“Really? My mother was the same way with myyounger brother, Thomas. I have been around enough women who havesuffered the same characteristic symptoms.”
“Whatever do you mean? I can’t get pregnant.I fell from a tree when I was a child. The doctor told me so.”
“Rubbish. An illogical notion. I’mexpecting, so I know the signs firsthand. My doctor comes thisafternoon. I’ll let him slip in and examine you.”
Alexandra clasped her hands under her chin.Her greatest sorrow was her barrenness, and Rachel had pulled herfrom a box of darkness into light. The miraculous possibility ofhaving a child radiated through her chest and arms and legs. Andnot just any child, Nicholas’s child.
Her hands splayed across her abdomen. Tohold her baby in her arms? It was the beginning of all things, ofwonder, of hope, a dream of possibilities.
“Rachel, do you think it is possible that Icould be a mother?”
Rachel slanted her head. “I assume you werenot working at survival with all that time spent on theisland.”
Alexandra wanted to die ofmortification.
Rachel smiled. “For now, we’ll keep it asecret until it is confirmed.”
ChapterTwenty-three
The opera house was a cacophony of sound.Alexandra entered the box unable to conceal her delight. Greatchandeliers hung from a vaulted ceiling, and below in the gallery,and like so many blossoms, women dressed in rainbows of colorgathered in the tiers of elegant and spacious boxes.
Alexandra pulled her gaze from Nicholas andglanced around at the young dandies in their bright satinwaistcoats in the mezzanine below, trying to gain the interests ofthe young ladies. Instead of admiring the compliments of theirnearby suitors, the young ladies stared at Nicholas. Like apainting created with an eye for drama, the lighting revealed hisruggedly chiseled face, underscored by impeccably tailored midnightblack attire, his air of smooth refinement, making the ladies gawkand practically swoon from their seats.
Except for one woman in the box oppositethem. Alexandra reared back. The woman in the beautiful gown,surrounded by anxious suitors and staring daggers at her, wasNicholas’s former fiancée. Had he noticed her?
Nicholas took Alexandra’s cape from hershoulders and a slow admiring gaze swept across his features. Thedressmaker had promised a marvelous creation and had produced asensation out of a dress that had been promised to another customerbut readied for Alexandra instead. She wanted to twirl around forhis inspection. Her gown of emerald satin accentuated her narrowwaist and clung provocatively to her full breasts, and then fellgracefully to the floor.
“I dreamed of you on the island in such agown,” he said leaning over to whisper in her ear, “…just so Icould remove the garment later.”
Alexandra blushed. “I did not realize thedress would produce such vice and depravity.”
“Exactly.” A lazy grin swept across histanned face. “I have a fond memory of long sultry nights beneathundulating palm trees. You cannot, Lady Sutherland, begin toimagine the wickedness I’m entertaining.” His voice rich and deep,so dear and familiar to her, wiped away any uncertainty she had ofhis feelings for his former fiancée.
“You must stop, my Lord. All the womenwatching you will guess your thoughts. My reputation will be inruins,” Alexandra teased in a laughter-tinged voice.
Nicholas’s smile vanished. “I am jealous,Lady Sutherland. Those young bucks are staring at you, the mostbeautiful woman in the room.”
Nicholas had paid her the highestcompliment. She glanced at her audience. He was right. They werestaring at her.
Alexandra smiled but Nicholas was notpleased. He passed an impassive glance over her male admirers untilthey were forced to look away.
“I do not agree with the coming out periodnor the idea of sharing you at all,” he said, bluntly. “I shoulddispense with this charade and haul you off to Gretna Green.”
Alexandra angled her head to the meleebelow. “Are you telling me there is not one suitable companion?”she teased.
“Not one. And if one of those vipers hasmore than one dance with you at balls we are to attend, I shallheave them out on a doorstep.”
His blunt answer made her laugh. He eyed herbreasts with a bold, speculative gleam that left her breathless.“What a perfectly unchivalrous thing to say!”
“Chivalry is for callow youths and old men,”Nicholas informed her with a serious inflection in his voice.“However, I shan’t put up with this inconvenience for long. Yousitting next to me will be a statement sent to all of London thatyou are mine.”
“Don’t be a boor and keep this enchantinglady all to yourself,” chastised Anthony. He bowed to Alexandra,made apologies for being late, and then seated his wife. “I don’tknow why you dragged me here this evening, Rachel,” he said overNicholas’s head. “To listen to a bunch of Italian eunuchs squawllike a bunch of cats.”
Rachel shushed her husband and Alexandraplaced her fan over her mouth to hide her smile. To sit through anopera must be difficult for a man with Anthony’s prodigious andscientific mind.
A tall man entered their box. He possessedan unblinking eye, black as obsidian and made of glass. Alexandradid a double take and remembered Nicholas’s story of his uncle thathe told her on the island.
Nicholas stood and said, “Alexandra, this ismy Uncle Cornelius, the Duke of Westbrook.”
