Griffin smiled. “I apologize for the rush to get you inside, but we’re eager to accommodate our most welcome guests and to welcome our long-awaited additions to our family.” He paused long enough to cast his wife a loving glance. “I asked Keswick to make sure you didn’t have to run the gauntlet of household staff before you could get out of the cold and inside the house. We wanted to get you settled in before the babies begin arriving.”
“Thank you, Your—” Liana began.
Griffin held up his hand. “You’re part of our family now, Lady Courtland, and you’ve graced us enough. From now on, we are Griffin or Griff and Alyssa in private. You have permission to call us ‘Your Grace’ in public, but nowhere else.” He shook Alex’s hand once again, then slapped him on the back. “Congratulations, Alex. We’re so happy for you. And your lovely bride.”
Alyssa turned to Alex. “We apologize for interrupting your honeymoon, but as your presence was needed here and in London, I hope you’ll feel free to continue your honeymoon here. We’ve put you in a private suite of rooms away from the bustle of the nursery for that reason.” She turned her gaze to Alex. “I was only allowed downstairs for your arrival. It’s so good to see you again. I want to hear all the details of the wedding and all the news I’ve missed. And Liana,” she turned her attention to the last Free Fellow’s bride, “I’m so happy for you and so sorry we couldn’t be there for the wedding. We stood up for Colin and Gillian at their wedding, remember?”
“Of course I remember. It was so good of you to do so,” Liana said.
“We’ve always considered Colin and Gillian part of our family,” Alyssa said. “And we wanted so much to be able to stand up for you at your wedding.” She made a face. “But I’m afraid I couldn’t make the journey to town. And it’s doubtful I could fit through the church doors or down the aisle if I had. But I’m thrilled you and Alex are married and I will do everything in our power to ease the way for you among the ton. And I would have loved to give horrid old Rather Mean a piece of my mind.”
“No!” Alex, Liana, and Griffin exclaimed simultaneously.
“You, my darling, are never to say a cross word to Rothermere,” Griffin told her. “As long as he’s alive, he’s dangerous.”
“Griffin is right,” Alex said. “People who cross him don’t survive very long, Alyssa, and you have far too much to live for.” He gazed at Liana, deep emotion in his eyes. His heart suddenly seemed too big for his chest. It had only been twelve days, but he couldn’t imagine his life without his beautiful bride.
“And so do you,” Alyssa reminded him, intercepting the look that passed between Alex and Liana. “No more crossed swords at the academy. You have a wife now, and you and Colin are family, so that makes you part of ours even more. Thank you so much for coming here on your honeymoon to share this with us.”
“My mother wanted to stay and greet you,” Griffin told them. “She was down here with us, but her back began to ache shortly before you arrived and we thought it best for her to go to bed.”
Alex paled. “Has she…?”
“Not yet. The physician and the midwife are upstairs with her now.” He smiled. “She’s determined not to have her baby until my father arrives.”
“That could take days,” Alex said.
“It won’t. I received a note by courier this morning telling me he’s on his way. If all goes well, he should be here by tomorrow noon at the latest.”
“If only Lady Cicely can hold out that long,” Alyssa said.
“She’s that close?” Alex asked.
Alyssa nodded. “Lower back pain is often the first sign of labor. Griff would be upstairs with Lady Cicely now, but the doctor and the midwife forbade him to enter because Lady Cicely didn’t want her grown son to see her in the birthing position.”
“I would like to see them try to keep my father out,” Griff grumbled. “Or Alyssa if her confinement wasn’t so close.”
Alex grinned. “I’d wager your father has seen your mother in the birthing position before. And Alyssa is a woman. But your mother would be embarrassed for you to view her in so intimate a situation.”
Griff gave a little chuckle. “I’d wager that you’re right. I still can’t believe my parents are having another child. It’s rather disconcerting to think of your parents as having intimate relations at any age, but especially this one.”
“I find it encouraging,” Alex said. “And something to which I might look forward in advancing age.”
