Chapter 15 #2
“A girl with a mop of blond hair already, while her poor brother is bald,” Tammy turned to show Jane her daughter and almost panicked, as Jane had lost consciousness.
It took a moment before she could gather her thoughts then remembered that when she had laboured with Kitty and Tom, she too had lost consciousness for a while right after the birth, and Thomas had panicked the whole time.
The doctor examined the duchess after she had been cleaned up and dressed in a new night gown. “In my opinion, her Grace is simply sleeping as she is exhausted and should wake any time…” even as the doctor was giving his prognosis, Jane’s eyes flicked open.
“Is my son well?” she asked as her mother and Mother Rose helped her into a sitting position.
“He is very well, Jane, and so is your daughter!” Aunt Maddie informed her niece, amused at the momentary shock.
“Daughter? Two?” the Duchess asked incredulously.
“Yes, you delivered two babes daughter—an heir and his sister,” Lady Rose gushed as she handed her grandson to his mother.
Jane offered him a breast, and he latched on hungrily.
“I am happy that you and my son hired a wetnurse for the night feedings; you will need help now that there are two mouths to feed.”
“Is my daughter well?” Jane asked, searching for her now that he was settled.
“Very much so,” Tammy promised her daughter while looking at her granddaughter lovingly. “She is smaller than her brother, but she is as healthy as any of the babes that I bore. With Kitty and Tom, it was the other way around but now look at them. They are as healthy as any other children.”
“Mother Rose, will you please ask my husband to join us?” Jane requested.
“If it is to take him to task for causing you such pain, I will make it my life’s mission to bring him forthwith!
” she winked at her daughter-in-law and whirled out to find her son.
“Ha, he got off easy. When I was birthing my first, I demanded that my chamber door be barred against my husband,” Hattie nodded when Jane laughed.
As Lady Rose left the chambers to inform first her son, and then the new grandfather and the collection of new aunts and uncles, Madeline Gardiner took the young Marquess, who was sated, and Tammy passed her daughter the new little Lady.
As his mother opened the library door, Perry looked at her with both trepidation and hope.
“Go to your wife, my son; all is well.” The words were hardly out of her mouth when Perry jumped out of his chair and sprinted towards the stairs.
“Thomas, you are the grandfather of two very healthy babes, a boy and a girl,” Lady Rose informed the new grandfather.
“And Jane is well?” he asked, needing to know that more than that the babes were well. Jane was his first born and would always be the one who opened his heart to the depths of love a parent can have for a child.
“She is, and she did very well. She did not even curse at Perry too much during her labours,” Lady Rose smiled.
“I rather wish she was less serene; I would have loved to hear what she might have said. I believe my Tammy threatened to close up my book room when she was birthing the twins.” He chuckled.
“Uncle John sounds very well,” John Manning used his new title for the first time.
“Yes,” Bennet confirmed, “you boys are all uncles now, and Kitty, you are an Aunt.”
Her mission complete, Lady Rose returned to the birthing chambers and walked in to see her son looking completely besotted as he gazed on his son’s face.
“You did so well, my beloved Jane,” he stated, his emotions choking him as he stroked his son’s head and then his daughter’s in turn.
“What will we name them, Perry?” Jane asked, smiling beatifically as she looked up at him, a much more relaxed look than when she was cursing her husband for the pain of childbirth.
“If it meets your approval, I think that Sedgewick Thomas sounds good for our son,” Perry suggested as he looked at the tightly swaddled and sleeping form in his arms.
“That is perfect for him, and we can call him Sed,” Jane approved. “For our daughter, how does Elizabeth Marie Rose sound? We can call her Beth, so there is never any confusion with her namesake?” Jane looked down at her sleeping daughter in her arms.
“I could not have conceived of a better name for her, my love,” Perry agreed, bursting with parental pride. “I would like to take Sed and Beth down to meet their grandpapa, aunt, and uncles.” Jane nodded and handed Beth to Aunt Maddie.
When Perry entered the library and introduced the twins to their grandpapa, great uncles, aunt, and uncles, Bennet choked up when he heard that his granddaughter, who was sleeping peacefully in his arms, was named after her aunt Elizabeth.
Before the sun set on the day, news that the Duchess had delivered an heir and a daughter spread through the estate, Bedford, and the surrounding area like wildfire, resulting in much celebrating now that continuity of the Bedford line was assured.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
The carriage bearing the newlywed Darcys arrived at the Golden Cock Inn as dusk descended on the land.
They were welcomed with much deference by the landlord, who was making a tidy sum by keeping a whole floor reserved.
He showed the couple to their suite himself and then bowed and left them, noticing both Biggs and Johns taking up station in the hall.
Will lifted his bride in his arms and carried her into the suite, kicking the door shut behind them. “Finally alone,” Will growled.
“Ahem,” Carstens cleared his throat. Will had forgotten that his valet and his wife’s lady’s maid had travelled ahead with their trunks.
“Miss Thénardier and I have baths ready for you if you would like to bathe and change,” he informed the couple, keeping his head bowed so he would hide his amusement.
