“What is her name, Hypatia?” Arabella said after admiring the doll.
Hypatia turned her head and squinted at her and Arabella could have sworn it was the same look Harry used to give her when she had very briefly taken over Arabella’s very rudimentary mathematical training.
“Anchabella. Of course.”
Arabella laughed.
“Aye,” Alasdair said, squatting down and putting his arm around his Arabella’s shoulders and kissing her on the side of the head. “She is very Harry-esque in her condescension to us mere mortals, but nae sign of mathematical obsession just yet.”
“Richard, do you have a toy to show your Aunt Arabella?” Arabella asked. But Richard was pulling at the crotch of his high-waisted trousers and just shook his head.
Alasdair murmured, “And Richard definitely takes after his father.”
There was only about half an hour between the Andrews’ arrival and the appearance in the nursery of the very pregnant and flushed Harry and the slightly perspiring Thomas Drake. Harry’s hair was falling down a bit, and Thomas’ shirt wasn’t quite tucked into his trousers all the way around.
Arabella went to Harry immediately and was about to ask permission to hug her sister and was surprised to have Harry throw her own arms around her neck. Arabella could feel the tears pricking her eyes.
Harry whispered to her, “I have been well recently, but I was tired of waiting for you to remember what you really wanted and deserved. And I was tired of Alasdair pining for you. Don’t be angry at yoursoror ex machina.”
Arabella pulled back from her, astonished. She had never spoken to Harry of her secret feelings for Alasdair. And she would have never thought this sister might sense anything about Arabella’s desires.
Harry shrugged and looked at the ceiling. “You’re welcome.” Then she spoke more loudly. “You can touch if you like. She’s moving around a lot right now.”
So Arabella felt Harry’s stomach and indeed the baby, which Harry insisted was a girl, was kicking. And then Alasdair, as Harry’s physician, had to feel and so did Thomas. Even Hypatia reached up and felt the underside of her mother’s belly for a moment before running away to pull her brother’s hair.
“I hope you got married in Scotland before coming here,” Harry said, gazing at her husband’s waistcoat buttons. “Otherwise, there will be such a fuss over you two sharing a bed when Mama Katie gets here.”
Arabella sputtered, “Harry!” and turned to her husband.
Alasdair was blushing and held his hands up. “I dinnae say anything. I have been with ye the whole time.”
“I take it then that congratulations are in order?” Thomas asked and shook Alasdair’s and Arabella’s hands with a large grin. “Yes, your mother and Jamie are scheduled to come in a week. Once we send word to Middlewich that you are here, I wouldn’t be surprised if your mother comes as soon as she gets the message. And Mary and David are coming as well.”
“Yes,” said Harry. “So you all can distract Tommy while I work on the conjecture. I have a lot to do before the baby comes.”
“Harry,” Arabella said. “You are not going to work on the conjecture with your whole family here, are you?”
Thomas laughed. “When Richard was born, Harry was making notes between contractions. She says labor wonderfully concentrates the mind.”
The Andrews spent that night at Sommerleigh, but the next day, after Paterson had left to start his long trip back to Edinburgh, Alasdair took Arabella to his house in the village. A few months ago, he would have been overwhelmed with anxiety to have her see where he lived. But he had been in her cottage in Dunburn and saw she knew how to live modestly. And she was bound to him now. Still, he wanted her happy.
She walked through the house, looking carefully at every room. His housekeeper had kept the place tidy and dusted while he was away. What would she think of it? He promised himself to make no apologies for anything she might find amiss. She turned to him and smiled.
“It’s lovely, Alasdair. Let’s spend tonight here.”
“Do ye think we might have pink curtains on the windows in the drawing room?”
She laughed. “I’ll sew some for the nursery.”
He knew that it was too early to know if she was with child but her plans for a nursery made him very happy indeed.
And that night, the lonely bed in the lonely house was no longer lonely.
The next day, they were walking together to Sommerleigh very slowly, having promised to join the Drakes for luncheon. Alasdair was glad the road was so empty because he was finding it extraordinarily difficult to keep his hands off his wife while in public.
It was fortuitous then that he was not stroking her heart-shaped bottom through her dress or brushing the back of his hand against her breast or leaning down to kiss her pink lips when a rather grand carriage with several footman and a large team of white horses overtook them on the road and then a slowed a hundred yards or so ahead of them, coming to a rather abrupt stop.
A small figure spilled from the carriage as it was still moving, not waiting for a footman to open the door or assist with steps. It was a woman and she was running now back toward them.