“Are your parents coming for the birth of your child, Alyssa?” Liana asked the question politely, not daring to look at Alex for fear the passion arcing between them might send her rushing into his embrace, begging for his kisses.
“Not for the birth,” Alyssa replied. “But my mother promised they’d come straightaway as soon as Griff sends word I’ve delivered safely.”
Alex tried, but he couldn’t prevent his groan. Alyssa’s father, the Earl of Tressingham, was the biggest bore in the whole of England. All he talked about were horses and hounds. And he talked about them incessantly. Nothing but horses, hounds, breeding and pedigrees to the exclusion of everything else.
“My thoughts exactly,” Griffin said.
Alyssa gifted Liana with a conspiratorial smile. “We all have our crosses to bear. Your father likes the gaming tables and the drink. Mine prefers horses and hounds above everything else—except my mother.” She shrugged. “He’s mad about my mother. But, the portrait hanging above the fireplace in his study is of his favorite bitch—”
Griff hastened to add, “Not her mother.”
“Foxhound bitch,” Alyssa clarified. “I have three older sisters. He can barely tell us apart, but he knows every hound in his kennel by their markings and he’s the same way about horses.” She looked at Liana. “Your father sold you to Rothermere for debts owed. My father sold me to Griffin for breeding rights to Apollo, his favorite stallion, and for breeding rights to Lord Weymouth’s hound, King George’s Prince of a Fellow.” She laughed. “How dreadful was that? And I was so afraid Papa would be more enthralled with the new puppies and foals than his grandchild that I had all the bitches scheduled to whelp in our kennels and all the mares due to foal in our stables sent to Lord Shepherdston’s kennels and stables at Shepherdston Hall!”
“Why Shepherdston Hall? Why not Haversham House? It’s closer.” Alex was curious. Haversham House, the Duke of Sussex’s country house, was in the same county as Abernathy Manor, just a few miles farther down the post road.
“Haversham House is too close. If Papa found out, he’d ride over there for the day. Shepherdston Hall is a greater distance to ride and Papa doesn’t think Shepherdston has anything in his kennel or his stable worth his notice. And that’s still no guarantee he’ll pay the slightest attention to my baby.” She sighed. “My sisters all have babies and he doesn’t take any notice of them.”
“At least your mother is thrilled,” Griffin reminded her. “Your baby will be the child of a duke and duchess. He or she will outrank all the other babies in the nursery.”
Alyssa laughed, then turned to Griffin. “And Maman will have him memorizing his Debrett’s before he learns his A, B, C’s. Please, help me up.”
Griffin bent to help her. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” Alyssa reassured him as her husband gently helped her off the sofa and onto her feet. “It’s just that I need to—” She blushed. “Oh.” The duchess stared down at the puddle forming at her feet. “I think I should go upstairs.”
Griffin wasted no time scooping his wife into his arms. “Why didn’t you tell me you had back pain, too?”
“Because my back doesn’t hurt,” she told him, biting her bottom lip as a pain sliced through her. “Only my water broke.”
“What has that to do with it? Forgive me for mentioning it in front of our friends, but you’ve had accidents before.”
“Not like this,” she whispered. “Water breaking is the most common sign that labor has started. Pa
in is next.” She gazed into her husband’s blue eyes. “I have both.”
“Great Jupiter’s ghost, Alyssa!” He turned with her in his arms and started for the stairs. “Did you plan to stay down here entertaining until our child made her presence known?”
“He is making his presence known. Stay calm, Griff, there’s no rush. First babies always take forever to be born. I’ve hours yet,” she said.
“How do you know?” he demanded. “Have you ever had one?”
Ever the proper hostess, Alyssa turned to Alex and Liana. “Please excuse me. I think I’m having a baby.”
“Make yourselves at home,” Griffin called back to Alex and Liana as he started up the stairs. “Our house is your house. Anything you need, ask Keswick.” He gave Alex’s misbuttoned waistcoat a pointed glance. “I suggest you have him show you to your suite so you can continue what you started during the trip.” He smiled at them. “I’ll be upstairs waiting for my child to arrive.”
