‘Apart from that, did you sleep well?’ I asked.
She nodded. ‘Surprisingly so despite ...’ She gestured to her round protuberance. ‘He has been kicking much of late. My poor insides are black and blue!’
‘He? I thought you had deemed it a girl?’
Lucinda placed a hand protectively on her belly and grinned. ‘With a pair of clodhoppers like that? No, I feel more and more certain it is a boy.’
My ears pricked up at that. Max had his heart set on a boy. ‘Oh, I do hope so,’ I breathed. ‘For Max’s sake,’ I added when she looked at me enquiringly. ‘I myself am not concerned either way as long as the child is healthy.’
‘Speaking of Uncle Max, he has been very good at letting you come away with me,’ remarked Lucinda, propping herself up on the pillows. ‘Especially after our last trip. I’m surprised he agreed to it.’
I looked down at my hands. ‘He did not have much choice in the matter. Men do not usually accompany their wives during confinement. So it would have looked strange if we both went off together. He has to play the part of the anxious husband waiting patiently at home for the good news. Besides, I suppose I cannot get into too muchtrouble here in the depths of Kent,’ I concluded lightly.
Lucinda arched a sly eyebrow. ‘Does he know that Dorian made a play for you at Hartmoor?’
I shook my head vehemently. ‘No, and he never will. My husband and your father are cut from the same cloth. What your mother fears, I also fear. I have no wish to see him swinging from the gallows because of some rash decision to defend my honour—and over nothing too. Dorian’s declarations were all poppycock, as you would expect from a rascal like that.’
However, his earnest speech about wanting to be a better man for mehadbeen rather stirring. I shook the image of Dorian’s intense brown eyes out of my head as my gaze dropped to Lucinda’s burgeoning belly. The man had a lot to answer for, including a fast-approaching bundle of joy that was soon to make its way into the world and into my inexperienced arms.
I could not help but feel apprehensive about it all.
‘Do you think Elizabeth has employed the services of a midwife?’ I asked, eyeing Lucinda’s bump nervously. ‘If so, I hope she lives close by.’
It would be my luck to be thrust into having to deliver the child myself because the midwife lived forty miles away. The thought made me quail.
‘Do not fret, Aunty Fliss. Remember Elizabeth said shewould organise it all, and we need not worry about a single thing,’ Lucinda said, seemingly unconcerned.
‘That is all very well. But I will feel more at ease when I have seen her and heard exactly what the plan is.’
By midmorning, she had still not appeared, and we had started to feel light-headed from hunger. Then finally, there came a light tread and a sharp rap at the door. Before I had a chance to open it, Elizabeth Austen came bustling in. She was armed with a wicker basket, which she deposited on the sideboard with a sigh of relief.
We embraced politely, and she murmured something that sounded like ‘What a business’. She held me at arm’s length, and we surveyed each other.
Her appearance was the same as when I had seen her in Bath, though her hair was hastily pinned, as if she had done it herself. She saw me looking and tucked a loose strand behind her ear. ‘Forgive me if I seem a bit dishevelled. My youngest took ill and has been awake most of the night. He has been given a draught with some rum in it, and it has knocked him out, so I took the chance to escape.’
‘Not at all,’ I said, though my stomach was quivering with hunger. I could smell something savoury coming from the basket, and my appetite had sharpened.
‘Where is our Lucy?’
‘Resting in herroom,’ I replied distractedly. ‘We were woken early by a noisy stag.’
Elizabeth tsked. ‘Do not worry. There is a ha-ha between the deer and the cottage, so they cannot mow you down.’
‘That’s a relief,’ I said, inching towards the sideboard. ‘Is there food in there, perchance?’
‘Yes, Cook has kindly done me up a basket. I said I was going to visit the poor.’ She flipped open the lid, and my mouth watered when I saw the assortment. I did not think there would be much left for the poor when I had finished with it.
I filched a soft roll and tore into it while Elizabeth laid the table.
‘Have you told any of your staff that we are here?’
Elizabeth paused, a pottle of jam held aloft. ‘My cook, housekeeper, and lady’s maid knowyouare here. But they do not know about Lucy and her condition.’ She glanced at my flat stomach (I had not bothered to put on my padded corset).
I stopped eating my roll. ‘Do they not think it strange thatIam in the guest cottage and not the house?’
‘I explained that it was more convenient as you had arrived late at night. But yes, it will look strange if you stay here. So that is why you are coming back with me after you have eaten, and Lucy will stay here.’
I gawped at her. ‘I cannot leave Lucy.’
