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СКАЧАТЬ no longer on his own. He hugged her tight. She was his. Wholly his. To cherish and protect.

      And speaking of which…

      ‘Midge,’ he said solemnly, turning her round in his arms to face him. ‘You make me forget what I wanted to say to you.’

      He was perturbed to see her looking quite upset, and suddenly realized it had not been very tactful of him to laugh at the naiveté of her earlier question.

      ‘You are a delight,’ he said, kissing the frown line between her brows. More than that. He was coming to the conclusion that he was becoming addicted to her. He had certainly never suspected he was capable of making love quite so often. She only had to look at him in a certain way…just as she had done earlier, making him forget the reason he had come up to talk to her in the middle of the afternoon.

      Which he had to bring to her attention now.

      ‘Sit down, will you, Midge,’ he said, leading her to the dressing-table stool, waiting till she had sat down, then deliberately distancing himself by walking away and leaning against the bedpost. ‘There is something I should like to ask you. I have been wondering if you have already written to your aunt about it…’ he conjectured, raising one eyebrow in enquiry. Then, receiving nothing in return from Midge but a blank look, he stuck his hands in his pockets and said, ‘Since we have been married, you have not refused me once. And you should have done, should you not? In the normal course of things?’

      Midge’s insides hollowed out. She knew it! Her behaviour was not what a husband wanted in a wife at all! A true lady would have feigned reluctance, she expected. And made him work a bit harder before yielding. Pretence, she thought bitterly. That was what being a lady entailed. And she had never been any good at it.

      She swallowed down a feeling of nausea. It was so unfair. He had taken full advantage of her wanton nature, after all!

      ‘You had better explain what you mean,’ she said mutinously. Because she was blowed if she could understand what he was complaining about!

      A faint flush swept across his cheeks. ‘To be blunt, my dear, you have not experienced your monthly courses, have you, since we married. I would have thought, after six weeks, that you would have been…um…out of commission at least once…’

      The relief that he was not about to tell her she was better suited to the position of mistress than wife was so acute that, for a moment or two, Midge went quite lightheaded.

      ‘Dammit, Midge, are you going to faint?’

      ‘I never faint,’ she said weakly as the room spun round her.

      The next thing she knew, Monty had scooped her up off the stool and was lying her gently down on the bed. Then he knelt on the floor at the bedside and laid his hands over her stomach.

      ‘You are carrying my child,’ he breathed, in awe. ‘So soon!’

      This was so typical of Midge, to charge full tilt into whatever she did! No holds barred.

      She would be a wonderful mother. She was so loving; she would never abandon her child to the rigid regime at Shevington and seek her own amusements in London. Nor shame it by taking a succession of lovers, no matter how disappointed she might be in her husband.

      ‘A baby?’ Midge breathed, her own hands fluttering over where his rested on her stomach. ‘Do you really think so?’

      Her whole world tilted on its axis. It had never occurred to her she might be pregnant. And yet, now he had put the idea in her head, it seemed so obvious. It certainly explained why she had been feeling a bit off-colour the last few days.

      Monty looked at her slightly dazed face and felt a rush of protectiveness towards her. Midge was normally healthy and strong, but already carrying his child was taking its toll on her. It was not referred to as being in ‘a delicate condition’ for nothing!

      She looked a little pale. Come to think of it, these last couple of weeks, she’d taken to going to bed every afternoon. Had she felt unwell and not told him?

      When it was all his fault she was in this condition at all! Because his seed was growing inside her, the girl who was never ill had just almost fainted.

      And suddenly, his father’s words rang in his head. ‘If she should die in childbirth, you will feel like a murderer…’

      He leapt to his feet, running his fingers through his hair. Two of his father’s three wives had died in childbirth. And he had never really recovered from the loss. Especially not from the first. The love of his life. And suddenly, he knew exactly how the old man must have felt. The prospect of carrying on living without Midge was too ghastly to contemplate!

      And more than that, he knew that if the worst should happen, it would indeed be all his fault. He clenched his fists, a streak of resolve running through him. He would just have to make damn sure nothing happened to Midge!

      ‘I will get Dr Cottee to come and look at you in the morning,’ he decided. She must have the best of care. Stay in bed all day every day if that was what it took to keep her safe!

      ‘What is it? What’s wrong?’

      Midge was staring up at him with her huge grey eyes clouded with anxiety.

      ‘Nothing, nothing at all,’ he lied, his stomach roiling with fear.

      ‘Then why ask Dr Cottee to look at me? Does he even know anything about having babies? I thought you said he was an expert in nervous disorders?’

      ‘Well, I feel nervous,’ he admitted, then immediately felt a pang of contrition. He should be reassuring Midge, not spelling out the dangers and terrifying her too.

      Though what he most wanted right now was to clutch her tightly and never let her go!

      Instead, he had to get away from her, fast, before she picked up on his fear.

      ‘You need your rest,’ he said grimly, backing away from the bed and the temptation Midge presented, lying there looking so achingly vulnerable.

      He hardened himself against the hurt look she gave him as he fled from her bedroom. If he stayed, she would winkle his deepest thoughts from him. She had the knack of doing that. He had told her things he had never confided to another living soul!

      He slammed his door behind him, and leaned back on it, his whole body shaking.

      He hated to have to admit that his father was right about anything, but he was already learning how painful it was for a man to be so much in love with his wife.

      Chapter Ten

      Monty knew, the moment he set foot in his father’s study, why he had been summoned. The doctor’s gloating expression said it all, even before the earl offered his congratulations.

      Dr Cottee bustled over with a glass of what looked like the best brandy in his hands. His father lifted his own glass towards him in salute.

      ‘To the Claremont heir,’ said the earl with blatant satisfaction. For once, the faint tint of disapproval that always hovered at the back of his eyes was entirely absent.

      Monty mechanically СКАЧАТЬ