“The gift I am about to give you is a present for us both.”
“What gift?”
“I think we’re going to have a baby.”
Surprise flashed across his handsome face and then a slow smile tilted his lips.
“You think?”
Nodding Eva giggled as he stood up suddenly and water sloshed everywhere. He reached for her but she stepped backwards, putting herself out of his reach.
“I have no wish to bathe now, your Grace.”
“Come here, Duchess.”
He looked like a large, sleek god, and she felt her pulse race as he leant forward and clasped her arm, then pulled her closer. His kiss was slow and gentle.
“A baby,” he whispered against her lips. “We will be everything our parents were not.”
“Yes.”
She stood silently as he removed her clothes, his damp fingers deliberately caressing each patch of skin he exposed. Lastly, he unpinned her hair, pushing the curls behind her shoulders.
“So beautiful,” he whispered.
Eva wrapped her arms around his neck as he picked her up, pressing herself against his warm, wet heat.
“I want you very much, my Duchess.” Daniel lowered them both back into the bath and arranged her along his length. “I just need to look at you to want you. I smell your scent,” he added, kissing her lips, “or touch your skin,” he said, stroking one hand down her back and then moving it gently over the soft curves below, “and I am lost - totally and utterly under your spell. Take me inside you, Eva.”
If Wernham noticed the vast amount of water sloshed over his master’s bedroom floor later, he said nothing, instead setting the maid to mopping it up.
…
The ball preparations had gone well. Even Claire had visited the Dowager Duchess’s house and declared the setting fabulous, and now, finally, the night had arrived.
“I can’t seem to stop shaking,” Eva whispered as she looked around the room her grandmother had allocated her for this evening’s preparations. She had been insistent that they stay here for the night and although Daniel had grumbled, he had eventually given in. Molly and Hannah, one of her grandmother’s maids, were now helping her get ready.
“You will be the belle of the ball, your Grace.” Molly picked up her petticoats and shook them out. “And you will have the duke at your side.”
Eva rolled her eyes. Like every other female she knew, Molly was now firmly under Daniel’s spell.
Hannah dropped the dress over Eva’s head and twitched the silken folds into place. “No one will be able to keep their eyes from you, your Grace, in this dress.”
Had Eva the choice, she would have chosen one of her old dresses. Anything to keep people from looking at her. Suddenly, she felt besieged with nerves. Hosting her own ball - how could she hope to pull this off?
Hannah opened the door to a knock, then returned, carrying two boxes. “These are for you, your Grace.”
Eva’s hands shook as she took the first box, a long, slim one. She opened it and found a small golden heart with a diamond and ruby pressed into the centre.
“Oh, my,” Hannah whispered, moving closer. “Tis the most beautiful necklace I have ever seen.”
Lifting the chain, Eva studied the heart, her own thudding loudly as she realized there were initials on the necklace, too. The D was entwined with the E, linking them forever.
“There is a note, your Grace,” Molly said, pointing to the small square of paper nestled against the white satin.
Eva stepped backwards until her thighs touched the bed, then sank down onto the cover. Opening the note with trembling fingers, Eva saw Daniel’s strong scrawl on the paper before her.
I love you, D
