“Agreed,” the duke answered his friend. “Where is my wife, by the way?”
“With Sirena. Allegra has cooed Georgie to death, and now is gossiping with my wife. She looks tired, not at all at her best, I fear.”
The duke followed his friend up the stairs to the nursery where he was given a peek at his three-day-old godson, a plump pink and white lump of infant with a tuft of pale golden hair. The baby opened a pair of rather brightblue eyes to observe his visitor, and then closed them again, as if to say, I don’t find you important to my existence right now, and so you are dismissed.
The duke chuckled with amusement.
“Who do you think he looks like?” the viscount demanded to know.
“He looks like an old gentleman right now,” the duke responded, “so I suppose we could say he looks like your father. I assume the earl is pleased with your first efforts.”
“Over the moon,” Ocky said with a grin as they left the nursery to return to the morning room.
“And Sirena is recovering from her ordeal?”
“She carried him like a prize mare, and birthed him like a woman in the fields. It was amazing! That dainty little slip of a girl I’ve wed. The doctor said he had never seen anything like it. Says she can go on breeding for years to come.”
“It must run in the family,” the duke said as they entered the morning room again and sat down.
“What on earth do you mean?” the viscount queried.
“This is for your ears alone, Ocky. You cannot tell Sirena until her mother does. Lady Morgan is expecting a baby in May,” the duke said, and then laughed aloud at the look on his friend’s face.
Finally Ocky said, “You are jesting, of course.”
Quinton Hunter shook his head in the negative.
“Damn me if that doesn’t beat all,” the viscount said. “That’s why she hasn’t been about in recent months, isn’t it? Is she all right?”
“Other than being as big as a sow about to litter, she seems to be. Allegra, however, is very upset by this turn of events.”
“Of course she would be,” Ocky said. “She is now nolonger her father’s heiress. She will have to share with her new sibling, and if it is a boy, her portion will be greatly cut.”
“I don’t care,” the duke said, “but my wife does not believe that. She is now desperate to have an heir. She sees her failure to do so as some sort of flaw on her part. She is quite angry.”
“Tell me about France,” the viscount replied. “What the hell were you all doing in France?
“Ahh, Ocky, you and Sirena missed a grand adventure. It was quite mad of us. I knew it before we set off, and in retrospect I realize how damned lucky we all were to get back alive.” Then he went on to elucidate to his friend the tale of the Comtesse d’Aumont’s plight, and how they had rescued her, her children, the fierce old Thérèse, and Céline. “If we had been caught we would have all faced the guillotine. Especially as the old cook murdered the head of the Committee for Public Safety in St. Jean Baptiste, though I doubt he’ll be missed. The local priest saw to the disposal of his body, and forgave the cook her sin.” He chuckled.
“I would have liked to have been with you,” the viscount said.
“We thought about you the entire time,” the duke teased his best friend.
“The hell you did,” Ocky laughed. “You were far too busy making certain none of you were caught. Imagine Allegra’s little maid taking charge like that, and pulling it off. She’s a game gel, Honor is. I was never very good with French, though you certainly are.”
“Is Sirena up to seeing me? And then I must collect my wife, and return home. I would imagine Sirena cannot take too much company, and is probably too nice to send Allegra away.”
The Duchess of Sedgwick looked surprised to see her husband as he entered the viscountess’s bedchamber. The duke went over to Sirena, kissed her upon the forehead, and said, “He is an absolutely lovely boy, my dear Sirena. You have done well for yourself, and for Ocky.”
“It was an easy birth,” Sirena admitted.
“So Ocky tells me,” was the reply.
“I think Doctor Thatcher was rather surprised,” Sirena said with a smile, and a little twinkle in her eye. “Oh, Quinton, I have had such a lovely visit with Allegra.”
“But now you are ready to rest, I am certain, my dear. Allegra also needs her rest, but nothing could prevent her from coming immediately to see you. You will let us know when the baby’s christening is to be set? Come, madame, we have a long ride home.”
“I thought I should stay a few days with Sirena,” Allegra responded surlily. “After all, Quinton, I have not seen my cousin in several months, and we have a great deal to catch up on, sir.”
