Page 27 of A Gamble on the Duke (The Gambling Dukes #4)

Catherine

“It’s too much.”

“It’s not! It’s not too?—”

“It is absolutely too much,” I declared.

I mean. I wasn’t wrong. But at the same time, I was hardly going to argue with him, not properly.

I turned slowly on the spot, trying not to take in the incredible place that we had created. Me and Alfred, together. My genius, as I often said as he tried not to laugh, and his unfortunate wealth.

It was a loan.

“It doesn’t have to be a loan,” Alfred said, leaning against the counter. “You’re my wife!”

Wife. Strange, how quickly mistress didn’t seem to fit, even though we knew we loved each other.

Being married felt more right, more accurate to how we felt about each other.

Apparently the debutantes in Alfred’s world had an absolute field day.

One of the most eligible bachelors, marrying a poverty stricken artist, three months after meeting ?

It didn’t bother me.

“I am your wife, and it is still a loan,” I said severely, pouring a second glass of champagne. “And I will be paying you back. With interest.”

And I’d be able to, too. Being able to buy property outright, not rent it, meant that Alfred was essentially the bank giving me my mortgage—but at a much better rate of interest. That and if I missed a payment, it wouldn’t really matter.

I could pay him back in other ways.

Alfred took the glass I was handing him. “I wish I could give you more.”

“You could, but I won’t let you,” I said with a wry smile. “Being spoilt is one thing?—”

“That diamond necklace was simply calling your name!”

“—but I am going to work hard to earn my own income, as well you know,” I continued sharply. I couldn’t help beaming at him, though. “Even if I am a duchess now.”

“You are my duchess, I think you’ll find,” Alfred retorted with a grin as we clinked our glasses together and sipped at the fine bubbles.

My duchess.

It was the way he said it; as though he owned me, and yet would give me all the freedom I ever wanted. The way he adored me with his eyes, never pretending that he had not loved in the past, but always demonstrating to me that his heart was here with mine.

Goodness, I could hardly believe how fortunate I was.

Not that I was the Duchess of Kineallen. That was a remarkably complicated sensation, the fact that a potter’s daughter could now be addressed as ‘Your Grace’ by all those around her .

It was not something that I was going to get accustomed to very quickly. At least, I did not think so.

Catherine, Lady Kineallen. She was a woman I hardly knew.

Alfred, Lord Kineallen, on the other hand, was a man I knew better than myself.

“I would pour all the money from the Gambling Dukes into your lap if I could,” Alfred whispered.

I rolled my eyes as I laughed. “I don’t want your money, Alfred!”

It was the way Alfred showed his affection, and thankfully not the only way. Being his wife, having Alfred as my husband…it made the world better. It certainly made my world full of happiness.

And I couldn’t ask for more.

Kineallen

The bubbles were intoxicating, but nothing was as intoxicating as my wife.

My wife. God, it felt so good to say that. My friends may have been astonished at our elopement—not that I’d call it an elopement, getting married at Gretna Green on a wet Thursday afternoon—but they’d soon warmed to Catherine, even more than they had already.

And now here she was, with her own shop, a shop that she could really call her own. The newspapers were already raving about it. Her classes were sold out. And there was a joy in her that only existed when Catherine was creating.

I was more than happy to make it happen.

“You’re looking very serious,” Catherine said quietly.

I nodded. She was everything I wanted, and she was here. She was mine. “Well, running a business is very serious.”

“So is falling in love,” said my gorgeous wife, taking a sip from her glass. “But I love you, Alfred, Duke of Kineallen.”

“And I?—”

“Dear God, I can’t stand to hear any more,” interrupted the interloper into our drawing room. “I thought the newlywed stage was only supposed to last a few weeks!”

I laughed as Markham and his wife Briar, Georgiana and her husband Fynn, and Lilah and her husband William all entered the room, the gentlemen carrying gifts.

“What is this, an invasion?” laughed my beautiful bride as she rose to greet them.

