"Notice I'm patiently waiting."
"You're never patient."
"I'm always patient, and you're still hedging," he all but growled. "George, I'm warning you, I'm bloody well at the end of my patience." See?
He gave her a scowl worthy of decimating an ordinary opponent. She was unaffected, well aware she had nothing to worry about from his scowls. But she was pushing it. Finally she sighed again.
"I know you love the twins," she said. "You can't help but love them, they're such darlings. But I also know you were horrified at the thought of having them, when Amy and Warren produced twins, and him being my brother, you realized we might have some, too."
"Not horrified," he corrected. "Just bloody well surprised that they run in your family, when your family didn't have any to show for it."
"Horrified," she reiterated stubbornly.
He sighed this time, though only for effect, "If you insist. And your point?"
"I didn't want to horrify you again."
"Again?" And then he blinked. "Good God, George are we having another baby?"
At which point she burst into tears. James, on the other hand, burst into laughter. He simply couldn't help it. But that just had her crying louder.
So he lifted her up, sat down on the bed and placed her on his lap, wrapped his arms around her carefully, and said, "You know, George, we're really going to have to work on your way of announcing these things. Recall how you told me about Jack's impending arrival?"
She did indeed. They'd been in the middle of a heated exchange on his ship, where she'd just got done calling James an English lord, a Caribbean pirate!
He'd replied, "I hate to point this out, you little witch, but those aren't epithets."
She'd shouted back, "They are as far as I'm concerned. My God, and to think I'm going to have your baby."
To which he had countered heatedly, "The devil you are! I'm not touching you again!"
She had stomped away with the parting shot, "You won't have to, you stupid man!" which had finally got the point across to him that she was already pregnant.
"And the second time, d'you recall that you actually denied you were pregnant? Told me you were just putting on a little weight, as if I couldn't bloody well tell the difference." He snorted.
She stiffened at that point. "You blame me for not mentioning it, after what you said when Amy had her twins? 'We are not having any, d'you hear!' Those were your exact words, you odious man. Well, we did have some, didn't we, and we may have some more, and some more, and—"
"How you do go on," he cut in with a chuckle. "My dearest girl, you shouldn't hold a man accountable for one unguarded moment of surprise."
"Shock," she corrected.
"Surprise," he repeated adamantly. "That's all it was, you know. And I did adjust to it remarkably well, if I do say so myself. In fact, you can give me twins every year if you're up to it, and I'll adore them all equally. You know why, don't you?"
She frowned. "Why?"
"Because I love you, and at the risk of sounding exceedingly conceited," he added with a smug grin, "I know you love me, too. Stands to reason, then, don't it, that anything that we produce from that love will be cherished, whether it comes in a single package or in pairs. I'll love them all, silly girl. Don't ever doubt that again."
She put her head against his chest with a sigh. "I have been rather silly, haven't I?"
"Considering where I've been sleeping lately," he replied dryly, "I'll refrain from answering that, if it's all the same to you."
She kissed his neck in apology. "I'm really sorry about that."
"As you should be."
It was his condescending tone that prompted her to reply, "Did I ever mention that four generations back, there was a rare instance of triplets in my family?"
"I know you're expecting to hear yet another 'Good God, George, we're not having any of those either,' but I'm going to have to disappoint you. Now, if I didn't think you were pulling my leg ..."
