The Doctor and the Libertine - Callie Hutton Page 0,36
the pillow.
The nurse, Lottie, Addie, Pamela, and Rayne all headed out of the room. As she quietly closed the door, Rayne looked back to see Marcus enfolding an already-sleeping Lizbeth in his arms, placing her head on his chest. Lizbeth murmured in her sleep and shifted to wrap her arm around his waist. Marcus kissed her forehead and closed his eyes. She’d rarely seen such obvious devotion between a couple and was a bit embarrassed to have witnessed such an intimate moment.
A sense of longing swept over her so strong it almost brought her to her knees. Whatever was that all about? That feeling of yearning had certainly never happened to her before when she delivered a baby.
Perhaps once she and Mr. Faulkner-Jones were married, she might have a child or two herself. That is if he stayed in England long enough to accomplish that. Of course, then images of what they needed to do together to produce offspring popped into her mind.
She shuddered, not quite sure if she could do her wifely duty by him. He was cold, formal, and she didn’t know him very well. Since the betrothal had been tucked away in the back of her mind for years, she hadn’t given the man much thought. Now that he was in Bath, insisting on a quick wedding, she had to ask herself if this was something she wanted to do.
Too tired to give much time and attention to that issue, she followed the other women downstairs to the breakfast room. “Ah, tea. Just the thing after a long night.” She took her seat across from Addie. “Now you are a mother and an aunt. Congratulations.”
“Thank you. I’m so glad Michael and Noah will have cousins to grow up with.” She looked around the table at the women. “And friends, as well, with Pamela’s son Joseph, Lottie’s little Diana, as well as the two little girls upstairs.”
Pamela raised her cup of tea. “Here is to the ever-expanding Merry Misfits of Bath.”
Almost as if it had been planned, three sets of eyes swung toward Rayne, each woman with speculation and deviousness on her face.
“What?” She almost choked on her tea.
“You are next.” Lottie grinned.
Rayne shook her head. “Not me. Well, actually, I guess it will be me.” Why did her spirits drop when she thought of Mr. Faulkner-Jones?
Addie lowered her teacup and began to place food from the platters in the center of the table on her plate. With a certain attempted nonchalance that she didn’t quite pull off, she said, “Why do you guess it will be you? Have you been keeping something from us?”
“I heard that Lord Sterling has been dancing attendance on you,” Pamela added.
“Is that true?” Addie asked.
“Lord Sterling is not ‘dancing attendance’ on me. You all know the story of how he came to be my patient. Once he was able to rise from his bed, he became quite a helper. In fact, one area he has been most useful in is my lack of ability to collect monies due to me from patients. Edwin has taken on that task and has recovered quite a bit of the outstanding debts.”
The words were no sooner out of her mouth than she closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, wanting to pull them back. Therefore, it was no surprise when all the women said at the same time: “Edwin!?”
Rayne sighed. Now it would take forever to get the idea of her and Lord Sterling as a couple out of their minds. “Yes. We are on a first name basis since we’ve been working together. But I will tell you all this. To my knowledge he has not had a drop of spirits since I took his friends’ flasks of brandy away from them.”
“But his reputation.” Addie shook her head.
“Is no matter to me since when I said I might be the next one married, I wasn’t referring to Lord Sterling.”
Forks paused half-way to ladies’ mouths and eyebrows rose in unison. “My, aren’t you full of surprises today,” Pamela said.
She would like more than anything to avoid the story, but they were her friends and they deserved to know. She’d had so few female friends in her life that she didn’t want to lose their bond. “Years ago, my father worked out an arrangement for me to marry. Why, I have no idea.” The story did seem to become stranger each time she told it.
“How very odd. Do you have a fancy for each other?”
Rayne couldn’t help