Elizabeth didn’t get a chance to answer him before she felt a rush of liquid pour down her legs. It was quickly followed by another one of those vicious cramps that left her barely able to breathe. She reached up and grabbed onto James’s arms as cramp after cramp tore through her body until all she could do was scream the one thing that she knew would make it all better.
“Robert!”
“It’s beautiful,” Mr. Fairchild said in a reverent whisper as he ran his fingertips over the intricate design of the bassinet. “How much do you want for it?”
Robert chuckled as he placed the sheet back over the bassinet to keep it protected. “Thank you, but it’s not for sale.”
Mr. Fairchild smiled. “Fair enough. For your child?”
“Yes,” Robert said proudly as his gaze shifted to the other covered furniture that he’d built for their baby.
“The baby will be here soon enough,” Mr. Fairfield said with a chuckle as he moved to kneel in front of the chest that Robert made for the man’s future daughter-in-law.
“Not soon enough,” Robert said, leaning back to give the man some space to look over the chest.
Only another month before he was holding their baby in his arms, their miracle child, and he couldn’t wait. There were no words to describe how he felt about this child. They were getting a second chance to be parents to this child and he wasn’t going to waste it. He was going to-
“Robert!”
-have a heart attack, Robert realized as Elizabeth’s blood-curdling scream reached his ears. Before he realized what he was doing, he was running out the door, barely aware of Mr. Fairchild following him or demanding to know what was wrong. The only thing that he cared about at that moment was getting to Elizabeth and killing whoever was hurting her.
When he ran out of the barn and into the yard, terror shot through him as he watched a man hover over Elizabeth as she curled up on her side as she screamed his name over and over until he found himself running towards her and tackling the bastard.
“What the hell did you do to my wife?” Robert demanded as he shoved the smaller man to the ground and raised his fist, ready to kill him with his bare hands, when recognition hit him hard. “James? What the hell are you doing here?”
“Besides getting my ass kicked and having your wife scare the living hell out of me?” James demanded as he shoved Robert away and got to his feet. “I came to talk to you.”
Elizabeth’s screams brought his attention back to where it belonged. As happy as he was to see his brother again, James was going to have to wait.
“Minx?” Robert asked as he crawled over to where his wife lay, curled up into a ball and panting. “What’s wrong?”
Instead of answering him, she squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head.
“Is it the baby?” Robert asked, praying that the answer was no. It was too soon for the baby. They had another month before the baby was supposed to be born.
Reluctantly, Elizabeth nodded as a sob escaped her.
Please don’t let us lose the baby, Robert prayed as he carefully picked her up and carried her into the house because he didn’t think that either one of them would be able to survive the loss this time.
“He’s coming to,” Robert vaguely heard James say.
“Huh?” was his only response as he struggled to figure out how he’d ended up lying face down on his bedroom floor.
“I did tell him not to come in here,” James said, sounding amused as he helped roll Robert over onto his back.
“This is why men don’t belong in the labor room,” Mrs. Brown said, sounding put out as she tossed a wet cloth at him. It hit him in the face before falling off and landing on the floor, leaving Robert even more confused.
“What happened?” Robert asked numbly as he struggled to sit up, but a wave of dizziness had him lying right back down.
His answer was the beautiful cry of a baby. Actually, it sounded more like-
“Twins,” James said with a huge grin as he helped Robert sit up.
“Twins?” Robert repeated, not understanding what James was saying.
“Twin boys,” James said, chuckling as he reached down and dragged Robert to his feet. “That’s why your wife was so huge.”
“I was not huge!” Elizabeth said, not really sounding mad as she drew his attention towards the bed where she was curled up on her side, smiling down at two wiggling but healthy-looking, babies.
