Chapter 26 #2
“I think at long last, we should bring them together.” Nicholas looked hesitant, and she continued. “I know that the physician has discouraged it, but they are twins. They need one another, and I don’t think either Tim or Olivia will be entirely easy until they are together again.”
He nodded sharply. “Then we will stay with them. Together.”
“Oh.” Cordelia was embarrassed that her cheeks reddened in front of the nanny, but Mrs. Browning politely said nothing. “Very well. We shall stay with them.” She nodded. “Mrs. Browning perhaps you could ask for beds and blankets to be brought here?”
“No, wife, I think it will all be better served if we stayed in my room. All four of us.”
Cordelia continued to redden, her memories of that room coming to her mind in an instant and how she’d been awoken by a smiling Anna to head to breakfast.
“Yes, of course. I shall ask Anna to assist.”
He nodded. “Mrs. Browning. If you could be so kind as to send for cakes and tea to be sent to my room. That would most helpful.”
“Of course.” She hurried out of the room, leaving Nicholas and Cordelia on their own, listening to a cacophony of tears and crying from the two rooms, and Nicholas leaned down to lift Tim in his arms.
“Come little man. We’ve had enough of this now. Let’s go and have a proper rest, with your sister.”
Cordelia’s heart twisted with worry for young Tim, who still looked red in the cheeks, sweat making his hair cling to his forehead, but he gripped his cloth duck in his hand tightly, and so Cordelia was comforted that he still had his strength.
He roused a little in Nicholas’s arms, and Cordelia hurried after them to pick up Olivia on their way to the duke’s bedroom.
“Are you certain of this, Nicholas? You will not be able to get any rest, I am certain of it.”
“And why should that matter?” he tossed back over his shoulder. “It is not I who needs it but the three of you.”
The cries continued, and it was almost laughable as she and Nicholas, former sworn enemies, now husband and wife, were carrying two distraught children who were not theirs on their way to bed.
Helen, could you have ever foreseen this?
Once inside his bedroom, everything seemed to quiet, the air full of something. She felt safe, and she hoped the twins would now feel safe too.
“Here we are now, loves,” he said, laying Tim down on the bed. Cordelia followed suit, laying Olivia next to him.
Instantly, the twins’ crying quieted, and they faced one another, Olivia snuggling up to her brother, their hands held. They were both so tired that they hardly even opened their eyes, and they said nothing more as Nicholas and Cordelia stared down at them.
“Well, that worked far better than I hoped,” Nicholas said, lifting the covers over them both.
“Yes, it did,” Cordelia said in amazement, hopeful that this decision would not cause the sickness to worsen in either of them.
Just then, there was a knock at the door, and Cordelia blushed again at the sight of Anna entering, carrying the requested tray. She was smiling, and Cordelia wanted to die of embarrassment at the past.
Surely it is natural for one to be with one’s husband. And yet Nicholas has always made it feel so utterly scandalous.
“Your Grace, let me help you to undress. I have brought your nightclothes,” Anna said, once she’d put the tray down.
Cordelia did not meet Nicholas’s eye as he tucked the children in, and she and Anna retired to her room for a few moments to dress. When she returned, Nicholas was sitting by the fire, and he lifted a cup of tea toward her.
“Don’t worry,” he said with a teasing glint in his eye, glancing at the children briefly. “I won’t bite.”
She blushed again and sat down, taking the tea gratefully. She glanced to the children as well.
“This was a good plan,” he said. “I think we shall see progress tomorrow.”
She hoped for it greatly, her muscles slowly loosening with relief.
“I do hope so.” They sat in silence for some time, both of them in their own thoughts, and Cordelia wondered what normal couples might say to one another on an evening with children abed, with worries in their hearts and minds yet hope for the future.
“Are you certain you should not be at your club this evening?” she asked him in an attempt to make conversation.
His gazed darted to hers. “There is nowhere else I should or would rather be this evening,” he told her evenly.
She found herself smiling, a lightness filling her.
“I have written to my assistant, Darren, who has so often managed things well enough for me in the past. Any questions he may have he can send to me here. But he is the one who has encouraged me to –” he cleared this throat, “spend more time at home with my new wife and the children.”
“I see,” she said, annoyed that she couldn’t get the blush from her cheeks. She took a bite of cake to keep from having to think of anything to say.
“There’s been no word from Wexford, either, I thought you should like to know. He came by the gambling hall a number of weeks ago, after the will had been read.”
“He did?” she asked.
“Yes, and I told him just how I felt about things, and I – punched him in the face.”
Nicholas awaited her answer, and she lifted a brow in surprise before bursting into laughter.
“You didn’t!” she cried, lowering her voice to keep the children from waking.
“I did. And I will never regret that until the day I die. He made his threats, but at least he’s not been back to the den, and we put a good performance on at the earl’s ball. My cousin, Leonard, said that less people are concerned about our unusual situation.”
A good performance.
It had been a performance, in both of their minds, at the time.
But after that, there had been the carriage, and then, the night in her bedroom.
And now, things were so very different, at least for her.
It was no longer a performance, and yet she felt as though she had to keep playing a part in a play she didn’t understand.
“That is good news, then.” She tried to smile, finishing off her cake and taking another sip of tea.
“Nicholas, I hate that we now take so much of your time, and now we are taking up your bed. I know that the den is important to you.”
He nodded and chuckled, looking back at the large, wooden bed with a canopy covering it, wide enough to fit five people across it. “I think there will be enough room for us all. And my bed is rather comfortable,” he said with a teasing grin.
She swallowed. She might know her own heart, and yet he’d been embarrassed about what had transpired between them, rushing off as quickly as he could.
Once Tim is well, who knows if he will wish to remain? He may return to the club as often as he used to. Fool – I should have believed him from the beginning that he was only a rake. I should not have allowed myself to get here.
She was glad when he spoke, cutting through the dangerous thoughts of her mind.
“Come. We should sleep. You especially, love. You need a full night.”
She nodded, her weariness suddenly filling her, but she finished her and then climbed up into bed beside Olivia. When Nicholas joined her on the other side, she turned on her side, to watch the slowly lifting chests of the twins between them. Her and Nicholas’s eyes met over the children.
“Good night, Cordelia.”
“Good night, Nicholas,” she said, wanting to say more but knowing it was not the time and it might not ever be.
If this was not a true marriage, then it had certainly come very close, and she wasn’t sure just how it was all going to end.