Will shook his head. “He cannot. There is a time limit to disowning a child. And the father must not be resident in the same establishment. Although they were living apart, they still occupied the same building. Rothwell still had opportunity to get her with child. He could still have done it, but he couldn’t name the father.”
“Do you know who he is?”
Will nodded. “Nobody told me, but as I said, the resemblance is remarkable. One of her more scandalous lovers. The Duke of Andover.”
She knew the name, had even seen a cartoon of the prominent politician. Yes, he and Will did resemble each other. The duke was married with half a dozen children. But many politicians had extramarital affairs, except that the duke was reported to be devoted to his wife.
“I was his one aberration. The duke is a powerful man. He would not have taken an acknowledgement of his transgression well. For all those reasons, the Earl of Rothwell accepted me as his son. All was well while Harry was alive.”
“No, no, it wasn’t.” How could they even think that? “When did you discover?”
He smiled sadly. “Ah. I was hoping you wouldn’t ask me that, my perspicacious wife. The day after Harry died. He had a riding accident—came off his horse on the estate. Nobody expected such a result, but he broke his neck in the fall. They carried him back to the house. He was as fair as Harry, but he had never resented me, as Simon did. I assumed Simon just disliked me. It happens with siblings sometimes. But Simon had discovered our secret. That was his real reason for his dislike.”
“How did he discover it?”
Will shook his head slightly. “I don’t know. But Simon was always prying and peeping. Perhaps he overheard something, or discovered a paper—a letter, maybe.”
He swallowed. “That day, he told me the truth. I could not bear it. I was the new earl, but I had no right to be. What could I do? I could not disown the title. We would have to change the law before that happened. So I did the best I could. I followed my inclinations and studied surgery, leaving the estate to Simon. Ever since he has been the earl in all but name.”
“Why did you come home?” But she already knew the answer.
“You. I came for you. To give you everything I could.” His face twisted and he took a moment to restore himself. “I’m sorry. I would have had to tell you sometime, but I was hoping for some time to ourselves first.”
“And that was why you stayed away from me?”
He shook his head. “I wanted to give you time. On our wedding night, I couldn’t resist. No more than I could last night.” He cupped her cheek. She pressed against his palm, his strength filling her with a resolve of her own. “But I admit, the issue of my parentage weighed on me.”
When he would have pulled his hand from hers, she tightened her grip and held on. A resolve filled her. “You are forgetting something. I fell in love with Will Kennaway, not Lord Rothwell. As it happens, I love him too. It’s just as well they’re the same person.” She would be the best countess the world had ever seen. For his sake.
He closed his eyes. “How can you say that?”
“Easily. Will, I love you.”
He shook his head before he opened his eyes. “I should have told you.”
“Why? Does society know?”
“It’s old news. They don’t care anymore. I’m not the only man in society who is not the son of his putative father.”
Her lips curved. “Putative. I like that word. Well, I promise you one thing. If I have any children, they will be yours.”
“I don’t deserve you.”
“What has deserving to do with it?” she shot back.
He dropped his hand. Immediately she missed his touch. “Our marriage might revive the old scandal.”
“You think I haven’t seen worse?” She scoffed at him. “I followed the drum for six years. Do you think I saw nothing more scandalous than a little marital discord?”
His lips framed her name, but no sound emerged. Smiling, she leaned forward and kissed him, initiating for the first time.
Will blinked hard. “You want to continue? We could take a leaf out of my parents’ book and live apart, not reproduce. That would secure the earldom for Simon’s children.”
She got to her feet, but since she didn’t release his hand, he was forced to stand with her. She said nothing until they stood by the side of the bed. “Certainly not. Why should you suffer for something your parents did? Why does it have to be you, Will?” She unhooked the front part of her bodice and let the flap fall, exposing the lacing beneath. She didn’t stop, but unfastened her gown. When she shrugged it off her shoulders and pulled her arms from the sleeves, the garment slid to her feet.
Will groaned. “I will not stop loving you. Never think that. Do you want to make me unhappy too, by showing me what I cannot have? How does that help anything?”
She pulled the cord of her petticoat undone. It went the way of her gown. “Make love to me, Will, here and now. Prove to me and to you that we will not allow this to stop us. We’re planning a productive life, one in which we will benefit any number of people. Today we reminded ourselves that we are a team, that we work better together. Do we end that because of something that wasn’t your fault? Haven’t you punished yourself enough, or do you want me to suffer too?”
By the time she had finished, she was naked, standing proud and unabashed before him.
If he walked away from her now, she would die. This was her one and only play for him, because if she didn’t win him back now, she never would. He meant it, he would walk away for the sake of his miserable brother. Half brother.
What did she care who held the earldom? But her husband did, and that was that.
With a sigh of surrender, he put his hands on her waist. “Get into bed,” he said.
She recalled his brother, still downstairs as far as she knew. “What about Simon?”
“He may do as he pleases, as long as he doesn’t enter this room. The servants will see him out.”
She scrambled up backward, not letting her gaze leave him.