* * *
He didn’t have to wait long.
At five forty-eight in the afternoon, Lady Cicely Penina Miranda Anne Abernathy Avon made her appearance.
As she gazed down at her daughter, Alyssa forgot her disappointment in not having a boy first. Cicely had all her fingers and toes and was a perfect miniature version of Alyssa. Griffin couldn’t have been more pleased if he’d had an heir.
Six minutes later, at five fifty-four in the afternoon, he did. Lord Nolan Hughes Peter Trevor John Abernathy Avon came as a complete surprise. He was slightly larger than his sister and had all his fingers and toes as well. He was made in Griffin’s image and Alyssa was absolutely thrilled.
Alyssa, the master of everything she attempted, had outdone herself with the birth of her first child. She’d had twins. The heir the Abernathy Avon family desperately needed and the daughter made in her mother’s image that Griffin wanted. Griffin and Alyssa had overcome the odds once again and exceeded expectations.
“It’s a girl!”
“It’s a boy!”
“Twins!”
She had done something no other Carrollton or Abernathy had ever done. Or in her father’s parlance, “the gel had whelped a first rate litter.”
Griffin stayed with her, marveling at her strength as he had for the past four years, then watching over her and his children as they slept.
* * *
The birth of Lady Weymouth’s child took longer. After nineteen hours of labor, Nathan Robert Michael Thomas Abernathy Weymouth made his way into the world feet first,, kicking and screaming, just in time to meet his father, Trevor, Earl of Weymouth, who had arrived an hour earlier from London by way of Vienna.
Nathan Weymouth had his father’s and his older brother’s bright blue eyes.
He had his mother’s warrior’s heart.
Lady Cicely Weymouth had fought thirty-one years to conceive and carry to term another child for the husband she adored. He had wanted another child so desperately. A second son. A brother for Griffin.
Trevor Abernathy Weymouth now had his heir and a spare. She had done her duty to Weymouth and had given her oldest son his long-waited brother.
The breech birth had been hard on her. During the nineteen hours she’d struggled to safely deliver him, she’d nearly died. But she’d prevailed against time—her long labor and her advanced age. She would never have another child, but she had given birth to this one. The miracle child she’d waited so long to have. And, God willing, she would live to see him reach his majority.
Champagne corks began flying and there were toasts all around.
“It’s a boy!”
She sighed, exhaustion replacing the elation she’d felt as she’d cradled her baby in her arms. Trevor and Griffin were here to watch over her child and grandchildren.
Cicely Weymouth closed her eyes and slept.
Chapter Twenty-eight
“It is easier to resist at the beginning, than at the end.”
—Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519
They stayed up late into the night celebrating the birth of Griff and Alyssa’s twins, drinking champagne and toasting the proud parents and grandparents. Lady Weymouth was still deep in the throes of labor, but Keswick and the staff saw no reason not to express their appreciation for the first successful births while awaiting news of the second.
Around midnight, Alex asked the butler to show him and Liana to their suite. Keswick led them to the west wing, far away from the noise and the celebrations, and into their bedchamber.
The butler opened the door and ushered them inside. “Welcome to the yellow suite. On your right is the larger of—”
Alex stopped him. “Is there a bed in this suite?” He’d caught a whiff of the orange vanilla scent of Liana’s soap and it was driving him mad.
“Yes, my lord, there are two large—”
“Which one is closer?”
“The one on your right.”
“Thank you, Keswick. That is all we require.” Alex was burning with the need to kiss his wife and resume the game of Taking Liberties in which they’d been engaged for the past twelve, excruciatingly erotic days. Something about seeing Griff and Alyssa exchanging passionate looks when she was so big and heavily laden with child had sent his desire soaring.
“If you require anything, sir, all you have to do is ring. The bell pull is—”
“We’ll find it. Thank you, Keswick,” Liana said.
