The Earl Takes A Bride (Elbia Series Book 2)

by Kathryn Jensen

  He nodded fervently. “Absolutely, but—”

  “But nothing,” she said crisply. “Here is what we’ll do….”

  Thomas walked out of the little house on the Connecticut shore in a daze. He’d learned to accept life’s twists and turns, its disappointments, even its sometimes cruel sense of humor. But to be told he would become a father—the one eventuality he had avoided all of his adult life—that was just too bloody much of a shock to his system!

  Still, all he felt was concern and the deepest admiration for Diane. He didn’t hate her for so casually announcing that she was ready to tell the world he’d fathered the child she was carrying. He didn’t think her request for help with the baby’s expenses was outrageous at all. In fact, he had told her that even though she refused his hasty marriage proposal, he would support her and all of her children for as long as she wished.

  She had quietly, proudly, turned him down.

  Her strength and resolve to keep his baby and raise it with as much love as she lavished on her other three moved him more deeply than he could ever have foreseen. It was as if part of him was being welcomed and cherished, mothered and loved. And he found he liked that feeling, though it was coming late in his life.

  Thomas spent the trip back to Elbia in deep thought. He slept some of the time on the plane. Mostly he stared out the tiny square window beside his leather seat and saw Diane’s face. He envisioned her lovely body, slowly swelling to accommodate his child. She grew more beautiful in his mind’s eye with each passing day. And he knew his baby would be strong and healthy, nourished by her body…just as he had been nourished by her love.

  Love, he thought. The word had always mystified and eluded him. Now he felt so close to understanding it, he could almost wrap his fingers around it and draw it toward him.

  He remembered the glimmer in Diane’s tear-misted eyes as she’d bade him goodbye at her door. She’d allowed him one chaste kiss on her soft lips as she’d looked up at him. And now he knew what that look meant. She loved him, although pride hadn’t allowed her to say the words.

  She loved him. And she was carrying his child.

  But what did he feel for her, other than the respect due the mother of his child? Did he still desire her? Absolutely. Was there yet another emotion lurking behind others, beckoning to him? Did he love her, too?

  He thrust that troubling thought from his mind. Whether or not love had anything to do with his present situation, his first duty remained to protect and serve the royal family. He couldn’t simply walk away from that responsibility. And nothing of his past had changed. He was still his mother’s son. How could he promise he’d always be around for Diane and their baby when he knew in his heart that he was fated to leave them one day?

  It was dawn when the jet landed at the airport in Vienna. The helicopter took him to the castle grounds, and he strode from the landing pad, through the garden where Allison was playing with the little prince and princess. He gave each child an avuncular pat on the head and Allison a nervous smile to cover his guilt, then plowed on up the petal-strewn path to the castle. Jacob was in his office, already at work.

  “Ah, you’re back,” he said, folding the newspaper he’d been reading.

  “Yes.” Thomas had asked Diane to let him be the one to tell Jacob about her condition. He had rehearsed a variety of approaches to the subject, but he couldn’t remember any of them now. He opted for an incoherent stream of babble. “Sir, I’ve seen Diane again. No, I didn’t sleep with her, but what I have to say is…well, it’s connected in a way with—” He groaned. “This isn’t going to be easy for either of us, sir, but there’s no way of avoiding the truth.” Jacob pressed his hands over the newsprint and looked up with a puzzled frown, while Thomas plunged on. “She’s carrying a child. Mine. The baby is mine.”

  There, he’d said it. He’d never get a Nobel Peace Prize for his speech, but at least he’d gotten it out.

  “You’re mad,” Jacob stated.

  “I wish I were, Your Highness. I never wanted to hurt Diane or cause her distress of any kind. But there it is. She is three months pregnant and I am the father. She will keep the baby, and I’ll help her with expenses. I promise that she and the child will have everything they need.”

  The muscles in Jacob’s face twitched with fury, but he said nothing for a moment. Then he opened his mouth and Thomas anticipated his next words.

