Chapter Fifteen
Brython Castle
It was a gown of blue and gold satin.
Glorious de Lohr colors that were spectacularly presented.
Standing in front of a tall mirror of polished bronze, Elle could see herself quite clearly in the magnificent dress.
She could also feel every pin and every stitch that Dustin, Lady Hereford, was putting in the side of the garment.
Her left arm was up as her husband’s mother tried to alter a dress that wasn’t quite fitting in the bustline.
A woman she had only just met earlier in the day, in fact.
But a woman she was already fond of.
“Try that now,” Dustin said, helping her carefully lower her left arm. She began pulling at the top of the dress, which was formfitting and lovely. “How does it feel now? Still too tight?”
Standing around Dustin were Curtis’ younger sisters, Rebecca and Olivia Charlotte.
Rebecca was tall and willowy, with red hair, while Olivia Charlotte was short and blonde in the image of her mother.
They were helping Lady Hereford with the exquisite garment that was simply too tight.
So tight that Elle felt as if her breasts were about to spill over the top.
Curtis thought it was a lovely problem to have, but Elle didn’t.
She’d barely met Dustin and Curtis’ sisters when they arrived before Curtis was asking his mother to help with the dress.
Dustin didn’t need any prompting—she grabbed her younger daughters and jumped right in.
And that was where they found themselves as the sun began to set.
“It feels better,” Elle admitted, trying to adjust her breasts so they weren’t bulging over the top of the bodice. “Does it look better?”
Dustin stood back and inspected her work. Rebecca knelt in front of Elle and tugged at the bottom of the garment to help straighten out the fabric.
“It looks a little better,” Dustin said. “But I fear with this fabric that if I try to alter it too much, you will be able to see the needle marks. Do you think you can stand it like this?”
Elle was still adjusting herself, now looking in the mirror. “I think so,” she said. “But I feel that when I meet our guests, all they’ll see are big white breasts right in their faces.”
To emphasize the point, she turned around and made gestures over the tops of her breasts as Rebecca and Olivia Charlotte giggled. Even Dustin grinned.
“I must say that the dress is magnificent,” Dustin said. “But I am surprised a seamstress with such skill was unable to measure correctly. That seems like a foolish mistake.”
Elle looked down at herself. “She had the measurements correct when she first measured me, but that was a few weeks ago,” she said. “I seem to have… grown since then.”
Dustin was still grinning as she went to her and tried to tug at the fabric a little. “I would say you have,” she said. “Curtis must be feeding you well.”
Elle eyed her mother-in-law. She didn’t know the woman at all, but she knew her through Curtis’ eyes.
He adored his mother and spoke so fondly of her.
Elle hoped she could adore her, too, and would be adored in return, but her history with women was sketchy.
She didn’t have high hopes. But the reason for her full breasts was a very big secret she and Curtis were sitting on, a secret that not only made her nauseated on a daily basis, but fairly emotional as well.
She didn’t like that her beautiful dress wasn’t fitting well because her breasts were becoming larger.
She didn’t want to look like an exhibitionist with them bursting out all over the place.
Worse still, she didn’t want to look fat and untidy.
Unsure what to say to Dustin’s comment, she felt tears begin to pool in her eyes as she quickly tried to blink them away, but Olivia Charlotte saw that she was growing red in the face.
A sweet girl, she went to Elle and took her hand.
“Mama,” she said softly. “Elle is weeping.”
Betrayed, Elle tried to turn her face away, but Dustin wouldn’t let her. She took her other hand, greatly concerned.
“I promise this is nothing to weep over,” she assured her gently. “I will fix it and no one will know.”
Elle’s lower lip trembled. “But everyone is arriving,” she said, sniffling. “I should be down with Curt greeting our guests, but instead I am here because I’m too fat for my dress.”
She broke down in soft tears, and Dustin put her arm around her, hugging her gently. “Not to worry, my lady,” she said soothingly. “I told you I will fix it. I promise I will.”
As Rebecca ran to find a kerchief for the tears, Elle struggled to wipe them away. “I was so excited for this garment,” she said. “I’ve never had anything so beautiful.”
“It is still beautiful, and so are you,” Dustin said, waving quickly to Olivia Charlotte. “Watch, now—Liv is fetching my thread. See? I will fix it right now. Please do not weep.”