He began to undress. In five minutes he was as naked as she and climbing into bed and over her. She opened her legs to receive him, and he did not fail her. Pausing only to test her readiness with his fingers, he took his cock in his hand and pushed into her body.
Only then did he release a long, slow breath. “You’re right,” he said. “About everything. And one thing more. I love you, Amelia. Living apart from you would kill me, and at the moment it’s that one selfish reason, not all the other rational ones you’ve given that persuades me. I love your passion.” He thrust deeply, withdrawing ready for his next stroke. “I love your mind, your body and your sincerity. You are everything I could ever want in a woman, and more besides. I never thought I would win someone like you.”
She clutched his shoulders, gripping hard as his thrusts grew deeper and more punishing. Their bodies slapped together on contact. “Put your legs around my waist,” he told her.
Lifting her feet, she wrapped them securely around him, resting her heels on his buttocks. He pumped into her, his rear contracting with every stroke. “I can’t stop doing this. I can’t stop loving you. I don’t want to.”
“I couldn’t bear it if you did.” She cried out as her body tightened and pulsed around him. “Oh, Will!”
He called her name and came inside her, giving her everything he had.
Chapter Twelve
Cradled in her husband’s arms, Amelia traced a pattern on his chest. “You love me?” She wanted to hear it again.
“I love you.” He covered her hand with his. “We will spend our lives fighting to improve surgical techniques. I’ll wager no lover ever said anything so romantic to the object of his affections.”
“I don’t think anyone ever did.” She kissed his shoulder.
He turned up her chin and gave her a long, lingering kiss. “I shall have to practice my lover-like techniques.”
“Oh, I think you have them perf
ect.” Could she be this happy? It seemed so. “My love, are we to retire to bed in the middle of the afternoon for the rest of our married lives?”
“That seems like a good idea,” he said.
“But what about your brother?” The word came naturally to her. If any fault there was, it lay with the resentful Simon. She would not allow her beloved Will to suffer a moment more than he had to. If necessary, she’d have Simon out of the house by nightfall.
“We will see him at dinner.” He touched her mouth when she would have protested. “We will put it to him that he may still have the country estate. That is where he spends most of his time, in any case. He will manage it, and we will not visit more than necessary. I have other houses in the country. We may even buy one nearer to London. More convenient for our work, but somewhere our children may smell the fresh air.”
“You’ve been thinking too much.” Going up on one elbow, she kissed him, returning the favor of a moment ago.
“No,” he said when he could. “It was just that everything fell into place. You are what matters, and I know now how to make you happy. Make love to you often, ensure you are by my side when I work, and give you children. You think I never noticed when you see them? Besides, I want to see what we can make together.”
She kissed his chest, first one nipple, then the other, and then down, past his navel to where his rapidly growing erection waited for her. “Hang the earldom,” she said.
He laughed. “If you say so, my love. If you say so. But what if we have started a child already?”
“Oh, I’m sure we have,” were her last words before she did what she’d been longing to do.
Epilogue
As it turned out, she was right. Their first child was born nine months to the day from that memorable afternoon. Declaring their love had only been the first adventure on a life that was developing very well indeed.
Despite her pregnancy, Amelia stayed by her husband’s side, and when she found him dejected, she let him care for her.
Lying in bed in their London house, she waited for him. The midwife had refused to let Will in. Not at all impressed by his growing reputation as a surgeon, she had driven him to despair by slamming the bedroom door in his face.
On the whole Amelia was glad he had not been there. That left her free to rant and scream her way through her labor and delivery without fretting that she’d be worrying him.
Their son was finally born at eight o’clock in the morning. They had a healthy boy with a lusty pair of lungs which he immediately demonstrated, much to Amelia’s joy.
After the midwife and her assistant had cleaned Amelia up, they finally allowed Will in. Immediately, he shocked the midwife by sitting on the bed and leaning over to kiss her. Amelia loved his kisses, but even more she treasured the expression of pure happiness on his face.
His troubles had not disappeared overnight. Simon had returned to the country in high dudgeon and had replied with a terse note when they had written to him to tell him of Amelia’s pregnancy. He would probably never recover from his disappointment. As far as he was concerned, he was the real earl. But he ran the estate diligently, and their paths rarely crossed. They tolerated each other.
Sometimes people would make guarded comments about Will’s parentage, which Amelia ignored for the most part. As Will had said, he was not the only peer with dubious ancestry. She learned not to explode with anger.
With her mother in Vienna, where the family had decamped shortly after she’d visited her daughter, Amelia grew more confident. Her mother’s constant carping and criticisms had not helped, so with her at a distance, Amelia could let herself fly.
She grew better at talking to groups of people. Her passionate support of the techniques they had learned in the Peninsula and after Waterloo gained her the admiration of many, including those in authority, people who actually listened to her.
Carefully, she put the baby into Will’s arms. “I want to call him Felix,” she said.
“Family tradition dictates Henry,” he murmured, gazing at his son. “You are so clever. Look what you did!”
“I’m so clever that I want to choose his name. Let’s start a new family tradition.”