A flicker of jealousy roared through me. I wanted my wife to myself, all the time—but then, I suppose I would have to grow accustomed to her popularity.

She was, after all, the most recent member of the Gambling Dukes.

“Too right it’s an invasion,” said Lilah smartly, batting me on the arm. “And running away to Gretna Green, how could you?”

“I think it’s terribly romantic,” said Briar with a sigh, pulling my bride into an embrace. “Though it is a shame we could not celebrate with you.”

“Which is why we are here now,” Georgiana said smartly, nodding to one of my footman who immediately rushed over to her. “Yes, you may bring it through now.”

It appeared to be a string quartet. The men were smartly dressed in the Rotherwick livery, something that Lilah had apparently kept for its elegant tailoring, and soon our drawing room was filled with music, Briar and Markham dancing with the latter having a rather soppy look on his face .

I couldn’t help but snort. “Look at the fool.”

“He looks exactly like you do when you look at your bride,” Georgiana said with a wry smile.

Truly? I had not realized I appeared to be so…so utterly devoted to my wife whenever I looked at her.

I could not help my gaze being dragged over to her.

“There it is!”

“Absolute nonsense,” I muttered, my cheeks burning as Catherine laughed. “I?—”

“I have a small announcement,” said Georgiana quietly. “And I wanted you to be the first to know. After Fynn, of course.”

Her husband was by her side, a glass of brandy in his hands, and he winked at me.

Winked, as though that would tell me all I needed to know.

I stared in confusion even as Catherine inhaled swiftly. “Announcement? What is there to announce? There have been no additional members to the Gambling Dukes, as far as I?—”

“There is more to life than the Gambling Dukes, my love,” Catherine murmured beside me.

I glanced at her, and she was smiling—smiling as though she knew what Georgiana’s news was about to be. “Yes, of course, but?—”

“An announcement which I thought might give you pain,” Georgiana interrupted, her cheeks now very pink. “A reminder perhaps of pain, and so?—”

“An announcement?” Lilah walked away from the fireplace, curious expression on her face. “How remarkable, for William and I have an…an announcement of sorts too.”

For quite an unknown reason, Catherine’s breath caught for a second time. Then she took my arm. “Alfred?— ”

“What sort of announcement?” I asked as the musicians halted their playing and Markham and Briar approached us.

“If I was a gambling man, I would lay good odds on it being rather similar to an announcement of our own,” Markham said with a wink as they joined our party.

I stared around at my friends; my dear friends.

Lilah, who had been the Dowager Duchess of Rotherwick and was now the radiant wife of William, the man who had loved and lost her three years before.

Peregrine, the Duke of Markham. A man who had made so many mistakes, but none of them were his bride, Lady Briar.

And Georgiana. Georgiana, my family as well as my friend, a woman who had not begrudged me the gift of her sister, nor judged me when I had mourned her.

Who had, when she had married the Duke of Cartice and then swiftly become a widow, had always had a listening ear for my complaints.

Who had married Fynn and had encouraged me to marry again, even when another woman may have seen it as an attempt to replace her sister.

These three friends. They were the family that I knew I did not deserve.

“You absolute dolt, Alfred,” said my charming wife with a radiant smile. “Your friends are trying to tell you that they are with child.”

I almost stumbled back as my knees gave way. “What, all of them?”

“The odds were probably very high,” Lilah said ruefully. “We should have put a bet on it.”

“No, wagering on me is one thing that I have forbidden,” Briar said darkly, kissing the cheek of her husband as Markham flushed. “Absolutely not.”

“But—but all of you? All three of you?” I could hardly take it in. All of them…with child? “Briar, Lilah, Georgiana…you are all to have children?”

“One day I’ll explain it to you,” jested Markham, judging me in the elbow.

And on my other side came the quiet words, “Oh, I don’t think I’ll need to do that.”

The room stilled. All within it turned to Catherine, Duchess of Kineallen.

It took a few moments for my mind to catch up with what she had said. To take it in, to truly understand the implications.

There she stood, my wife…flushing as her hands cradled her currently soft yet flat stomach.

