Page 81 of Only Scandal Will Do
“But, sweetheart, I thought you said...I thought you meant...” Duncan frowned, looking puzzled.
“I mean, my love, that there is no more work to do.” She watched his face change as her meaning sank in, and laughed at the incredulous look that spread over it. “I am already carrying your child. So you can’t go north without me. Without us.” She rubbed her hand over her still flat belly, then drew his hand there as well.
He gazed at her, disbelief stamped on his face. “You are sure?”
“Dr. Pritchett confirmed it before he left.”
“Oh, Katarina!” He seized her lips once more, deepening the searing kiss, then expanded it to include her earlobe, her neck, her breasts. She sighed and relaxed under her husband’s ardent ministrations. Perhaps bed rest was not a bad idea after all.
As he moved more securely onto the bed, several of her volumes crashed to the floor. He sat up with a frown and retrieved the nearest book, then looked at her quizzically. “You’re reading Shakespeare?”
She nodded, her smile widening. “I’m searching for names for this little one.” She patted her belly once more, glad her secret could now be shared. “This morning I finished Two Gentlemen of Verona, but I don’t think I liked any of those. I like Antonio from The Merchant of Venice. Both Shakespeare and Italian. Since I am not likely to see Italy’s sunny climes in the near future, I can at least hear the language in my son’s name.”
“Your son? You can’t know that for sure, love, though it would be convenient for you to produce an heir so efficiently.”
“Oh, it will be a boy, never fear.” His puzzled expression at her certainty caused her to shake her head in mock regret. “I do not doubt, Duncan, that anyone possessed of such a single-minded nature as you would ever sire anything other than males. If I bear ten children, I am sure they will all be boys and I will pine for a daughter all my life.”
“And yet, my dear,” he chuckled, “in truth, he could just as well be a she.”
She arched a brow. “Would you like to wager on that?”
“I am always happy to make a wager with you, love.” Duncan’s face radiated eagerness, an impish smile curled his lips. “I think I have an unbroken streak of good luck where you are concerned. What shall we wager?”
“If a boy, we will set out, overland, for Italy as soon as he is able to travel and I will learn your disarm from Signore Fucile.”
“Fair enough.” He picked her hand off the coverlet and began to nibble his way up her arm slowly.
“And if this is a girl, Duncan?” She prompted him after enjoying several moments of
blissful chills running up her arm.
“If this child is a girl, love...” He paused his journey at her elbow to meet her gaze. His eyes warmed to a deep, chocolate brown. “We will try very, very hard to put an heir in the nursery inside of a year.”
Katarina pursed her lips in a deliberate pout. “No Italy?”
“Not if we still need an heir.” He lifted her face to his. “Do not be disappointed, my love. There will be...compensations.” He kissed her conveniently puckered lips then slipped deep into her mouth with a hunger that made her weak. “So you really should consider girls’ names also, my dear.”
Relaxed and smiling, she leaned back against the pillows. “If, and I truly doubt it will be the case, but if this babe turns out to be a girl, she shall be Miranda from The Tempest. A pretty name, but one I fear I will never have cause to use.”
“Well, we will see soon enough, Katarina. We have all the time in the world, my pet.”
Duncan rubbed his hand across her flat belly once more. “Time enough, and love.”
THE END