“What if he’s not happy?” he said, referring the translation of the name.
“He will be. I intend to make perfectly sure of it.”
Amelia was always as good as her word, and this was no exception. Felix grew up to be a very happy boy.
So did his brothers and sisters.
About the Author
Lynne Connolly has the best job in the world. She writes historical, paranormal and contemporary romance and she doesn’t seem to be able to stop. She has won a number of awards, including two EPPIES, and she lives in damp, rainy England with her family and her mews.
Once a year she crosses the ocean to visit friends, attend conventions and other shindigs, and promote her books, so watch her blog if you want to meet her. She loves travelling and meeting people who she will then use in her books, but then, authors are like that.
Her website is at www.lynneconnolly.com
You can email her at [email protected] or [email protected]
She tweets @lynneconnolly
Her Facebook is at www.facebook.com/lynneconnollyuk
And her blog is here: lynneconnolly.blogspot.co.uk
One day she’ll grow up and get a proper job, but not just yet!
Look for these titles by Lynne Connolly
Now Available:
Triple Countess
Last Chance, My Love
A Chance to Dream
Met by Chance
A Betting Chance
Secrets
Seductive Secrets
Alluring Secrets
Tantalizing Secrets
Richard and Rose
Yorkshire
Devonshire
Venice
Harley Street
Eyton
Hareton Hall
Maiden Lane
Lisbon
Even Gods Fall in Love
Lightning Unbound
Mad for Love
Arrows of Desire
Coming Soon:
Even Gods Fall in Love
Forged by Love
War Chest
Don’t miss these other titles by Lynne Connolly
A dangerous enchantment that can only be broken by fire…
Even Gods Fall in Love, Book 4
Vulcan, living in the body of Harry, Earl of Valsgarth, prefers a quiet country life, channeling his fiery temperament into his metal workshop. But he can’t ignore a summons from Mercury.
When he spies the ravishing woman across the London theater, he realizes why Mercury needs him. She is Venus, in the body of a French duchesse. In legend, his wife. But she is under an infatuation spell that has escalated into obsession. Unchecked, it’s hot enough to cause another Fire of London. Harry is the only immortal with the strength to break it.
Virginie revels in the joy she has found with Marcus, also known as Mars. Until Harry arrives in her parlor, leaning on his cane, oozing his particular brand of seduction.
When murder abruptly splits Virginie and Marcus apart, Harry must cope with a painful withdrawal that could destroy her—and half the city. If Harry can’t find who is framing her, she will lose her place in society. And possibly her mind to madness…
Warning: When the gods get busy, it gets hot as Hades. Could cause noticeable reddening of your cheeks. Which cheeks, we’ll leave up to you.
The fight for their love will be a battle of Olympian proportions.
Even Gods Fall in Love, Book 2
Wherever he goes, Blaize, Marquess of Stretton, hears the jingle of keys as society mothers lock up their daughters. No wonder: he is secretly the embodiment of Bacchus, god of wine and madness.
Yet his melancholic heart is lonely. Until he enters a ballroom, hunting for the Titans who destroyed his father. One look at Lady Ariane Wel
ls and he is consumed with an instant, almost violent compulsion to protect her from the attentions of another man who smells of Titan—Marcus, Duke of Lyndhurst.
Ariane is no shy debutante. She knows what she wants, and it is the stunningly handsome Blaize, even if it means defying her powerful mother. When Blaize disappears, Ariane embarks on a treacherous cross-country chase to find him, knowing that if she fails, she must marry her mother’s choice: Marcus.
Now that Blaize knows the true identity of his captor, he will fight for Ariane even if it means using his terrifying ability to drive everyone around him insane—including himself. For if he doesn’t save her, he will truly go insane—forever.
Warning: Contains a rake who can make a woman’s good sense completely melt away, and a debutante who isn’t afraid to spread her wings to fly in the face of convention. Could make even the bluest blood boil.
When the God of Love falls for a nymph, all seven hells break loose.
Even Gods Fall in Love, Book 3
Finished with the tutoring that taught him how to be an immortal, Edmund, otherwise known as Eros, steps off the packet onto English shores, and stumbles head over heels in love.
There’s something different about Perdita Seaton and her secretive family, but for now a bigger dilemma looms. Revealing he’s the Duke of Kentmere could cut their courtship short. Yet abandoning his heritage means leaving his beloved sister at the mercy of the Titans.
Even as Edmund steals Perdita’s breath with the speed at which he sweeps her down the aisle, she feels safe in the irresistible tide of passion. Her father, head of a smuggling empire, is Oceanus—and she is a nymph.
Disaster strikes when Edmund races to London to rescue his sister, and doesn’t return. Desperate, Perdita follows him, only to find no light of recognition in his eyes.
Now she must choose. Admit defeat, or fight to break the enchantment keeping Edmund’s heart prisoner—and risk the wrath of a jealous goddess who’d be all too happy to snuff her out.
Warning: Contains a wedding night that transcends heaven, a mother-in-law from hell, and one Titanic case of amnesia.
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It Started at Waterloo Page 13