3 #2
Jo gasped at his words. Did that mean that he consented to her plan?
She briefly looked at Beatrice who gave her a wide-eyed look.
Jo nodded and turned her focus to Lord Riddlesmarsh again.
She shifted her feet. She wanted to step closer but was afraid that she might interrupt him and make him change his mind.
“I am fairly adept at managing money. Would you be agreeable to take advice from me or should I completely mind my own business?”
“I…” Jo cleared her throat. “I would listen to your advice, but I would have the final word.”
He turned the paper to read her list of demands.
“Stay a minimum of six weeks at seaside cottage each year,” he read aloud again. “With me or alone?”
Jo faltered. She had imagined staying there alone. It had never occurred to her that her future husband would want to stay as well.
“The duchess will stay a minimum of six weeks at her seaside cottage in the summer or autumn,” he read aloud as he wrote, before looking up. “I will need you in London during the season,” he explained.
Jo nodded mutely and gulped dryly again. It was happening. This stranger was agreeing to marry her. To rescue her and her seaside cottage from Ambrose’s clutches.
“The duke will follow upon request,” Lord Riddlesmarsh continued as he wrote. “However, if the duchess is expecting or her youngest child is less than six months old, she will refrain from going.”
His stony expression told her that this was non-negotiable. She had not thought of the implications of being pregnant at the seaside cottage, nor bringing an infant. In fact, she had always imagined being there alone.
“I want my children to be born at Riddlesmarsh Hall, alternatively in London, close to good physicians. Not in a seaside cottage in Hampshire,” he told her.
Jo nodded and felt her hands grow clammy. They were discussing having children.
“Speaking of children. Three are too few. I would like at least four, preferably five or six.”
“What? No, that is too many,” Jo could not help but argue. “Three should give you both an heir and a spare.”
“Perhaps. Or it could be three girls. Which I would not mind,” he added, “But you are right, I would like a couple of boys as well. And not merely to secure the order of inheritance.”
Jo frowned as she looked at him. It seemed a sincere demand on his part.
She had thought three children would be an ideal number.
Childbirth was dangerous and having to go through it multiple times only added to the danger.
She did not want to acquiesce on this point.
It was her health and perhaps even her life they were discussing, but she was well aware that refusing could mean he retracted his consent.
“Why is this important to you, Your Grace?”
“I grew up in a large family, Miss Hawkins. Two brothers and two sisters. I should like a large family of my own.”
Jo frowned and looked briefly at Beatrice. Her friend had told her that the duke did not have a brother who could inherit him, but now he was stating the opposite. If he did not need an heir, why was he even entertaining the idea of marrying her?
Beatrice shrugged and made a gesture with her hand towards the duke, which Jo interpreted as her friend’s way of saying that she should have the duke explain it.
“I gather from your confusion that you are not aware that my brothers are a stepbrother and a half-brother on my mother’s side.
I think of both as my brothers though,” the duke explained seriously and something in his tone of voice gave her the impression that others had questioned whether they were his true brothers.
“Of course,” Jo mumbled.
She thought for a little while. She had grown up an only child, and she liked the idea of a large family.
The image of herself surrounded by children at the beach in Lymington appeared before her inner eye.
She was showing them a fossilized sea urchin and telling them that it had once been alive while Lord Riddlesmarsh was looming at the edge of the group with the youngest child on his arm.
He was listening with an amused smile. The image was so vivid that she instantly wished it could become reality. And it could if she relented.
“Fine,” Jo told him. “Five children, provided that the physician says that my health will not suffer from another pregnancy.”
Something flared in the duke’s eyes which she could not determine before he turned to the paper to write again.
“I thought that was a given,” he muttered, his pencil hovering over the paper.
“You can never take anything for granted when it comes to men,” Jo said without thinking, which earned her a slight smile from him, but he did not comment.
“The couple will have five children, provided that the duchess’ health is not at risk.
The duke and duchess will raise the children together and both will have a say in important decisions regarding them,” the duke continued without looking at her.
“All boys will attend Eton from the age of nine,” he continued to read out loud as he wrote.
“Absolutely not,” Jo argued without thinking.
Lord Riddlesmarsh looked up and frowned.
“All Montgomery boys have attended Eton from the age of nine,” he told her in a firm tone.
“I don’t object to Eton, but not from the age of nine. Thirteen.”
Lord Riddlesmarsh scoffed, before countering with: “Ten.”
“Twelve.”
“Eleven.”
“Eleven and a half,” Jo responded.
Which made the duke huff with amusement again.
“Fine, twelve,” he muttered and turned to the paper to write it again. “But you do know they will be called mama’s boys,” he told her without looking at her.
“I don’t mind. They will be anyway,” Jo told him and felt a swirl of excitement in her stomach as she imagined the sons she might have.
She had never known if she would marry in time to have children, which had always bothered her.
“Besides if they are anything like you, I doubt that the other students would dare to say it with anything other than a light teasing tone.”
She did not realize what she had said, before Lord Riddlesmarsh looked at her again and she felt the weight of his gaze upon her. It made her stomach swirl lower and deeper than before and her entire body heat. Was this… desire? She gulped at the thought.
She had of course felt it before when she had read an intriguing passage in a book or seen men harvest without their shirts on, but never toward a person standing so close, being so…
real. Did Lord Riddlesmarsh feel it too?
Up until now she had only imagined that the marriage bed would be a chore for them both, but this boded something much more pleasant.
The spell was broken when Beatrice said:
“Thirty minutes.”
“Right.” The duke cleared his throat and looked at the front of the paper again. “United public front,” he read. He turned the paper again.
“The duke and duchess will display a united public front and help each other in their respective public pursuits,” he said as he wrote.
“I too am good at organizing, Miss Hawkins, and I might have some insight into your charitable work.” He continued without waiting for her reply, as if he also felt the expediency of the matter now.
“The duke and duchess will always be honest with each other and no infidelity will be tolerated in the union.”
He looked up as if he sought her approval, but Jo could only nod. She had thought of making a clause against infidelity but had feared that no man would agree to it. When Lord Riddlesmarsh was the one to suggest it, she was not one to argue. She certainly had no plans of being unfaithful.
“Good,” he said. “It seems we are in agreement then.”
Jo gulped. It had gone much smoother than she had ever hoped, although she had just agreed to have two more children than she had expected. Perhaps she should let the other list remain in her reticule.
He seemed kind. She might be able to go through with it tonight.
But even though she had felt desire toward him just now, the idea of being naked with him in only a matter of hours made her skin prickle in an uneasy way and gave her the urge to run.
No, she had to present him with the second list as well.
“Actually, I have another list as well.”