A strange question. One that was difficult to answer. Nigh impossible, in fact.
But she held his gaze. “I do not think you allow anyone to know you, Dominic Winter. Not truly. Not the entire you. But I want to know you. There is so much more to understand. So much you need to explain. I cannot say what would have happened had you not come to me at Abingdon Hall. But what I do know is that you did, and we are here now, in this moment. We have the opportunity to begin again, together. Will you take it?”
A muscle in his jaw ticked. “You should have sought me out instead of disappearing from my life, Duchess.”
“I feared your response, and I feared you, the terrible Mr. Dominic Winter.”
“Do you fear me now?”
Her answer was easy. She did not hesitate. “No.”
He sighed. “A babe.”
“Yes.”
Their entwined fingers tightened. Something strange happened in her heart. The last of the fight seemed to have drained from him.
“Ours.”
“Ours,” she echoed, her heart giving an extra thump.
His expression shifted, softening even more than she had ever seen from him before. “I am going to be a father.”
The smile curving her lips was instant. Joyous. Right. “Yes, you are.”
He kissed her forehead. “And you shall be a mother.”
She nodded, rolling her lips inward as a rush of emotion swept over her. Yet another symptom of her condition, along with the sickness of each morning. “Yes.”
“You will be the sort of mother every babe deserves, Duchess.”
His quiet words filled her with strength. And something else.
Something that felt a whole lot like love.
Chapter 12
The carriage came to a halt in the mews behind The Devil’s Spawn not a moment too soon. Smoke was billowing from one of the upper windows and men were pouring from the back doors.
He had returned to mayhem.
Fucking, floating hell.
“Stay right where you are,” he ordered Adele.
Her eyes were wide. “I will do nothing of the sort. I will go where you go. If you are in danger—”
“Damn it, Adele, trust me in this. There may be danger within. If there is, I need to know you will remain where you are safe, that no harm will come to you. Do you understand?”
Her expression turned mulish. “No. I refuse to be relegated to the carriage while you go and face whatever is happening within on your own.”
He caught her face in his palms and kissed her swiftly before breaking free. “Listen to me. I…care for you, Adele. I need you and the babe to be safe, and there is no safer place for you than here. This is not a problem you can solve, and every moment I stay here arguing with you is a moment in which one of my men or family could die.”
She went ashen at the ruthlessness of his words. “Die? Dom, what is happening?”
He would do all he could to protect her and their child. But he would not lie to her about the seriousness of the situation. He did have enemies. The Suttons would do anything to overthrow his rule and destroy him. She needed to understand.
Shouts reached him, along with gunfire.
