Page 23 of Duke with a Reputation (Wicked Dukes Society #1)

ONE YEAR LATER

“ Gently, Pandy girl,” Lottie said as she placed the swaddled baby in a seated Pandy’s waiting arms. “You must support his head and take care not to move, or you will disturb him.”

“Oh, Mama,” Pandy said, her voice hushed. “Albert’s hands is so small.”

“His hands are small,” Lottie corrected, smiling down at the two children who, though they had not been born of her womb, were hers.

It had taken time to earn that place in Pandy’s eyes and in her heart, but slowly, surely, they had bonded. And when one day, Pandy had burst into tears over a skinned knee after she’d been skipping on the garden’s gravel path and had rushed to Lottie for comfort, calling her Mama for the first time, Lottie herself had been moved to tears.

“Are small,” Pandy repeated, gazing in wonder at her new brother. “He’s sleeping.”

A recent arrival at the orphanage, Albert had been left by a young mother who was already overburdened with too many mouths to feed. Lottie had been taking tea with the orphanage director, Mr. Slatkin, when the baby had arrived. And something within her had simply known that she was meant to be his mother.

“Babies sleep a great deal when they are small,” Lottie told Pandy. “They need their strength to grow big.”

“Big like me,” Pandy said, puffing up her shoulders importantly.

“Big like you,” Lottie agreed, smiling as she straightened at last, aware she had been hovering over little Albert.

The way Pandy was positioned on the settee, a pillow at her side, meant that the baby was in no danger of sliding from his sister’s lap. As Lottie watched the two of them together, she had to blink furiously to clear away the prickle of tears.

“I’m biggerer ’n Jane,” Pandy declared.

“You ain’t,” declared her five-year-old sister as she dashed into the room, Cat trailing happily at her heels.

Behind her came Brandon, grinning at the antics of their other daughter, whom they had also brought home from the orphanage. She and Pandy had made fast friends, and they shared a true sisterly bond that extended to rivalries, arguing, and the occasional bit of naughty antics, from pepper on each other’s pillows to tying together the laces of each other’s boots.

“I’m older’n you,” Pandy pointed out quietly, displaying a remarkable restraint Lottie hadn’t been certain the spirited child possessed. “That means I’m biggerer.”

Jane harrumphed—likely the result of spending too much time with Brandon’s grandmother—and flounced onto the settee at Pandy’s side. “I’m tallerer.”

“I’m the tallerest,” Pandy countered.

Albert shifted, beginning to make sounds of protest.

“Hush, you two,” Brandon cautioned tenderly. “You’re disturbing your brother. You can argue over which of you is tallest later.”

Cat settled on the carpet at the foot of the settee, curling up with a contented sigh. With two girls to play chase-chase with her, Cat now no longer had quite the surfeit of enthusiasm she had a year ago. Lottie bent and gave the spaniel’s silken head a fond scratch as Brandon reached her, placing an arm around her waist and pulling her into his side.

“I’ve missed you,” he murmured, pressing a chaste kiss to her cheek for the benefit of the children.

“You were only gone in the gardens with Jane and Cat for one quarter hour,” she said, grinning at her handsome husband, love for him beating strong and firm in her heart.

“It felt like an eternity without you.” He winked.

“What’s a turnity?” Jane asked.

“It’s a pudding, silly,” Pandy answered before either Lottie or Brandon could. “And not a very good one, neither.”

They shared an amused glance.

“Eternity is something without end,” Brandon said then, holding her gaze. “Like the love I have for your mama and for all of you, my family.”

And her heart, already bursting with an abundance of love, filled just a bit more.

One year later

Something miraculous had happened.

Lottie didn’t know quite how to tell Brandon. Their family had grown and blossomed over the two years of their marriage. Pandy, Jane, Albert, Cat, and a new furred addition as well—ironically, a gray-and-white cat who had aptly been named Dog by Jane. Lottie had reveled in being a mother, in embracing that part of herself that she had thought she would never know.

Each day was one of new challenges and triumphs, of love and laughter and fur and barking and meowing and the occasional game of chase-chase and tears and sniffles and tricks and games of hide-and-go-seek. It was crumbs and spills, mayhem and peace, all wrapped in family and home.

Lottie had the happiness, the family, and the husband she had once only dreamt of having. And now, their family was going to grow just a bit more.

When she had first begun feeling dizzied in the morning and then sick to her stomach, she had thought she had contracted some manner of illness. But then she had spoken with her friends Hyacinth and Rosamund, who had realized what was amiss when she had nearly swooned during tea.

Lottie was with child.

Yet again, something she had never thought possible for her. Two years had passed without Lottie becoming enceinte , and her old suspicions had proven true. She was barren.

But she had been wrong.

This morning, the doctor had confirmed her suspicions.

It was time to tell her husband.

Lottie stopped at his study door and knocked. He spent mornings tending to business affairs in the sanctity of his study and shared the afternoons and evenings with her and the children. Her news could not wait until afternoon, however.

“Enter,” he called.

And with a deep breath, she did, reminded of that day over two years before when she had crossed this same threshold, coming to him to ask him to marry her. He had told her every day since, in word and deed, what her previous husband had not—that she, Lottie, was enough, that she was worthy. That he appreciated her and loved her, and that there was no other woman in the world whom he would rather have at his side, as his wife.