  “I asked her to marry me. She refused.”

  “Of course she refused you!” Jacob bellowed.

  Thomas’s mouth dropped wide. “Of course?” he echoed weakly. Was he that poor a catch?

  “If your proposal sounded anything like the apologetic drivel you’ve just handed me, what else would a woman do?”

  Thomas stared at him, confused. “I’m sorry, sir. I don’t understand.”

  Jacob pressed thumb and forefinger over the bridge of his nose and shot up from his desk to pace the floor, his heels coming down hard on the Persian silk carpet that stretched from one side of the room to the other. “Did you tell her you loved her and wanted to spend your life with her?”

  “Well, no, I—”

  “Why not? You care about the woman, don’t you? Why can’t you tell her how you feel, Thomas?”

  He did care about Diane, that was true. He supposed, now that he thought about it, he always had—from the moment they met. He’d never felt happier or liked himself as much as when he was around her. He was fond of her children, and he felt deep within his soul that he would cherish the child they’d made. But did he love her?

  “My first loyalty has always been to you and the royal family, sir,” he blurted out.

  “Well, maybe it’s about time some changes were made around here!” Jacob barked.

  Thomas rocked back on his heels as if he’d been punched in the stomach. “Sir?”

  “It may not have been something you’ve noticed, but the playboy bachelor you used to rescue from brawls in pubs has grown up and has a family of his own now.”

  “Well, of course.” Thomas laughed stiffly. “But now I must protect not only you, but the queen and the wee ones.”

  “That’s not what I meant. I can well afford to hire a dozen bodyguards and social secretaries.”

  “You’re saying you don’t need me anymore?”

  “I’m saying I still want you as a friend, a brother in spirit,” Jacob explained, stopping his pacing and turning to face Thomas across the claret field of silk beneath their feet. “I don’t need you to be on call twenty-four hours a day. Allison and I have talked about this. She’s right. You deserve a life of your own.”

  It was a radical idea to Thomas—a life apart from his royals. A family of his own? No, that was too much to hope for. “That doesn’t change who I am,” he said grimly.

  “Who do you think you are?” Jacob asked, watching his expression intently.

  “I…I am a man who has never stayed with one woman longer than three months.”

  “You believe you’ll desert Diane and your child as your mother deserted you and your brothers?” Jacob guessed.

  Thomas stared at the young king, unable to turn away from the steady, blue eyes. “Yes. I think it’s possible.”

  “Anything is possible. Are you willing to stake your and Diane’s happiness against a fear?”

  Thomas had never thought of it in that way.

  “I think of you as a very different man,” Jacob said in a quieter voice as he stepped toward him. “You are a man who has been loyal to me for over a dozen years, Thomas Smythe. You have stood by me and my family through the most trying times. I can’t imagine a man like that doing less for his own family.”

  Thomas swallowed and blinked at the newness of the idea Jacob had laid before him. It was as if he’d offered his trusted servant and friend the gift of a beautiful piece of land and said, Now build your house on this and it will be strong.

  Thomas drew a deep breath, then let it out and immediately turned toward the door.

&
nbsp; “Where are you going?” Jacob asked.

  Thomas grinned to himself. “To court the woman who will be my wife.”

  Ten

  Diane finished her inventory of aisle four and clicked the cap back on her pen. It had been a long day, and she was glad it was nearly over. She couldn’t wait to go home and relieve Elly, spend some time with her kids and soak in a steaming tub of sudsy water. Tuesday nights they all took turns choosing board games. Even little Gare joined in.

  Tucking her clipboard under one arm, she turned toward the rear of the store and took one step into a wall of flowers.

  At least it seemed an entire wall.

  Until she stepped back to get a better look and found it was only an enormous bouquet of mums, roses, daisies and baby’s breath, held out by a huge hand. She leaned to one side to look around the blooms at the owner of the hand.

  “Thomas? What are you doing here?”

