Page 46 of Secrets of the Marriage Bed

‘I will come back in a while, Your Grace.’ The woman bustled away.

Julia set the cup aside. She leaned back against the edge of the tub and luxuriated in the heat sinking into her bones. Images from the afternoon flitted through her mind as she daydreamed about the return of her husband. And what she would tell him about his stepmother’s visit. Some of what the woman had said had been...disturbing.

* * *

‘Julia!’ The deep voice sounded urgent.

She dragged herself from the haze of sleep.

Sleep?

She sat up, chilly water sloshing around her, to find her husband staring at her in shock. She covered herself with her hands. Her head spun ominously. She closed her eyes briefly. It didn’t seem to help. ‘Alistair?’

‘I came to see if you were going to take tea in the drawing room this afternoon.’

She swallowed, feeling suddenly very ill. ‘I—I’m afraid I have already had my tea. Oh, dear heaven, I feel dreadfully unwell. Ring for Robins.’ She tried to stand.

He cursed under his breath. The next minute she was in his arms, dripping wet and entirely naked. He lifted her out of the water and set her on her feet, quickly wrapping her in a towel before carrying her across the room to the privacy screen. While she knelt over the chamber pot, he held back her hair. Water dripped from his coat sleeves on to the carpet.

She swallowed hard and her stomach seemed to settle. She groaned. This was dreadful. What on earth was going on? ‘I’m all right. I simply felt a little dizzy upon awakening.’

‘You should not have gone walking today,’ Alistair said, helping her to stand.

The servants must have told him. ‘What has that to do with anything?’ she gasped, leaning against him.

‘Clearly, your constitution is not strong. In your condition—’

‘My condition?’

A muscle in his jaw flickered. ‘You do yourself no favours by lying about it, madam.’

She pushed back from him. When she saw the direction of his gaze, she pulled the towel higher. ‘What condition?’

She shivered and this time it was from cold. He strode away and returned with her robe, pulling it about her shoulders and sweeping her up in his arms. It ought to feel good to be so cherished, but he was furious. What did he think was wrong with her that made him look at her so coldly? He lay her down on thechaise longueat the end of the bed, his face expressionless.

Panic fluttered in her breast. ‘Tell me, Alistair, what condition?’

‘Your being with child.’

For a moment the words made no sense. Then they did. A feeling of hope fluttered in her chest. But why was he furious? And how would he know when she did not?

The nausea.

Was it possible?

‘You seem so sure, when the idea never occurred to me once,’ she said. Not given how many years she had hoped and been disappointed. It would be nothing short of a miracle.

Her heart felt too full of joy for mere words. While he seemed unmoved.

‘You aren’t pleased?’

His thin lips curled in a smile that had an edge of cruelty. ‘I am delighted to have cuckoo in my nest.’

It took a moment for the words to sort themselves into meaning. ‘A—What?’ Despite a wave of dizziness, she shot to her feet. ‘How dare you?’

Surprise widened his eyes. ‘Dare? An interesting turn of phrase when I know very well Mrs B. took precautions as did I,ergo...’

Now the man was spouting Latin in the same breath as he was speaking of that place?‘Ergo,’she snapped, ‘I must have been with child prior to our first meeting. Is that what you think?’