions and her hand gripped his with more strength than he thought she possessed.
“I see you tired of waiting, my lord,” Dr. Cornwell said, wiping the sweat from his brow, “and decided to come up to see what was taking your wife so long.”
“What’s wrong?” he asked, holding Eve’s hand while her body heaved upward.
“If you look, my lord, you’ll see. But hurry.” Eve’s father leaned forward with extended arms.
Gideon turned his head as a small form with dark hair and wrinkled features pushed into Dr. Cornwell’s hands.
“What is it?” Eve asked after she collapsed against the bed.
“You have another son, Eve,” her father said with tears in his eyes. “Mrs. Diggins, tie a ribbon around the first lad’s ankle. We wouldn’t want to confuse the two.”
Gideon glanced from the babe in Mrs. Diggins’s arms to the babe Eve’s father had placed against her.
“Is he all right?” she asked. “Why hasn’t he—?”
Just then the second babe let out a cry loud enough to put his brother’s to shame. A smile lit Eve’s face and she visibly relaxed. “Can you see him, Gideon?” she asked.
“Yes, my love,” he answered. “I see them both. They’re perfect.”
She smiled. “Yes, they’re perfect. Just like their father.”
“And their mother,” Gideon said as the first tears spilled down his cheeks. “Perfect in every way.”
“I’m sure I’m not perfect. I know I look hideous,” she slurred sleepily.
“No,” Gideon said past the lump in his throat. “You’re the most beautiful woman in the whole world. How was I ever fortunate enough to have you enter my life?”
Gideon took the damp cloth Mrs. Diggins handed him and wiped Eve’s brow. “You took me from the shadows and brought me into the sunshine. No wonder I fell so completely in love with you”
Eve’s hand reached up and cupped his cheek. “You couldn’t love me more than I love you, Gideon. The world would not be large enough to handle that much love.”
Gideon leaned down and kissed his wife. With Eve at his side, he’d never again need to find his way from the shadows. Ever.