Rebecca returned with the kerchief, and Elle took it gratefully, wiping at her eyes. Dustin had her stand up tall so she could see where she could let the seam out just a little more, and Elle lifted her arms again.
“I think I can let the fabric out just a little right here,” Dustin said, looking at a spot under the arms. “But not too terribly much or it will ruin the sleeve.”
Elle sniffled, wiping her nose with the kerchief before raising her arm again. “It will not show?”
“Nay,” Dustin said, concentrating on removing some thread from the seam. “No one will be able to see it.”
“And you’ll be able to take it in again when my breasts are not so large?”
Dustin shook her head. “It will be taken in easily,” she said. “But do not think you must reduce. You have a lovely figure, Elle.”
There was that secret again. She and Curtis had planned to tell his parents that she was expecting, though he wanted to do it when they were all together.
Elle supposed that Dustin had a right to know why she was asking about taking the dress in.
Any further talk of reducing and body shape and Elle might end up lying to cover up the reason, and she didn’t want to do that. Dustin was going to find out anyway.
“I did not mean when I reduce,” she said quietly. “Forgive me, Lady Hereford, but my breasts are full because… Curt and I were going to tell you and Lord Hereford tonight… But the dress does not fit because I am with child.”
Dustin nearly stabbed Elle in the armpit. She gasped, her eyes wide, as she looked at the woman in shock.
“You are pregnant?” she asked.
Elle nodded, a weary twinkle in her eye. “I am,” she said. “Please do not tell Curt that I told you before he had a chance to. He will be very disappointed if he knows I have.”
Dustin threw her arms around Elle, a woman she had only met hours earlier, but now there was something to link them.
Not only had the woman married her son and, by all accounts, seemed to have made him very happy, but now she was pregnant with what could presumably be the heir to the de Lohr empire.
She was overcome with joy.
“Of course I will not tell him,” she said, kissing Elle on the cheek. “I cannot tell you how happy I am, my lady. So very, very happy.”
Elle smiled weakly. “Then you will understand why I weep because my garment does not fit,” she said. “I seem to be weeping at every little thing.”
Dustin laughed softly as she cupped Elle’s face. “Well do I remember those days,” she said. “I have been through it many times, so if anyone can sympathize, it is me. But I am so delighted. I know my husband will be as well.”
She kissed Elle on the cheek again, happily, before returning to work, but not before she looked to her daughters, who had heard everything.
“Not a word to anyone,” she said sternly. “Not to Papa, not to Curt. You do not know anything.”
Rebecca nodded solemnly, but Olivia Charlotte went to Elle and took her hand again. She was a lovely girl, clearly affectionate, and she had no problem demonstrating that with a woman she had only just met.
“I hope to have many babies,” she said. “What does it feel like?”
Elle wasn’t quite used to a lass who was so overly friendly. “It feels like my clothing is getting tighter every day,” she said. “It feels like I am hungry all the time.”
Olivia Charlotte grinned. “Is he moving in your belly yet?”
Elle shook her head. “Not yet.”
“When he does, will you let me feel him?”
Dustin chuckled at her curious daughter as Elle smiled timidly. “Of course,” she said. “But I will be here and you will be at Lioncross. That is a long way to come just to feel him move.”
Olivia Charlotte wouldn’t give up. “Can I live here when he is born?” she said. “I can help you tend to him. I can play with him and feed him.”
Dustin waved off her eager twelve-year-old, on the cusp of womanhood and so very intrigued with anything that had to do with babies. “Do not pester Elle,” she said. “She has a long time to go yet, and decisions like that cannot be made now.”
Olivia Charlotte might have stopped asking questions, but she still held Elle’s hand, smiling at her in a way that should have made Elle uncomfortable, but it didn’t.
She could sense that the lass was simply a sweet, rather innocent child, curious about things that most girls were curious about.
Or should be curious about. But Elle had never even considered babies or children until she became pregnant.
Now, it was all she could think of.
“I would like for you to stay with us, of course,” Elle said. “But as your mother says, we will speak on it when the time draws closer. He still has a long time before he’s ready to be born.”
“He is baking in your lady oven?”
All three women burst out laughing. “Where on earth did you hear that?” Dustin asked, shaking her head. “Enough, Liv. Take Rebecca and find Papa. Tell him that we are almost ready and will be done soon. And if you mention lady ovens, I will blister your backside. Do you understand me?”
Olivia Charlotte’s eyes widened. “Aye, Mama.”