Chapter 29 #2
Then Aaron’s voice came through, urgent and entirely incapable of patience. “Can I come in? Aunt Juliet says I must knock, but I already knocked.”
Emmeline laughed before she could stop herself.
The sound startled her. It seemed to startle Rowan too, because his face softened in a way that made her chest ache all over again.
“Come in,” Rowan called.
The door opened at once, and Aaron hurried inside, Biscuit charging at his heels.
“You are awake!” Aaron said, stopping beside the bed with eyes wide and shining. “Are you better?”
“I am,” Emmeline said, reaching for him. “Much better.”
He climbed carefully onto the edge of the bed after looking to Rowan for permission, and when Rowan nodded, Aaron leaned into Emmeline’s side with careful affection.
Behind him, Juliet appeared in the doorway, Frederick just behind her. Both looked suspiciously flushed. Frederick had one hand at Juliet’s back, not quite touching improperly, but near enough that Emmeline’s eyes narrowed at once.
“What has happened?” Emmeline asked.
Juliet went pink while Frederick coughed.
Rowan’s mouth curved faintly. “There have been developments.”
“Developments?” Emmeline looked between them. “What sort of developments?”
Juliet stepped inside, still shy but smiling in a way Emmeline had not seen before. “First, how are you?”
“Do not distract me.”
Frederick made a soft sound, somewhere between amusement and defeat, and glanced at Juliet as though they had both been caught standing too close to the truth. “She knows us too well already.”
Juliet’s blush deepened, but her smile did not disappear.
Rowan looked from them back to Emmeline. For a moment, all the teasing warmth in the room quieted into something more fragile. His hand still covered hers, his thumb resting against her knuckles, and his eyes asked what his voice did not yet dare to presume.
May I tell them?
Emmeline’s pulse quickened. The child was still only a secret between their hands, small and impossible beneath his palm and hers.
For one heartbeat, she wanted to keep it there, safe from the world.
Then Aaron shifted against her side, watching them with wide, expectant eyes, and her throat tightened with sudden happiness.
She nodded.
Rowan’s hand remained over hers, warm and steady. “There is something we should tell you all.”
Aaron sat up. “Is it bad?”
“No,” Emmeline said, and tears threatened again, though this time they were warmer. “No, darling. It is very good.”
Rowan’s voice softened. “You are going to have a brother or sister.”
Aaron stared.
For one terrifying second, no one moved.
Then his face lit so completely that Emmeline nearly cried outright.
“A baby?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “A baby.”
Aaron looked at her stomach as though the child might somehow hear him already, and then his smile widened, bright and helpless and full of wonder. “I shall protect it!”
Emmeline’s breath caught. “Will you?”
“Yes,” he said, nodding quickly, his whole face alive now. “I shall be very careful. And I shall teach it ships. Not the difficult ones at first, only the easy ones. And when it is bigger, we can build a whole fleet.”
Juliet pressed a hand to her mouth, her eyes shining.
Frederick blinked too quickly and looked away.
Rowan’s hand tightened over Emmeline’s, and when she looked at him, his expression had softened into something so openly moved that her heart nearly broke from happiness.
“A whole fleet,” Emmeline repeated, laughing through her tears.
Aaron nodded again, solemn with joy. “The best one.”
Juliet came to the bed then and took Emmeline’s hand carefully. “I am so happy for you.”
“Thank you,” Emmeline said, squeezing her fingers. Then her gaze shifted to Frederick, whose smile had turned softer than she had ever seen it. “And now, someone must explain why Lord Calham looks as though he has swallowed sunlight.”
Frederick placed a hand to his chest. “I resent the accuracy of that.”
Rowan glanced at Juliet. “Tell her.”
Juliet blushed so deeply that there was no need.
Emmeline’s mouth fell open. “No.”
Frederick’s grin returned, bright and helpless. “Yes.”
“You and Juliet?”
Juliet nodded, laughing now, shy and radiant. “We are engaged.”
Emmeline stared at her, then at Frederick, then at Rowan. “And you allowed this?”
Rowan’s brow lifted. “I gave them my blessing.”
“You gave your blessing,” she repeated, unable to keep the wonder from her voice.
Frederick leaned closer to Juliet with wicked solemnity. “I believe that means he likes me.”
“I am reconsidering,” Rowan said.
Aaron looked delighted. “Does that mean Lord Calham will be my uncle?”
Frederick straightened. “It means I shall be your favorite uncle.”
“You are my only uncle!”
“All the easier, then.”
Biscuit barked once, as though objecting to being excluded from the family arrangements, and the whole room laughed.
Emmeline looked around at them. Aaron tucked against her side. Juliet and Frederick standing close enough that their sleeves brushed. Rowan beside her, his hand still over hers, his warmth steady and real.
The house had been full of silence for so long. Now it was full of voices.
Her eyes met Rowan’s.
He leaned closer and pressed a kiss to her temple, gentle enough to be a promise.
“I am not leaving,” he murmured again, only for her.
She heard the laughter around her. Aaron’s bright voice. Juliet’s trembling happiness. Frederick’s teasing warmth. Rowan’s mouth against her temple, his hand over hers, his love no longer hidden behind silence or fear.
For so long, she had thought happiness was something one surrendered for duty, a girlhood dream folded away and left in another life. But it was here now. Imperfect. Hard-won. Stronger for all it had survived.
Her family. Her husband. Their child.
And all around her, the house that had once felt too cold to hold love, filled with it at last.