“Surprise,” Catherine whispered as she gazed up into my eyes. “Care to gamble on whether it’s the future duke?”

And then she could say no more because I was kissing her, kissing her as I had never kissed her before: passionately, yes, but reverentially. As though she were the only woman in the world and I would protect her from all that could befall her.

My friends were cheering, clinking their glasses, Fynn and Markham eagerly discussing names, Georgiana and Lilah comparing cravings. Briar and William chatting about the excitement of a new generation, and I…

I could do nothing but gaze down into the eyes of my Catherine, and know that I would never, never be more happy than this.

Her expression, however, was serious. “You do not have to fear,” she said quietly, in words intended only for me. “I am strong. We will take all the precautions, we will find a doctor?—”

“I am not afraid,” I said softly, and found that I meant it. “I will take care of you. ”

And I did.

This duke was not going to gamble, not this time.

The very best doctors and midwives took up residence at Kineallen Lacey, our estate in Cheshire, about a month before the babe was due—along with the Duke and Duchess of Markham with their daughter Rose, Fynn and Lady Cartice and their son Patrick, and William and Lady Rotherwick and their son Charles.

It was a busy household. There should have been sufficient to distract me.

“She will be quite well,” said Lilah happily as she rocked little Charles in her arms. “Catherine is strong.”

“And you have procured the very best in medicine for her,” said Briar quietly as she smiled fondly at her husband, holding little Rosy. “You have done all you can.”

All I could.

I nodded, jaw tight, as we sat in the drawing room and heard the screams echoing down the stairs. Panic was twisting in my gut, panic that I was not about to let rule over me even as it attempted it.

I was not going to lose her.

Only Georgiana seemed to understand. She stepped over quietly after muttering something low to her husband Fynn, who took their child Patrick from his wife.

When she sat down on the sofa beside me, Georgiana placed a hand on my arm. “She is brave.”

But I wasn’t. The idea of losing Catherine…I had already lost so much. Olivia, our babe. Was I to lose the second love of my life too?

“I have to be with her.”

“Kineallen!”

I ignored the calls of my friends—they did not understand. No one could .

“Your Grace!”

I ignored my butler as I ran into the hall?—

Another scream.

“Catherine!”

“Your Grace!”

I raced up the stairs, past the astonished footman and the shocked housemaids, I ran down the corridor as Catherine’s agonizing screams reached a pitch—and then stopped.

I halted, heart hammering and panic now pouring through every vein in my body, just outside the Duchess of Kineallen’s bedchamber.

A beloved wife had already died in that room. Had I just sent another to her death?

The silence was unbearable, unbearable, like a weight on my eyes threatening to?—

A noise. A sound.

A cry.

I opened the door.

“There you are,” breathed Catherine happily, her face flushed and the very picture of vigor as the midwife finished wrapping a wriggling scrap of humanity into a shawl and passed it to my wife. “Come and meet…your daughter.”

My daughter.

“Oh Catherine,” I breathed, crossing the room in three strides and clambering gently onto the bed that held the two most precious things to me in the world. “Oh…a daughter.”

My daughter blinked up at me, mightily confused and evidently quite put out that she had been forced to vacate her previous home.

“Elizabeth…Elizabeth Olivia.”

My gaze flickered to Catherine, taking in her tired eyes and her slightly hesitant expression.

“If you do not mind. I thought,” Catherine said quietly, “ it would be a pleasant way to remember her. She will always be a part of this family.”

And that was when my heart, which I had already thought full, grew again.

A daughter. A new life. Elizabeth.

“I love you, Catherine,” I breathed, pulling her in for another kiss. I just couldn’t stay away from her. “And I love our daughter. Forever.”

“Forever is a long time,” teased my wife while the midwife and doctor moved around us, not able to reach us as we sat here on this island of a bed. “Not something one should gamble on, certainly?”

I smiled, pressing a kiss onto her forehead and then onto the forehead of my child. “I don’t think you need to gamble on this duke. I have already been won.”