“A bath would be very welcome, husband,” Elizabeth allowed, and he set her on her feet. “Mayhap, we can have some food ready for us when we are changed?”
“I agree, Lizzy,” Will conceded. Though eager to pick up where they left off in the carriage, washing and eating now would make for fewer interruptions later.
Within an hour, they met in the sitting room where their repast awaited them.
He was wearing a banyan over his nightshirt and breeches while Elizabeth was wearing a robe of light green over what looked like a yellow nightgown.
The two dismissed their personal servants for the night, requesting that they not be disturbed until they rang for them in the morning.
Both picked at their meals, but after less than fifteen minutes, and by mutual non-verbal agreement, they rose, and Will led his bride into his bed-chamber.
As soon as he closed the door, they fell into one another’s arms. Their kisses proved they hungered, but it was not for the abandoned meal.
Elizabeth pulled away, but before Will could misunderstand why, she opened the robe, and it fell off her shoulders to pool at her feet.
Will gasped at the beauty arrayed before him; the yellow nightgown was as sheer as could be and left nothing to the imagination.
His eyes dipped from her face to her fulsome breasts with the dark pink pert nipples, then traversed lower until he spied the triangle of dark hair that promised the secrets he had long coveted.
Just seeing her before him as he had dreamed of so many times almost took him beyond his control, but he willed himself to wait.
“You are wearing far too much clothing for the occasion,” Elizabeth said saucily as she arched her eyebrow.
In the blink of an eye, the banyan was on the floor, followed by his nightshirt.
Elizabeth raked her eyes over his handsome face, her eyes entranced with the sight of his well-defined chest, which had some downy hair that tapered and disappeared beneath his breeches.
“I want to see all of my husband,” Elizabeth demanded as she stepped forward and lifted the sheer nightgown over her head, the challenge and expectation making him grin.
Elizabeth gasped when she saw his swollen manhood once he opened and stepped out of his breeches.
Neither moved as they drank in the wonders of the sight before them.
When she started to reach for him, she broke his trance, and he swept Elizabeth up in his arms and laid her on top of the coverlet on the enormous bed.
He laid down next to her, his hands sliding from her neck to her breasts, reminding her of the pleasure of his touch when his fingers brushed her nipples, causing his wife to moan in pleasure, and she again arched her back as she ached for more of his touch.
He lowered his mouth onto one breast and first flicked the tip, and when she mewled, he swirled his tongue around it, making it as hard and swollen, then turned his attention to the other and repeating the process just as thoroughly until he was sure she was as needy as he.
When her hand started to travel his body in a bid for more, he slowly slid a hand down her stomach, and he was surprised when she opened her thighs for him, impatient for him to continue rather than show fright or reluctance.
At the touch of his fingers, a flood of promise soaked them, and he proved his appreciation by teasing her open in search of her nub and started to rub it.
Elizabeth then shocked him by resting her fingers over his and guided him, showing him what she liked most and when he took over, she moved with his hand to take what she needed, which made him moan in need.
When he slipped in one finger, she gasped in surprise, and his tension skyrocketed as he readied her for him.
She reciprocated, sliding her hand down his length.
“This is what I did when I imagined this moment with you.” He guided her hand as she had his, helping her learn his desires quicker. For him, the world ceased when she rested her hand over his to cease his ministrations.
“Make me your wife in every way, Will,” she demanded.
“Your wish is my command!” He settled over her. She felt the head of his appendage against her core, and then the sensations intensified as he entered her slowly. While all of that had been pleasurable before, it was nothing to this.
He reached the barrier of her maidenhood and stopped, knowing that he was about to cause her pain.
Rather than allow him to worry, she thrust her hips toward him, and in the same instant, he tore through the final vestige of her being a maiden and he was fully seated in her.
She gasped, pausing his words by resting a hand over his heart, and gave them both the comfort of eye contact.
In this deeper connection they had, she comforted him as the pain was expected and a relief for her because that meant she was his wife in all ways at long last.
“Make love with me, Will.” She asked softly.
At first, he moved slowly, but this first time with her was overwhelming and too soon over as he could not help but lose himself in his Lizzy, and in understanding that he would not last long, stroked her as she had taught him and took them over the edge together.
He rolled off her, and they finally got under the covers. “You are not further in pain, are you, Lizzy?” Will asked with concern.
“There was but a moment, and it passed, and what little there is now is expected when one is using their body in a new way. It is better than anything I imagined when I would daydream of what it would be like to become your wife at last,” she owned without embarrassment.
“You used to think of me, together with you? I love that you are no simpering miss, and I can express my passion without fear of overwhelming you, Lizzy. Tell me you only thought of me as you pleasured yourself.” He asked as his fingers again started to stroke her again.
“Only you!” she promised as she slid her fingers up his length. His mouth took hers, and he lifted her over him, her surprise making him grin.
“You feel deeper,” she whispered in awe.
“Make love to me, Lizzy!” he begged.
“Your wish is my command.” She replied, her tone sultry and full of promise as she moved in the ways his hands guided her until she figured out exactly what was possible, and all sense of time was lost in the pleasure one can only experience when they are with someone they love completely.