  He lowered the bouquet just enough to speak over it. “I understand that a mother’s state of mind affects an unborn child.”

  “Huh?”

  “If you’re happy, the baby will be content.”

  “Oh,” she said studying his serious expression. “Well, yes, I suppose I’ve read that somewhere, too.”

  “So it’s important for the baby that you’re relaxed and not worrying about anything.”

  She started walking toward the office to turn in her stock count. “I guess.”

  “And I know you like flowers.”

  “True.”

  “So, do they make you happy?”

  She stopped and spun around to face him. “What’s this really about?”

  He shrugged innocently. “Nothing. I just want to make sure you’re in good spirits…for the baby’s sake.”

  Sliding her clipboard beneath the plexiglass partition at customer service, Diane nodded at her boss to indicate she was finished and leaving for the day. She punched out and took off her bright-red smock and draped it over her arm. All she’d brought with her were her keys, and those were in the smock’s pocket. Thomas was still holding the flowers out for her to take.

  “Oh, what the heck.” She sighed and thrust her face into the blooms and breathed in the delicious perfume. “Thank you…on behalf of the baby. They are beautiful.” They were out the door and nearly at her car when something odd occurred to her. “I thought you were flying straight back to Elbia the night before last.”

  “I was—I mean, I did.”

  “And you’re back again already?”

  “I have very pressing business on this side of the Atlantic.”

  “I see.” She shook her head as she opened the car door and slid into the driver’s seat. It was early in her pregnancy, but she was already beginning to feel a little unwieldy. With her other babies, she hadn’t even started to show until her fifth month. “Well, thanks for the posies. I’d better get home. The kids are probably bouncing off the walls by now.”

  Thomas put his hand out to stop the car door from closing between them. She looked up, and his eyes seemed darkly mysterious.

  “What?”

  “I’ve been invited to join the family for a game of Clue.”

  “You what?” she demanded.

  “The children. I stopped by the house looking for you,” Thomas explained. “They told me you’d be here and asked if I could come back and play with them when you got home.”

  “They did, did they?” She squinted at him. There was definitely something fishy going on.

  “Aren’t you on an important mission?”

  “Very important,” he said solemnly.

  “Don’t you think you should get to it then?”

  “In good time,” he said quietly. “In good time.”

  “Well, I have to stop for pizza on the way home. I’ll meet you back at the house.”

  He grinned at her and carefully shut her car door.

  “I’ll pick up dinner. You go home and put your feet up until I get there. Do the children like the works?”

  “Buy a large, plain cheese for them and a medium veggie special for me…for us,” she said, correcting herself. “Angie’s is the best. It’s just around the corner from my house.”

  The scent of the flowers on the seat beside her seemed to seep into her sore muscles and relax them. She had never seen such lush blooms in her life; the colors were so vibrant, they reminded her of a flower cart she’d seen in Elbia. Thomas couldn’t have brought the bouquet all the way from Europe, could he? Of course not. They must have been a spur-of-the-moment purchase, the result of an attack of male guilt.

  But they were unbelievably lovely….

  Diane dismissed Elly, who asked if Thomas had found her okay at the store. “He’s such a hunk,” she commented, rolling her eyes as she stepped out the door into the chill air. “Don’t you think so, Mrs. Fields?”

  “Good night, Elly.” Laughing, she pushed the girl out the door. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”

  The children were already in their pj’s, and they’d taken the game from the closet and set it up in the middle of the living room floor. Diane spread newspapers over the coffee table. They would sit on the floor around it and eat between turns at the game. It would be a fun evening. She wouldn’t mind waiting a couple of hours for her bath.

  Thomas arrived soon after. She’d only had time to change out of her work clothes into a pair of lounging pajamas Allison had insisted on buying her. She’d never had silk pajamas, because they seemed impractical and chilly for New England. But these felt remarkably soft and cozy next to her skin.

