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Calling what she’d done with Asquith a shared intimacy felt wrong.

Neither could she call the act marital. They weren’t wed. But they must wed, and yet how could they? He hadn’t truly declared his love. Faithfully, devotedly, did not count. Especially since he delayed his “apology” so he could buy a horse.

She sighed. “When Asquith and I shagged.”

Eliza gurgled with an only half-suppressed laugh. “I thought as much.”

Lenora returned her mirth with a bleak expression. Eliza immediately sobered, reached out, and placed a hand against Lenora’s thigh.

“Is Cassie right? Are you pregnant?”

Lenora scowled. “She said she wouldn’t speak of her suspicions.”

“She didn’t. But she did ask me to take special care with you. And when she made her request, she held her hand over her stomach.”

Lenora lifted her eyebrows. “Is Cassie—”

Eliza winced. “You can’t tell anyone.”

Lenora tilted back her head. That’s why Cassie had known.

Cassie was pregnant, too. Good heavens what were the chances?

Both she and her sister were carrying a new life. Then again, could the coincidence provide an unexpected solution?

“Well,” Eliza prompted, “is it true?”

Lenora swallowed roughly. “If I were with child, what would you do?”

“Simple. I’d have Adrian and Harbury put a gun to Asquith’s head and force him to the altar.”

The sly reference to Asquith’s own actions on Cassie’s behalf almost made Lenora smile.

“Eliza, I don’t want Asquith if he doesn’t want me.” A conviction rooted in her parents’ marriage, which had also spawned life, but in an ever-expanding circle of pain.

“Clearly, Asquith does want you.”

Lenora compressed her lips.

“And you have a child to think about,” Eliza reminded.

She knew. Asquith, however, did not. He deserved to know. Obviously, he would immediately insist on a special license.

But despite what Society dictated, her condition did not give him the right to her hand in marriage. Not, at least, if she could find another way to make sure the child did not bear the shame of bastardy.

So long as Asquith could not welcome her into his life as Adrian had Eliza, as Harbury had Cassie—as helpmeet, friend, and lover—he would never truly be hers. But the small one growing inside her body would be hers to protect.

She shuddered as she inhaled.

Her imperative was to make certain her babe would never be subjected to the kind of resentment she’d faced every day of her childhood.

If Asquith could not prove his ability to love her, she would find another way to keep the child safe. She could marry another. Or she could give the child to a respectable couple.

Or Cassie could be the key.

Since they would be confined at the same time, they could pass the cousins off as non-identical twins. Harbury might be willing as long as she birthed a girl.

In any case, her sisters would help her come up with some viable plan.