Emmeline laughed before she could stop herself.
The sound startled her. It seemed to startle Rowan too, because his face softened in a way that made her chest ache all over again.
“Come in,” Rowan called.
The door opened at once, and Aaron hurried inside, Biscuit charging at his heels.
“You are awake!” Aaron said, stopping beside the bed with eyes wide and shining. “Are you better?”
“I am,” Emmeline said, reaching for him. “Much better.”
He climbed carefully onto the edge of the bed after looking to Rowan for permission, and when Rowan nodded, Aaron leaned into Emmeline’s side with careful affection.
Behind him, Juliet appeared in the doorway, Frederick just behind her. Both looked suspiciously flushed. Frederick had one hand at Juliet’s back, not quite touching improperly, but near enough that Emmeline’s eyes narrowed at once.
“What has happened?” Emmeline asked.
Juliet went pink while Frederick coughed.
Rowan’s mouth curved faintly. “There have been developments.”
“Developments?” Emmeline looked between them. “What sort of developments?”
Juliet stepped inside, still shy but smiling in a way Emmeline had not seen before. “First, how are you?”
“Do not distract me.”
Frederick made a soft sound, somewhere between amusement and defeat, and glanced at Juliet as though they had both been caught standing too close to the truth. “She knows us too well already.”
Juliet’s blush deepened, but her smile did not disappear.
Rowan looked from them back to Emmeline. For a moment, all the teasing warmth in the room quieted into something more fragile. His hand still covered hers, his thumb resting against her knuckles, and his eyes asked what his voice did not yet dare to presume.
May I tell them?
Emmeline’s pulse quickened. The child was still only a secret between their hands, small and impossible beneath his palm and hers. For one heartbeat, she wanted to keep it there, safe from the world. Then Aaron shifted against her side, watching them with wide, expectant eyes, and her throat tightened with sudden happiness.
She nodded.
Rowan’s hand remained over hers, warm and steady. “There is something we should tell you all.”
Aaron sat up. “Is it bad?”
“No,” Emmeline said, and tears threatened again, though this time they were warmer. “No, darling. It is very good.”
Rowan’s voice softened. “You are going to have a brother or sister.”
Aaron stared.
For one terrifying second, no one moved.
Then his face lit so completely that Emmeline nearly cried outright.
“A baby?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “A baby.”
Aaron looked at her stomach as though the child might somehow hear him already, and then his smile widened, bright and helpless and full of wonder. “I shall protect it!”