Brandon looked up from the correspondence he had been poring over when his magnificent wife swept into the room. He stood, half ready to carry her to his chamber and make love to her for the rest of the morning. She was wearing his favorite shade of blue, the one that matched her eyes.

“Did you miss me?” he teased, for they had only breakfasted some three hours before.

“Every moment I’m not with you,” she said with a small, tender smile.

There was something different about her this morning, something that had been absent at breakfast, he thought. A seriousness.

“Is something amiss, Lottie?” He rounded his desk and went to her, admiring the way the sunlight shone in the window and caught in her cinnamon curls.

“Nothing is wrong,” she said, “but perhaps we ought to sit down.”

He didn’t think he liked the sound of that. “The last time you wanted me to sit down, it was to tell me that Pandy had thrown a pig trotter through the library window.”

Lottie winced. “That was because I feared you would be cross with her, and it truly was an accident.”

Pandy had been playing a game of fetch-and-carry with Cat, and she had tossed the pig trotter in question with just a trifle too much force, shattering the library window in the process. Brandon had been nettled by her carelessness, but Pandy was Pandy, and that meant that, generally speaking, wherever she went, mischief inevitably followed.

“Are all the windows intact?” he asked.

“As far as I am aware.” She reached for his hand, twining her fingers through his. “Come with me, my love.”

He clasped her hand, allowing her to guide him to a pair of wingback chairs by the hearth. Lottie seated herself primly in one, and he sank into the other.

“Well, darling? What is it that you need to tell me?”

She stared at him for a moment, eyes wide, and then she blinked. “How would you like for our family to grow a bit larger?”

Instantly, he thought of the dog and the cat who were forever chasing each other about, up and down the halls of their town house. “I’m not certain I can bear to add one more furred creature to the mix. These two are bedlam enough. Unless you’re considering a bird? Perhaps a dove or a parrot, even. Something more contained.”

“Or a child,” she said.

They had already taken in two children from the orphanage in two years. Little Albert had just begun to toddle about. Pandy and Jane were growing like weeds. The thought of another child joining their family was both wonderful and daunting.

“Perhaps we might wait just a bit,” he cautioned. “Albert is yet young, and Jane and Pandy have only just begun to calm in their mischievous rivalries.”

Lottie licked her lips, and he found himself momentarily distracted by the hint of that talented pink tongue, wanting to kiss her. “I’m afraid we may not be able to wait for longer than early summer.”

He frowned at her. “Early summer is months away.”

She nodded. “Approximately six months.”

Brandon still didn’t understand. “So, you would like to add another child to our family, but in six months?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then I reckon we shall have ample time to ponder the notion and to see what the children think before we make our decision.”

“I’m afraid not,” she said, biting her lip.

“There’s something you’re trying to tell me, isn’t there, Venus?” he asked, using his sobriquet for her as he did often when they were alone.

So often that she didn’t even bother to correct him any longer with nonsense protestations that she wasn’t a goddess. Just as well. They both knew she was, and Brandon wouldn’t accept arguments to the contrary.

“What I’m trying to tell you is that I am having a baby in early summer,” Lottie said.

He blinked, thinking he must have misheard. But no, his beautiful wife was still staring at him in expectation, the gentle rays of morning sun bringing to life the golden hues hidden in her glorious hair.

“You’re having a baby,” he said, his voice sounding rusty.

Feeling rusty, too.

“Yes.”

“But you… I thought that we couldn’t…”

He spluttered, trying to make sense of everything she had said. It had never mattered to him that they might be incapable of physically having children. They had built a family of their own together, one filled with love. He hadn’t considered that her becoming with child was even a possibility.

The notion now seemed astonishing for how very foreign—and terrifying—it was.

“I thought so as well,” she said gently. “But I have missed my courses, and the doctor assures me that I’m going to have a baby come summer.”

“We’re going to have another baby,” he said in wonder.

“Four children in less than three years,” she agreed. “Do you think that’s too many?”

“I think that our family is perfect.” He reached for her hand again, bringing it to his lips for a reverent kiss. “ You’re perfect. I’m petrified at the very thought of you enduring what you must for this. But you’re perfect, my love, just as you’ve always been.”

“You will be brave for me,” she said, her eyes glittering with unshed tears.

“You’ve been brave enough for the both of us,” he countered, cupping her face and catching a tear as it fell with his thumb. “What’s this, my love? Tears of sadness?”

“No.” She pressed a kiss to his palm. “Tears of happiness. I never thought I would find such contentment, such joy, as I have with you and our children. And yes, even our cat and dog.”

“I remain firm on no more furred creatures,” he said, feeling the prickle of answering tears in his own eyes. “Cat and Dog are quite enough for the moment. I shudder to think of what will be next. A fox named Hen? A canary named Duck?”

“I suppose it could be anything,” Lottie said, smiling. “Only think of what shall happen when Albert is old enough to make friends in the garden. Or this little one.”

She patted her midriff.

Brandon couldn’t remain where he was a moment more. He stood and, in one graceful move, scooped Lottie into his arms. “For the moment, there’s only one thing I want to think about, and it hasn’t a thing to do with creatures or gardens or our children.”

“Oh?” Her smile turned knowing.

He kissed her swiftly, softly, tenderly before lifting his head again. “It’s making love to my wife.”

She cupped his cheek, love shining in her eyes. “I wholeheartedly approve.”

Thank you so very much for reading Duke with a Reputation !