At last, he glanced up. “How long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough to wonder if I’d lost the ability to distract you.”
He grinned as he set his quill in the stand and rose. “Never.”
Ellis’s pulse leapt as she met him in the center of the room. “What are you working on?”
“Just writing a response to Josiah. We need to print more copies of A Season in Shadow again. It has become our bestselling novel.”
“Pandora will be thrilled.” Ellis smiled. “I’ll write to her and let her know, if that’s all right.”
“I think Josiah might have beaten you to it,” Roman said with a chuckle. “I can hear his excitement in his letter. Have you come to work or perhaps for some other reason?” He gave her a seductive look.
“Actually, I came to tell you something important.” Ellis tamped down her giddiness lest she spoil the surprise.
“Did you?” He put his arm around her waist and pulled her toward him. “Here, I hoped you’d planned to distract me as you implied.”
“I fear this will be a major distraction, but it can’t be helped.”
Roman flinched. “Has something happened? The duchess hasn’t emerged from the rock she crawled under, has she?”
Ellis laughed softly. “No, this is something pleasant. Something wonderful. I’ve waited to tell you until I was absolutely certain, and now I am.” She took his free hand and pressed his palm to her lower abdomen. “We are to be parents.”
His eyes rounded with wonder, then a grin nearly split his face as he swept her up and spun her around. But he quickly set her down. “That didn’t make you ill, did it?” He kept his hands on her waist as his brow furrowed.
She shook her head. “I have not been ill at all, actually, but Mrs. Gentry said that is not uncommon. She said her sisters were not ill when they were carrying.”
Mrs. Gentry was Westlands’s housekeeper and had quickly become a confidante and mother-like figure to Ellis, just as Harriet Lacey had. She and Josiah would be thrilled to learn they would be grandparents, for that was the role that Ellis wanted them to assume.
“You feel completely fine?” he asked, sounding puzzled.
“More than.” She smiled. “You’re happy?”
He grinned again. “I’m bloody ecstatic. When is this happening? Do you know?”
“Based on when my courses stopped, I would guess around Christmas, perhaps a bit sooner.”
“What a lovely gift he or she will be.” He touched her abdomen again, his features alight with wonder. “I can’t wait to meet you,” he whispered. Then he gazed into Ellis’s eyes. “Thank you for making all my dreams come true.”
She curled her arms around his neck. “And thank you for making mine come true. Especially coming to Weston in August. I know you’d rather work, not that you won’t work while we’re there.”
“I plan to be anywhere you are, unless you tell me otherwise. I can’t bear to be away from you.” He kissed her soundly.
When they parted, Ellis sighed. “How did we become so lucky?”
“I’m not sure, but I will never stop being grateful. What is unlucky, however, is the fact that you did not shut or lock the door. How can we properly celebrate this magnificent news?”
Ellis gave him a saucy look. “I didn’t think of it as I was too eager to tell you.”
“As you should have been. Allow me.” He sprinted to close and secure the door, then returned to her as quickly as he’d left.
“Where would you like to celebrate?” Ellis asked, glancing about the room. “I don’t believe there’s a piece of furniture in this room that we haven’t, er, celebrated.”
“The desks hold a certain nostalgia for me since we met with you working as my secretary.” He shook his head. “I should be eternally ashamed for allowing our relationship to progress as it did, but I’m afraid I was completely unable to resist you.”
“It took the both of us to flaunt propriety so flagrantly, and I’ve no regrets.” She loosened his cravat, knowing she would have to knot it again later. Redressing each other had become one of their favorite intimacies.
“Then allow us to flaunt it once more as flagrantly as possible.” Roman leered at her before capturing her mouth in a kiss full of unrestrained passion and boundless love.
Ellis had no regrets about anything anymore. Her life had led her here—to this joyous moment in this incredible man’s arms and a future she was eager to experience with him.
Nothing could be more perfect.
* * *
