Page 89 of Trapped with the Beastly Duke

Rose looked at the bundle in her arms. “Oh.”

A small, pink face with closed eyes was swaddled in the cloth.

How can anything be so impossibly small?

“I cannot believe it,” Rose whispered. “I have a child. Who could have imagined that this is where I would end up?”

An odd look crossed Lady Cotswalts’s face, but Rose did not appear to notice. She was too entranced by the infant in her arms.

Alexander wasn’t sure if the quiet was worse than the cries before it. He glanced from the door to Nigel and back again. His hands shook. The door was suddenly flung open, and Olivia barged into the room, staring at him. He leaped to his feet.

“How is she?” he asked.

“She is well.” Her eyes were full of tears. “She is well, and she is asking for you.”

Alexander hesitated. He glanced between his sister and Nigel.

Nigel shook his head and gave him a gentle shove. “Go to her, you fool.” He smiled.

Alexander did not need to be told twice. Smiling at his sister and his friend, he made his way through the castle, his heart hammering as he thought of his wife.

“I’m coming, Rose,” he muttered as he took the stairs two at a time, running as fast as his long legs would carry him.

Rose still could not believe that she and Alexander had created the little bundle in her arms. As soon as she saw the delicate nose and the tiny fingers, she fell in love all over again.

I had not known I could feel a love like this.

“It is so strange to think that if it were not for some twist of fate, I might never have married Alexander,” she murmured absently while she stared lovingly at her baby. “I might never have known such joy.”

“I would call it good fortune.” Lady Cotswalts smiled. “Though, you know I believe we make our own luck.”

Rose smiled back. “Perhaps I should thank Miss Carstairs. It is her poor timing that has brought me here, after all.”

An odd look crossed Lady Cotswalts’s face, but Rose could not quite place it. “So, you are glad of what happened that night?”

“Of course, I am.”

“Well, it is time you learn the truth.” Lady Cotswalts took a deep breath.

In the hall, Alexander paused. He stood outside the door, his heart hammering in his chest. Rose was behind it. He knew he should go to her, but something held him back.

Once I cross the threshold, my life will be changed forever.

He wished his father was here. He would know what to do. The memory of him still stung, but Alexander found it a comfort rather than a cause of guilt.

He turned the door handle and walked into the room. The scene before him was not at all what he had expected. Rose was clutching a small bundle in her arms, staring at her mother, her mouth hanging open. Neither woman seemed to have noticed him.

Rose could not believe what her mother was saying. “What do you mean?”

“I was the one who sent Miss Carstairs to find you.” Lady Cotswalts was speaking softly, as was Rose, neither wishing to wake the babe. “I saw you and the Duke enter the maze one after another.”

“You sent Miss Carstairs?” Rose shook her head in disbelief but found she was not angry. “Even with all the rumors about the Duke?”

Lady Cotswalts smiled. “I didn’t believe a word of those rumors. Not for a moment. I knew his father through my father. They were business partners.”

“Business partners?” Alexander’s voice was soft and low.

Rose and her mother jumped as they turned to face him. He stood in the doorway, his expression an endearing mix of confusion and curiosity.