“But…”
“That will be all.” Alex herded the butler through the door and into the hallway, then kicked the door closed. “Goodnight. Thank you.”
“Alex—” Liana began.
It was all the encouragement he needed. They came together as the sound of the door closing echoed in the empty hall. Alex pulled her into his arms. Liana felt the heat from his body, but it was nothing compared to the heat of his mouth. Her whole body quivered as he nipped at her lower lip, encouraging her to open her mouth. And when she complied, he deepened his kiss.
She felt the rasp of his tongue against her teeth as it slipped between her lips into her mouth. She understood the urgency of his mouth and echoed it, moving her lips under his, allowing him greater access.
Liana moved her own tongue, experiencing a jolt of unadulterated pleasure as it found, and mated with, Alex’s. She tightened her grip on his broad shoulders, drawing tiny circles against the fabric of his jacket, and then trailed her fingers up the column of his neck before burying them in his thick dark hair.
Alex caressed her back. The cloth of her traveling cape, and the dress she wore beneath it, frustrated him. He wanted to feel the softness of her flesh beneath the layers of clothing. He wanted to move his hands over her, count her ribs, and test the weight of her wonderful, pear-shaped breasts, but all he could really feel was clothing.
Too much clothing. Clothing that hid the curves pressed against him. He moved his hand down her back, over one firm buttock, to the back of her thigh and back up again, resting the palm of his hand against the curve of her bottom while his mouth devoured hers. Over and over again.
He stopped kissing her mouth just long enough to press warm, wet kisses against her jaw line, her neck and beneath one ear.
Hot, breathless, and light-headed, Liana turned her face toward his and sought his mouth once more.
Alex took that as a sign of encouragement. He became bolder, his kisses more fervent.
“What are you doing?” she murmured against his lips.
“I want to touch you,” Alex whispered. “I want to undress you and spend the night, or what’s left of it, kissing you all over…”
“Yes,” she breathed.
“I want to kiss your lips, your eyes, your breasts.” Alex stepped back a fraction to look at her, his heated gaze caressing each part of her as he listed his desires. “And I want to take liberties.” His grin was so wickedly inviting Liana thought that she would agree to let him take any liberties he liked for as long as he liked for as long as he continued to kiss her.
Fighting to regain control of his raging desire, he said the first thing that came into his head. “Did I remember to tell you how lovely you look in that dress?”
Liana looked up at him from beneath her lashes, trying to encourage him to kiss her again. She was quickly learning that she craved his kisses like she craved air to breathe. “No, my lord, and I thank you for the compliment, but I’ll wager you’ll think I look better out of it.”
Alex’s breath caught in his throat. Would she do it? Would sweet, shy Liana McElreath become the answer to his fervent prayers? He swallowed twice and his voice came out rougher than usual. “I’ll take that wager.”
She smiled at him, then reached up and began unfastening the buttons on her dress—the buttons that held it closed. “What do I get if I win?”
“Me,” he replied. “And, sweetheart, neither one of us loses in this game.”
“You’re good at games.” She opened her bodice, slipped it off her shoulders, then did a little wiggle and sent the dress to the floor where it puddled at her feet. Liana stepped out of the puddle. “How am I doing so far?”
Alex grinned. “I couldn’t have done it better myself.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “But you wanted to.”
He was instantly rock hard. “I still do.”
Reaching up, Liana took hold of one of the trailing ends of the pink ribbon that held the gathered neckline of her chemise in place. Keeping one end of the ribbon for herself, she offered the other end of the ribbon to him.
Alex leaned forward and took the end of the ribbon in his teeth. “What a little temptress you’ve turned out to be.”
“I’ve had a good teacher.” She pulled her end of the ribbon. “Until now.”
Never one to resist a challenge or a dare, Alex pulled the other end of the ribbon and watched as her chemise dropped to her waist, stopped there by her drawers.
A Bachelor Still Page 27