  She cut and served the pizza on paper plates, and Thomas poured plastic cups of soda for all. They played for an hour and a half, and Diane felt as if she’d never enjoyed an evening so much. She worried that Thomas might try to linger after the children were asleep, but while she put the children to bed, he cleaned up the living room and tossed the empty plates and pizza boxes into the trash. When she came out, all the work had been done, and he was standing near the kitchen door.

  “I’d better leave now,” he said. “You need your rest.”

  “And so do you if you have meetings tomorrow.”

  Nodding, he picked up her fingertips, brought them to his lips, kissed them lightly, then was out the door before she realized what had happened. She watched him walk away, his wide shoulders filling a space in the darkness, his stride strong and determined. Elly was right. He was a hunk all right. It was just too bad that he didn’t love her.

  The next day she was getting ready for work when someone knocked at her kitchen door. Elly’s early, she thought with relief. Elly, being a typical teenager, would sleep until noon unless someone dragged her out of bed.

  But it wasn’t Elly.

  Diane stared at Thomas as he walked in and plopped a bag of groceries on the table.

  “What is this?”

  “I’m filling in for Elly today,” he announced as he started hauling items out of the bags and placing them in her refrigerator. “She called to say she wasn’t feeling well.”

  “She called you instead of me to cancel?”

  “She didn’t want to wake the children,” he explained, then held up a shrink-wrapped package. “Blueberry crumpets! Imagine that, in an American store.”

  “Imagine,” she repeated skeptically.

  Something was definitely wrong with this picture. But she didn’t have time to argue, so she let Thomas have his way and stay with the children while she went off to put in six hours at the store.

  Over the following days, Diane’s suspicions grew. Thomas never seemed to be out of her sight for more than a few hours at a time. He stayed at the house as late as she let him stay, which crept closer and closer to midnight. He returned as soon as possible the next day.

  Each time they met, she questioned him about his mission. He only smiled and assured her he was taking care of what needed to be done.

  Diane felt comfortable around Thomas, but torn as well. The more often he was around, the more
she felt aware of how empty the little house would seem when he left. The children loved him, and he was so very good with them. She was saddened, just thinking how hard it would be for them when he was gone. She intentionally didn’t ask when he thought he would be finished in the States and would return to Elbia. And he said nothing about it, either.

  Each day when she came home from the store, she looked at the flowers he’d brought to the store that first day. They stood in a vase on her kitchen table, but never seemed to wilt or turn brown. After a while she realized that he was replacing faded blossoms with new ones. And for every day he was in Nanticoke, another rose appeared, until as two weeks approached, only roses remained, and all the other blooms had disappeared.

  She said nothing and wondered what Thomas was trying to say to her. But she was too afraid to ask.

  One evening he appeared as he usually did, within minutes of her returning home. Elly had come to expect him, too, but this day the baby-sitter didn’t gather up her Walkman, audio tapes, teen magazines and fingernail polish in preparation for a hasty departure.

  Thomas set a pizza box on the kitchen table and winked at the teenager. “Pepperoni, onions and green peppers, just as you ordered, m’lady.”

  Diane scowled at the two of them, sensing something was up. “I take it you two have been in communication before I came home?”

  Elly giggled. “I’m staying to watch the tribe a few hours extra tonight. Thomas’s treat.”

  “Oh?” Diane raised a questioning brow at him.

  “I thought you might like a quiet dinner on the water, seeing it’s been a long week, and I’ll be—”

  “Don’t say it,” she said quickly, a lump swelling in her throat. “You’ll be leaving soon.”

  “Yes. I will.” He fixed her with a look she couldn’t read.

  She told herself she’d known this day would come. But that didn’t make it any easier. “Give me a few minutes to change,” she murmured, and hastily dashed for her bedroom to hide the tears welling in her eyes.

  They arrived at Sonny’s, a deceptively casual-sounding restaurant located only five miles along the shore. A deck lit by strings of tiny white bulbs looked over the water. Although it was a Friday night, and the restaurant was a very popular place, they were the only couple seated outside.