“But do you want a child? Do you want this babe?” she asked, her fears getting the best of her once more. “I cannot imagine the anguish you endured.”
“I will not lie. I am terrified. What happened with Amelia…I could not bear for it to happen to you as well.”
“It will not,” she vowed, though in truth, she knew she possessed no choice in the matter.
“I want a child, Tilly. Your child. Our child.”
She believed him. There was a tremor in his voice that belied the calm lines of his visage. It occurred to her that he was being brave for her. That he was attempting to soothe her at his own expense.
Her dear, beautiful man.
This was the most she had been able to wrest from him concerning his past since that day in the temple, and she was incredibly grateful for it. She was incredibly grateful for him. For their love.
And yes, for this precious, tiny life.
“I do too, Robin. Promise me we shall always be a family together.” Because she could not bear to lose him, either.
“I promise.”
“What shall we do when Longleigh learns I am carrying your child as he has wanted all along?” she asked, hating to contemplate how this complication would muddy the waters for them, but knowing that she must.
She had no choice.
“We will go to London as planned,” he said grimly. “If we live together openly, his pride will not bear it, though I hope it will not come to that. Would you do that for me, Tilly? Are you willing to ruin yourself in the eyes of society if we must?”
She did not hesitate. “I will do anything to protect this babe.”
Her hand crept to her belly once more, and this time not with shock or fear, but with wonder.
With love.
* * *
A child.
Two words.
One life.
A world of change.
As Adrian sat in the private rail car with Tilly tucked securely at his side, he watched the scenery slipping past them, looking without truly seeing. Following the morning’s astonishing revelation, they had seen their belongings packed and had taken the carriage to the rail station in Derby. The hours had passed with a remarkable torpidity.
He plucked his watch from the pocket in his waistcoat and consulted the timepiece. They would soon arrive in London now, where another world awaited him. He was not a stranger to London, but the city had never been home to him, and he very much dreaded what would follow their arrival.
Longleigh would be infuriated when he arrived at Coddington Hall and found them gone. That much, Adrian knew without question. But when he discovered Adrian and Tilly were living together openly in London, and that she was carrying Adrian’s child, and further, that he had no intention of allowing Longleigh to claim either Tilly or his child…
It would be war, he had no doubt.
But a war he would wage. One he could not have imagined fighting until he had met Tilly. Knowing her, loving her, had changed him. He had been nothing but a hollow husk of himself, wandering through life without purpose, thinking the grief of losing Amelia and Arthur had ruined him for any future happiness.
Tilly had proven him wrong. She, with her kindness, her laughter, her kisses, her passion, her love. He would never know how the devil he had been fortunate enough to find the one woman who could bring him back to life, the only one who could heal him and show him how to love again.
But he had, and he was thankful for it. Thankful for her, for the small heart beating to life in her womb. For everything they had shared and for all that was to come. So much, he hoped.
As if she could hear his thoughts, she made a soft, kittenish sound and rubbed her cheek on his shoulder. He nuzzled her rose-scented curls, which he had discovered during one of the times they had shared the massive porcelain bath at Coddington Hall was down to her shampoo. Rose water.
It was one of many Tilly mysteries he had solved, but there remained others. A lifetime of them. Each time he learned another facet of her personality, he was besotted anew.
