Epilogue
Edmund slammed down his cards and cried triumphantly, “And I win!”
Molly smiled at her ridiculous husband with a gentle shake of the head. Placing her hand of cards upon her rather large and heavy stomach, she smiled at him benevolently.
“I think you will find that we have won.”
Edmund stared at her straight flush and at his own three of a kind, and laughed. “Well, ‘tis two against one, after all – how am I supposed to compete with that?”
They laughed together as Molly shifted slightly in her discomfort. The drawing room was filled with late summer sunshine and although the sofa was comfortable enough, carrying a baby had brought a toll on her health that she could not have predicted.
“We must remember to thank Luke,” she said quietly.
Edmund’s laughter subsided, but he did not frown – an achievement, Molly thought privately.
Those brothers of his; they could not be as bad as her own brothers, that was for sure, but there was something incredibly delicate in a gentleman’s feeling of self-worth that could not be measured in shillings and pence.
It had been a difficult conversation, as she had known it would be. Luke, George, Edmund, and the other two Northmere brothers had sat around a table, without liquor – that had been her stipulation, as the only spouse of the party – and discussed everything.
Hours later, an agreement had been met. One of the smaller London properties had been signed over to Edmund, along with an income of two thousand pounds a year.
It was more than she could have ever dreamed of. It was a pittance compared to the income he had lost.
Compromise. One of the tenets of marriage, and how she was enjoying hers.
“Another hand?”
Edmund’s words brought Molly back to the present, and she handed over her cards and stroked her belly.
“You know,” she said quietly as the sun played with long shadows in the dying afternoon, “it will not be too long now before this little one comes out, and will become the future Sir Edmund Northmere.”
Edmund’s smile disappeared for a moment, the guilt he felt quite evident on his face. “You…you do not mind, then, that he will not be the future Duke of Northmere?”
Molly stared at him in genuine bemusement. “Mind? Mind that he is the son of a kind, caring, and moreover wonderful gentleman? Mind that he will have a title, and one he has earned through bravery and not allowing injustice? No, Edmund, I do not mind at all, and I do not think he will, either.”
Relief washed over Edmund’s features and his smile returned.
“Besides,” Molly said with a grin, “as long as he does not kidnap any of his younger sisters, then I will be happy.”
Edmund grinned back at her. “It could be a girl, you know.”
He was shuffling his cards and Molly felt a twinge of movement as her dearest one shifted inside of her.
“No,” she declared with certainty. “This is a boy, I can tell. Never doubt a mother.”
“I would never dare disagree with you!” Edmund threw up his hands in mock surrender. “Now come here, wife.”
He leaned across the small card table between them and kissed her passionately on the lips.
Molly moaned and Edmund broke the connection, laughing. “My word, I did not realise that my kisses were that impressive!”
But his laughter died as soon as he saw the expression on Molly’s face. “Molls?”
“I think,” Molly said through the sharp jagged pain that was suddenly radiating across her stomach. “I think this baby is just as eager to meet us as we are to meet it!”
Edmund stared at her for a moment, uncomprehending.
Molly laughed despite the waves of pain. “I think this baby is coming now, Edmund!”
“No, it cannot be coming now.” Her husband spoke almost automatically, as though by saying the words he could stop the inevitable. “Molly, are you sure?”
She opened her mouth to speak but the rush of pain was starting to overwhelm her. Nothing could have prepared her for this, nothing, and she had no mother, and no friends to call upon.
“Molly?”
“Well I do not know, do I?” Molly said with a laugh of exasperation at her concerned husband. “This is my first baby but I do believe this is what they call la – ohhh!”
Her words collapsed into a sigh as something rushed between her legs onto the sofa and the floor.
Edmund looked at her in horror. “The first thing we do is not panic.”
“The first thing?”
“I had better rustle up a midwife then,” Edmund said distractedly, rising to his feet. “No, wait, the first thing is to clean up.” He moved to ring the bell and then hesitated. “No, the first thing is to move you to a more comfortable – ”
“Anyone would think you were the one having the baby!” Molly laughed, though the pain was coming in stronger waves now. “You know full well, Edmund, that Mrs Reid is upstairs. You were the one that wanted her living with us as I went into my confinement!”
“Yes, Mrs Reid,” Edmund said hurriedly, and his smile returned. “At least we are keeping things interesting. After being kidnapped with a knight, I did not want you to think our marriage was dull.”
Molly smiled up at the man she loved: a man with faults, to be sure, but with such wonderful qualities too that she wondered it was possible she had been the first to notice them.
Sir Edmund Northmere: a knight because he loved justice, her husband because he could look past someone’s history.
Now the father to their child.
“Do not worry,” she said with a smile. “I think life is quite interesting enough. This Christmas you will certainly not be bored!”