Page 69 of The Secret Love of a Gentleman (The Marlow Family Secrets #3)

Caro had never travelled in a mail coach before. But it was the only way she felt comfortable travelling to London. She was not confident enough with the ribbons to take the trap, and so at seven in the morning she waited at the Maidstone coaching inn for the mail coach to arrive, her heart racing.

The inn’s yard was full of horses and men cleaning out the stables and washing off the cobbles with buckets of water.

How would Rob react? She had worried over that thought all night.

She expected him to be angry with her for keeping the secret for so long, and his moralistic view of the world would mean he would no longer ask but insist she married.

A high-pitched horn called from the high street, announcing the coach’s arrival.

‘Mind out the way, madam!’ a groom called as the coach came through the arch.

Caro stepped back.

When it halted, bags were thrown from the top to the ground, and six people climbed down from the roof-seats. Caro had purchased a ticket to sit inside.

A groom opened the carriage door. Caro showed her ticket and climbed in.

A large gentleman slid across to make room for her by the window. The woman opposite her nursed a big basket on her lap taking up space and making the journey uncomfortable as the heavy coach raced across rutted roads.

No matter that Rob would be angry, she longed to tell him, to receive his reassurance. He would have hope too – she knew it. She smiled as she realised that she did not fear Rob’s anger, it would be just, and it would be gentle, and then, he would promise to look after her and their child.

When she reached the coaching inn in London, a half a dozen carriages were disembarking.

She had written Rob’s address down so she could remember it. She asked a hackney carriage driver to take her there.

Caro watched the houses pass, her heart skipping.

There was the door.

The driver pulled up before it.

She freed the door latch with shaking hands, climbed out and took the coins from her reticule to pay the fare, placing the money in the driver’s outstretched hand. He slipped it in his pocket and urged the horses to trot on.

Caro turned to the door.

Rob walked along the street, trying to make his bad leg take the same stride as his good one. He was riding again, with his friends, and shooting in Manton’s gallery. Doing his best to regain the strength in his arm and leg .

He was on his way to his apartment to pack the last of his possessions for John’s men to collect.

His possessions were being sent to the property in Yorkshire tomorrow and he was following them on Saturday, in his uncle’s carriage.

A groom was going to drive Rob’s curricle to Yorkshire because Rob thought it too far for his weakened arm to manage the straps.

Rob turned, to cross the road.

A dray passed, loaded with barrels. ‘Oy! Watch out!’

When it rolled on, a woman on the far side stood on the very edge of the pavement outside the door of his apartment, looking at him.

She wore a navy bonnet decorated with jay feathers and a pelisse of the same colour, with buttons that matched the blue in the feathers, her hands were hidden in a fox fir muff.

One hand slid free, rose and waved at him.

‘Caro.’

He crossed the street as quickly as his leg would carry him.

‘Caro. What are you doing here?’

‘May we go inside? Then I can tell you.’

‘Of course.’ He unlocked the door, opened it and encouraged her to walk in ahead of him.

Her face was pale, although her cheeks and the tip of her nose were pink, perhaps from the cold.

He followed her up the stairs, then reached around her and opened the door to his rooms. The scent of lavender hung in the air around her.

‘You are lucky you caught me here. I have been staying at John’s because of my injured leg. I came to pack up my things.’

She stood as still as a statue, facing him, barely across the threshold.

‘I have to tell you something that will make you angry, yet you must understand I have lost children.’ The words rushed out of her, in a breathless tone. ‘I was told I would never be able to give birth to a living child. So, I never expected this…’

‘This…?’ he asked, not understanding.

‘I am carrying your child. It has moved. It is alive. I saw a doctor two days ago who said the child’s heart is strong.’

‘A child?’ He was paralysed by shock. ‘Who knows?’

‘The doctor, who I gave a false name to, and my housekeeper, who I asked to help me let out my clothes.’

He took off his hat and threw it into a chair. Then pulled off his gloves, looking at the task not at her, as he thought. Or rather did not think, he could not take it in. When he looked up, he faced hazel eyes as dark as amber in the shadow of her bonnet.

‘Have you been afraid?’ he asked.

‘Not until now. I did not believe the child would live. I have been enjoying every minute of the feel of him or her within me.’

He reached out and held her hand. ‘You should have written to me.’

Her hand closed about his. ‘And tell you about a child that would never be born? I thought it would be cruel to ask you to join me in that pain, and you would have been left with me as a wife.’ She smiled.

He lifted her gloved fingers to his lips and kissed the back of them. ‘Having you as my wife will always be a joy, Caro, no matter what we face when we are wed. My packing can wait, I will take you to Pembroke House. My mother and father are there, we can tell them we are going to marry.’

‘I have a ticket to return to Maidstone on the mail coach. I need to get back.’

‘That is how you travelled here…’ He sighed. ‘You will not return that way. Sleep at John’s tonight, and I will take you home tomorrow.’

‘Rob— ’

‘No, not a word against it,’ he silenced her protest. ‘We must announce our engagement and make the wedding plans.’

A tear escaped one of her eyes.

He wiped the tear away with a thumb.

‘I hope for this child, Rob. Desperately hope, but I will be terrified for every day before its birth.’

He smiled. ‘I wish you had told me sooner. Whatever happens, we will be together now.’

In the summer, he had seen how deep her grief was, and how much she longed for a child. Now, he would experience that longing with her.