Chapter Sixteen #2
Then he shepherded her down the wide mahogany staircase into the dining room filled with candles and flowers.
‘Oh, it all looks so well put together. Did you ask for it to be like this?’
‘I did. Everyone helped to make it special for you. The gardener, the cook, the housekeeper and the younger kitchen maids. They all wanted to please you.’
‘And they have. I always imagined sitting down at a table dressed like this.’
‘Then allow me to see you to your seat.’ Pulling back one of the carved wooden dining chairs, he waited until she was comfortable and then took the chair next to her at the head of the table.
There was a bottle of wine standing before them and he poured two glasses, raising his own against hers.
‘To health, then,’ he said, ‘and to happiness. You are looking stronger each day.’
‘I am and it feels good to be sitting down here to eat a meal again and to be out of the sickroom. Are Oliver and Esther here at Elmsworth in the morning?’
‘They are.’
‘Will they stay the night?’
‘Probably not. I don’t think they are bringing their children over until they know you are recovered, so it’s most likely just them.’
‘I am so glad that you have resolved things with Oliver.’
‘I have you in part to thank for that, for you made me see the importance of family.’
Should I tell him my news now? she thought, but it seemed odd to stuff such a momentous truth in between the main course and the dessert and so she kept silent.
She needed a moment between them that was…
romantic to begin her confession, but so far their chat had been mostly of other people and different situations.
However, as they finished the last bite of a delicious lemon cake with clotted cream Phillip took her hand into his and the tone completely changed.
‘Would you consider coming to my room tonight, Willa, and not just to sleep?’
‘I would.’
His smile was dazzling as she laid a finger across his mouth. ‘Could we go up now?’
Now, before she lost both her chance and her courage.
She held on to his hand tightly all the way up the stairs and when he shepherded her through to his bedchamber she continued to hold it even after he shut the door.
How did one begin? she then thought wildly, taking in a breath to calm herself, but he was talking now and they were words that were most unexpected.
‘I do not want to lose you again, Wilhelmina. I always thought it was a physical relationship that I needed until I could not find you, and then I knew I wanted so much more. I know this will come as a shock, given your position on never wanting to be married, but I cannot imagine a life without you and in all honesty I am not sure I could survive such a thing.’
Tears filled her eyes.
‘I am trying to say that I love you, Wilhelmina, I love you so much that I am scared every moment we are apart.’
She moved close to him and wrapped her arms around his body.
‘I love you, too, Phillip. I knew I did when we slept together that last time but I was frightened to tell you, and in Winchelsea without you I wanted to die because my heart was broken.’
She led him over to the bed and asked him to sit down. Then she stood back and unbuttoned her gown, pulling it off over her head with her petticoat before taking his hand again and placing it on her stomach.
‘I’ll love you always but you need to know things are different now. For us. I am three months pregnant and that is why I have been so sick.’
His mouth fell open, his other hand coming up to cradle her stomach, and she saw him swallow twice before tears formed in his eyes.
‘How can this be true? I thought…’
‘Neither of us is infertile, Phillip. It was all a lie told to us by others.’
He could barely find his voice, this moment so very unexpected, all the beliefs he’d always held about himself beginning to unravel.
They would have a child, an heir for Elmsworth and maybe by God’s grace other children as well.
The lineage would continue, the house and its land would be safe.
A future beckoned that he had never considered or thought possible before. A miracle.
‘When…will it come?’
‘I think it will be March. I think he or she must have been conceived that night after the Kelland ball.’
‘Our first night of delight?’
She laughed and he did too, recovering from the shock now and full of excitement.
‘You are the only person I have ever been truly honest with, Willa, and the only one I trust completely. For the first time I can see a future here for me, for us, at Elmsworth, making our life.’
He then knelt before her and his hand sought hers, his radiant wife in her underclothes and sheer gartered stockings, the smell of gardenias in a cloud all around her.
‘Would you marry me, Wilhelmina St Claire? Would you do me the honour of being my wife?’
‘Yes.’
And then they were in each other’s arms in the bed, his mouth tipping down to hers as he kissed her, deeply, completely and honestly. He held nothing back and neither did she.
His manhood rose but he was not certain if this would be safe.
‘I want you.’ Willa solved the dilemma for him, opening her legs and inviting him in.
‘It will not hurt the baby…?’
She kissed any more words away and then the old magic between them was back, the passion and the desperation. And finally, again, the delight.